Many of you may be familiar with the Starz movies channel on cable. Well, Vongo is a relatively new subsidiary of Starz Entertainment. Vongo enters the market with a somewhat unique approach: they aim to provide an all-you-can-view video buffet for a single $10 monthly fee. Sounds great, huh? Well, despites its ambitions it comes with limitations that bring it back in line with its competitors. Watch Free Movies Online will lay out these limitations for you in detail.
Vongo Costs
As I mentioned, the basis of Vongo is their $10 a month fee. The problem with this is twofold: 1) The selections of movies and tv shows available is remarkably weak compared to MovieLink, Amazon Unbox, CinemaNow, Netflix and even the relatively selection-weak iTunes. 2) You can gain access to more… for a fee. While the additional content only costs $1 to $4 per use, this is in addition to the $10 monthly fee and the selection is still pretty sparse. I found myself most wanting to watch the paid content, so you can imagine how that seemingly small and simple $10 a month fee can quickly balloon as you accumulate the additional individual charges.
I should add that Vongo does allow rentals in many cases where other services only allowed purchases. Vongo also doesn’t require a set top for streaming to the television, although most users will need a Media Center Extender.
Read Vongo Review
While the focus of Watch Free Movies Online will continue to be watching movies free online, I would be remiss not to include some excellent, robust services which provide tons of quality movie downloads for a small monthly fee or very small per-use fee.
In this section I will review 9 different services. Some of them are strictly online video services while others require the purchase of some kind of set top box, not unlike the kind of set top box many use for digital cable services. All of them require an internet connection, and the higher the bandwidth, the better.
The first reviews are up. I’ve written very thorough and detailed reviews of Amazon Unbox and CinemaNow as well as Netflix. I hope they help you better understand your options. I will also have a review of Vongo up very soon, with the rest to follow in the coming week.
So you can see how the big guns compare to the little guys, I will review both major services such as Apple’s iTunes, Amazon Unbox and Microsoft’s Xbox Live Marketplace and I will review lesser known services such as Vongo and Vudu. I will even throw in a couple very small, independent services I’ve discovered, such as the ambitious but terribly disappointing Watch Direct.
Read Download Movies Legally
So CinemaNow offers a direct competitor to services such as Amazon Unbox, MovieLink and Netflix’s streaming video service. The basics are the same as Amazon Unbox, MovieLink or iTunes: pay-per-view style rentals for tv shows or movies with the option to buy some movies for a little more. CinemaNow separates itself from other similar services with a wide range of ways to use the service (single rentals and purchases, burn-to-dvd purchases, or a subscription service), but I finished my testing feeling that none of these CinemaNow options matched up well against its competitors.
CinemaNow Review: Costs
CinemNow’s basic rental service is pretty typical of these kinds of services, averaging between $2 to $4 per rental. It’s basic purchase service is also similar to Amazon Unbox’s, offering movies from $9 to $20 for popular recent releases. I’d say this is the most reasonable of its offerings, but it is just a touch more expensive than the Amazon Unbox. I’m not sure many people will find $20 for a recent release a reasonable cost for a downloaded file lacking the cover and disc you get when you pay almost the same for a physical copy of the movie.
Read CinemaNow Review
It is very likely you know all about Amazon.com. Amazon is the almighty giant of all e-commerce sites and until now you likely associated them with selling physical products, especially books and CDs. With this Watch Free Movies Online review, I’ll discuss the cost, usability, video catalog and video quality of Amazon’s new Amazon Unbox service.
Amazon is entering the streaming video market with a service that integrates well with either your TiVo set top box or your home computer. You can even watch these videos on your portable device.
Amazon Unbox Costs
Amazon Unbox allows you to rent movies for $3 or $4 (and half as much for tv shows) or buy movies for $8 to $15. Thankfully, there are no additional or hidden costs. Some services charge for a monthly subscription or require you purchase a set top box to watch your movie on your television. With Amazon Unbox, you can use either your personal computer or your TiVo to order and watch your movies or television shows.
How Amazon Unbox Works
Read Amazon Unbox Review
I’ve just completed two comprehensive reviews of the Amazon Unbox service and CinemaNow‘s similar service. Yes, you can now legally and easily watch movies on the internet through services such as these.
You’ll find these new reviews under the Downloading Movies Legally section.
Each of these established major players enter the market with thousands of movies and television shows you can stream and download to your PC, your living room or your portable device. However, they have different selections and different methods for handling all these chores.
I’ve spent quite a bit time with each to give you very detailed reviews for these services. I have additional reviews coming for other competing services, including Netflix (yes, they offer streaming video in addition to their traditional mailed DVDs), Vudu, Vongo, iTunes, MovieLink, BitTorrent (the official BitTorrent site) and Xbox Live.
Read New Reviews: Amazon Unbox and CinemaNow
Despite the relatively small amount of content you’ll currently find on Watch Free Movies Online, in the background I’m working hard to help you more in the near future.
It is taking me some time and money to evaluate and review all these different services. My two current projects are outlined on two pages I added today:
Watch Streaming Video Free
With this area of Watch Free Movies Online, I will focus on sites and services which stream video in your web browser. The obvious reference point for this is YouTube. However, there are many sites and services which provide both higher quality video and greater selection of full length television shows and movies. You’ll find these reviewed and added underneath this section: Watch Streaming Video Free
Read Legal Download Service Reviews & Streaming Video Reviews
Watch Free Movies Online debuts!
Welcome to the first post of my Watch Free Movies Online blog!
At one point I considered naming this site Beyond YouTube because so many people get caught up in the major sites that they fail to discover the many smaller, much higher quality sites available to watch movies free online. And you’ll find more than movies! Many of the better services not only allow you to watch tv online, but you can watch television stations from all over the country and even all over the world.
I’ll roll out my comprehensive reviews of all these services over the course of the next couple months. I will also include some lessons and essays on how this all works, as well as some editorials on the condition of internet-distributed media in today’s pop culture. I’ll try not to get too controversial, but like all human beings, I do have some strong opinions.
Read Watch Free Movies Online Debuts!
