Going to the video store to rent the latest movie was slowly being phased out once pay per view was brought into the home. Now, video store conglomerates are struggling to extend their product base against a rising technological tide of new entertainment media stores. The internet has made it so that you can buy any album, book, or movie when you want and how you want.

The leader in on demand movies is NetFlix which started as a subscription service that would send movies directly to your home. As time has gone on, they’ve recently expanded into instant movie streaming either through your computer, a playstation game system, and in the future will extend to the Wii. Entertainment is a menu and you can choose what you want to eat and where.

Video on demand (VOD) can come to you either from a live stream through your cable box, recorded onto your digital video recorder (DVR) for later viewing, or your computer. There is no difference between your DVD and VOD as the controls are the same in terms of skipping forward, backward, slow motion, pausing, etc.

This freedom with movie downloading has been around for quite some time, but it’s only been recently that the business has legitimized itself toward paying websites. There are a multitude of websites that can allow you to get movie downloads from peer to peer networks, exactly like the file sharing that has changed the music industry over the last decade. However, besides the quality of free downloaded movies being suspect, there is the increased chance of putting your computer at risk for malware. Adware or spyware can be downloaded along with the movie you choose and can slow down your computer as well as steal your personal information. Legitimate movie downloading sites offer you quality and protection.

Apple’s iTunes, Starz’s Vongo, Amazon’s Unbox, CinemaNow and MovieLink are five movie downloading sites that offer an alternative to the behemoth that is NetFlix. If you’re going to watch movies on your video iPod, there is only one choice and that is going through iTunes. The price per download is one of the more expensive services at 12.99 for the first week, 14.99 for new releases, and 9.99 for older titles.

Another downside to iTunes is that there are no free movie selections.

The Starz library of films is what powers it’s download service Vongo and, as such, it does not offer current movie titles. However, being a rent-only site makes it more palatable to watch whatever you want without having to commit to a high price. The current subscription price for Vongo is 9.95 a month.

Amazon, which has burst forward to corner the downloadable book market with the Kindle device, has made a leap into the movie download business with fair results. The movies you download can work across multiple platforms and devices, unlike the iTunes downloads and the image quality is one of the sharpest available. Rental prices include TV and movies ranging from 1.99 to 3.99 a download.

Most likely the best downloading site of the bunch is CinenaNow which has a total library under 4,500 movies and offers a variety of plans for the consumer including a subscription rate, one at time rentals, free movies and the power to burn what you’ve downloaded onto a blank DVD.

One of the cheapest and best used as a quick fix for boredom is MovieFlix which, for 7.99 a month gives you access to large database of movies excluding new releases. The image quality is better than free, but not as good as NetFlix, Amazon, or CinemaNow. Depending on your devices, your needs, and really you wants, there is a movie downloading site to quench your thirst for entertainment.

If you forget or are unable to take the movie back on time, you’ll be penalized. Download Free Divx Movies You might not ever realize the amount of harm you could be doing in downloading movies illegally. In many cases, you can go directly to the corporate site of the movie studio and download their films, in their entirety.