So a reader asked me a simple question that I thought I would try to answer with a quick blog post here. Apparently I go into a too much detail with some of my posts when some people finding my site are just looking for a quick fix.

If you want to watch a movie online right now, where would I direct you?

This question actually implies some subtext, some unasked questions. Namely, what websites should I visit, what services are the cheapest or most likely to truly be free, and which are the easiest to use for quick and easy instant gratification for watching free films online.

First, this almost always means, where can I go to watch streaming video free.

Thankfully I have a pretty easy answer for you. I try to keep people up-to-date on the best sites and services to watch free movies online, so here’s my best bet for you if you want to watch a movie online right now.

My favorites right now are Hulu and Netflix. There are others, but Hulu is free and Netflix features a generous free trial. Netflix is head and shoulders above all others when it comes to their catalog, but it is a step more difficult to use than Hulu because you have to take the time to register for the free trial.

I hope this answers this simple question, where should I go to watch a movie online right now.

If you follow my blog at all, you will know that I have encouraged people to discover and enjoy Hulu. Hulu is an excellent and easy-to-use website with loads of full length, high quality television shows and movies.

And the irony of this is that there may be too many easy-to-watch shows on Hulu. At least according to some television network executives. Apparently, the networks are fearing that the increasing views on Hulu will hurt the real TV viewer numbers and thus hurt their ability to keep advertising revenue.

I found a great article on Wired discussing this matter. Here’s a vital bit:

Kilar, a longtime Amazon exec, knows what the Internet is teaching audiences to expect: The ability to watch any show, day or night. And he’s adept at explaining this new reality in a way that emphasizes its potential. “This is a tectonic shift,” he told me when I profiled Hulu last year for Wired, “and what it does is allow network heads to find the audience they always should have had but couldn’t reach.” But not everybody sees it that way.

A story in yesterday’s Los Angeles Times sums up what he’s facing: Fear. It’s certainly understandable. Television networks, and the Hollywood studios that make programming for them, are experiencing declining ad sales, declining DVD sales, and rising panic. “We have to find ways to advance the business rather than cannibalize it,” said the distribution chief at Turner — a network that refuses to make shows like The Closer available on Hulu and keeps only a few episodes on its own site.

That would be nice, but the problem is that if you don’t cannibalize yourself, somebody else will do it for you. “You can’t protect old business models artificially,” I was told by Peter Chernin, the outgoing president of Fox’s parent company, News Corporation. Television execs who doubt him might want to check with their friends in the newspaper industry.

Or better yet, just look at the paper itself. The same startlingly thin issue of the LA Times that carried the Hulu story featured an article about Craigslist and its policies regarding classifieds, most of which are free. Not so long ago, classified ads were a dependable cash cow for the newspaper business. But yesterday’s Craigslist article was followed, in the print edition, by a mere three pages of classifieds, liberally padded by display ads for the Times itself, with another three pages lurking at the end of the sports section. This for a metropolitan area of nearly 13 million people.

For more, read the full article here: Hulu, a Victim of Its Own Success?

I say go support Hulu as much as you can. The watch anything, anywhere anytime premise is the future, and as the article states, if they don’t utilize this market their shows will be cannibalized without their control.

Thank you for reading Watch Free Movies Online and go support your favorite streaming video website!

It seems the phenomenon of watching a film online has dramatically changed in just the last six to ten months or so. Just six to ten months ago, you could easily enjoy a few movies online, but it was still a little bit of a novelty. Many laymen computer or internet users had no idea it was even a possibility.

Now it seems the luxury of watching movies online has moved into the mainstream. A lot of people aren’t necessarily aware how it works but they’re probably at least aware that it is a possibility. And with the way Hulu has been advertised, I suspect more and more people will be hooking their computers up to their television sets and watching more and more movies online.

My personal favorite setup is to just open YouTube, Hulu and Netflix in three separate tabs within my favorite browser (Firefox), then watch away. It has never been easier to watch free movies online in a legal and legit fashion.

For those of you who think you still need Internet Explorer to watch Netflix, haven’t you heard of Silverlight? Installing Silverlight in your install of Firefox will allow you to watch Netflix movies online using Firefox just like Internet Explorer.

I do have some new reviews coming your way. There are additional subscription services and web-based video rental services which I’ll be reviewing in the coming weeks. Thanks for visiting and reading Watch Free Movies Online!

Friends frequently ask me the general question, how can I watch TV on my computer? The answer can be different depending on exactly what they mean with this question. For example, when I watch TV on my computer, it simply means I visit sites like Netflix, Hulu or YouTube to watch my favorite TV shows online through streamed video.

These resources, as well resources available on different television networks’ sites (like NBC or HBO), allow you to watch streaming video free. This is really a simple matter of visiting the appropriate website then clicking on a link to load the television show you would like to view.

How Do I Watch TV On My Computer?

However, when some people ask me “how to watch TV on my computer?” they sometimes mean they’re asking me how to connect their computer to their cable tv or satellite tv subscription line and literally view TV through a TV tuner on their PC. This is a perfectly legitimate way to watch tv on your computer. However, they’re two completely different concepts.

The first way I described above involves tapping into the new and exciting resources available online to watch tv online. In addition to simply watching the same shows you view on standard TV, when you watch Internet TV you’ll discover a whole new world of television programming.

The second way I described in that last paragraph involves simply using your computer to watch traditional television programming, just like you’re sitting on your couch in your living room watching prime time TV.

As you can probably tell from the name of my website, my specialty is online video, so this article will primarily focus on the first concept I described. I really like to watch tv on my pc and it was fun learning how to watch tv on my computer when I discovered the extensive world of digital entertainment available to me when I watch TV on the Internet.

However, if there is enough demand from readers I will also add a section (or another page) describing how to install a TV tuner (either a hardware version or a software version for modern computers) in your computer so you can watch tv on your pc.

In particular, I like to watch tv on my laptop because I can then watch my favorite TV shows anywhere anytime. This affords me far greater flexibility than I could ever manage with the old world of strict television schedules. I can watch tv on my computer while sitting in a cozy coffee shop or — with a 3G card, I can even enjoy the latest hit dramas or sitcoms while out hiking in nature.

Set Up Streaming Video On Your Computer

So how do you go about watching TV on your computer. First you need a somewhat modern computer, then make sure you update your video drivers. For the most part, any computer manufactured and sold in the last 3 or 4 years should be more than enough. I suggest you update your video drivers because Windows Vista in particular can have problems processing higher quality streaming video if you don’t have up-to-date video drivers. Your computer manufacturer should make it fairly easy to find, download and install the latest drivers.

The next thing you need is… a web browser! I know you have one of those or else you couldn’t be reading this online video article right now, now could you? You can use Internet Explorer 6 or above, Firefox 2 or above, Opera or Safari. There are some services, like Netflix, which still operate more easily with Internet Explorer (although that should change soon), but for the most part, the browser you choose doesn’t make much of a difference.

What does make a difference is that each browser should have a plugin or addon called Flash installed. This is a free addon to all the browsers which will prompt you to be installed when you visit a site with streaming video. If you’re not prompted by your web browser to install anything and you can watch streaming video on sites like YouTube without difficulty, Flash is probably already installed and functioning.

And that’s really all there is to it. Some great places to start are just the networks themselves (ABC, CBS, FOX, NBC, HBO, Comedy Central, etc.) plus Hulu, Netflix and YouTube. Just these sites alone could keep you entertained for years. Here are a few favorite links to get you started. My favorite is Netflix and it is well worth the couple bucks a month, but you can always just watch some free TV and movies for a while with the generous free trial:

Netflix Free Trial
Hulu.com
YouTube.com
nbc.com

So learn to watch television online and you will increase your television viewing options and greatly improve your flexibility.

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 Review: 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.

Currently Vongo doesn’t feature any kind of purchasing program. It’s strictly a subscribe and rent service.

How Vongo Works

To browse, rent and watch movies or television shows, you need to download and install Vongo’s proprietary client. The client is clean and simple, but it is nowhere near as robust as Microsoft’s Media Center, iTunes or even the Amazon Unbox Video Player. It fulfills its need well enough, but don’t expect to find a lot of useful data on videos you browse and don’t expect a robust search and find functionality.

Once again, with Vongo we have a video download service using Microsoft’s WMV compressed video format for its video files. And again they’re only served in standard defintion (640×480). These files can be used on three separate devices simultaneously. So you can watch your rented video on your PC, stream it to your TV using a Windows Media Center Extender, or play it on a PlaysForSure portable device.

Despite some disappointment with the Vongo client for browsing and downloading, the downloaded media integrates well for viewing with Media Center. Vongo provides an integrated interface for viewing Media Center content in living room environments, giving you easy navigation and control through a Media Center remote control. This manages to turn a potential weakness (the Vongo client) into a strength (the nice integration of Vongo with Media Center and Media Center remotes). Of course, you may not have a Media Center PC or extender, which makes this strength moot for many consumers.

I can say that the compressed video appeared to be superior than some other services (like CinemaNow), but since Vongo uses the same resolution (480p) and video codec (WMV), most consumers won’t recognize the subtle quality differences.

Like most of its competitors (aside from CinemaNow & BitTorrent), Vongo does not allow DVD burning of its content.

How Do I Order My Videos On Vongo?

Since most of your viewing will involve the all-you-can-view portion of a Vongo subscription, selecting videos to view is simple. You use the simple Vongo client to browse and select your video, then start your download. In most cases you can begin viewing your video before it finishes downloading. I enjoyed how this removes the payment step for quicker instant gratification. I just wish there was more content to browse in the all-you-can-view area. If you wish to use the Pay-Per-View section, you can select these videos, agree to be charged for them and then proceed like any other service. I do hope they can move this content over to the all-you-can-view section, as it’s the only thing that makes Vongo competitive.

Vongo’s Library

Because of parent-company Starz Entertainment’s strong Hollywood ties, Vongo does feature some exclusive content, especially for content available to rent. However, on the whole, Vongo features just about the weakest library I’ve examined yet. If you want recent releases, you’re best bet is to go with Amazon Unbox or CinemaNow, as they provide far more of the recent top releases. If you want classics and television shows, Netflix is head and shoulders above Vongo. Vongo is particularly weak when it comes to television shows. It’s in last place for its TV selection of all the major services so far.

Where’s My HD Video?

I’m eager to write and publish my review on the services which offer HD content, because I feel like I’m starting to sound like broken record here. Vongo, like CinemaNow and Amazon Unbox (and most services, currently), does not offer any high definition content. All Vongo videos are standard definition videos compressed in the WMV format. Like I’ve said before, it is difficult to penalize them since most services don’t offer streamed or downloadable HD content just yet, but because some do, I must identify that Vongo is not one of them.

So What’s The Vongo Conclusion?

I love the core Vongo concept of a single, small subscription fee for unlimited videos. But the concept is compromised by making some of the content require additional individual payments and by having relatively little in the all-you-can-view library. Compare it to Netflix for example, and you find it hard to see how Vongo can compete. For just $9.99 a month, Netflix provides you unlimited streamed video from a library several times the size of Vongo’s library. And for that same single fee, Netflix includes its traditional (and still great) mailed DVD service, which gives you access to a movie and television show library far, far larger than any download or streaming video service library.

I’m eager to see if Vongo can grow while keeping the monthly subscription low. For now, I can’t recommend Vongo over Amazon Unbox, CinemaNow, or Netflix.

This concludes my Watch Movies Free Online review of the ambitious Vongo service. I hope you now better understand how it might fit into your media viewing plans.

Want to effortlessly watch any television series or any movie online right now without spending a single penny?!

In less than 10 minutes you can watch anything from the latest blockbusters like Pirates of the Caribbean, Spider-Man 3 or Ratatouille to classics like Singing in the Rain or Ben-Hur.

Maybe you prefer a television series?

In just minutes from right now you could enjoy streaming anything from the latest hits like The Office or the Emmy-winning 30 Rock to all-time favorites like Alfred Hitchcock Presents.

Perhaps you’re a child of the 80s and a little Miami Vice escapism appeals to you. Or perhaps you want to indulge in some classic nostalgia with Dragnet or Leave It to Beaver. Guess what? You can!

It’s all there:

Netflix Unlimited Streaming Video Plus DVD Rentals – Try For FREE

There is no better home video instant gratification on the Internet than the Netflix Free Trial. Some of you may think in terms of those DVDs you get in the mail.

Wrong.

Netflix now provides the most robust and comprehensive Watch Instantly online streaming service on the planet.

Within moments of signing up, and without spending a dime, you’ll have instant access to thousands of movies, from current blockbusters to old classics to obscure indie films.

Additionally, you’ll be able to watch a remarkable collection of television series, whether you want to catch up on the latest hit comedies or indulge in a little nostalgia.

And by nostalgia, it doesn’t matter if your childhood was in the nineties or the fifties, you’ll find a favorite ready to stream right away:

Netflix Unlimited Streaming Video Plus DVD Rentals – Try For FREE

How quick n’ easy is it?

You can literally start watching your favorite movie or television within 10 minutes from the time you read this sentence.

I’m not exaggerating.

This literally costs you nothing and you can find out it if you’ll feel it is worth your time literally within minutes, so go check it out:

Netflix Unlimited Streaming Video Plus DVD Rentals – Try For FREE

And again, you don’t have to spend a dime. Plus it’s all perfectly legitimate & legal, so you don’t have to play any questionable games with questionable websites.

It takes just moments to create your account and start browsing their huge selection of streaming movies and television shows — so why hesitate? Enjoy all your favorites now:

Netflix Unlimited Streaming Video Plus DVD Rentals – Try For FREE

This section of Watch Free Movies Online will address how to watch streaming video. I will explain how most sites in this area stream video free for you to watch and provide reviews of the best and most popular services.

It is important that you have some understanding how these sites work, because many of them simply serve videos hosted by other sites. This is okay, but understanding the difference between a site serving streaming video free from external sites and a site which hosts the movies on its own server will help you pick the right sites to spend more of your time.

I will provide you with many of the names of these streaming video services, but I’m afraid I won’t be linking directly to most of them. This is because many of them contain gobs of copyrighted material. My site isn’t designed for you to learn how to exploit copyrighted material. It is designed to help you find legal and legitimate ways to enjoy your movies and videos online.

No Need to Pirate to Watch Streaming Video

While some of you may still seek the instant gratification of copyright infringement, I can assure you that finding and enjoying this same material in a legitimate way will make it both easier and more lasting. Sites which exploit copyrighted material don’t last or the material is removed right when you want to enjoy it. Do it right and legal and you’ll have no such problems. Additionally, you’ll find that more and more studios and publishers are making their material available through legal and accessible sites.

So you can watch free streaming videos even if you do it properly and legally. You’ll instead have dozens of legal, high quality sources of entertainment for your movie watching enjoyment anytime, anywhere.

I will show you how these sites work, keep you informed on how up-to-date and legit each streaming video site remains, and select sites which are secure for you to view. However, you’ll need to manually enter the site addresses in your browser. Don’t worry, I’ll make it easy for you to find them.

Some may think I’m being too straitlaced. But I also use many Google services to maintain my site, and I don’t want to incur the wrath of The Google by linking to sites which may or may not be infringing copyrights. Even if a site as a whole is legitimate, I don’t want to take the chance that it may occasionally have illegitimate content uploaded by its community of users. I want to help you watch streaming videos online but I don’t want to jeopardize the authority of my site in the eyes of Google.

Watch Free Movies On the Internet

Some of these services will be completely free, while others will have free areas and paid areas. I’ll note when I feel a streaming video site features pay services which might be worth your money. Some of these services will offer mostly TV shows and a whole lot of user-generated content, but many of them will also help you watch movies on the internet.

The rise of streaming video has empowered individuals to have more freedom and choice than ever before. I will review and compare the big names, such as YouTube and Veoh, as well as smaller sites flying under the radar yet providing great content. I will also discuss some of the latest and greatest services, such as Hulu, the service promoted during the Super Bowl with Alec Baldwin in the commercial. So please return soon!

As I develop my site, I hope you’ll return frequently to find a comprehensive selection of lists and reviews to help you watch streaming video free.

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.

I’m investing quite a bit of time and money in these internet movie download service reviews, so I can’t just make them instantly appear here. I want this to be substantial, useful information for as many people as possible.

In a separate section, I will discuss peer-to-peer networks (often referred to as p2p) and free methods to download movies legally. That will be a tricky discussion as those methods often expose you to copyrighted material, which often isn’t as clear & cut legal as we’d like to believe.

I hope you’ll bookmark my site and return soon as I roll out these reviews. I hope eventually I can help you download movies legally with confidence and satisfaction.

You might also consider services such as Hulu which through contracts with major publishers and networks are starting to provide full-length free television shows and movies without requiring any kind of subscription or payment.

It should be noted that when I began this site this page’s emphasis was to be downloading movies. However, more and more services are moving towards hosting these videos and movies on their servers and streaming them through website portals. For the end user, this isn’t all that different. Some argue that the compression required to stream high quality video over the internet results in poorer visual fidelity. However, the reduced costs of bandwidth for ISPs (internet service providers) and the evolution of streaming video and video compression has made the quality almost a non-issue for end users.

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.

Most of you are probably familiar with Netflix already… but did you know that most Netflix subscriptions include unlimited, instant streaming of thousands of movies and television shows through an easy-to-use web interface?

This is a free addition to their standard DVDs-in-the-mail rental program for which Netflix has become so popular. Oddly, I’ve known people who were devout Netflix subscribers who didn’t even realize they had this option available to them (here’s looking at you, mom).

Netflix also offers the best instant gratification of any of the video services I’m reviewing. With their generous free trial and the fact that their streaming videos literally begin instantly, you could start watching one of your favorite movies or television shows only a couple minutes from the moment you finish reading this sentence:

Netflix Unlimited Streaming Video & DVD Rentals – Try For FREE

In this Watch Free Movies Online review, I will try to review just the quality, reliability and value of the streaming service as that is all its competing services provide. However, you have to remember that Netflix has an undeniable, innate edge over its competition because their streaming service — as robust and evolved as it is — only represents a bonus to their established DVD rental program.

Netflix Review: Costs

For the sake of comparison with the other services I’m reviewing, Netflix costs $8.99 a month for unlimited streaming movies or television shows. This makes it — by a good margin — the least expensive of the services I’ve reviewed so far. You never have to buy or pay an additional fee to watch anything they offer in their Watch Instantly category. With just $8.99, your viewing time and viewing options are unlimited.

Netflix offers a cheaper subscription option ($4.99 a month), but note that this option does not include unlimited streaming video. Netflix also offers more expensive options, but those allow you to receive and hold more physical DVDs at a time, so they don’t really factor into the internet movies competition (but if you want to receive and keep up to 8 DVDs or Blu-Ray discs at a time with no late fees, the option is there).

(It’s worth noting that you really can keep those DVDs a long time. I have a not-so-responsible friend who once kept a Netflix DVD for 10 months. Netflix really doesn’t care as that DVD just takes up a slot in your queue until you return it.)

For the $8.99 a month you can receive one-at-a-time unlimited DVD rentals with no late fees AND watch unlimited streaming video through Netflix’s well-designed website.

One option Netflix lacks which some of the other services provide is the ability to permanently purchase digital films or television shows. This doesn’t seem like much of an issue, however, as you’re free to watch any movies or television shows on Netflix whenever you wish and however often you wish. You can even watch them wherever you wish, as long as you can connect to the internet and log into their website. In addition, you can in fact purchase real physical DVDs if you desire. Physical DVDs cost $5.99 to $9.99, with frequent sales that rotate blockbusters and television series into the $5.99 range.

I think providing the ability to make digital purchases will become necessary in the future, but for the time being, the ability to watch anything they offer whenever you want makes a nice substitute. It’s worth noting that digital purchases on other services aren’t very flexible, rarely allowing you to burn and carry a disk from your digital purchase.

How Netflix Works

To figure it out faster than I can explain it, go here. I will explain just the streaming service, as their standard no-late-fee DVD rental service is well-known and beyond the scope of my site’s watching movies online purpose.

When you log into your Netflix account, you will be presented with 3 main tabs and 3 smaller tabs. The three main tabs are Browse DVDs, Watch Instantly & Your Queue. To watch streaming movies or watch streaming tv shows, you can head straight to the Watch Instantly tab, then either search for a particular film or show or browse by category until you find what you want. Then just hit the blue PLAY button and voila! You’re watching your show! It’s really that quick & easy. See what I mean for yourself here.

You can also click on the Browse DVDs tab where you can search or browse all movies or shows available in all formats. As you view various lists of films or shows, beside them you’ll see their available formats. The formats include DVD, Blu-Ray and Watch Instantly. From here you can click on a film with Watch Instantly available, click on the blue PLAY button and presto! You’re watching your show.

On most systems and most broadband connections, there will be no delay (and no ads!) before the feature starts. If you have a really, really old computer and an old dial-up connection, you may experience a bit of delay… but believe it or not, it will still play eventually, although at lower quality.

If you’ve added movies to your Queue, you can click on the Your Queue tab to choose a movie to play. From there, you’ll see additional sub-tabs for each format (Blu-Ray, DVD & Instant). Your main queue will include ALL selections in your queue at once with available formats for each entry indicated with clear little icons, but if you want to see just what you can watch instantly, click on the Instant sub-tab.

To stream Netflix video to your living room, you have three choices: You can use a Windows Media Extender, you can stream Netflix at no additional cost through an Xbox 360 (a recent addition to the service), or you can purchase their Roku set top box, which allows you to connect to your internet connection via wired or wireless network and provides an easy-to-use remote for navigating Netflix’s web interface on your TV.

None of these are necessary, but they offer luxurious options to the service as it already operates.

Netflix’s Library

Because everything imaginable is available from Netflix’s main DVD delivery service, it’s hard to fault them for limitations, but the available current blockbusters isn’t quite as great as their physical DVD selection. You will find no better selection of television series or classic films than what Netflix’s Watch Instantly service provides, but their selection of recent-release films isn’t quite up to par with the best of the bunch: the Amazon Unbox. In Netflix’s defense, however, their Watch Instantly collection grows every single time I log on to browse it.

Netflix deserves a special mention for their television selection. It’s really pretty amazing. Whether you want to watch recent series like NBC’s The Office or indulge in a little nostalgia with something from the 50s or 60s, it’s probably there. Do you like anime (japanese animation) or obscure British comedies? They probably have the whole series.

Where’s My HD Video?

Like most of the other services I’ve reviewed, Netflix doesn’t stream high definition content yet. However, they do plan to roll that out soon and the Roku set top box is even already able to handle it. In addition, Netflix does offer high definition Blu-Ray discs for a ton of their unparalleled catalog.

So What’s The Netflix Conclusion?

In case you couldn’t tell, I’m pretty thrilled with what Netflix provides as a whole. The fact that it is the cheapest of all the streaming video services yet provides the most overall content makes Netflix the undisputed title holder. The fact that in addition to their unlimited streaming service you also get their established and wildly popular DVD-by-mail, no-late-fee rental service just makes it more difficult for the competition to compare.

You might knock them down a couple notches for their less competitive current release selection or their lack of streaming HD video, but since none of their competition can provide a knock-out punch in either of these areas, it’s hard to see it as too much of a negative for Netflix.

But why trust a review when they make it so easy to check it out for yourself for free?

Try Netflix Free – Enjoy Streaming Video Right Now