Lean Back, Rent and Enjoy…

Over past few months I have been checking out some of these nuvo online movie download services. Frankly I haven’t been much impressed with the ones which let you download movies on your PC.

I am much more of the “lean back on the couch and let my remote do the work” types. So you can understand why I was unimpressed by MovieLink, Vongo and the rest.

I have always wanted a set-top box based service, which could allow me to rent/buy movies right from my couch. Recently there were two key service launches.

Both these services allow you to access movies from your TV. Vudu even stores first few minutes of all the movies in its library right on the set-top box. This provides instant gratification. In principal, if you can download faster than you play, then such a service could deliver a great experience.

Now I haven’t personally played with this service yet but I do have high hopes for it. What I am interested in is the usability of the whole browse movie catalog and rent/buy experience. I was hoping Apple TV would address it but I guess not in the current version. You still have to use iTunes to download the movie/shows, which kinda sucks.

So finally I have real high hopes for these new services, specially when things are heating up in IPTV and Content OnDemand space. I will have additional updates once I get a chance to play around with any of these services.