M
ovie-rental outfi t Blockbuster
Entertainment acquired movie-
download service Movielink in
August 2007, but the company seems to
have lost interest in its latest asset. When
we contacted Blockbuster’s corporate
communications department in preparation
for this story, they couldn’t be bothered to
provide us with Movielink’s phone number
(which wasn’t listed on either company’s
website). It’s easy to see why.
The fact that Movielink is integrated
into Windows Media Center gives it a leg
up over BitTorrent, but there’s nothing else
about the service to recommend it over
CinemaNow or any of the other services we
tested. And if you’re interested in watching
rented or purchased movies on a handheld
device, Movielink isn’t for you—it supports
only notebooks. Oh, and Movielink doesn’t
support Firefox either, unless you install the
Firefox add-on IE Tab. Now that’s just lazy.Movielink’s catalog
is comparable to that
of CinemaNow, Unbox,
and Vudu. Movie rent-
als and TV episode
prices are the same as
the competition’s ($
and $4, respectively),
but like the rest of the
fi eld, its movie purchase
prices were $5 higher
than Unbox across
the board. The search
engine in the Movielink Manager client
enables you to locate fi lms by category
(including Coming Soon, Last Chance,
and Award Winners, as well as by genre,
director, actor, or keyword). Searches
can be limited to rentals only, purchase
only, or both. Movielink does have a cult
cinema category, but Offi ce Space was
the only movie available from our list. Itdid have some other good catches, how-
ever, including Roger Corman’s Bucket of
Blood , David Cronenberg’s Videodrome ,
and the blaxploitation classic Foxy Brown.
You can play downloaded content on up
to three PCs, make backup copies on DVD
(in their original format, which won’t play on
a standard DVD player), and stream from a
PC to your TV using a Media Center Extender
(using either Vista or Windows XP). All of
Movielink’s videos are in WMV format and in
standard defi nition, so they suffer from many
of the same scaling problems as the rest of
the SD fi eld.30 MAMAMAXIMXIMXIMXIMUUUUMMPPPCC | MAYMAYMAY 08 08 | http://www.maximumpc.com
Movielink
The movie service that Blockbuster forgot
In 1998, Circuit City and the Hollywood law fi rm of Ziffren,
Brittenham, Branca and Fischer launched the Digital Video
Express (Divx) format, a direct competitor to DVD. The idea was
that you would rent movies on disposable discs that gave you 48
hours of viewing time once you started watching the movie (you
also had to buy a Divx player and plug it into a phone jack). If you
wanted to watch the movie beyond the 48 hours, you could extend
the viewing time for another rental fee or permanently unlock the
movie by buying it.
Divx ultimately failed due to consumer backlash:Environmentally conscious folks didn’t like the idea of disposable
DVDs clogging up landfi lls, and movie buffs didn’t like the fact that
Divx discs lacked the extra features—commentaries and “making
of” segments—that they’d come to enjoy on DVDs.
The people had spoken. By mid-1999, Divx backers cancelled
support for the format, destroyed all the unsold media, and pre-
pared plans to discontinue the service entirely. When you think
about it, the only difference between today’s downloadable movie
rentals and yesterday’s Divx is the disposable disc—and 24 extra
hours of viewing time.YESTERDAY’S REVOLUTION
Divx was supposed to change the movie rental scene—what happened?
The sparse user interface places most of its emphasis on
promoting new releases, but it’s easy to navigate with either
a remote or a mouse.The Movielink software client is integrated into both versions of Windows Media
Center, so you can easily watch your rentals from the comfort of your couch, using
an MCE-compatible remote.VERDICT5
Movie rentals: $3 to $
Movie purchases:
$8 to $
TV episodes: $
http://www.movielink.comDOWNLOAD
SERVICES
MOVIE GUIDE