3. ITunes

http://www.apple.com/itunes/store/movies.html

Selection: Approximately 350 titles for purchase

You need to download iTunes before you can even begin to browse movies. This irked me just a little because iTunes was happy to take over my file type associations for all the media on my PC without letting me know first. Grrr.

iTunes can be used to shop for and download any type of media including music, movies, TV shows and other videos. Since I personally don't use iTunes for music (or own an iPod for that matter), I was forced to sift through all the stuff on the front page just to get to the movies. iTunes is the only service I reviewed that is available to Mac users.

Media types and subcategories appear on the left, while nifty scrollable 3-D looking pictures take center stage, headlining popular and newly added content. Excellent movie descriptions and file details are presented when you click on a movie's icon. All this makes for an enjoyable and more efficient browsing experience. iTunes also provides movie trailers. They appear in the window that you are viewing and each is a few minutes long. This feature is extremely useful if you're searching for a new movie that you might not be familiar with.

iTunes provides an enjoyable and efficient browsing experience, but I wish they offered more of a selection. Click on the image for a larger version.

On the downside, there are no rental movies. As I noted earlier all iTunes movies are in the .M4V format and are only playable through the iTunes interface/program. Support is a bit quirky. Going through the Apple support pages can be a bit frustrating. There's a "support" button on the right-hand side of the iTunes page that I couldn't get to work no matter how many times I tried clicking it on my PC. I did manage to get it working on a Mac, though.

iTunes has an interesting assortment of TV shows for download as well, including many of the original Star Trek series. Yes, you heard me correctly, the original Star Trek, for a mere $2 an episode. Need I say more? The focus of iTunes' is more on appearance and a fresh look than anything else. Keeping a fresh look will certainly attract new customers to the program, but may leave others wanting more.