Problems With CinemaNow
As the Internet has become more powerful, increased bandwidth is changing many aspects of the entertainment industry. Companies have developed out of a demand to utilize home Internet connections to replace conventional movie rental shops. The technology continues to improve and various methods are available to watch movies online. CinemaNow provides rentals via a download service. The movies can then be watched on a computer or transferred to another device. But the service is not without complaints, and consumer reviews indicate much room for improvement in the CinemaNow experience.
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Purpose
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CinemaNow is just one of the companies offering movie rental services over a standard Internet connection. The benefits provided by Internet movie delivery are enticing to consumers since typical inconveniences associated with brick-and-mortar rental shops are mostly avoided in the online environment. Trips to the store are no longer required, and movie selection is often much better. There is less risk of a desired title being unavailable, and online rentals usually enjoy extended due dates. But these benefits are a compromise to other problems that are unique to the online movie rental experience.
Viewing Quality
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CinemaNow offers movies for direct download. Because bandwidth is always a factor in server performance and consumer satisfaction, the movies must be as small as possible and still offer reliable quality. There is a general consensus that the CinemaNow products sacrifice too much video quality in their service. The movies are provided in a lower bit rate than some competing services, which reduces the sharpness of the images in the video.
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Security
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Any Internet user should be careful with downloaded products, as there is always a risk to a computer's security and overall functioning. In a security test by computer virus protection firm McAfee, the CinemaNow download process demonstrated a tendency to interfere with a computer's configuration. The effect raised a security flag of "yellow" in the McAfee threat analysis system. Additionally, the service sends out one marketing email per week, on average, which can affect email security in some environments.
Download Speed
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Reviewers often mention the long lag time in downloading a movie from CinemaNow. While competing online movie services allow for instant streaming of a movie, CinemaNow requires the entire video to be downloaded before viewing. These files are usually more than 1 GB, which can potentially take hours to download on some Internet connections. As immediacy is an expected advantage to the online environment, the CinemaNow experience disappoints in this regard.
Titles
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CinemaNow offers a limited library of movie titles for download. While the service does provide some titles not available in competing services, such as adult films, the selection of conventional films is behind that offered elsewhere. As of October 2008, only 5,000 mainstream movies can be downloaded with CinemaNow. This compares to more than 100,000 movies currently in DVD distribution, so CinemaNow users will be compromised on their entertainment possibilities.
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References
Resources
- Photo Credit Image by Flickr.com, courtesy of Raul Gonzalo
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Comments
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want more information.
