Top Online Video Services Compared
There are a plethora of online movie services out there, so how do you know which is right for you?
The days of the corner video rental store are numbered. Use a broadband movie service and you’ll never need to visit the local Blockbuster, be disappointed because all the best new releases have already been checked out or pay a late fee because you didn’t get a chance to watch the flick again.
You’re not limited to movies, either. Many of these services also offer episodes from current and classic TV shows, news programs, music videos and more. A few services are supported by advertising and are otherwise free, but most are pay-to-play (e.g., they operate on a pay-per-view or monthly subscription basis).
Some of these services use your computer as the client, some work with a TiVo or other device, and others require you to purchase a stand-alone box (which can be a better alternative if your computer isn’t connected to your TV, you don’t have a home network, or you don’t want to add an audio-video streamer to the network you do have).
With more than a dozen services competing for the same eyeballs, a shakeout is pretty much inevitable, though. Here’s our guide to eight contenders with the best prospects for long-term survival. Amazon Video on Demand, Blockbuster OnDemand, CinemaNow, the iTunes Store, and Vudu all rent downloadable movies and sell downloadable episodes of new and classic TV shows. Netflix allows you to stream many older movies and some TV episodes as part of its subscription DVD-rental service. Hulu and Joost are free movie-, TV-, and music-streaming services supported by advertising. Have a look through our in-depth recaps of all, and we’re confident you’ll never bother checking out a DVD again.
Amazon Video on Demand
Amazon offers current and classic Hollywood movies and network TV episodes for both sale and rent. They also offer a small amount of free content (including programming from MTV Networks, Bravo and Mojo). Most A-list movies cost $3.99 to rent or $14.99 to purchase. TV episodes from a wide variety of broadcast and cable networks (but not ABC or HBO) sell for $1.99 each; with a small per-episode discount if you purchase a “TV Pass” that includes every past and future episode (future episodes aren’t available until after they’ve aired).
Videos can be streamed to and watched instantly on your computer (Mac or PC), on your TiVo, or on a Sony BRAVIA TV (using Sony’s BRAVIA Internet Video Link). Streamed videos have resolution of 480p. You can also download videos to your TiVo or PC, so you can watch them later or while you’re not connected to the Internet. Movie soundtracks are offered in stereo only.
It takes about 45 minutes on a 1.5Mb/s connection to download enough of a typical full-length movie before it’s ready to watch. Rights vary from one title to the next, but rented videos are typically limited to a 24-hour viewing period and can be downloaded to one location. Purchased movies have no time limit and can be downloaded to two locations and to two portable video players (any device that uses Microsoft’s PlaysForSure—a.k.a. Certified for Windows Vista—digital rights management). You’ll find a list of compatible players on Amazon’s website.
Videos downloaded to a PC are played back using Amazon’s Unbox video player (which is not compatible with the Macintosh). Downloaded videos can also be played back using a Windows Media Center Extender or an Xbox 360 gaming console. Amazon stores your purchased videos in a personalized online library, and you can transfer the rights associated with them from one PC or TiVo to another (this doesn’t apply to portable devices). You can’t burn purchased movies to DVD.
Blockbuster OnDemand
Blockbuster bought the MovieLink movie download service in 2007, but never seemed to figure out what to do with it. Now they’ve decided to shut it down in favor of a Blockbuster-branded service. Blockbuster’s offerings are limited to Hollywood movies available for sale and rent in standard definition only. Most new releases cost $3.99 to rent and $17.99 to purchase (You can also rent some older and C-list movies for $1.99.) The service doesn’t have any television content worth mentioning.
Videos are progressively downloaded to a PC (the Macintosh is not supported) and are played using client software that is downloaded along with your first rental or purchase. Blockbuster states that the typical movie can start playing within two minutes of initiating a download over DSL, and that the download will be completed in about an hour. Blockbuster also recently announced a deal with 2Wire to use that company’s MediaPoint set-top box as a download client, eliminating the need for a computer. The MediaPoint has 8GB of onboard storage—enough to store five rented movies, according to Blockbuster.
Rights vary depending on the title. Rented videos can be stored for up to 30 days, but you’re limited to one 24-hour viewing period. Most purchased videos can be played on up to three authorized PCs. If your PC is in a different room than your computer, you can use a Windows Media Center Extender, including the Xbox 360, to stream rented and purchased videos over your wired or wireless home network. Blockbuster supports only one portable device: The Archos 605. You can burn back-up copies of purchased movies to a disc, but only in a format that’s incompatible with conventional DVD players.
CinemaNow
Remember the coming shake-out we mentioned? It might have already started: Sonic Solutions, developer of the Roxio disc-burning software, acquired the privately held CinemaNow as we were writing thisstory. The two companies had previously announced a collaboration to integrate CinemaNow’s content-delivery system with Qflix DVD drives that are capable of legally burning purchased moviedownloads to disc using Roxio software. Unlike Blockbuster’s back-up discs, these will play on a standard DVD player or drive.
CinemaNow has a deep catalog of Hollywood movies, television episodes, and music videos for sale and for rent (although the ABC network’s content is conspicuously absent). Most are in standard definition, but the service also offers some titles in HD. Newly released movies sell for between $14.95 and $19.95, but you’ll also find many older movies in the Video Vault selling for less (Easy Rider for $9.95, for instance). Television episodes and music videos cost $1.99 each. Most movie rentals cost $3.99, but we found many older films available for $2.99 or less.
Feature films in standard definition take about an hour to download on a typical DSL connection; HD movies require about 90 minutes. You can begin watching the movie within 30 seconds of initiating a download. CinemaNow does not support the Macintosh, but the service has strong support for other devices in addition to the PC. You can download purchased movies directly to the Archos 605 Wireless and Samsung P2 digital media players, for example, and the company is beta testing a smartphone application that enables you to remotely initiate a movie download to your PC, so it will be ready to watch when you get home.
The CinemaNow client is also integrated into Windows Media Center and network-capable HP’s MediaSmart TVs. Of the services we examined this was the only one other than Amazon’s that supported direct downloading to a TiVo DVR, but CinemaNow’s TiVo service is currently limited to movies from Walt Disney Studios.
iTunes Store
Here’s where Macintosh users finally get into the movie download game, although Apple’s service works just as well with PCs. iTunes started out as a music download service, but you’ll now find a broad array of Hollywood movies and television shows available for sale and for rent—many of them offered in HD (provided you have an AppleTV, which sells for $320, and you’re satisfied with Apple’s definition of HD being 720p resolution). The network and cable television offerings available on iTunes are better than what you’ll find on any other service.
Newly released movies in standard definition rent for $3.99, while older films (Apple refers to them as “library titles”) cost $2.99; HD versions cost $1 more. As with most of the other services, you have 30 days to watch rented content but you’re limited to a 24-hour window once you start.
New releases sell for $14.99 each, while older titles can be purchased for as little as $4.99. Unlike most of the other services, you can transfer both purchased and rented movies to a portable player, but you’re restricted to later-generation iPods and iPhones. Apple is unique in that it also sells movies on DVD that come with an iTunes Digital Copy disc. Once you’ve imported the disc into iTunes, you can transfer the purchased movie to an iPod or iPhone or watch it on an AppleTV.
If you don’t have an AppleTV, you’re limited to watching movies on your PC or Mac or on an iPod or iPhone connected to your TV via a docking station. iTunes and Windows Media Center Extenders don’t mix.
Vudu
If you’re looking for high-definition content, Vudu has more to offer than any other service we looked at. The company offers downloadable movies at up to 1080p/24fps resolution and it can upscale standard-definition content to 1080i or 1080p (depending on what your TV supports). You can also order movies encoded in Vudu’s proprietary HDX format, which take longer to download but deliver image quality that’s closer to Blu-ray than anything else on the market.
Vudu movies are downloaded exclusively to one of Vudu’s three proprietary boxes: The original Vudu Box offers a 250GB hard drive capable of storing up to 50 purchased films. The Vudu XL comes with a one-terabyte drive in the same form factor, and the Vudu XL2 puts a 1TB drive in a rack-mountable enclosure. The $299 Vudu Box is available from consumer-electronics dealers, but Vudu is running a promotion with Best Buy at press time that credits $200 of the purchase price toward video rentals and purchases. The Vudu XL ($999) and XL2 ($1,299) are available only from custom installers.
Vudu offers current and classic Hollywood movies for rent and sale and a limited number of current and classic network television shows for sale. Most new releases rent for $3.99 (standard definition), $4.99 (in HD), or $5.99 (in HDX). Vudu also has in impressive collection of older A- and B-list movies that can be rented for just 99 cents. As with most of the other services, you have 30 days to start watching a rental and 24 hours to finish watching you’ve started. Newly released movies can be purchased for $19.99 and TV episodes sell for $1.99 each. You must pay in advance in increments of $20, $50, or $100.
Standard-definition movies can be watched instantly if the Vudu box has a broadband connection of at least 2.0Mb/sec; otherwise, you’ll have to wait for a portion of the movie to be downloaded before you can begin watching. Movies in HD require a minimum connection speed of 4.0Mb/sec for instant playback. Vudu has better audio support than most services, too: Movie soundtracks are encoded in Dolby Digital Plus and output in 5.1-channel Dolby Digital.
The Vudu box is a closed device: You can’t stream its content across a network and you can’t offload movies to a portable player, a PC, or even just another storage device; if you fill the drive with purchased movies, you’ll have to delete some before you can download any more. In addition to its library of mainstream and independent films, Vudu was the only service we examined that also offered a library of adult films, including some in HD.
Netflix
Netflix forever altered the movie-rental service when it hit the scene in 1997, and the company has taken an equally unique approach to delivering movies and TV episodes over the Internet: With Netflix subscription plans starting at $8.99 per month, you can rent an unlimited number of DVDs (three at a time) and stream as many videos as you like at no additional cost. There’s also a $4.99 per month plan that limits you to two DVDs per month (with one allowed out at a time) and to two hours of streaming.
The films available for streaming are mostly older titles. TV episodes generally become available once an entire season is released on DVD (programs from CBS and the Disney Channel are available on a more timely basis). Netflix has also added Starz Play content to its catalog. Starz Entertainment buys the rights to show movies that have run their course on DVD, the broadcast networks, and premium channels such as HBO and Showtime. Starz once had a movie-download service of its own (called Vongo), but shuttered it in favor of offering Starz Play through online affiliates such as Netflix and Verizon Internet Service.
Netflix can stream standard-definition video to a number of devices, including PCs running the free Netflix Movie Viewer software, the Roku Netflix Player, the Xbox 360 gaming console, and certain network-capable LG and Samsung Blu-ray disc players. Netflix has also announced a partnership with TiVo to add streaming support to that company’s line of DVRs. Intel-powered Macintosh computers will be capable of playing Netflix streams as soon as the company finishes its rollout of Microsoft’s cross-platform Silverlight video player. There’s no official Windows Media Center plug-in, but there are several independent efforts to create one.
Unlike the other services we’ve discussed so far, Netflix doesn’t allow you to download video to a hard drive, and you can’t transfer videos to a portable player. They don’t sell downloadable movies, either.
Hulu
Hulu was founded in March 2007 by NBC Universal and News Corp and recently closed a $100 million investment from a private-equity firm: This service is clearly in it for the long haul. Hulu streamsmovies, TV episodes, music videos, and some original programming using Flash 9.0. It’s the only service we looked at that supports the PC, Macintosh and Linux operating systems. The content isfree, being supported by advertising (following the model of broadcast television).
You can’t download videos and store them locally, but you can create a queue so that you don’t have to hunt for shows you want to watch later. You can also subscribe to TV shows and newepisodes will be added to your queue automatically. Hulu also allows subscribers to create custom clips of videos, which you can email to friends or embed in your own blog or website or in youraccount on a social networking site, such as MySpace or Facebook. You can do the same thing with entire videos.
The service boasts an impressive roster of partnerships, including MGM, Sony Pictures, Television, and Warner Bros., but you won’t find any content from the Walt Disney Company or its holdings, which include the ABC and ESPN television networks, Pixar, Touchstone Pictures and Miramax Films. You’ll find Showtime programs such as Dexter here, but nothing from HBO.
Most videos are streamed in standard definition, but you’ll also find a limited number in high definition (defined as 720p). You’ll need an Internet connection speed of at least 2.5Mb/sec to enjoy it. There is currently no Windows Media Center plug-in available, but at least two independent software developers (MediaMall Technologies’ PlayOn and Boxee’s Boxee) are working on other solutions for streaming Hulu videos (among other content) to devices such as Windows Media Center Extenders, the Xbox 360, or Apple TV.
Joost
Joost is like a cross between Hulu and Facebook in that it combines Flash-based video streaming with elements of social networking. As with Hulu, Joost’s content is free, but you must wait through an ad in front of the video. The service offers a mix of older and independent films (from Hollywood and elsewhere); episodes of current, recent, and classic television shows; music videos; and similar content.
Joost doesn’t have as impressive list of partnerships as Hulu does, but you will find content from CBS, Comedy Central, Showtime, MTV, Nickelodeon, Spike, Sony Pictures Television, and The WB here. As with Hulu, you can create queues of videos you want to watch, but Joost doesn’t have a subscription feature that will automatically add new episodes to your queue as they become available. Videos are encoded in standard definition using an H.264; there is no HD content available.
The social-networking element comes in several forms: You can create a profile to tell other Joost members about your interests and videos you’ve watched, with a link to your favorite website or a personal blog. Connect with friends who have also signed up with Joost and you’ll be able to see what they’ve been watching and they can see what you’ve been watching (you can also watch in “stealth” mode if you’d prefer people didn’t know). You can also join or create groups based on common interests. As with Hulu, you can email links to videos you’ve enjoyed or embed links to the streams in your personal website or blog, but you can’t limit these embeds to custom clips.
The service is compatible with the Windows, Macintosh, and Linux operating systems, but there currently is no Windows Media Center plug-in available.
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