Internet Video On Demand

I've been playing with Internet Video OnDemand services. There seem to be three leading services -- MovieLink, CinemaNow, and Starz.

Overall the services have one huge drawback: selection. It's like comparing your local Blockbuster to the huge NetFlix catalog. Only one of the services (CinemaNow) has television, but they've limited their selection to classics and reality. How dull. No Roswell. No Twin Peaks. No X-Files.

Price varies. Newly-released high-quality rentals from MovieLink can run at much as $5.49, which is a little rich for my blood. CinemaNow is cheaper, but I can't really comment on their service because I could never get it to work for me. Just kept getting error messages. The best bargain by far is Starz, which uses a monthly rate scheme instead of a per-rental scheme. For about $13 a month I can download unlimited rentals from Starz, and watch them on up to three PCs. Wow.

For quality -- MovieLink's EQ (Enhanced Quality) movies are OK, I can watch them without much pain unless I'm watching something very visually beautiful, like, say, Dances with Wolves. Starz quality isn't as great, but for that price I'm probably going to live with it.

MovieLink and Starz made downloading pretty easy. Starz does require the RealOne player, which I really don't like, but I'm living with it. MovieLink can use either Windows Media Player or RealPlayer.

In Starz I can queue downloads and schedule a download time, which is a nice feature. I downloaded a lot of children's movies last night in for vacation.

It is possible to slave your laptop to your TV and watch everything on the big screen, but since my TV is still in my closet I didn't try this.

Starz has a whopping wonderful free 14-day trial. If you have a decent broadband connection do yourself a favor and try it out.