The Oscars in February this year heralded in the beginning of the 2009 award show season. The movie picks for this year included the following:
Slumdog Millionaire - winning the Oscar for Best Picture, this story revolves around an 18-year old boy in Mumbai, India competing in the game show ‘Who Wants to be a Millionaire’. All the questions he has to answer offer a look back at his life. The show’s host insists the boy is cheating and forces him to admit to it. His reasoning - that a boy from an impoverished background could not possibly possess the knowledge to win the show’s top prize.
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button - starring Kathleen Kennedy, Frank Marshall and Ceán Chaffin, the movie is set at the close of World War I, where Benjamin Button’s life begins. He is born with the body of an old man, and as the years pass, he finds himself growing younger as he grows older in wisdom and experience.
Frost/Nixon - Following the life of Richard Nixon, the movie begins with his 1974 resignation, he withdraws from public life. Talk show host, David Frost persuades him to participate in a series of television interviews with the offer of a sizeable payment. This offers Frost the chance to establish himself as serious journalist, while Nixon wants to re-establish himself in the political arena.
Milk - set in the 1970s, as the Gay Pride movement gathers momentum, Harvey Milk becomes its first champion and public face to make him the country’s first openly gay man to be elected to public office.
The Reader - revolves around an affair with 15-year old Michael Berge and Hanna, in her mid-thirties. Her past contains a dark secret, the revelation of which shocks Michael and forces him to confront his country’s history.
Listed here are the top three movie download sites for 2009. Rated by users worldwide, these sites have the best selections, unlimited downloads and of course, the lowest prices.
1. CinemaNow - the site gives you a selection of new releases on offer, giving you options. The search facility is well liked as one can search based on the director, film or actors. Boasting of over 1,400 titles, CinemaNow has one of the largest selections, and adds new releases every Tuesday. Subscribers gain access to extra titles as well. The software provided for downloading, watching and managing movies is exemplary and provides a lot of interesting features and is simple to use. The most interesting aspect of this software is the range of devices you can watch your downloaded movies on. CinemaNow also offers a ’synch’ license which entitles every download an optimized version for portable devices.
2. Blockbuster Online Movie Downloads - offering top notch service and a wide selection of titles, this site has a few things to grumble about. However, the browsing mechanism is superb showing thumbnails of DVDs and a hover over the picture gives you a synopsis of the movie. Search options also include the ability to search within age ratings. The software while making downloading and managing movies easy allows you to download only one movie at a time. Blockbuster unfortunately does not support multi-pc playback or the wide range of devices offered by CinemaNow.
3. Amazon Video On Demand - offers the same ease of use everyone is familiar with when it comes to the Amazon brand. This website is integrated seamlessly with the rest of the Amazon site. It comes complete with customer reviews, recommendations, previews and everything we are used to with Amazon. Unfortunately, this site does not provide a search facility for only rental movies or purchasable ones. However, the much-loved 1-click option is available here as well. The software includes a neat Remote Load feature.
Watching movies is the perfect to while away your time. For those who are caught up in the rat race, and constantly miss out on their favourite movies and TV shows, the concept of online DVD rentals is in fact alluring. While being easily accessible, efficient and convenient, it allows you to watch your favourite movies at your convenience, because:
Unlimited – there is no limit to the number of DVDs you rent. Membership plans and schemes allow one to rent out 10 or more DVDs per month.
Accessible – DVDs are easily accessible to check availability, all at the convenience of your PC. You don’t have to scurry around like you do at DVD rental shops in search of movies.
Shipping – a number of online DVD rental companies have a two-way shipping scheme. The DVD you pick will be mailed to you, and also picked up once you’re done. Your geographical location doesn’t matter.
Subscription – depending on which plan you choose, you can rent two or more DVDs at a time, and opt to pay monthly or annually.
Review – movie reviews and trailers can be watched before you choose the DVDs you want to rent, making it that much easier for you.
Availability – if the DVD you want to rent out is unavailable, the online DVD rental company lets you add it to your rental list, so that you will be next in line.
Thus, online DVD rentals save time, money and energy, revolutionizing the concept of renting out DVDs.
When Ipsos, a market research company specializing in media content and technologies, released the latest survey results in their report on Online Video Streaming earlier this month, no one should have been surprised at the direction the numbers were heading. The magnitude of the increase, however, revealed how quickly America’s entertainment behaviors are changing. Not only were the numbers up, they were up dramatically.
Over one-fourth of Americans who used the Internet in the past month watched a streaming TV show. Fourteen percent had streamed a full length film or movie. The data collected in April of this year (2009) showed a phenomenal doubling of the numbers collected during the previous September.
The highest percentage of streaming video viewers was found among young adults, ages 18 -24. Within this demographic group, the numbers soared to twice the national average for watching streaming video—51% for TV shows and 30% for viewing full length movies.
Experts attribute the swelling percentages to a corresponding growth of digital video web sites, citing Hulu in particular. Most typically, these sites are “free” to the consumer with costs being compensated through advertising. Brian Pickens, Senior Research Manager at Ipsos, believes that streaming video “is becoming an important distribution channel where any type of full-length video can be instantly accessed for immediate consumption without a fee.”
The appeal of streaming video to consumers is found in its on-demand flexibility for being available exactly when the viewer wishes, and its value of providing free entertainment in a capricious economy.
