AJ stands for Andrew Jackson, our 7th president. His reputation for toughness earned him the nickname "Old Hickory." A hero of the War of 1812, Jackson has appeared on the $20 bill since 1928.

Video Store Convenience

Don't leave home!Some of Us Need to Stay at Home!

I know from experience that this can come in handy—I live in a place with cold and snowy winters. And if the movie-by-mail service center is located in your town, the movies come pretty quickly.

All you have to do is go on the Web site, pick the movies out that you want to see or interest you the most, and wait for them to come in the mail. Emphasis on the wait.

In my research of one movie-by-mail service, the average wait time for a new DVD to come is only two days. This is pretty good but you can't always watch the movie that night.

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Besides price, convenience is another main factor in picking how you want to watch a movie.

If you go to a video store, you have to wait until a movie comes out on DVD in order to see it.Wait!

There's no use asking for a new movie that you just saw advertised on TV.

If the film was popular in theaters, everyone will want to see it—so there's a good chance that someone will snatch up the DVD.

You'll wind up settling for your second, third, or even fourth choice.

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The good thing about the video store is that if they do have a copy of the video you want to watch, you can rent it and watch it that night.

Mail Service Convenience

Movie-by-mail services can get really frustrating if the person who had the DVD before you scratched the surface. That stands in the way of seeing every second of the movie you waited for so long to arrive in the mail.

Some mail services offer "instant movies"Instant Movie

You can watch some movies right away on a Mac or personal computer. This works out really well because you don't have to wait for the movies to come in the mail, and you don't have to leave your house.

There are no glitches in this system and everything works really well. The sound and picture is amazing if your monitor is top quality. If you want to go back a little bit to see a line or scene you missed the first time, there is an awesome feature that goes frame by frame. It shows you every picture, so you can pick the exact spot where you want to start up again.

The only problem with it is that only some movies that can be downloaded onto your computer instantly. Instead, you either have to wait for your movie to come in the mail or watch a movie that you only "kind of" want to see on your computer.

Close that you can watch on your computer—no wait! It takes seconds for it to download onto your desktop and start to play. The early bird gets the video.

Library Convenience

The library has some inconveniences:

• The early bird gets the video.  This especially happens if you are in a bigger city.The Early Bird
  
  Many people want to watch movies without usually having to pay anything. If you don't get to the library as soon as these movies get there—which is very hard to do—you go on a waiting list.
  
  My parents tried to rent a popular movie from the library, but it was in such high demand that they had to wait six months until they got to see it. Another time we had to wait more than a year to see a movie my dad rented from the library.
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• Library DVDs also are more likely to have scratches.Blip…Blip…Blip
  
  Whenever you rent a movie instead of buying it you are taking a risk with skipping, but even more so with library DVDs. It seems that people think that because it doesn't cost anything to borrow from a library, they can treat the DVDs however they want.
  
  This is really annoying because you wait a year to get the movie, only to have it skip over big sections.
  
  You can try to eliminate the blips by washing the DVD with warm soapy water and drying with a cotton towel. Slide the DVD like a hockey puck across the towel. Don't dry in a circular motion. Close
• It usually takes a few months for new movies to hit the library shelves.

The good thing about libraries is that they have a lot more foreign and independent films that you can't get at your typical movie theater.

Theater Convenience

The cons of  theaters.The Cons of Movie Theaters

The bad part about movie theaters is that your movie could be sold out if you don't order your tickets in advance. You could go home empty-handed—"The Mysterious Pie" drama I started this article off with is true.

Another inconvenience about movie theaters is that they have fixed times that they play movies. You have to work your schedule around them.

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If you want to see a current movie, then you have to go to a movie theater.

Why would you pay the high price?

• You don't want a big surprise in a major blockbuster to get spoiled by the time you see the movie.
• Popcorn, soda, and candy are all available to you in one place.
• Inside the theater there is comfort, low lights, cushy seats, and armrests, which brings meaning to the phrase "sit back and relax."

My suggestion? My Suggestion

If you watch a lot of movies, I recommend using a movie-by-mail service. Even though it has some flaws, overall it has the most pros.

If you only watch a couple of movies now and then, or one once in a while, I recommend renting a movie from a video store or going to the movie theater.

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It's up to You

There are a lot of factors to weigh when deciding which way to view a movie:

• In the perspective of cost, the library is obviously the cheapest, but is the money you save worth the wait?
• Renting a movie from a video store is probably the most convenient, but the movies cost a lot of money for such a rental period.

The best option for you depends on what's most important to you at any given time, for any particular movie. 

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