CinemaNow Review
by David
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.
In addition to these simple pay-per-view options, CinemaNow offers two other pay programs.
The first is a monthly subscription service not too unlike those offered by Netflix and Vongo. You can choose subscription plans from $8 to $30, and these subscriptions give you a certain number of hours of unlimited downloads. However, the subscription selection is somewhat more limited than the pay-per-view selection when it comes to mainstream films and television shows, so you still may need to pay for specific individual movies or shows.
Frankly, I found the subscription service pretty silly and currently it is a real weakness for CinemaNow. The $30 a month subscription is a bit of joke considering the limited offerings. The one thing I’ll mention quietly, however, is that certain consumers may find it worthwhile for a specific reason. I won’t go into detail here because I intend my site to be a family-friendly site, but CinemNow’s $30 subscription does provide unlimited access to a partner video download site which allegedly provides quality porn downloads. I won’t mention the specific site, but if that’s what interests you, you might look into CinemaNow’s monthly subscription service.
The second payment method available to CinemaNow users (subscribers and pay-per-view users alike), is their burn-to-DVD option. These basically work like the standard purchases, but the files provided allow you to burn a real, re-watchable DVD with your purchase. This is a nice feature, one which popular services like Amazon Unbox, iTunes and Netflix still don’t provide in any way. However at $15 to $20 a pop for a very limited selection of movies (not all the movies you can purchase for download can be burned to DVDs), I’m afraid the feature is still too limited. The video quality isn’t the same as a real DVD and you’re paying almost the same for it without getting the full cover or DVD extras.
How CinemaNow Works
CinemaNow offers movies and tv show downloads in the WMV format. This is a compressed, standard definition file. Like many of the other services, CinemaNow features progressive downloading, which allows you to begin watching your purchase or rental before it finishes downloading. Unfortunately, compared to Amazon Unbox and Netflix, the downloads were consistently slower and CineNow often won’t start playing your video until you’ve downloaded at least 50 percent of it. This sometimes prevented me from enjoying the instant gratification I’ve come to expect from these streaming video rental services.
CinemaNow is tightly integrated into Windows Media Center (for both Vista and XP). You can use a Media Center extender to stream all the content to your television. While this integration is strong, the Microsoft loyalty exhibited here prevents you from playing your downloads on Apple devices, from your Macintosh home computer to your iPod portable device. Outside of this though, CinemaNow does provide the flexibility of playing your files on any three separate devices, including your PlaysForSure portable device or multiple computers or televisions in your household. It should also be noted that the service works with HP’s MediaSmart LCD television sets, which feature integrated streaming hardware.
How Do I Order My Shows Or Movies With CinemaNow?
If you’re familiar with Microsoft’s Media Center, than you know how CinemaNow basically works. You use the Media Center to browse, purchase and download your movies. This basically presents you with a tabbed web browsing experience. The search function was ineffective and on the whole the experience pales in comparison to either browsing the iTunes Store or Amazon Unbox, but it is sufficient and most average users won’t find too many gripes.
Once you’ve downloaded the file, you can watch immediately through the Media Center, or transfer the file to two additional devices (for example, once to your television with a Media Center extender and once to a PlaysForSure portable device, such as those made by Creative). You can also burn a DVD of almost all your movie purchases, but this is only a data DVD, not a DVD you can pop into your entertainment center’s DVD player. This is basically a “back-up” method. If you purchase from the Burn-To-DVD tab, then you can burn a playable DVD. However, as mentioned earlier, the selection of videos provided for this feature is very limited.
CinemaNow’s Library
While CinemNow’s recent release library is decent, on the whole I found its library to be a weak point. Like all its competitors aside from Netflix, CinemaNow’s collection of classic movies & tv shows is pretty disappointing. Other than Netflix, most of these services have some growing to do in the area of classics and cult favorites. But CinemaNow also fails to provide the number of major and recent releases as the Amazon Unbox or MovieLink, so it ultimately provides a weaker selection on all fronts.
Where’s My HD Video?
Once again, like most of these types of services, CinemaNow disappoints by not providing any high definition content whatsoever. It’s still too early to penalize them too much as most services haven’t fully moved into the HD realm yet, but since some do provide at least some HD content (BitTorrent, Vudu, iTunes & Xbox Live), it’s worth mentioning that CinemaNow is not one of them. In fact, the 480p (640×480) resolution compressed WMV files were noticably poorer in quality than the same standard resolution videos downloaded from Amazon Unbox or iTunes.
The Final Word On CinemaNow
By itself, CinemaNow isn’t terrible. In fact, if you haven’t explored streaming and download video services yet, you’d probably find it pretty impressive. While I’ve knocked the video quality a bit, I don’t think most average users would notice the difference. Additionally, CinemaNow does provide a decent collection of recent releases with a few cult classics sprinkled in there. It’s strongest suit might be its integration into Microsoft’s Media Center, but then some people may not like being forced to use Microsoft’s proprietary designs. Another strength is the Burn-To-DVD option, which is unique to CinemaNow among these services. Unfortunately, the limited selection of videos available for this feature and the lower-than-DVD video quality makes this unique feature a lot less appealing than it could be.
I’d keep an eye on CinemaNow to see if they grow and improve their service, but for now I found it playing second fiddle in all areas to one or more of the other major services.
I hope this comprehensive Watch Free Movies Online review helps you consider how to enter this new generation of downloaded and streamed video content.