For those who like to rent movies online, the options have been rapidly expanding. While much attention is still paid to major players like Netflix and Blockbuster, other online movie HDmovies rental outlets are also available who offer good services.
Three major companies vying for market share are the very well known amazon.com and iTunes and Roxio CinemaNow.
What does Amazon.com offer? Though amazon.com is a well-known name, its online movie rental service is not as high profile.
Amazon has a wide variety of movies to rent online, as well as TV shows, through their Video on Demand service but offer nothing extra over Netflix or Blockbuster.
Rentals from amazon.com is compatible with a variety of devices, including TiVo, the Roku box, and a variety of Internet-ready TVs and DVD players, most of which, conveniently, can also be purchased directly through amazon.
What Does iTunes offer? iTunes online movie rentals can be viewed through an Apple TV device directly on the TV, or played on an iPod or iPhone for portability.
The iPod playback can also be fed directly into the TV, or files can be viewed on a computer using iTunes or Quicktime.
With its wide range of TV episodes and full seasons as well as movies, iTunes is a good place to rent movies online.
iTunes is still largely viewed as an outlet for music, iTunes has made its way more and more prominently into the movie and TV rental and download market.
iTunes first started out offering downloads of TV episodes. With the success of this venture, it eventually added movies, and has become a popular and convenient place to rent movies online as many people are already very familiar with the iPhone and iPod devices.
What does Roxio CinemaNow offer? Roxio CinemaNow is not as well known as iTunes, but does offer over 60,000 movies to rent online.
Roxio supports a variety of devices, including Internet ready TVs and DVD players, TiVo, and Xbox 360.
There are portable devices supported too. Members can also rent movies online in DivX format, which can be burned onto a disc and played in many standard DVD players.
Roxio has a good selection of new releases and offers movie downloads for purchase.
So which one should you go for? The only unique advantages that any of these 3 services to rent movies online has over Netflix or Blockbuster is available at iTunes.
iTunes offer the option to watch your movies on the iPhone or iPod. So if you own one of these devices as many do, watching movies instantly is easier than using devices you are unfamiliar with.
And according to recent reports, it doesn’t seem that Netflix or Blockbuster will be offering the option to watch movies instantly on your iPhone or iPod any time soon.
The number of movies and genres on offer is also less than you get at Blockbuster and Netflix.
My advice would be to rent movies online from established players like Netflix and Blockbuster. They have a huge range of movies as well as a great range of viewing options which is growing rapidly. And their monthly plans don’t cost much.