CinemaNow – New Movie Download Service Offers Movies That Can be Burned to DVD
I thought I’d give CinemaNow a shot. First, you must download and install their DVD burning software before downloading any movies. This step is pretty basic and only takes a few minutes with a broadband connection and it’s a one time process. Once this is done you can choose a movie.
CinemaNow currently has 101 titles available for download with plans to increase their movie list. Movie prices varied, I saw a few for $9.99 and $12.99 to download and burn. You can also download the printable DVD art such as the DVD label, DVD cover art and tray inlay.
I initially thought CinemaNow might be a nice choice for when I was anxious to view a movie and lacked the patience for a movie to arrive in the mail. However, once you’ve picked a movie, it can take a two to five hours for downloading even with a broadband connection.
Before making that type of time commitment, I chose to download the CinemaNow “preview” DVD first. The CinemaNow preview is a mere 95 MB versus the multiple gigabytes a movie takes. I chose the option to download first before burning, which took about twenty minutes on my cable modem connection.
When I hit the “burn” button, I found out I needed to clear 6 gigabytes from my hard drive before I could burn the DVD. I wasn’t too happy about that. My hard drive has gigabytes to spare however most of them are partitioned off into a separate part of the drive and CinemaNow doesn’t have an option for me to choose anything but the C drive. Instead of going through the hassle of freeing up space, I chose to view the file using Windows Media Player. The quality was jerky as if it was still streaming from the internet.
Ultimately, I uninstalled the CinemaNow DVD burner. Though I admire their attempt, I think I’ll wait until the technology is a little bit better before jumping on board the movie download bandwagon.
