Entered CNET Catalog: 04/20/2006
SKU: CNETCINEMANOW
Manufacturer: CinemaNow, Inc
Product summary
The good: CinemaNow offers low-priced rentals and purchases from a catalog with hundreds of recent Hollywood titles. With progressive downloading, you can pick a title, then watch it minutes later on your home computer.
The bad: CinemaNow has a smaller catalog of mainstream films than competitor Movielink, and it offers movies in lower bit rates. You can watch purchased films on only one PC and burn them to DVD only for storage, not for playback on a DVD player. Downloads for portable devices are currently not available, and the site doesn't work with Macs.
The bottom line: If price trumps image quality, consider renting or buying from CinemaNow. However, we prefer Movielink's larger catalog of new and classic films.
Editors' review
- Editors' Choice: No
- Reviewed on: 04/25/2006
Like Movielink, CinemaNow works through a browser, and movies run only on Windows machines. Left-column navigation directs you to the various parts of the site. You can watch free streaming videos (lots of low-budget foreign films), buy or rent downloadable movies, purchase music videos, and rent adult content by the minute--now that's something you won't find on Movielink. You can also click any section for a list of titles, and fewer than half the movies--even new releases--have trailers you can view. With Movielink, nearly all the movies have trailers, and many also have pictures and additional scenes. Sadly, there's no way to bookmark titles you're interested in so that you can easily find them later on.
One area where CinemaNow has the advantage is price. Rentals are either $2.99 or $3.99, compared with $4 or $5 on Movielink, and purchases are mostly $15 to $20, vs. $18 to $28 on Movielink. But with its smaller selection, it doesn't seem like you're getting a bargain. CinemaNow began offering downloadable purchases the same day as Movielink, but while Movielink offers more than 300 titles from six major studios, CinemaNow offers 85 titles from only Sony, MGM, and Lions Gate. CinemaNow boasts a much bigger catalog than Movielink's--more than 4,000 titles vs. more than 1,400--but most of that is filler content, older titles available for free viewing via ad-supported streams. The service actually offers only more than 500 movies for rental. So far, CinemaNow hasn't offered any movies for purchase the same day that the movie's DVD became commercially available, as Movielink has done.
Purchased movies are yours to keep but can be watched on only one PC; Movielink purchases can usually be authorized on three computers. You can create backup DVDs, but the movies will still be in DRM-protected WMV files, so you won't be able to watch the backup DVD on a typical set-top DVD player.
You're required to watch CinemaNow rentals within 24 hours. While the site usually has a section of rental movies that will play on portable video devices (namely Portable Media Centers), it was down at the time of this writing. The list of PMC-compatible titles was mostly C-rate anyway; hopefully, CinemaNow will relaunch portable-device support with new movies. Subscription service Vongo will be compatible with PMC devices later this spring.
On each movie's or show's information page, CinemaNow tells you its bit rate, which is typically either 700Kbps, 1,200Kbps, or 1,500Kbps. Sometimes you can choose between two rates, letting you opt for either a faster download or a higher-quality image. Most purchased movies are either 1,200Kbps or 1,500Kbps. To compare, DVD quality is between 3,500Kbps and 6,000Kbps. CinemaNow purchases offer a lower video quality, and while they look fine on a computer monitor, they won't look sharp on a large TV screen if you have a computer-to-TV hookup.
Our tests showed a huge range in download times. The first film we purchased and downloaded, a 139-minute movie, downloaded in a quick 50 minutes. But the second, a 135-minute title, started out fast but soon slowed to a trickle. That download took well more than 4 hours. With progressive downloading, we could begin watching before the movies had finished transferring.
CinemaNow has a subscription plan, and for a moment, we thought we had missed out on a competitor for Vongo. But no--CinemaNow's plan, which costs $29.95 per month and give you access to 1,500 members-only videos (low-budget info programs no one would pay for) is more about selling unlimited access to the site's adult content. A subscription doesn't buy access to the legit movies. It's kind of funny that Blockbuster, which won't allow NC-17 or unrated movies in its chain stores, is one of the principal investors.
Support options are weak, as users are limited to reading through several FAQs or contacting a support rep through an e-mail form. Adding live support chat or, better yet, a toll-free number, would be a good step.
User opinions
Select a User Opinion to view: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10out of 10 user reviews
Terrible - ripoff
Pros: Nothing - a total total total waste of $. I suppose they're laughing all the way to the bank though.
Cons: Paid my $ to rent a movie - had to get p-word. Did that. Didn't watch movie that day so when I wanted to watch the movie I had to get them to reset my p-word. Took > 24 hrs. to hear back. Went through this 4 more times; never could watch the movie.
out of 10 user reviews
The idea's great, but it's WAY far from perfect.
Pros: Easy to rent or purchase movies; nice video quality of downloaded movies.
Cons: Small selection of movies & TV shows compared to other services.
out of 10 user reviews
Good concept, bad delivery
Pros: Decent price
Fast Download
Cons: Restricted use with digital copy
out of 10 user reviews
Poor Quality Video and Restricted Access.
Pros: I don't like it at all.
Cons: The video quality is horrible, I mean really, really bad. The file is very restricted, so you can't use it on many devces. The interface is clunky. You would be better off ripping your DVD's and taking them with you in the format of your choice.
out of 10 user reviews
Fast customer service! Very helpful. Great movie!
Pros: I was skeptical about renting from cinemanow but after trying out their site, I found it to be easier than expected & great quality. Customer service helped me quickly fix my computer issue. Everything worked great after that. Very friendly service!
Cons: Not many. Good selection of movies. New and old. Wish they had a more comprehensive list of recently released movies.
out of 10 user reviews
AVOID CINEMA NOW - BAD CUSTOMER SERVICE
Pros: there is nothing positive about cinemanow
Cons: bad customer service and software
I had to file a complaint with PayPal and CinemaNow sitll has not responded.
out of 10 user reviews
Do not use it
Pros: None really none
Cons: slower than modem connection, between 22-38kb/s
I do not know which one is worse to be honest, but I can tell you do not make my mistake of using any of them.
Rent your DVD from the store if you ant to watch movie the same day. Or in a case of Cinema Now ever in your life.
out of 10 user reviews
No Customer Service Whatsoever
Pros: Average movie selection. Rent and Buy
Cons: No customer support
I can't recommend it for this reason alone.
out of 10 user reviews
Not for Canadians, eh?
Pros: Potentially good site when available
Cons: Doesn't state Canadian exclusion when purchasing membership.
out of 10 user reviews
Not such a great deal
Pros: You can watch movies right away
Cons: More expensive than renting from brick and mortar stores. You have only have a limited time to watch. If you delete cookies on your system you will lose all the movies you've rented.
Most of the films that you would probably want to watch are around $3, some are a bit more or a bit less. For that price you get a film that you have to watch within about a day or you will lose it and have to rent it all over again. Most brick and mortar stores give you 3 days, Netflix lets you keep them till you are done.
Also, the tech support is not very good at getting back to you. I deleted cookies on my system only to discover that this empties out your 'My Videos' tray on the Cinema Now website... meaning you can't watch the movies you just paid to watch.
I've written them twice to see if there is any way of getting those movies back so I can watch them but I haven't heard back.
If they don't offer me a way of solving the issue (rather than telling me I need to pay to rent them again)I will never use them again. Movielink will work just fine.
