Movie rental downloads will be the wave of the future. It isn’t rocket science. People want convenience and hate to waste time and gas driving to their local video store. From the movie studio’s perspective, the shift to downloadable content can not come soon enough. The switch to downloadable movies will free them from all of the costs linked to the production, storage, distribution and packaging of physical media. They can still sell the movies for a healthy amount, but show increased profits.
The capability to rent downloadable movies has been with us for a number of years now. The problem for a lot of men and women has been twofold; the lack of widespread broadband Internet access, as well as the requirement to work with a computer to view the films. Even if the computer was successfully hooked to a TV (sometimes no mean feat in itself) for a larger picture, there have been all kinds of other issues associated with computer use that made this a less than satisfactory solution for the majority of movie renters.
The higher gains on the flip side, will come from the introduction of alternative methods of downloading movie rentals. To this end, various goods and services are already introduced or are planned for market introduction. Most cable companies offer some sort of video on demand rental service. The quality and selection of these offerings vary, but they will be accessible to many individuals.
For folks that don’t have cable or for various reasons want a different service, there are alternatives available. TiVO has partnered with Amazon.com to offer the ability to rent movies from the Amazon Unboxed service. That collaboration has a great deal going for it. TiVO has a universally praised user interface, offers HD capability from off air or cable services, and integrates the Amazon Unboxed service seamlessly into their interface to make things extremely easy for consumers.
AppleTV is a piece of hardware that allows people to download movies from the Apple iTunes Store for viewing on their explanation TV. It’s really a small, set top box like unit that connects to the internet, and retrieves movies from the iTUNEs library. Like with many things from Apple Inc. it really is well designed and it has an easy to use interface. It will not stop at movies either. You may watch TV shows, music videos, and YouTube videos as well. Additionally, it allows A/V content through your computer to be viewed on your TV. There’s a 24hr window from the time for movie rentals, immediately after the movies vanish, in addition to your rental fee. It’s like video on demand, but with a lot larger library.
HD video for the Apple TV is delivered in 720p (You may watch them in 720p or 1080i). With Apple TV 2, the bitrate is approximately 1/8th that of Blu-Ray, so the video obviously isn’t as good, but it is not bad either, and also you do not have to get off your couch. An issue for some is the fact that there is absolutely no form of video below component 480i. Should you have an older TV that will not have component inputs, you’re out of luck. Another issue is the FF and rewind performance. The movie must be rebuffered to do this so it does not work like your regular Blu-ray player or cable company’s video on demand.