Movie and TV Show Download Services Reviewed

Its Friday night and you want to rent or buy a movie, but you dont want to face an empty shelf at the local video store or DVD rental kiosk. Or perhaps your DVD didnt arrive in the mail, and theres nothing on TV worth watching. Thats where a movie and TV show download service comes in.

There are several home media management software and media server options compatible with Windows, Macs or both operating systems, and with high speed internet, you can download and watch a movie or TV show you may have missed. Home media management software will change the way you enjoy all varieties of media.

Apples iTunes Store

Apple now offers television show rentals through the iTunes Store, perfect for the new Apple TV, which no longer stores purchased or rented content. By far, the iTunes Store is the best movie, TV show and music download service out there. Its extremely easy to use, and users can get the content they want fast.

Though the high definition (HD) resolution is stuck at 720p, movies and TV shows still look great. Movie rentals start at $2.99 for standard definition (SD) and $3.99 for HD Movie purchases can range from $5.99 up to $19.99. Apple also offers their iTunes Extras with some purchased movies, which gives users a Blu-ray or DVD experience, complete with special features.

TV rentals start at 99 cents, and purchases can hit $2.99 for HD version. If you want to listen to some tunes on your Mac, Windows PC or Apple TV, you can also buy songs through the iTunes Store. This is really the best service available, and streaming it via the Apple TV OS home media management software is very easy.

Amazon VOD and MP3

Amazon does fairly well with its VOD (Video On Demand) and MP3 service. Not only do they offer digital download sales and rentals of major movies and TV shows, but also independent content that likely wouldnt have any distribution whatsoever.

Using the service is easy, though in some cases youre stuck accessing the service from a computer. However, some home media management software apps will allow direct access to Amazon VOD from supported devices, such as the Roku Netflix device, hardware from Panasonic, Samsung, Sony and TiVo.

Amazons MP3 service is nice, too, allowing users to search and find non-DRM songs and albums from an assortment of major and indie artists. Theyre compatible on a number of devices, like the iPod, and they can also be streamed with home media management software. They also offer plenty of free songs, very affordable album deals and more.

VUDU

VUDU started out as a set of movie-and-TV-show-download boxes that connected to your television and broadband internet to deliver content very fast. It wasnt so much a home media management server as it was a movie-and-TV-show-rental-house-in-a-box. They supported both SD and HD resolutions up to 1080p. Their HDX movies are very high quality HD, but can take a little longer to download. Another ingenious integration was the cacheing of the first few minutes of most of the movies available, so you could immediately start watching while the rest of the film downloaded.

Recently, VUDU was bought out by Walmart and soon abandoned the set-top box, and became essentially an app that came with supported Blu-ray players, HDTVs and other devices. Now, you can fire up an LG Blu-ray player connected to the internet (broadband) and select VUDU. The menu system is still the same and easy to navigate, and content-wise, they still have a large number of HD and SD titles.

You can also preview the first few minutes of a movie to see if you want to buy or rent it, and on the Blu-ray player, you can visually see the hour, minutes and seconds as the movie plays out. There are now chapters to skip around, but you cant access those from the menu, just while the film is playing.

Select films do have special features you can watch, but only from the main VUDU menu, not as part of the rental or purchase. You can also access Pandora, YouTube and other internet sites through VUDU, which makes it a semi-home media management software app.

VUDU also offers 99 cent movie rentals (usually the movie-of-the-day, found on the menu or on their Twitter page) as well as special sections, such as Criterion movies, Disney, a focus on a particular actor or directors body of work, and more.

After spending a little time with the new VUDU, we notice that some of the newer content isnt available at all, either as a purchase or rental, which is common with other services, as well. However, this is likely a movie studio thing, since there are times when you can buy a movie the day it comes out, but you cant rent it for 28-30 days or longer. Weve seen this with other movie download services and home media management software that can access digital content to buy or rent.

Netflix, CinemaNow and Film Fresh

Netflix offers many movies for rent via their streaming option. This is an affordable solution, since all you need to enjoy the content is a subscription membership. Plus, the service is available not just on your Windows or Mac computer, but also on the Roku device; as an app on select Blu-ray players, HDTVs and similar devices; with gaming consoles; on the Apple TV and the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch.

The content appears to be in standard definition and 720p HD quality, much like the Apple TV. This isnt as big a deal, since it still looks really good on an HDTV and even on computers and iPads.

At one point, the Roku was very similar to the Apple TV, acting also as a home media management software app that could access and stream content from a computer to view on an HDTV. It appears that the Roku is now mostly just a Netflix and internet-based app device.

CinemaNow, from Best Buy, is another service that can be accessed through a Windows PC (no Mac support) or supported device like a Blu-ray player, HDTV and so on. You can buy or rent movies, or buy TV shows. They also offer collections, like action films, at a good price. Its a nice service, and the quality holds up well enough when streaming through a home media management software-based server.

At one point, Terminator Salvation was available as a free download, and we were able to watch it on a Windows PC and also a Mac via the free DivX player. This is one way to watch movies from CinemaNow. Our only complaint was the quality in full-screen mode wasnt quite as good as directly from CinemaNow.

Film Fresh is a newer service, and its powered by DivX, so youll need the free player for Mac (Intel only) or Windows XP/Vista on your computer. If you have DivX-certified devices, you will be able to stream it with your home media management software setup.

They offer a wide variety of movies to buy or rent, categorized by Hollywood, Indie, World (foreign), Classics, Kids and Cult. The films are only available in standard definition, but the quality looks good, but wed like to see HD versions.

Its easy to share Film Fresh content on DivX-supported devices, like Blu-ray players, mobile or handheld units and more. Check out DivXs website for details. Otherwise, you wont be able to stream it to another device that isnt DivX-certified.

There are plenty of movie and TV show download services available, and we particularly like what Apples iTunes Store is doing. But each of these services is unique, and you shouldnt limit yourself to just one. An iTunes Store or Netflix account is a great way to start enjoying movies and TV shows through your home media management software setup, without all the hassle of driving to the video store or waiting for the mail to bring your disc.

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