CineSprite – Indian Netflix?
I have been getting more than a few emails every month from people where they inform me about some of the cool products they have come across or are working on. I think that some of them are really cool for me to mention here – so I thought that I will start a ‘Product Reviews’ category at my blog to cover those products / services. The first one is about CineSprite.
CineSprite is the Indian version of Netflix – a DVD rental service that lets you rent out unlimited DVDs (with the condition of possessing 1 or 2 DVDs at a time, depending upon the plan) at a flat monthly rate.
From the site:
Cinesprite.com is the first fully loaded entertainment destination stirred with sparkle of comfort, shaken with the flavor of enjoyment and garnished with some unbelievable features. Get all your desired DVDs from our large selection, do not compromise and watch what you want. What’s more you get FREE shipping of DVD both ways and there are no late fee charges applied ever.
How it works?
The plans are also pretty reasonable with monthly subscription fee as follows:
1 DVD out-at-a-time: Rs. 399 / month
2 DVD out-at-a-time: Rs. 499 / month
More details can be found at the CineSprite page here. There is a special discount if you sign up for more months at a time. Just like Netflix – they have a both-way free shipping too.
I believe it’s worth a try. Let me know if anybody has tried the service or when they try it.
Why there is no information on the About us page under the management bios, exec. board and inventors (don’t know what that means) heads ? Looks like a desperate attempt to put the site up. But have to say their interface atleast appears to be better than seventymm.com .
Just goes to show how our economy & way of life is changing!!
Would be interesting to see if these can survive though!! In US, Netflix, Blockbusters Online, & even Walmart services for DVD rentals are struggling. In India, where you can probably rent a VCD/DVD for 25 or 35/- at your “nukkad” shop, 399/- per month seems high. (Let’s say you can get 2 DVDs per week, given the postal delays this is a fair number, you can get about 8 DVDs a month, which would mean about 50/- a DVD). It will be tough for these sites to setup an efficient logistics model.
But, all said & then, I truly wish these a success. I am technologist myself, & nothing pleases me to see technology enriching our day to day life!!!
Anon – I agree. I also noticed that but I have seen many more sites who miss the static pages when they initially come up with the application – so I wasn’t that surprised. I believe that they will add those pages soon.
Shobhit – good point. Yeah, the costs are not that justified now that you put it the way you did. Unless they do a a better job with variety, quality and service (no-piracy is something that is definitely implied), it won’t get anywhere. I too want these things to succeed.
Only available in NCR as of now..
Also check out http://www.seventymm.com/. It’s cheaper: rs. 199 a month for 4 movies, Rs. 549 a month for unlimited movies. It seems to be available in Bangalore only right now, but I just called them and they said they plan to hit Delhi and Mumbai next.
Check out http://catchflix.com/
They seem to have a better model, no deposit or monthly fee, only a rental fee which seems a bit high or maybe not, depending on what one is used to paying.
interesting to know that there are other players as well…i’ve used seventymm for a while now and they are reasonably good…true they had the initial hiccups but have settled down pretty well i guess… check out http://www.seventymm.com …they seem to be using their own guys for delivery rather than outsourcing the same…their pricing is cool
I was glad to read Deepak’s response – I’m using Seventymm and have been telling my family to keep an eye out for when it will be coming to Delhi – I’m excited to see them expanding already. It’s interesting that all these sites are coming around the same time – I think Indians are ready for this service. Seventymm has an advantage though that I haven’t seen on the other sites and that is that you can refer friends (I’ll be referring family!) and get money off your membership dues each month. Has anyone compared the movie offerings from the various services? Seventymm has a great collection of world cinema – truly amazing movies.
I believe that the pricing model for SeventyMM and CineSprite is a lot different – so it’s not really an apple to apple comparison.
for seventymm – there is a limit on the number of movies per month and on the other hand, there is a limit on the movies-at-a-time with CineSprite. So – they are 2 different things. But it does look that SeventyMM is a little old – so they must have gotten the initial hiccups sorted out (as Nidhi also points out)
was reading ashis’s take on cinesprite vis-a-vis seventymm…i have no clue on cinesprite but seventymm does offer you unlimited movies in a month…infact i use their unlimited package…i end up watching 30+ movies. and i quite agree with santoon that seventymm has a fabulous member-get-member program wherein one can refer people and in return see movies for free. infact i pay half their monthly fees as three of my referals have joined their service.
Nidhi, can you please send a referral to me? It looks that people are a lot more satisfied with seventymm.
this day i thought of visiting most of the flicks on clicks. end of the day i find that the kinda collection http://www.cinesprite.com manages and the kind of services provided by them is very lucrative. two plans at 399 for 1 dvd at a time and 499 for 2 dvds at a time which is highly competitive for sure isn’t it cheap for unlimited movies per month. free pickup and delivery, dedicated customer care and prompt response to customer queries are some of more values they have in their services. Odering movies is again done either by visiting the website or calling the customer care. and what… they immediately buy movies on customer requests. now tell me whats the best
i agree with you Nidhi… dont know much about cinesprite but seventymm is a great service… i get to see loads of movies and they are pretty prompt at delivering the movies ….
Ashish:
Who are the people behind cinesprite…..I saw the site…its good…who are the investors….board members…?
Ice
Ice, they are based outof Gurgaon only. Try contacting them through their “Contact Us” page:
http://www.cinesprite.com/main.php?action=Contact
Hey dude we get vcd for rs 10 and dvd for rs 15 here in mysore karnataka. And ne game DVD for rs 15. Now that’s cheap. And all are original.
I think Cinesprite needs a better movie collection and a better search feature. I searched for a variety of movies. Here is a my searches on Seventymm and Cinesprite
CINESPRITE
X-Men : Just 1 flick (An X-Men 1.5 !?)
Life is beautiful: Coming Soon (Not sure if it means that the movie is available or just that the image is coming soon)
Eyes Wide Shut: No Results
Apocalypse Now: No Results
Jumanji: Available
Don: Don is 14th out of 17th results and doesnt feature on the first page, which starts with a listing of movies where the letter ‘don’ forms a part of a word.
Umrao Jaan: No Results.
SEVENTYMM – Delhi
X-Men: 1 and 2 (and 1.5) including 1 and 2 in Hindi
Life is Beautiful: Available
Eyes Wide Shut: Not Available
Apocalypse Now: Available
Don: Available, First Result
Umrao Jaan: Available
(also I must add the search in seventymm is a lot better, besides the ajax popup when you hover on a search result, it is clickable, shows available formats (VCD/DVD) and leads to more reviews)
i have been using seventymm’s services for more than 5 months now. And barring just one incident, i have not had any problems.I love watching movies and hate it and am kinda against this whole piracy thing… so the concept of seventymm works really well with me.
I think once they strengthen their collection further, they will be better than any other service.
All newbie entratnts still lack in the grasp of the industry. India needs original content first – be it online or offline. The first ‘All Access’ model was invented by Clixflix. The idea seems to be gaining ground. Cinesprite has copied http://www.clixflix.com. If copying is a form of flattery, then great going Clixflix!!! Keep it up!!!
Note that Cinesprite as of today 23rd October 2007 seems to be out of business. I am a member and have tried to schedule pickups many times. They are neither responding to my mails, nor their phones are working. Both of the phone numbers are de-listed and unavailable.
I guess the company has run away or the management is into serious problems.
Regards, Puneet