Online Movie Services Let Customers Make DVDs

If you're still unconvinced that purchasing digital movies via online music services is a good idea, CinemaNow and MovieLink are unveiling a new feature that might change some minds. CinemaNow customers can now burn certain purchased movies to DVD, while MovieLink hopes to add a similar feature in 2007. The DVDs created from these movies are standard movie DVDs that can play in any DVD player, the companies say.

For now, CinemaNow's first steps into downloadable DVD movies are a bit tentative: The company is offering only 100 movies that can be burned to DVD, and most of those are older films like "Scent of a Woman," "Bird on a Wire," and "Backdraft." But the service will grow over time, and since the burnable movies don't cost more than other downloadable movies at the service, the hope is that this additional feature converts a few customers.

Prices for these downloadable and burnable movies start at $8.99 and will, for the first time, offer DVD-like extras, such as director commentaries and so on. Technically, the disadvantages are few. First, the burned DVD movies are of as high quality as true DVD movies, because the downloaded movies are compressed to speed download time. That said, the size of these downloads will require broadband connections. But even then, customers can expect to use up a couple of hours downloading and then burning movies to DVD.