OTHER TECH

Starz Vongo movie download service $9.99 a month vongo.com With broadband now more common at home than dial-up, the time seems right to use the Web to stream a premium movie channel directly to subscribers' computers. Include the ability to choose from among 1,600 titles for download and playback on up to three computers or handheld devices, and Vongo ("Video ON the GO") from Starz Entertainment Group is a compelling service for tech-savvy movie fans.

Subscribers get 24-hour access to the main Starz East Coast feed. (A cable or satellite subscription to Starz won't give you access to the Internet feed.)

Before downloading a movie, you indicate whether you want the standard or widescreen version and whether you'll be watching on a PC or portable. The widescreen PC version of Bride & Prejudice took 25 minutes to download, but I could start watching it after only about 5% of the 1-GB file had downloaded. The portable version took 15 minutes to download and another 9 minutes to transfer into a Toshiba Gigabeat video player (shown at left) using the Windows Media Player sync function.

Vongo deletes a movie when it stops being broadcast on Starz's window, but movies are usually available for 9 to 18 months.

You won't want to watch the downloads on a bigscreen TV, but the picture looked crisp on the Gigabeat's 2.5-inch screen.

If you don't want a subscription, a pay-per-view fee of $3.99 a film gives you a 24-hour viewing window once you start watching the movie. - Michael Antonoff

GiftFlix mini-DVD gift card $35 giftflix.com Admit it: Giving gift cards is lazy. But what if you could slip your favorite movie fan a card that's an experience in itself? That's the premise behind GiftFlix, which is really a mini DVD that helps the recipient choose two DVDs from among the 50 available at 877-GIFTFLIX or guides him to the more than 1,000 titles available at the GiftFlix site.

Somebody is really on the ball here. Though some might quibble with the claim that the 50 movies featured on the DVD are among the best of all time (Bowfinger?!), there's a lot of cinematic wheat here and very little chaff. The featured genres - action/adventure, comedy, drama, kids & family, and thriller & horror - each include a "hidden gem": an older or more obscure film that's worth a look.

More evidence of intelligent life at GiftFlix: The Web site features foreign films and documentaries along with the five genres spotlighted on the DVD, and the selection is surprisingly broad. Another pleasant surprise: GiftFlix defaults to the widescreen edition of all its titles. (Most multidisc sets and special editions incur a charge of about $8, but they're definitely worth the few extra bucks.) - Michael Gaughn