The New Release is a company that runs DVD rental kiosks that you might have seen at a retail store. Here in the Atlanta area, they seem to be at Kroger and that's about it. We like to watch a movie on Sunday afternoon, so I picked The Prestige up last night while I was at the grocery store.
Renting was easy, but finding the movie was a little quirky. I knew that I wanted The Prestige, so I wanted to go straight to it in the listing. I could see an alphabetic set of buttons while the screen was loading, but genre buttons were in that location when it finished loading. I ended up scrolling through the list to get to it. It wasn't bad, but it could have been better. However, that's my only gripe. As a matter of fact, it might be the coolest thing ever.
The DVD comes in a hard plastic case that the DVD slips out of. Think of a thin plastic CD or DVD sleeve, but thick and made to take a pounding. I can only assume that it is RFID enabled, since there are not barcodes or any markings other than the instructions on how to insert it into the kiosk upon return. The disc was nearly flawless, probably because no one trusts these things yet.
Returning was also dead simple. Push the DVD into the slot until it stops and tell the kiosk to process the return. It pulls it into the slot, tells you how long you've had it - you pay per midnight that you've had the movie - and allows you to check out. I thought it was painless. It did take a bit longer than throwing it at Blockbuster's mail slot, but still, not bad.
I would definitely recommend the service, since it is only $1 per day. The catalog of movies is limited, but if you're looking for something that has only been out a few months, it should be available.