Thursday, April 1, 2010

An Overview Of The Movie Download Sites That Are The Best Around

By Neil Whitney

Everything changes and evolves and the old video store of the past is becoming increasingly past its prime. Now you can get your movies straight out of a vending machine for little money in comparison to the larger natural chains. Also, cable providers give you the option to instantly watch newly released films on pay per view, but again, the prices of these films are expensive in comparison to movie downloading sites.

The largest and most popular movie service is NetFlix which allows customers to subscribe, for little money, to a service that will deliver movies either to your door or through your computer. It is the quintessential model for on demand service. As more and more families have transformed their living rooms into entertainment oasis', the internet has come up and met the demand to stay home and have your fun on your own terms.

Video on demand (VOD) can come to you either from a live stream through your cable box, recorded onto your digital video recorder (DVR) for later viewing, or your computer. There is no difference between your DVD and VOD as the controls are the same in terms of skipping forward, backward, slow motion, pausing, etc.

This freedom with movie downloading has been around for quite some time, but it's only been recently that the business has legitimized itself toward paying websites. There are a multitude of websites that can allow you to get movie downloads from peer to peer networks, exactly like the file sharing that has changed the music industry over the last decade. However, besides the quality of free downloaded movies being suspect, there is the increased chance of putting your computer at risk for malware. Adware or spyware can be downloaded along with the movie you choose and can slow down your computer as well as steal your personal information. Legitimate movie downloading sites offer you quality and protection.

Some of the most well known movie download sites outside of NetFlix are Apple's iTunes, Starz's Vongo, Amazon's Unbox, CinemaNow, and Movie link. The disadvantage to Apple's iTunes outstrips it's advantages which include only that you can watch your downloaded movies on one computer and your video ipod. Also, there are no rental fees, what you buy on iTunes is yours, it is like buying a movie and with prices ranging from 9.99 to 14.99 it's better to go to the store and buy the DVDs you want.

Another downside to iTunes is that there are no free movie selections.

Vongo's movies are from the Starz library and as such, current blockbusters are not available, but for 9.95 a month there are a large number of rent-only movies available.

Amazon, the book selling as well as everything under the sun behemoth, has branched out into the movie downloading business with great results. Any movie you download can be viewed in multiple machines and platforms, all coupled with extremely sharp image quality. Their menu of choices also include both TV and movies for prices topping out at 3.99.

The most comprehensive site is CinemaNow which has a library of 4,000 movies including new releases, but sets itself apart by having options to subscribe, rent one at a time, buying a movie, watching some for free, and best of all, being able to burn the movies you watch onto a DVD.

The cheapest option with middling results is found with MovieFlix. With fair image quality and a lack of new movies, there is a mix of free and older movies at your disposal for under $8 a month. Bringing movies into your life in a way that you decide should have you using a legitimate movie download service that works for you.

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