There are plenty of options in downloading and/or watching movies online. First of all, like music downloading, downloading movies online usually meant doing something illegal. These days, there are various places to download or watch movies online. The illegal choices are still available, simply, although the legal movie sites are picking up steam. This information will concentrate on the legal websites to watch and/or download movies.

There are a lot of options out there. Each site offers their very own pricing model, selection, movie formats, and user experience.

You will discover 2 main pricing models that the internet movie download sites use – monthly subscriptions and per download pricing.

Sites which offer monthly subscriptions give unlimited downloads, for a flat monthly cost. CinemaNow, Netflix, and Vongo operate under this model.

The additional major pricing model, per download pricing, is precisely what it sounds like. There will be a fee for each movie download. Amazon Unbox and iTunes operate this way.

Unless you aren’t planning on watching very many movies in a month, the flat monthly fee will be the way to go. There are also some movies that are readily available for free from each of the services and various free full movie trials will be accessible to try them out.

The selection varies from service to service. New releases are hit or miss. Movies appear to be available on DVD as well as for rental just before being accessible for download. CinemaNow appears to get the films more quickly than the others. iTunes selection is the most limited of the major services.

The predominant file format for the download services is Windows Media Video files (.WMV). iTunes will be the obvious exception, which offers files as MPEG-4s.

Each service requires you to download their software to be able to download and watch movies. Each interface will be different, but its really a matter of personal preference. Vongo and CinemaNow each have good interfaces.