Living-Deliberately.com

Oh my that has got to be the driest title I’ve ever concocted. But, having googled how to find and watch downloadable movies many times, I’m familiar with where the search words go. I would have loved to stumble upon a post such as the one I’m about to write; would’ve saved me tons of time and aggravation. “So like to hear it? Here it go” (be the first to name the song that came from and I’ll send you a free coffee at Starbucks…no fair googling it!).

Once upon a time I was a Blockbuster store movie renter. Around that same time I also used the library extensively. And the same thing did me in with both of them: late fees. I could have bought quite the media collection had I instead just sunk my late fees into purchases. It was with squeals of glee that I signed in for the first time to Netflix…no more toddlers cleaning off the rental shelves while I agonized over which flick to choose. No more working in “just one more errand” in hopes of a movie date night. No more fighting over such an unnecessary expense. And most importantly, NO MORE LATE FEES. Like the Angels In Brown (UPS) who come to my door with my christmas shopping, I now had little red envelopes of sunshine in my mailbox each week. And best of all, their selection was fantastic.

I had fun compiling my “queue” of movies. I hit several categories…the obscure Oscar nominees, the foreign films, the shorts, the out-of-date family favorites. Netflix and I had quite the love affair going for a couple of years. My queue, indeed my entire Netflix account, became a casualty of the Divorce and the Year of Gypsie Living. He canceled my account, which cleared my history, and without a real mailing address, I couldn’t receive them anyway. And so it seemed that chapter of movie watching had ended (yes, I barely refrained from using a cheezy cliche involving a closing curtain..aren’t ye glad?).

Still, I heart Netflix. And when I can swing the monthly fee again, I’ll be back. For selection, they can’t be beat. And compiling that dream queue was tremendous fun for a somewhat-reclusive film buff too busy with a complicated life to chase down great films in the theater (of which don’t come to our area megaplex anyhow).

So that all led me to a Friday night in between road trips, needing some diversion that would allow me to cuddle under my blankets and lick my wounds in peace. I had the popcorn ready (organic yellow popped on the stove in olive oil, drenched in real butter and salt…is there really any other way to have it?). I think I even had chocolate handy. I set out to give downloading a movie a try.

Oh. This is where I twitch with the pang of my naivete. “Sure Tia. Just pick a flick and click ‘download’ and you’re all set for a cozy night in the camper with your laptop”. Ahem. Experienced downloaders can stop laughing now…

I searched and I searched. Too chicken, too conservative, too goody-goody to use any site that had asian writing on it or looked like it had been designed by a teenager, that eliminated about half of the options. I could hear the cars from the feds coming to arrest me for illegal downloads already coming up the drive. I almost backed out. After all, my popcorn was cold now and I had that old burned CD with Bridget Jones’ Diary on it that I could watch for about the 50th time. But I scolded myself for irrational fear and guilt and plowed ahead. I’d kept coming back to MovieLink. It looked like it had an actual design concept going, though it was a simple site. It had a good sidebar of categories and genres to choose from and current new releases front and center.

I chose a few and selected one to download. Here’s where they beat the online rental system: no monthly fee. You rent by the movie with no commitment. I paid for it (3.99 I think) and got excited about still having a movie to watch before my popcorn bowl was empty.

I had to download the player. You get this “Movielink Manager” loaded to your system and your rentals load into it. You have 1 month to watch it, unless you start it and then you have to finish it in 24 hours. Then it goes away. The player didn’t take too long to load but my movie took 11 hours.

No, that isn’t a typo. 11 hours. The little clock changed from something like, “6 weeks, 4 days, 2 hours, and 40 minutes” on down, until my popcorn was gone and I went to bed.

In the morning I had a downloaded movie. I emailed the company and they assured me it would go faster next time. On Saturday night I watched, with a second bowl of popcorn, and on Sunday I gave a new download a try. Indeed, it loaded faster. This time it took a couple of hours. I started it in the afternoon and had a movie to watch by bedtime. Not bad.

But like I mentioned above, selection is slim with download choices. At least, compared to hard-copy rental services. I’m sure it’s growing daily. But the selection issue is what had me googling again.

Next I tried Vongo. And I am not a fan folks. I don’t like having to download their stuff BEFORE seeing their whole selection, though I’m sure I’m not the first user to fall for the bait of what’s inside. I downloaded it (took another evening) and in the morning, the “reward” was disappointing. B-movies galore. A few mainstream hits that I could easily get elsewhere. Nothing much artistic or foreign. Vongo is different than Movielink in that you pay a monthly fee. Well folks, if I’m going to choose that over Netflix, the selection had better be stellar. And it wasn’t. The website is pretty, looks expensive, and they promote all the different devices on which one can access and watch their movies, but after comparing the choices with what I was looking for, I never even activated my account.

Which led me to one day googling another movie title, rather than the format. And there I hit consumer-confidence pay dirt. Amazon Unbox! I’m familiar with Amazon…they’ve been around long enough to be a trusted brand. My financial information is already in my account so paying for a rental was super fast. Again, I had to download their player, which was actually faster and less nerve-wracking than the others (trust is an issue when downloading anything to one’s machine). Later that evening I had my movie to watch and was happy as a clam.

So here’s the nuts and bolts of my adventure:

• plan ahead. It takes time to download this stuff, even with a fairly new and fast computer
• have more than one title in mind. Availability and selection is still an issue everywhere
• don’t bother with monthly commitments for this stuff. There’s competition out there that will let you do a one-time-only rental
• go with a trusted brand if you are even a little unsure. It’s worth the security, though you still need to be careful.
• make sure you have space on your computer for this stuff BEFORE you start. It’s a pain to get halfway into the download and have it stop because you’re out of room.

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