{"id":463,"date":"2012-04-12T02:04:03","date_gmt":"2012-04-12T02:04:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ispreview.co.uk\/?p=463"},"modified":"2012-09-04T10:08:31","modified_gmt":"2012-09-04T09:08:31","slug":"uk-comparison-of-broadband-movie-download-and-web-streaming-services","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ispreview.co.uk\/index.php\/2012\/04\/uk-comparison-of-broadband-movie-download-and-web-streaming-services.html","title":{"rendered":"UPD UK Comparison of Broadband Movie Download and Web Streaming Services"},"content":{"rendered":"

Over the past few years the UK has witnessed an influx of new internet based video streaming<\/strong> services, many of which offer a wide selection of both online TV and Movie<\/strong> (Film<\/em>) content. This boom, which has in no small part been fuelled by the growing prevalence of ever faster and more flexible broadband ISP connectivity, has now established its own unique position in the market. But which service is best?
\n
\nUntil recently the only way to get good quality movie content was to either buy \/ rent physical media (DVD, Blue-Ray etc.) or subscribe to premium movie channels from one of the big commercial media firms (e.g. Sky \/ Sky Broadband<\/a>, Virgin Media<\/a>). These are all still very viable options and often carry many advantages, such as higher quality video content<\/strong> and extra features (deleted scenes etc.), but they still aren’t as flexible as some would like.<\/p>\n

The Streaming Revolution<\/span><\/h3>\n

Now a new generation of paid video streaming<\/strong> (Video-on-Demand<\/em>) services, such as LOVEFiLM Instant<\/strong>, has slowly begun to change all that by offering consumers a much wider and instantly accessible library of related content. Available at the mere touch or click of a button, across multiple different internet connected devices (PC’s, Smartphone’s etc.) and without you needing to buy any new kit or software (most run directly through either a web browser or special app).<\/p>\n

Sadly video streaming services aren’t perfect and as a result, before can we even get into the main comparison, there are a few important things to consider.<\/p>\n

Key Considerations for Picking an Online Movie Streaming Service<\/strong><\/p>\n

* FREE Trials \/ Free Content<\/strong><\/span>. Many of the new services offer a free trial period, just be aware that these might not be identical to the final premium product. Free trials or content might restrict how much you can view, impose ad-breaks or even hinder video quality. Check the service terms first.<\/em><\/p>\n

* Rental Period<\/strong><\/span>. Most of the following services give you between 1 and 4 weeks to start watching the rental and then 24-48 hours to finish viewing it from the first time you press play.<\/em><\/p>\n

* Video Quality<\/strong><\/span>. Don’t expect the video quality, especially services that claim to offer High Definition (HD) streams, to match what your TV can deliver. Unlike computer monitors, TV’s are specifically designed to optimise even low quality video so, if you can, it’s a good idea to output your video to a TV rather than your computer. We’d need another article to explain this as there are many different methods and some won’t work due to DRM restrictions.<\/em><\/p>\n

* Sound Quality<\/strong><\/span>. Sadly many streaming services deliver good but not the best quality audio, which is intended to help keep the connection speed requirements under control. So do not be surprised when your expensive surround sound system fails to deliver an ideal experience, it’s probably not the kits fault.<\/em><\/p>\n

* Broadband Speed<\/strong><\/span>. Ideally you should have a STABLE broadband connection speed of at least 2Mbps (Megabits per second) for reasonable video and sound quality. Many services do deliver streams for slower connections but the video quality will only get worse and buffering (pauses in your movie) are likely to become an increasing irritation. You’ll also need more like 5Mbps for some of the “HD” streams.<\/em><\/p>\n

* Broadband Usage<\/strong><\/span>. Watching a single 2 hour movie could consume anything between 1.5GB to 5GB (GigaBytes) of data (depending upon video quality, codec and movie content). So it’s important to make sure that your broadband package can cope with heavy usage because some ISPs will impose extra charges or limit your connection speed. Check your package details for any Fair Usage Policies (FUP) or simply ask your ISP directly beforehand.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

At this point we’d like to remind readers that a significant chunk of both TV and some Movie content can also be accessed for FREE (usually provided you have a UK TV Licence) through web based video streaming services from most of the\u00a0UK’s major television broadcasters<\/strong>. We’ve posted a few examples below.<\/p>\n

4OD (Channel 4)<\/a><\/p>\n

iPlayer (BBC)<\/a><\/p>\n

ITV Player (ITV)<\/a><\/p>\n

Demand 5 (Channel 5)<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Unfortunately these services are dominated by UK content and often only carry recent catch-up TV<\/strong> shows from the past week or two. As a result they’re not very useful for movie buffs. Likewise both Sky (Sky Go) and Virgin (Player) also have their own video streaming solutions but these are normally quite expensive, can require additional software and have certain catch-up-TV style restrictions (like the free services above). In any case our focus here is movies, not TV.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

We have also excluded iTunes<\/a> from our comparison because it’s not really a web based solution (needs dedicated iTunes software), can be quite expensive and prefers specific Apple devices (e.g. Macs, iPads and iPhones). Likewise we excluded Cackle<\/a>, a free service, because its content selection was tiny and most of the flicks seemed to be.. rubbish. On the other hand we did find cult classic “Street Fighter<\/em>” ™, starring Jean-Claude Van Damme, on Cackle (only cult because it was so.. terrible).<\/p>\n

The following comparison is in an unordered list.<\/p>\n

LOVEFiLM Instant<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Type:<\/strong> Unlimited Streaming, Streaming Rental (PPV \/ Pay Per View)
\nVideo Streaming Quality:<\/strong> Standard Definition (SD)
\nStable Broadband Speed Required:<\/strong> 2Mbps+
\nPlatform Support:<\/strong> PC, Mac, iPad, XBox 360, PS3, Internet TV’s (Sony, Samsung etc.) and more..
\nPrice:<\/strong> \u00a34.99 Monthly (Streaming – excludes PPV “Box Office” titles @ \u00a30.99 to \u00a33.49 per film)
\nStreaming Technology:<\/strong> Microsoft Silverlight<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

LOVEFiLM is one of the country’s most well established movie rental services and recently moved into the realm of video streaming. It offers an unlimited service (14 day free trial) from just \u00a34.99 per month (apparently this is an “introductory” price) that delivers an extremely strong selection of movies (about 6,500), including top titles like ‘Source Code’. It also covers TV shows but most appear to be from the UK (see the free alternatives mentioned earlier).<\/p>\n

The website is strong and feels like a community with useful customer reviews and comments. But it might surprise some people to learn that LOVEFiLM separates a large chunk (around 1,000+ movies) of its catalogue into a Pay Per View (PPV) model of rental “Box Office” releases.<\/p>\n

As a result customers can expect to pay up to \u00a33.49 to stream recent “Box Office” releases like Real Steel or Fright Night (\u00a33.49 each), but bizarrely this even includes old flicks like ‘300’ for \u00a32.49. This seems almost pointless and confusing when you can buy the feature rich DVD for a similar cost. The lack of HD quality streaming is also a frustration.<\/p>\n

Knowhow Movies (Dixons Retail)<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Type:<\/strong> Streaming Rental, Streaming Buy
\nVideo Streaming Quality:<\/strong> Standard Definition (SD), High Definition (HD)
\nStable Broadband Speed Required:<\/strong> 1.5-3Mbps+
\nPlatform Support:<\/strong> PC, Mac [TBA – Smartphones, Tablets, Internet TVs, PS3, XBox 360]
\nPrice:<\/strong> \u00a32.99 – \u00a33.99 (Per Film) Pay Per View
\nStreaming Technology:<\/strong> RoxioNow (Rovi)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Knowhow Movies is the new kid in town and bases its model around a mix of streaming rentals (PPV) and streaming buys (you keep the film). Its catalogue feels smaller and the hugely simplified website lacks features (e.g. a community and better navigation choices), although a lot of the releases were pleasingly quite new. Oddly some films, such as the Kings Speech and Fright Night, were only available to buy outright (\u00a312.99) and not rent.<\/p>\n

We did some digging and discovered both ‘300’ and ‘Real Steel’ for \u00a32.99 (rental), which in the latter case is cheaper than LOVEFiLM. Knowhow Movies also claims to support HD video quality, which gives them a slight advantage over some of their rivals.<\/p>\n

Netflix<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Type:<\/strong> Unlimited Streaming
\nVideo Streaming Quality:<\/strong> Standard Definition (SD), High Definition (HD)
\nStable Broadband Speed Required:<\/strong> 0.5Mbps (512Kbps) – 5Mbps
\nPlatform Support:<\/strong> PC, Mac, Wii, PS3, XBox 360, Smartphones, Tablets, Internet TVs
\nPrice:<\/strong> \u00a35.99 Monthly
\nStreaming Technology:<\/strong> Microsoft Silverlight<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Netflix is another new arrival in the UK and also offers an unlimited streaming subscription model for \u00a35.99 a month. Unfortunately its catalogue of movies (1,000+) is smaller than LOVEFiLM and most of the “Recently Added” flicks tended to be a few years old, with the occasional exception (e.g. Blitz, The Expendables etc.). Happily some of the movies support HD video quality.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The website is simple but almost annoyingly so. We couldn’t find a search box, there doesn’t appear to be a community and for some reason Netflix appears to limit access\u00a0unless you’re a subscriber, which makes it difficult to know what’s really available. Suffice to say that we were left feeling a little underwhelmed.<\/p>\n

On a brighter note the service does appear to include a number of popular TV shows from the USA, such as Dexter and South Park. But that’s not our focus here and most of the shows were from older seasons.<\/p>\n

YouTube Movies (Google)<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Type:<\/strong> Streaming Free \/ Rental
\nVideo Streaming Quality:<\/strong> Standard Definition (SD), High Definition (HD)
\nStable Broadband Speed Required:<\/strong> 0.5Mbps (512Kbps) – 4Mbps [Estimate]
\nPlatform Support:<\/strong> PC, Mac, Smartphones, Tablets.. pretty much everything
\nPrice:<\/strong> \u00a30.00 – \u00a34.49 (Per Film) Pay Per View
\nStreaming Technology:<\/strong> Adobe Flash<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It’s surprisingly easy to forget that YouTube has its own paid Movie streaming service, which offers both free content and rentals for up to \u00a34.49 a pop (most are \u00a33.49 or less). As a result the service benefits from having a community feel website with good navigation. The catalogue isn’t vast but there are some recent releases to be found, such as ‘Immortals’ and ‘Contagion’. But out of the ‘The Kings Speech’, ‘Fright Night’, ‘Real Steel’ and ‘300’ we only discovered ‘300’ for \u00a32.49.<\/p>\n

YouTube’s video quality is reasonable and many releases, including some surprisingly good FREE choices (check out ‘Life In A Day’), offered HD streams. The platform is also widely supported across many different devices, probably more so than their rivals, although there are a few pitfalls. Aside from the smaller catalogue we also found that searching could be a problem. The movie service lacked its own system and would frequently return general results from the whole of YouTube instead of just the film catalogue.<\/p>\n

BlinkBox<\/strong><\/p>\n

Type:<\/strong> Streaming Rental \/ Free
\nVideo Streaming Quality:<\/strong> Standard Definition (SD)
\nStable Broadband Speed Required:<\/strong> 0.3Mbps (300Kbps) – 2Mbps
\nPlatform Support:<\/strong> PC, Mac, PS3, XBox 360, iPad and Internet TVs
\nPrice:<\/strong> \u00a30.00 – \u00a33.49 (Per Film) Pay Per View
\nStreaming Technology:<\/strong> Adobe Flash<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

BlinkBox has been around a bit longer than some but is priced similarly to other rental services like Knowhow Movies. It has a large catalogue of films like LOVEFiLM, including a reasonable selection of free content, and is supported by a fairly strong website. We found recent releases like ‘Fright Night’ and ‘Real Steel’ on the service for \u00a33.49 (rental), while ‘300’ cost \u00a32.49 and ‘The Kings Speech’ was a buy-only title.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately BlinkBox lacks HD video quality options and most of its TV shows are UK based, although we’ll give it some credit for including the hit USA show ‘The Walking Dead’.<\/p>\n

HMVOn-Demand<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Type:<\/strong> Streaming Rental
\nVideo Streaming Quality:<\/strong> Standard Definition (SD)
\nStable Broadband Speed Required:<\/strong> 2Mbps
\nPlatform Support:<\/strong> PC, Mac
\nPrice:<\/strong> \u00a30.99 – \u00a33.99 (Per Film) Pay Per View
\nStreaming Technology:<\/strong> Microsoft Silverlight \/ FilmFlex<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

HMVOn-Demand is yet another rental service with familiar pricing and a lack of HD quality video streams. It has a somewhat small selection of movies but does a good job with focusing on new releases through a clean and clear website. Both ‘Fright Night’ and ‘Real Steel’ were available for \u00a33.99, while ‘300’ was found for \u00a32.49 and the ever illusive ‘The Kings Speech’ didn’t seem to exist. A lack of content appears to hold this one back, much like Knowhow Movies.<\/p>\n

Practical Conclusions<\/span><\/h3>\n

Overall we found quite a bit of choice in the market<\/strong>, although far too many services lacked content<\/strong>, failed to offer HD video streams, almost nobody seemed to bother with admittedly niche foreign films and none included the latest cinema releases (Rights Holders still won’t allow that). Suffice to say that the legal movie streaming<\/strong> industry is very much in its infancy but can only get better.<\/p>\n

Another thing we discovered was that a lot of rental services appear to charge far too much for older content<\/strong>. For example, the movie ‘300’ has been out for years and can be picked up for about \u00a33.50 new on Amazon<\/a> (DVD) or less than \u00a32 pre-owned (includes delivery). As a result it’s hard to justify paying \u00a32.49 just to rent an online video stream for 48 hours, especially when it might add a similar amount to the cost of using some broadband packages with smaller data allowances.<\/p>\n

The new generation of “unlimited<\/em>” style services are also beginning make the rental\/PPV model look both dated and overpriced. Admittedly you can’t usually get the latest releases without PPV but we can see that gap closing in the future.<\/p>\n

At the end of the day, if you really have to pick one of these, then LOVEFiLM<\/em> is the service that gets our vote<\/strong><\/span>. We loved the website, it’s got a good catalogue, they’re well supported, affordable and also offer physical media rental for both movies and games.<\/p>\n

UPDATE 4th September 2012<\/strong><\/p>\n

Since this article was first written a number of new services have either launched or are about to launch. Sadly most of them are just online rental services but they’re still worth checking out before you make a final decision.<\/p>\n

Acetrax Movies<\/strong>
\nhttp:\/\/www.acetrax.com<\/a><\/p>\n

PictureBox<\/strong>
\nhttps:\/\/www.picturebox.tv<\/a><\/p>\n

Google Play Movies<\/strong>
\nhttps:\/\/play.google.com\/store\/movies?hl=en<\/a><\/p>\n

FiLM4oD<\/strong>
\nhttp:\/\/film4od.film4.com\/<\/a><\/p>\n

Sainsburys Entertainment<\/strong> (Movie service not yet launched)
\nhttp:\/\/www.sainsburysentertainment.co.uk<\/a><\/p>\n

NOW TV<\/a><\/strong> (Sky)
\nhttp:\/\/www.nowtv.com\/<\/a><\/p>\n

The NOW TV<\/a><\/strong> service is probably the most interesting, provided you’re not already a Sky TV customer, as it appears to be attempting to bring much of Sky’s TV channel and movie content to the online world for a fixed price with “unlimited access<\/em>” (not unlike Netflix and LOVEFiLM).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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