Movie Downloads from Amazon Unbox and Apple ITunes

Sick of waiting for your mail order movies? Tired of bad quality illegal movie downloads? The Amazon.com Unbox Video Store and Apple's iTunes Store now offer movie downloads and tv show downloads on a pay-per-selection basis in DVD quality. Movie downloads are available for new releases and old favorites. TV show downloads include even the most recently aired episodes that won't make it to DVD for months. TV show downloads are available from CBS, FOX, Comedy Central, MTV, Nickelodeon and more. While you won't find many free movie downloads, you will find free previews and movie trailers so you know what you're getting before you buy.

So, how do movie downloads work? Choose your selection, pay and download.

With either service, you must download their free movie player in order to view your movie downloads online. If you have the capability to connect your TV to a PC or hand-held device, you can watch movie downloads from the Amazon Unbox store on your television set. Many portable devices are Amazon Unbox compatible, including multiple versions of the Creative Zen Vision MP3 players and media players, several Toshiba media players, and a few select others, according to Amazon.com. Only tv and movie downloads from iTunes can be transferred to iPods, so if you're looking exclusively for iPod movie downloads, stick with iTunes. Unbox's viewing software is currently only Windows compatible, and you have to be on XP to view their movie downloads. Mac users will have to take their business to iTunes, whose software is both Mac and PC compatible.

Quality and quantity? It's all relative.

Unbox claims DVD quality, while iTunes claims near DVD quality. Prices are competitive. The selection of movie downloads and tv show downloads at either source is limited. However, the selection of movie downloads available at these sites are probably no worse than what you would find at your local video store. As far as tv show downloads, many of the popular current shows seem to be available. I assume that more tv show downloads will be added in due time. It would be nice to have a selection of old favorites that have only recently made it to DVD, but that may be a long wait.

Want more alternatives for legal movie downloads? There are several.

CinemaNow, Guba, and MovieLink are at the top of my list for movie downloads. Of all, Guba seems to offer the lowest prices on movie downloads, and MovieLink has the widest selection of tv show downloads and even offers rentals for certain movie downloads. CinemaNow offers the ability to burn movie downloads to DVD (certain selections only), although you must be an Internet Explorer user on a Windows PC to view their movie downloads.. Guba offers Usenet movie downloads, which can be viewed with iPod and PSP.

Is the future of movies in the palms of our hands? Maybe so -- figuratively and literally.

This technological transition makes me wonder whether video stores and sites like Amazon.com will, in the long-term, continue their current levels of standard DVD sales. As with the book versus e-book and MP3 versus CD debates, the convenience factor should not necessarily cancel out traditional methods. I'd hate to see a society without movie theaters as much as I'd hate to see a world without libraries. Hopefully, we can find a balance that will allow room for it all.

Still, for those who have yet to take the Internet movie rental plunge, movie downloads offer a great alternative to traditional video store memberships. Since you can rent movies with Unbox, Amazon.com might also finally become some good competition for online movie rental companies such as Netflix. Unbox's rental prices are affordable, and you view your movie downloads immediately. With services such as Netflix and Blockbuster's online movie rentals, you have to wait for your selections to arrive in the mail. Will the wait continue to be worth the savings for the flat monthly fee fans? We'll see.