Saturday, August 21, 2010

The Movie Downloading Sites That Are Worth Using

By Paul Rivers

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.

On demand videos stream either through your TV cable box, a digital video recorder so that you can watch later, or the internet. And like with watching movies you own, these streaming videos include all of the controls that you're used to like pausing, stopping and skipping forward and backward during a movie.

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.

Apple's iTunes, Starz's Vongo, Amazon's Unbox, CinemaNow and MovieLink are five movie downloading sites that offer an alternative to the behemoth that is NetFlix. If you're going to watch movies on your video iPod, there is only one choice and that is going through iTunes. The price per download is one of the more expensive services at 12.99 for the first week, 14.99 for new releases, and 9.99 for older titles.

Because you are only able to watch your downloads on an iPod or your computer, the price is exorbitant for the limited number of venues to watch your movie. Also, iTunes does not offer free movie selections and, for families, it has weak parental controls and no subscription or rental options. It's a hard pill to swallow to be forced to purchase a movie rather than just spending a little to watch one.

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, which has burst forward to corner the downloadable book market with the Kindle device, has made a leap into the movie download business with fair results. The movies you download can work across multiple platforms and devices, unlike the iTunes downloads and the image quality is one of the sharpest available. Rental prices include TV and movies ranging from 1.99 to 3.99 a download.

CinemaNow is one of the best, if not the best, downloading service on the web for the ability to get over 4,000 movies in five different ways including: renting, buying, a subscription service, free, and most impressively the ability to burn the movies you watch onto a DVD. The ability to burn movies makes CinemaNow a cut about the rest.

One of the cheapest and best used as a quick fix for boredom is MovieFlix which, for 7.99 a month gives you access to large database of movies excluding new releases. The image quality is better than free, but not as good as NetFlix, Amazon, or CinemaNow. Depending on your devices, your needs, and really you wants, there is a movie downloading site to quench your thirst for entertainment. - 40726

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