OTHER TECH

I copied Firewall onto a DVD as a WMV file, but it wouldn't work on the Windows Media Player in another PC. Guba explained later that purchases can be played on only one PC, and the WMV DVD copy I'd made was for backup just on that computer. If you want to transfer the movie to a portable, Guba claims it will play on an Archos AV 700. Guba.com

EPILOGUE

So, are downloads a wise choice considering that there's a far greater variety of new and older movies available on DVD? For one-time viewing, cable video-on-demand and satellite pay-per-view offer similar selections of new releases on about the same date and typically at higher quality. Although broadband speed has increased to where you can begin watching a movie within minutes of starting a download (my Harry Potter experience was an anomaly), it hasn't increased enough to even approach HDTV quality. In fact, nothing I saw came close to maching a good DVD. And only the titles in CinemaNow's new "Burn to DVD" service offer the features - such as chapters, subtitles, and extras - we've come to expect from DVD. With the picture quality of downloads not much better than VHS and with stereo-only sound, my "home theater" experience fell well short of today's standards.

That's not to say that downloadable movies don't have a place. Once the rights-management stuff gets ironed out and there's more cooperation between the studios and the hardware makers, they could be a nice fit for the midget-screen-and-earbuds crowd, whether we're talking a cellphone, handheld games player, Portable Media Center, video iPod, or notebook computer. But it might be a while before the Web can compete with discs, on-demand, and pay-per-view in offering a high-quality movie-watching experience.

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