Who Needs to Go Out to the Movies?

If you like to download your movies, you will be happy to know that there are several new big players joining in the HD movie download industry. Of course, this means you might have an even more difficult time deciding just which one you want to go with, but it is always nice to have several options to choose from.

Back in September, VUDU hit the market with a library full of HD 1080p content. VUDU made quite a splash at its unveiling, but you might be excited to know that the company has over 70 different titles by the end of January.

If VUDU doesn’t get you excited, you might want to check out XstreamHD, which is a newcomer to the downloadable HD movies industry. Starting this October, XstreamHD plans to offer full HD movies that will be available at rates of up to 100Mbit/s. These movies will be able to handle 7.1 DTS HD Master Audio as well.

Even more recently, Apple has announced that it has already signed deals with all of the major studios so it can also jump in the downloadable HD movie foray. With Apple, you will have the ability to buy or rent movies through iTunes as well as through the Apple TV. Apple hasn’t decided, however, if these will be available in 720p or in 1080i.

LG is also getting involved in the movie biz, but in a different way. The company recently announced that it has made a deal with Netflix and will be creating a box that can interface with the streaming movie service currently offered by Netflix. The box is set to be shipped out sometime in June or July, but I haven’t heard anything on the price of the new device.

In addition to the partnership with LG, Netflix is also stepping up the ante a little bit. The company recently announced that all of its customers, except for those that are on the lowest rental plan, will soon be able to watch movies through the “Watch Instantly” service.