Movie rental downloads will be the wave of the future. It isn’t rocket science. People want convenience and hate to waste time and gas driving to their local video store. From the film studio’s perspective, the shift to downloadable content can not come soon enough. The switch to downloadable movies will free them from all of the costs associated with the production, storage, distribution and packaging of physical media. They can still sell the films for a healthy amount, but show increased profits.

The capability to rent downloadable movies has been with us for a number of years now. The problem for many individuals has been twofold; the lack of widespread broadband Internet access, and the requirement to employ a computer to view the films. Even if the computer was successfully hooked to a TV (sometimes no mean feat in itself) for a bigger picture, there have been all kinds of other issues connected with computer use that made this a less than satisfactory solution for the majority of movie renters.

The passage of time has largely solved the broadband issue. An April, 2008 report from research firm Scarborough Research revealed broadband penetration is up over 300% since 2002. Nationally, 49% of households have broadband Internet access, and that number continues to increase with the continued rollout of services for example Verizon’s FIOS. As more households get broadband the interest in renting movies via Internet download shall increase even further.

The greater gains conversely, will come from the introduction of alternative methods of downloading movie rentals. To This Webpage end, numerous services are already introduced or are planned for market introduction. Most cable companies offer some sort of video on demand rental service. The quality and selection of these offerings vary, but they are available to many individuals.

For folks that do not have cable or for several reasons want a different service, there are actually other options available. TiVO has partnered with Amazon.com to offer the capability to rent movies from the Amazon Unboxed service. That collaboration has a great deal going for it. TiVO has a universally praised user interface, offers HD capability from off air or cable services, and integrates the Amazon Unboxed service seamlessly into their interface to make things extremely easy for consumers.

AppleTV is a piece of hardware which allows people to download movies from the Apple iTunes Store for viewing on their TV. It is a small, set top box like unit that connects to the net, and retrieves movies from the iTUNEs library. In most things from Apple Inc. it is well designed and has an easy to use interface. It will not stop at movies either. You may watch TV shows, music videos, and YouTube videos as well. It also allows A/V content through your computer to be viewed on your TV. There’s a 24hr window from the time for movie rentals, after which the films vanish, in addition to your rental fee. It’s like video on demand, but with a much larger library.

HD video for the Apple TV is delivered in 720p (You can watch them in 720p or 1080i). With Apple TV 2, the bitrate will be close to 1/8th that of Blu-Ray, so the video obviously isn’t as good, but it’s not bad either, and you aren’t required to get off your couch. An issue for some is that there isn’t any type of video below component 480i. Should you have a mature TV that does not have component inputs, you are out of luck. Another issue will be the FF and rewind performance. The movie has to be rebuffered to do this so it doesn’t work like your regular Blu-ray player or cable company’s video on demand.