So which provider should you choose for your digital movie library? The answer to that question may be decided by what devices you use as much as which company you like the most, so we'll go over the pros and cons of each provider. We'll start with the one that you may not have heard about before reading this. Vudu popped up in , so they've been around for a while.
But who are they? One primary thing you need from your digital movie provider is trust. You don't want to buy some movies and have the company shut down in two years, and with Amazon, Google and Apple, you don't have those worries. You also don't have those worries with Vudu. In , they were acquired by Wal-Mart. And while Vudu isn't a household brand, Wal-Mart certainly is.
One nice benefit of Vudu is the ability to download the movie to your PC. Most video providers are now offering offline downloads for mobile, but Vudu and Apple offer the same service for desktop and laptop PCs. You still must use their respective apps, but it's a nice benefit. Vudu supports UltraViolet, which was a digital locker that gives you access to digital copies of DVD and Blu-ray titles. Vudu also offers some movies for free with advertisements.
Vudu has perhaps the widest range of support for devices. While this list isn't to be interpreted as best-to-worst, Google Play gets the second mention based mainly on the ability to stream their offerings on a wider range of devices than Amazon Instant Video or Apple's iTunes movies and television.
It's easy to trust Vudu's neutrality in the war over our digital video lockbox because they don't have a device they are trying to push. Google's Android, Chrome and Chromecast platforms don't exactly make them Switzerland, but they've played nice in the war for our living rooms.
Google's philosophy is more about providing the opportunity to watch on the largest range of devices rather than battling it out for platform dominance. Google Play offers some titles in UHD, but these titles aren't marked in the store, so it can be difficult to know if any particular movie is available in UHD until you go to buy it. Google Play isn't available for Apple TV yet? One of the first to offer streaming video, movies, TV shows, and rentals and still a leader in terms of stability and performance.
As you can imagine, Apple's ecosystem works great together. You can also download movies to your desktop or laptop and well as your iPhone or iPad, so you can enjoy your collection offline.
What you can't do is watch anything on Android. Or your Smart TV. Or that Blu-Ray player with all the streaming apps. Or basically anywhere besides a PC or an Apple device. Because the iTunes movies are packed with protection. This would make it inconvenient for you to enjoy the movie when you only have Android phones or tablets and you want to take the movie with you outside. Isn't there a effective solution? Here M4VGear Converter is recommended as the best program for you to convert iTunes purchased and rented movies.
It directly removes protection from iTunes M4V video files and convert the movie for playing on various devices with high quality. Note: All original subtitles and audio tracks of iTunes movie can be retained after conversion. It is hard to tell which is better between buying and renting a movie from iTunes store.
My personal opinion is: if you want to watch some latest movies that don't provide renting option or you would like to collect the movies you favorite so that you can watch them in the future, you probably need to purchase the movie from iTunes; and if you are more caring about the price and only want to watch the movie once, you can save much money by renting movies from iTunes. So what do you think? Share with us why you purchase iTunes movie or rent iTunes movie by leaving a comment here.
Note: M4VGear will offer you a 1-minute free trial which allows you convert one minute of iTunes videos for free. Extract Audio from iTunes Movie. How to Download Free Movies with iTunes. If you are looking for a simple and efficient way to download Netflix videos in MP4 format, Netflix Video Downloader is all you need. Learn how to turn on subtitles and audio languages.
If you see near a video's name, the video includes audio-described content. This means an optional audio track will describe non-verbal moments and action in the movie. Learn more about audio-described content. To see if a movie includes bonus features, like deleted scenes, trailers, or commentary, scroll down to How To Watch and look for Includes iTunes Extras under Buy.
Get help with iTunes Extras. If you have a Season Pass or Multi-Pass for all current and future episodes of a TV show, you can find details about the pass at the bottom of the product page. When a new episode is available, you'll get a notification and an email. Learn more Rent movies in the Apple TV app. Before a movie is released, you can pre-order it so that the film is ready to watch as soon as it comes out. You can buy entire seasons of a TV show or buy a Season Pass to get new episodes when they become available.
A Season Pass for a TV show ends when all episodes in that season or volume are uploaded by the provider. If you purchase one or more episodes of a show and then buy the entire season, the price of the entire season decreases by the amount you already spent.
Learn what to do if you can't stream or watch video content. Even if you don't use Apple devices, you're likely to get the best streaming quality from movies rented and purchased through iTunes or transferred to iTunes through Movies Anywhere. Speaking of which, Movies Anywhere allows you to stream movies right from their website and app, and they offer comparable bitrates to iTunes—though I found not all of my movies necessarily offered Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos through Movies Anywhere, even when they did through iTunes.
It's a good secondary option, however. Amazon Prime, Google Play, and other services tend to have lower quality, though they'll still look decent enough in a pinch, or if you're renting a movie that doesn't require the utmost in picture quality. Of course, video and audio quality mean nothing if a given app isn't available on your platform of choice.
Thankfully, this isn't as much of an issue as it used to be, especially since Apple started offering their app across non-Apple platforms. You can see the full list of supported devices here. Movies Anywhere does not, however, appear to be available on Xbox or PlayStation game consoles—see their list of supported devices. Other apps are pretty widely available, though may lag in support for certain devices— Vudu is only just now coming to Amazon Fire TV , and Microsoft's movies app is not available on non-Microsoft platforms though it is compatible with Movies Anywhere.
Google also has a history of, uh, having beef with certain streaming box manufacturers, what with the long-running feud it had with Amazon and its current struggle with Roku —though for now, your Google-purchased movies should be available in the YouTube app on just about any device.
Just make sure, again, that you aren't using that strategy to buy a movie that won't transfer over —you'll want to buy those on the platform you actually use to watch. The same goes for any rentals or TV shows, which you'll have to watch on the service in question. You may think it'd be best to just stick to one digital storefront for all your movies—after all, if Apple TV is available on all your streaming boxes, why buy anywhere else?
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