There are plenty of options in downloading and/or watching movies online. First off, like music downloading, downloading see full movies online online usually meant doing something illegal. These days, there are numerous places to download or watch movies online. The illegal choices are still available, as always, although the legal movie sites are picking up steam. This information will focus on the legal online sites to watch and/or download movies.

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

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

Sites which provide 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 exactly what it sounds like. There will be a fee for each movie download. Amazon Unbox and iTunes operate this way.

Unless you are not planning on watching very many movies in a month, the flat monthly fee is the way to go. There’s also some movies that are available for free from each of the services and various free 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 and then for rental just before being readily available for download. CinemaNow appears to get the films more quickly than the others. iTunes selection is the most limited of the key 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 in order to download and watch movies. Each interface is unique, but its really a matter of personal preference. Vongo and CinemaNow each have good interfaces.