Starz/Real Media Movie Service

Rafat Ali broke this story about three weeks ago. Real Networks and Starz have teamed up to sell movies over the Internet.

I am headed to London for a two-day business trip tomorrow so I figured it would be a good time to try out this service. It's easy enough to download the new version of Real Player you need to use the service. You have to give them your credit card info even though the first two weeks are free. That should be enough time for me to figure out if I want to join the service.

I downloaded Eight Mile and Taxi Driver. It took me about an hour and a half each with 512kb DSL service.

I don't plan to watch them until I am on the airplane so you'll have to wait for a complete review, but so far, so good. This could have some strong appeal to the business traveler who has broadband access at his disposal.

I bet if they used Bit Torrent it would download a lot faster!

Comments

[jeremyx]

I have been using Movielink (www.moveilink.com) for a while now. The movies are close to DVD quailty and take about 20 mins total to download. I can usually start watching after just 2 mins though. You rent the movies for 24 hours, there is no monthly fee. I wonder why the Real/Starz service takes so long...?