We have usually always just purchased the DVDs we thought we'd really like. We mess up sometimes, but most of the time the box office reviews and trailers will get us on the money. The New World was one that fooled us big time... that and the lack of reading the box office reviews.
We've done the Columbia House thingy a few times.... when they offer the better deals we'll bite between long breaks. We started out the first time with them because we had a lot of DVDs we wanted. It averages out to about 6 bucks a DVD once you are done buying the minimums. Then we cancel. After a year or so and after we have found more DVDs in bulk we'd like to own... we'll start watching for another pretty good offer from them. They'll tempt you with an offer for a while and when you don't bite they will make it a little more tempting by saving you a few more bucks on shipping. We've cycled through this about 3 times so far.
We tried the Blockbuster and Netflix deal but found ourselves running out of DVDs to rent on a regular enough basis to make it cost effective.
Generally we will go to
www.dvdpricesearch.com and search for the cheapest price on the ones we really want to own. Typically
www.deepdiscountdvd.com wins our business. Occasionally other places will have a better pre-release deal.
Then we also take advantage of our local Movie Gallery. If it's a DVD that we are not certain about, we'll rent it first. If we end up liking it and want to make it a part of our library and depending on how much we like it, we'll then go buy it new from an online source.... or, we'll go back to Movie Gallery and pick it up when they have the buy two get two free sale, which is usually 3-4 times a year. They will also have $5 DVD sales quite frequently. This is when we pick up those DVDs that are borderline and/or ones we ain't gonna pay $15-20 for. They offer a lifetime warranty with the used DVD so it's a pretty good deal IMO.
As far as satellite... we hardly ever rent a movie there because we don't have our great room, where the satellite receiver is located, setup with a sound system... it's just a widescreen RPTV. We might watch a movie on the satellite, but it's not a pay movie.
I don't think I'll ever get into downloading movies. I can't see downloading then having to burn it. Seems like I would be able to find it for the same or less money and not have to go through the hassles of downloading and burning. Like Otto... the download speeds are not that great here at home where I'd want to download them to.
Now with HD DVD coming out... we haven't really slowed down on SD DVD buying, but probably will very soon. We may opt to go ahead and buy the HD DVD versions so that we'll have them for when we do get an HD player.