The mistakes we're talking about here are threefold, they consist of: losing out on value for money, getting the wrong films and failing to cancel.

Taken as a whole, though, we can call them online DVD rental mistakes because although singly any one of them could be made and regretted at length and possibly mooned over at length in the manner of a lost lover - all nights in wearing pyjamas and tubs of expensive ice-cream - altogether they can be felt in full only with an online DVD rental subscription.

This tends to be case no matter what the online DVD rental provider is whether it's lovefilm, Blockbuster or OutNow in the UK or Netflix et al in the United States.

So how does one avoid these online DVD rental mistakes? Here are the three best ways.

First, the most important thing is to choose the best DVD rental deal on the market for your needs.

There's no point kidding yourself that you're going to feel like watching four films a week just because you have some unresolved Tarantino issues that you've got to watch every film in existence.

Don't bother getting films you know are dross like Keeping the Faith, One Fine Day and anything that has Richard Gere in it.

You might think life's short and you want to fill every moment with new experiences but fifteen minutes into the Sex and the City movie you'll realise that life is short and you'd much rather spend it watching re-runs of Friends.

To put it another way, and as my mother always said to me in reference to almost everything: just say no.

Second, on a related point don't get drawn into getting the wrong films.

DVD sites where you can rent sites can let you search by director but that's no reason to watch every film that Woody Allen ever made. A lot of them are worth a miss.

Similarly, try to get Blu ray rental whenever you can - as it's better value for money - but never rent a film because it's in blu ray.