Viewing movies over the Internet is steadily gaining popularity, as people have become more technology savvy and digital content providers have streamlined their approach. Downloading movies through the Internet has raised the bar for home entertainment as it provides more choice and complete control to the consumer; the absence of advertisements also enhances the viewing experience. Amazon’s Video on Demand, CinemaNow, Movieflix, Vongo, and Apple’s iTunes Movie store are some of the popular legitimate movies download services (Muchmore 2007).
The video quality, convenience, and purchasing options would differ according to the service and opted plan. Viewing movies through the Internet, albeit needing the user to acquire computer skills and harboring piracy concerns, has the potential to become the preferred mode of entertainment once high-speed Internet connectivity becomes widespread and the costs are worked out between the film studios and service providers.
Piracy Concerns
The rampant availability of movie content online through illegal sources cannot be overlooked, while there is an impending need for the consumer to learn to differentiate between legal and illegal downloads. If a service offers premium content for ‘free’, it should serve as the first alarm of piracy. Consumers have to keep their eyes open for pirated digital content that they may stumble upon involuntarily. As the Internet crosses geopolitical borders, copyright-protected content is abundantly available online.
Piracy is both illegal and unethical, as it gives unauthorized access to intellectual property and violates copyright laws. This lowers profits on the movie for the film studio, which in turn reduces the income of film artists and movie technicians (Ahrens 2006). The MPAA (Motion Picture Association of America) believes that this would eventually lower the standard of the film industry in the long run. Thus, the MPAA has started a campaign to combat piracy by using file-shares and the services that enable file-sharing.
The sharing of copyrighted content through any means such as BitTorrent, Peer-to-Peer applications, and UseNet Newsgroups is strongly discouraged. Downloading a file containing copyrighted content, voluntarily or by oversight, can make a user liable for legal action since they are constantly monitored by MPAA outfits (Internet Piracy).
Cost Factor – Buying vs. Renting
One has to understand that the pirated movies available online are from file-sharers ripping off DVDs and other such sources. However, legitimate websites that sell or rent out movies have put in place “enough security to send out movies digitally without worrying about piracy” (Bruce 2006). Regular mainstream movies that are perceived to be time killers are usually rented; renting a movie entitles a user to store and view the movie for a specified timeframe.
On the other hand, movies that are deemed to be worthy of multiple viewings are purchased by consumers. While renting a movie may cost anything from $3 to $6, purchasing a movie could cost up anywhere between $5 and $18 depending upon the popularity, recentness and availability of the movie. Foreign film and movies that are hard to find may be charged a higher price as it is considered to be premium content.
Although most services charge the customer per download, some websites such as Movieflix offer unlimited downloads for a flat monthly fee, which may be suitable for film aficionados. While most services host movies only from certain film studios, the iTunes store boasts of having all major film studios in its offering. With the advent of mass-manufactured devices capable of displaying and playing high-definition content, the demand of high-definition content has skyrocketed quite recently.
High-definition content is essentially high-resolution video which is capable of being displayed on bigger screens without much loss in display quality, thereby enhancing the viewing experience of film buffs. Storing a lot of movies on a computer also requires ample gigabytes (GB) of hard disk space. With storage devices becoming cheaper and Media Center PCs becoming more common, downloading movies has certainly become an affordable proposition.
Barriers to Internet Movie Downloading
Downloading a movie from a pay-per-download service would necessitate the use of a computer with a broadband Internet connection. Most services also require the user to install their propriety software in order to view movie content, which may not seem too inviting to people who are not familiar with computers. Moreover, the user would require a fast Internet connection to download the movie within a reasonable timeframe.
Some services require the entire file to be downloaded in its entirety to start viewing the movie, while other services would start playing the movie within a few minutes and gradually download the movie in the background. To download an entire movie in standard definition, it typically takes around one hour using a 1Mbps Internet connection. With the expansion of Internet connectivity and reduction of bandwidth costs, this would be not be a bad time to start trying out Internet movie downloads; experts such Jim Ramo of Movielink believe that there is going to be a steep increase in using the Internet as a “channel of distribution” (Bruce 2006).
The downloaded movie file can not only be stored on a computer permanently, but can also be transferred to other portable media devices such as iPod and mobile phones. In fact, with the widespread availability of portable media devices in the mass market, digital content such as movies and TV shows are in great demand (Bruce 2006). However, to view a downloaded movie on a conventional television with DVD player, one would have to convert the file into a different format and copy that on to a DVD disc. This process might prove to be tricky to a novice computer user, since it requires the user to purchase special software to perform the format conversion and also a blank disc to store the converted data.
This not only consumes time, but also incurs additional cost to the user. Given the fact that viewing a movie is merely a recreation for most people, it is unfair to expect them to go through a complicated process during their spare time. The alternate approach would be to directly connect the computer’s output to a TV. However, that would also require the user to purchase specialized hardware and cables to display the content stored in a computer on a television set in the living room.
Advantages of Downloading Movies
Almost all websites organize the movies based on genre, thereby enabling users to select movies based on their taste; searching for movies based on other parameters such as year and alphabetical order is also possible on most websites. This makes the process of searching a movie much easier compared to renting a movie from a brick-and-mortar movie rental store (Kirsner 2008). A few mouse clicks on an online movie store enables consumers to gain access to little known gems as well as rare pieces of cinematic literature.
Thus, the Internet has empowered users to acquire on-demand content with little effort at a comparatively minimal cost. The Internet also provides the consumer with a plethora of film reviews, which enables the consumer to research well before spending his/her hard-earned money. Websites such IMDB (Internet Movie Database) and Rotten Tomatoes have made it their forte to review and discuss all genres of films.
An alternative way to view non-mainstream movies, documentaries and videos online for free is by visiting websites such as Hulu, Google Video, Joost, YouTube and a host of other similar services. These websites allow the user to view streaming movies instantly without any downloading. These services are free yet legitimate since the content is supported by displaying advertisements to the user. These websites usually do not have big studio movies releases and provide entertaining clips/shows rather than serious cinema. For people who are not too keen on using computers but still want to download movies, Blockbuster provides an option to purchase a digital media player that serves as a streaming device to download and directly display movies on a television, thereby bypassing the need to use a computer.
Conclusion
As the economy in a period of recession, people are more likely to lookout for cheaper forms of entertainment. Downloading or renting a movie online could save transportation costs as well as overpriced popcorn and cola bills at the cinema. The slight comprise in convenience while downloading movies online is well compensated by the flexibility and virtually unlimited features that it provides. The recent advances in technology have enabled relatively cheap flat screen TVs and home theater setups to give the consumer a near-cinema experience at a fraction of the cost.
An individual who is looking to transition into the digital bandwagon needs to consider several aspects such as movie choices, Internet bandwidth requirements, compatibility on other devices and obviously the price factor before taking the final plunge. Although picking the right service and familiarizing with technology may seem like a daunting task, it could very well prove to be a worthy investment that provides quick access to an ever-growing movie library from the comfort of one’s living room.
Reference
Ahrens, F. (2006). Hollywood Says Piracy Has Ripple Effect. Washington Post, Pg.D05. Web.
Bruce, A. (2006). Downloads are the latest way to go to the movies. Ventura County Star.
Kirsner, S. (2008). A Law-Abiding Look at Indie Movie Download Sites. Web.
MPAA. Internet Piracy. Web.
Muchmore, M. (2007). Which Movie Download Site Is Best? ExtremeTech. Web.