Back in the 1980s I used to think it would be great if you didn't have to go to the video store to get a video tape that then jammed or didn't play back properly. I thought that the video tape problem was solved with the arrival of DVDs! Surely the digital movie revolution had arrived? Then I thought wouldn't it be great if you didn't have to go to the DVD rental store in the rain to get the DVD? Perhaps video to DVD was just an evolution and not a revolution? Wouldn't it be great if I could save myself the trip to the store both there and back? I would save hassle and cost! I thought this was answered with the arrival of cable and satellite pay-per-view! After a short time I realised that the choice was quite limited - but there were plenty of movies at the DVD video store! Then I thought that the revolution must have happened when you could rent DVDs via the mail - fantastic - no more going to the store in the rain to find that they didn't have what you wanted! So I started getting DVDs sent to me and that worked pretty well. I could choose from a huge selection on the web and put them in order of priority. So now I had the choice, the convenience and the digital playback! There are now a huge range of companies offering this service. Companies such as Netflix, Amazon and Blockbuster, not to mention a whole range of other ones springing up such as Lovefilm in the UK.

Even better if you play your cards right you can get free trials at them all and not pay for DVD rentals for months! But with DVD rentals via the mail I never knew exactly what I was getting next (it depends what they have in stock at the time), there was always a few days delay (but I'm in the mood to watch it NOW!) and quite often the DVD was scratched so that the film jumped - really annoying! So much for digital technology giving you perfect playback quality! Wouldn't it be great if I could have movies WHEN I wanted them, from a huge CHOICE, without leaving HOME and get PERFECT PLAYBACK every time? I think the digital entertainment revolution has finally arrived as now you can do all these things, by downloading movies from the internet - particularly now that there is cheaper broadband internet access available. There are several options for movie downloads, some legal and some not, whilst some are free and some are pay-per-view or even pay-per-minute for more 'mature' content. Whichever option you look at one thing is for certain, you no longer need to go to the store in the rain, rent a movie that you didn't really want to see and then get frustrated with the quality of the playback. Instead you can sit at home, download the movie you want, when you want, watch it on your tv, desktop, laptop, iPod or PSP and delete it when you're done. Surely the digital entertainment revolution has finally arrived! Copyright 2006 WhatMovieDownload.com.

Andrew Castlewood is content editor at WhatMovieDownload.com and an impatient movie viewer! He monitors technology to make movie-viewing as fun as it should be! Andrew can provide you with more information about movie downloads at What Movie Download