The correct answer is, yes.
Both are happening simultaneously as digital media technologies enable the merging of the mediums. This blurring of the lines can be confusing, especially when exploring options on how to watch full length movies online.
PAYING FOR ONLINE VIDEOS AND ENTERTAINMENT
Keeping the people on this earth entertained is big business. Whether free or paid, the bulk of video on the Internet is entertainment of one sort or another.
Websites delivering that video are in fierce battles for your attention. They want to fill our screens every day with movies; TV shows and original content, and do it while making a profit.
There are a large number of sites that let you watch free videos online, but if your main goal is watching full length movies on the internet, odds are you?ll need to pay. You even pay for watching?current TV programs online.
Think of it like watching regular TV or cable, and subscribing to premium movie channels or video-on-demand programming.
HOW TELEVISON, MOVIES AND THE INTERNET MERGE
A common element among the online video service providers is the ways they bring their streaming video to you. Every conceivable distribution mechanism is being used.
Television is merging with the Internet through built-in broadband connections so videos can be streamed directly to it. This feature is becoming more common, and has now become routine for manufacturers to offer.
If your TV isn?t Internet ready, several external devices such as TiVo, Boxee, PS3, Roku and Blu-ray players are. They essentially act as a tuner on your television or cable box. The difference is, these devices can detect and access the various paid or free online video services that have been licensed to operate on the devices.
But watching full length movies on the internet certainly aren?t confined to a TV set. You can of course access them through a computer connected to the Internet, but more notably, admittance to your electronic theaters is now mobile with smartphones, tablets and other devices. We?re still streaming here, so a Wi-Fi or a mobile data connection is required. However, some services do permit downloading for viewing on mobile devices while not online. All subject to the respective usage rules.
Typically, each video service allows a specified number of authorized devices to access the content.
All of them also share the ?Cloud? as the place the full length movies and videos actually reside. There?s nothing magical or mysterious about the Cloud. It isn?t even new. It simply means the content is on a collection of special computers called servers. Because of the massive storage requirements for full length movies and videos, these are huge assemblages of computer and Internet capacity. The Cloud reference really just means you have to be online to access the content or service.
LEADERS OF THE MOVIE PACK ? IN NO PARTICULAR ORDER
Providing the technical infrastructure to deliver the goods, acquiring the rights and keeping track of who?s getting paid, is not for small-time players. Virtually all the entertainment conglomerates and Internet companies are involved in some way.
Some of the better-known names familiar to the public are Amazon, Hulu (owned by NBC and News Corp ? Fox), Vudu (owned by Wal-Mart), Crackle (owned by Sony) and Netflix.
NETFLIX
Originally started by delivering DVDs by mail for a monthly fee, Netflix later added the ability to watch full length movies online. The DVD subscribers used to be able to watch TV shows and free movies over the internet. Netflix now offers a separate online streaming service for $7.99 per month.
You cannot download or otherwise save the movie or show, even if you?re using a TiVo as the gateway device to a television.
There are no social sharing or email linking features with Netflix.
Because you are paying a monthly fee, there are no commercials either at the beginning or during the movies or TV shows for Netflix. This is not the case with all the pay for play or subscription services, such as Hulu Plus. Other providers offer free full length movies and TV shows, but advertisements are inserted.
Netflix streaming had been criticized both for not offering more current movies and television programs compared to other services, and for poor quality streaming. The Hollywood studios determine who get what movies when, so Netflix?s lack of more up-to-date titles is likely due to contractual arrangements.
Netflix claims its streaming quality is getting better. They note that some of the problems are due to slow speeds of Internet Service Providers themselves. High Definition content has recently been added using Microsoft Silverlight technology for video.
The user interface on Netflix is quite easy to use. Like many smart programs, it learns your preferences and suggests movie titles and TV shows that might appeal to you.
AMAZON INSTANT VIDEO
Amazon has tiered usage rules for purchased, rental and downloading videos. There?s also Prime Instant Viewing that offers premium content, such as full length movies. However, these are only permitted through streaming. Content can be viewed on computers, tablets, Internet-equipped TVs and through devices like TiVo, Blu-ray players, Xbox, etc. They?d especially like you to use their Kindle Fire.
When renting, you have 30 days to start watching a movie, and must complete your viewing with a 24-hour period. ?A typical full length movie rental is $3.99. Purchasing the same movie may cost $14.99,?but purchased movies do not have time limits.
Apple?s iTunes movie rental usage rights with the 30-day/24-hour provision are similar. Usage for purchased movies states: ?You can transfer to five computers, sync with all the iPods you own, and burn to DVD for data archiving purposes only (not for DVD playback). You can also sync to up to five Apple TVs which don?t count as one of your five computers.?
Amazon also provides the option to download the full length movie, so you?re not tied to an Internet connection as the regular rent or buy options do. The same time limits apply however.
All these services have different rights and distribution arrangements with the content providers. Amazon must have a good one, because the recent feature film ?Hugo? is on their rental list.
What makes the difference? It?s all about money. There have been estimates that Amazon pays 60% of the fees they collect to the Hollywood studios. That?s supposedly 50% more than Netflix is presumed to be paying. This provides Amazon with the availability of better quality and more recent full length movies and shows.
VUDU
Vudu prides itself on having more high definition movies, particularly in 1080p, than any competitor. They also make the point that streaming video titles are available one day after being released by the studios on DVD, compared to waiting 28 days for Netflix. They claim Netflix streaming is seven years behind.
Vudu also offers some television programs the day after broadcast.
Like Amazon, Vudu must also have a good business arrangement with the studios because ?Hugo? and ?Moneyball? are listed in their catalog of available movies. Again, it comes down to money. You get what you pay for, so I presume Vudu is paying top dollar for its access to quality full length movie titles and High Definition.
Vudu?s pricing structure is based on per-use. You only pay for what you watch. There is no regular monthly subscription fee. If watch full length movies on the internet nightly, this probably isn?t the option for you.
Rent for just $2 for 2 nights is the entry level they advertise, but pricing varies from $.99 to $5.99. How recent the title is and whether it?s delivered in standard definition, high definition, or what Vudu calls HDX all affect the cost. HD and HDX are both 1080p, but HDX is encoded at higher bit rates, plus adds 7.1 Dolby Digital surround sound.
Also like Amazon, there is a window of time in which you must watch the movie. Vudu calls it an ?Exhibition Period? and is the usual 30-day window to watch a rental movie within 24 hours once you start. Purchased content has unlimited viewing, as long as you have an active account and can access the service. No downloading is permitted.
Movies can also be purchased in a range from $4.99 to $24.99. TV shows from recognizable titles like ?Glee? and ?The Closer? to programs you?ve (at least I haven?t) ever heard of. They?re broken into collections by season. They run $1.99 to $2.99 per episode, and up to $43.99 for an entire season.
Vudu has a very nice interface, making it easy to browse through their catalog.
You can view on computers, tablets, smartphones and Internet connected televisions. Vudu supports connections with Facebook and Twitter, but only to the extent that you can post ratings of the videos you?ve watched.
HULU
I?m running a free Hulu movie, ?Chicago? on a separate screen while writing this. They do have a reasonable selection of free full length movies and TV shows. Most are not especially recent to me. It just seemed like older, less well-known movie titles. Many current television programs though. Some examples are yesterday?s ?Colbert Report? and the most recent episode of ?Awake? which I watched just last night on TV. Hulu does offer a large number of films from the acclaimed Criterion Collection.
Although free to watch, there are commercials every so often. I?d estimate one every 15 or 20 minutes. Not really that much of an interruption though.
For $7.99 a month you can subscribe to Hulu Plus. This gives you access to a broader range of more current movies and television programs. However, ?limited advertising? is still included.
A portion of Hulu?s answer to why subscription content contains ads is: ?We include advertisements in Hulu Plus in order to reduce the monthly subscription price of the service. Premium content ? especially from the current TV season ? is not only expensive to make and license, but we also want to compensate our content partners fairly for the valuable entertainment they provide.?
Apparently this advertising policy also applies to full length movies on Hulu Plus, although they do note offering: ?Thousands of critically-acclaimed and award winning movies, many featuring no commercial interruption.?
The other feature of Hulu Plus is access to the standard array of fixed and mobile devices supported by Netflix, Amazon, Vudu and Crackle, and High Definition when available, which the free Hulu service does not.
Hulu provides easy access to share its movies on Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, reddit, Digg, Delicious and via email. If you?re posting a movie on your Facebook Wall, anyone can view it there at anytime. For sites that don?t permit the actual video itself, a link back to Hulu is provided.
Another curious point is you can access Crackle through Hulu. Why would Hulu provide this capability?
CRACKLE
Crackle, owned by Sony, surprised me. I had thought it was similar to Hulu?s model of offering both free and paid tiers of full length movies and TV shows. Not so. Apparently everything is free. I tried to find a way to give them my money, but just couldn?t uncover a route to any kind of paid rental or purchase or downloadable video.
Commercials are inserted during movies. There?s one at the beginning, and others added about every 20 minutes or so. Like Hulu?s free full length movies, not a particular inconvenience.
All movies are listed as free & uncut. Shows are broken into TV and original programming, created exclusively for Crackle. Today there was a banner ad for Vin Diesel, ?The Ropes? only available on Xbox 360 through March 8th. After that it would be on Crackle as normal. Seemed like an odd exclusive distribution arrangement. But there were also ads for Netflix on Crackle.
For those of you who are true multimedia, multi-taskers, clicking a few buttons enables you to play two movies at once in two different windows.
Crackle also has buttons to link movies with Facebook and Twitter. In the case of Facebook, the movie is simply inserted on your Wall where it can be played by anyone visiting. For Twitter, it?s a link back to Crackle.
Video content cannot be downloaded, but can be embedded to access them through Crackle.
Crackle recommends you have the latest version of the Adobe Flash Player installed on your browser.
THE FUTURE OF WATCHING FULL MOVIES ON THE INTERNET IS HERE ?? NOW WE JUST HAVE TO FIGURE IT OUT
I can?t tell you how long people in the entertainment and technology worlds have been talking about making this merging of mediums happen. Bringing the Internet into the living room, while at the same time making video content mobile has been coming for a long time, and now, it is most definitely here.
And this is just the start. All the pieces seem to be in position. Now it?s a matter of ironing out how the video and movie content is distributed among the various services.
This is a big issue. Each wants the best content first. The studios have their own business models centered around maximizing profit with when movies are first released to theaters, when they?re available on DVD and Blu-ray, and when they are then offered to online video services. Broadcast and cable television have similar concerns about how to get the most people watching their products, while making money.
It?s tricky. Everyone is still trying to work out exactly how to squeeze the most amount of revenue out of each iteration of a product?s life. Because so much of this is new territory, and the technology continuing to rapidly improve, the rules are always changing.
Let me know your opinion on the best place to watch full length movies on the internet by commenting below.
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