Redbox On Demand Review – Is It a Deal?

I was pretty excited when the email for Redbox on Demand showed up in my email. The devil is always in the details, but with “On Demand Starting at $1.99” and pictures of movies like Wonder Woman and The Hitman’s Bodyguard, I was ready to rent. So, I decided to crank out a Redbox On Demand review.

Is Redbox on Demand a Good Deal?

So, I already have a million on-demand rental options ranging from Amazon Prime (via an Amazon Fire TV Stick), and Xfinity, and even Roku (it’s still hooked up to that one TV upstairs…). But, they all suffer from the same problem. There is no way I’m going to drop $6 on movie rental. It just doesn’t make sense, especially when I live less than 5 minutes from a Redbox kiosk in front of the grocery store. Might as well just grab a flick while I’m there for $1.25. (Yes, I have a Blu-ray player. No, I don’t think the movies are noticeably better than regular DVDs, so I just rent the cheapo, regular DVD unless it’s sold out.)

According to the email advertisement I got, I’d be able to rent the same type of movies I typically pull out of a Redbox kiosk for $1.99. That price is only a few cents more than what I usually pay. (Well, not really, I seem to get Redbox free movie codes, or Redbox discount coupons for 75 cents off, about as often as I rent movies, so I actually usually pay between $0 and $0.26, but I’m willing to shell out $2 to be able to instantly start a movie while I’m sitting on my couch.)

Even better, unlike the physical Redbox DVD rental, you get up to 30-days to start watching your on demand rentals. In other words, if I rented a movie, and then got a better offer (could happen) or got too tired (more likely), there would be no pressure to watch the movie anyway. I could just start it tomorrow, or even next week.

Once you start watching the movie, you only get 48 hours to finish, not that 30 days. However, that’s not really an issue for me. Unless the movie sucks, and I quit watching, I seldom stop a move in the middle.

Redbox On Demand Online

Setting up Redbox On Demand can be super simple, but it all depends on your current TV and internet setup. I’m not super multimedia, online everything, surround sound, 80″ Samsung plasma flat screen, guy. I’m just a middle aged dad that sometimes watches movies on a nice flatscreen TV with decent sound. (I don’t even have a soundbar, gasp!)

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The point is, that sometimes, getting the latest online, new on demand movie streaming takes too many hoops for me. I still don’t know how to get a movie I downloaded on the PC in my office to show up on the TV in the next room.

In this case, you can use apps (of course), but I’m not interested in watching movies on my smartphone or tablet. A lot of other people are, however. For you, there are both Android and Apple apps and as long as you have a reasonably quick WiFi internet connect, it should work just fine.

But, I want Redbox On Demand on my TV. That has some more limitations. Basically, there are two options right now. You can use Roku (they have an app), or you can add an app to your LG or Samsung smart TV. Currently there is no option to use a Fire Stick, but I bet that’s more Amazon’s fault than Redbox not wanting it. I’m starting to seriously consider retiring the Fire Stick if I can find something else that is more open while still playing Amazon Prime movies.

I have a TCL smart TV. I don’t know if there is an app for the TV, but for some reason, my TV comes with Roku built-in. Heck, the remote is one of those dumb little Roku remotes, so a Roku app is going to work just fine.

All you have to do is find the app in the Roku channel store (it’s under “Streaming Channels” on mine), and install it. Log in to your Redbox account and boom. (I already had a Redbox account because I use the current, non-on demand, Redbox app to reserve DVDs at the kiosks. If you don’t already have one, you’ll have to sign up.)

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Redbox On Demand Pricing

Here is where I make that scowl face I do when I don’t like how a company is behaving.

After many years of reading the fine print, you would think I would know better. It’s right there in black and white (actually purple and white on the email I got), that the price in big, bold type is a lie and it’s actually going to be higher.

On Demand Starting At $1.99

Starting at… the oldest trick in the book. I’m sure there is probably an “up to” in there somewhere too.

In fact, an actual, current, on demand rental from Redbox costs… $3.99, pretty much double the advertised price and over double what I would pay (even with a Redbox coupon).

Sigh.

Well, it was a nice idea, but I’ll just grab my movie from the Redbox kiosk while I’m buying popcorn at the store.