Wednesday, May 7, 2008

Movie Download Memberships: Worth the Money?

By Marc Sandford

We've got a lot more options for getting our movies rather than driving to the local video rental store thanks to the phenomenal growth of the Internet and the advances of technology. On the Internet, we can make our movie selection and then wait for the video to arrive by mail. However, we can simply skip the mail delivery and watch the movie immediately online.

There are two basic approaches to doing this. We can get the movie without paying for it by whatever means or pay a fee and use a movie download site. This article will compare the online download memberships, offline video stores, and the 'free' online alternatives against each other.

Movie download memberships have the advantage of big archives full of movie titles to choose from. How much or how often you download movies from these large archives is strictly up to you. No offline video store will ever be able to match this because they have a limited amount of physical space.

Because of this they have to go with only the popular movies. Online download memberships can accommodate a broader variety of movie genres because they don't suffer from this type of restriction. You will get more satisfaction by going online if your tastes go beyond what is deemed popular by everyone else.

Doing a physical search through the shelves of an offline store is far more difficult than looking for a particular title online. An online site will usually have a search box that can search by the director, actor, title, or any particular keyword. In addition, lists are provided that categorize movies into different genres.

In addition to movie genre, their lists often group movies by critic picks, latest additions, popularity, and alphabetically. You can even write your own review and rate a movie with some memberships. Consumer reviews can be more trustworthy than those of a professional critic.

A large selection of movies in their archives is typical of online memberships. Any movies that are legal and free are almost always public domain which means that they are no longer copyrighted. These are the golden oldie film classics.

Recent episodes of popular TV series are available for viewing on the web sites of the major television networks. These will only be up for viewing for a brief time and will be limited to just a few series.

Download membership sites offer safety from viruses, worms, spy ware and mal ware. However, you're playing a game of Russian roulette when downloading movies from 'free' sites. You never know what sort of virus or spy ware might have been introduced into your file by someone else if you're using a file sharing network for your downloads.

In short, these are a few of the reasons why paid movie memberships are the best choice for getting your movie entertainment. The benefits of speed, economy, and convenience that the Internet provides over video rental stores are obvious. However, the potential risks that 'free' downloads pose to your computer greatly overshadow any of the inconveniences of the local video store.

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