In the beginning, there was video rental. You could pay a visit to your favorite location, either a standalone establishment or possibly a corner of your food store, pay a couple of dollars, and go back home to enjoy a film on your VHS or Betamax (remember those?) VCR.

Then came DVDs. Movie renting became more popular, standalone rental stores could be found every few miles, and since they couldn't provide a big enough selection, the local supermarkets virtually got out of the movie rental business.

The home movie-watching market took a leap forward in the event the cable industry began to offer "Video on Demand." Now you can choose a film, view it at your leisure, have it charged to your monthly cable bill, and never need to leave your home. In exchange for this convenience, you were offered a significantly more limited selection than you could have if you got within your car and drove to your local video store.

The problem of limited selection was quickly solved, conversely, with the advent of mail-order movie rental. A subscription to a mail-order movie rental service would allow you to choose from literally tens of thousands of movie titles, set them up within your rental queue, and have them mailed directly to your door. Simply, though, the trade-off was time. As soon as you mailed back the film you had finished watching, it took a number of days for another one to arrive.

At long last, it looks as however we might have arrived at the best movies-at-home solution: movie downloading. Whenever you download your movies online, your selection is virtually unlimited, your wait time is minimal, and also your costs are affordable.

Determined by the internet service you choose, you will discover several methods used to get movies online. The very first is streaming video. You can stream video either to your computer or to a device attached to your television. You can begin to watch your movie almost instantly, as well as the price can be very reasonable... the truth is, a few subscription services include unlimited streaming video within your membership package. The one drawback to streaming video is the fact that you can't save the film to a DVD or any other storage medium and take it with you for watching elsewhere or in the future; you are limited to viewing it on the device to which it is streaming.

Another method used to download movies online is a rental concept. Basically, you may download the movie to a storage device (computer hard drive, TiVo, even an iPod or computer game console), and watch it at your convenience. Since you are only "renting" these movies and not purchasing them, they will expire after a particular period. This can vary by service and be from twenty four hours to 30-days.

Inevitably, it really is possible to download complete movies, burn them to DVD, and watch them on your TV, home entertainment center, computer, or elsewhere, as with every movie that you have purchased in a shop. Costs because of this may vary widely, as well as you can find movies priced anywhere from around what you will pay in a retail store, to "clearance bin" pricing, to membership and subscription plans.

In conclusion, downloading your movies online may be the ultimate in twenty-first century convenience. For advice here anyone who is willing to shop around a bit, you will most likely locate a movie download plan which will fit your preferences and accommodate your lifestyle.