Online fun in Windows Media Center—Movies
Watch blockbusters and classics on demand
By Michael Stroh
I get the urge to watch movies at inconvenient moments—in airports, for example, or late at night after the kids have gone to bed. The mood, in other words, strikes when I don't have a DVD handy or can't easily run out and get one.
Or it used to, at least.
Recently I discovered that Windows Media Center, which comes only with the Home Premium and Ultimate editions of Windows Vista, has two digital video stores built right into it: Vongo and Movielink. These services offer thousands of titles around the clock, from recent blockbusters to Hollywood classics. Some for as little as $1.
After spending the past few weeks trying them out, I've decided they're compelling alternatives to both video stores and DVD-by-mail services. Now it doesn't matter where I am or what time it is. If I have Media Center and a high-speed Internet connection, I have a movie theater.
Best of all? There's nothing to return and no late fees.
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| Vongo is one of two great movie download services in Windows Media Center |
Media Center and its online services
What is Windows Media Center? As its name suggests, Media Center is a digital entertainment hub—a place to watch and record TV, manage your music and video collections, and create photo albums and slide shows. (For a complete overview, see Getting started with Windows Media Center.)
But even some devotees don’t realize that Media Center also offers online entertainment services for music lovers, TV fanatics, sports junkies and, of course, movie buffs.
To explore these for yourself, open Media Center, and select Online Media from the main menu. Then select explore.
You'll see a bunch of familiar TV logos. Scroll through the list until you spot the digital billboard for Vongo or Movielink. When you select either one for the first time, you'll be prompted to download a small software program. Don't be surprised. You'll need it to start watching.
Your next task: discovering the service that suits you best.
Vongo: All you can watch for $10 a month
Vongo is a subscription service owned by Starz Entertainment. For $10 a month, you get unlimited downloads from its rotating library of more than 2500 titles. Browsing through it in September 2007, I found an eclectic mix of old and new films, including popular recent releases such as “Invincible,” “The Da Vinci Code,” and “Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby.”
Vongo also offers 400 titles as pay-per-view films. These range in price from $1 to $4 and expire 24 hours after you first click play. (You can, however, watch them as many times as you want during that time.)
I enjoyed the slick Vongo interface, which made it easy to browse, watch previews, and manage my growing library of downloads. As a parent, I also liked the option to block films rated PG-13 or R. (Sure my kid is only 3. What can I say? I'm a protective parent.)
Taking advantage of the service's 14-day free trial, I watched the 2006 Mark Wahlberg movie, "Invincible," one recent night. It took 45 minutes to download the 105 minute film. Fortunately, I didn't actually have to wait that long to dim the lights. You can typically start watching your move a few minutes after a download starts. If even that taxes your patience, Vongo subscribers get free streaming access to the Starz cable channel. A nice bonus.
Movielink: Rent or buy for keeps
If you're an occasional movie viewer, or prefer to hold onto a film forever, Movielink might be more your speed.
This popular service sells and rents its films. Most cost $20 or less to buy and between $1 and $5 to borrow. Rental terms are similar to Vongo's pay-per-view titles. Once you select play, you have 24 hours to watch your movie (although you can watch it as many times as you like until your time’s up).
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| You can either buy or rent films on Movielink |
Movielink also has a broad selection of films from most of the major studios: Fox, MGM, Sony, Universal and more. Scrolling through its catalog, I saw everything from D.W. Griffith’s silent 1920 classic “Way Down East” to the 2006 James Bond flick “Casino Royale.” Cool.
Another nice thing about the service, now owned by Blockbuster, is that once you buy a movie, it’s yours forever. (Vongo movies expire after several weeks or months after you download them to make way for more titles.)
Bottom line: you really can't go wrong with either Movielink or Vongo.
PC or TV: You choose
But what if you don't feel like watching a movie on your PC? No problem.
Both services also allow you to watch films on a TV. Of course, it does take a little bit of extra doing. One option is to lug your computer—ideally a laptop—into the living room and connect it to your TV with either an S-video or DVI plug. For more details, see Connect your computer to a TV.
If you have an Xbox 360 set up as a Media Center Extender, you can beam your Vongo or Movielink film wirelessly from your PC to your TV. To learn more, check out my column on Media Center Extenders, From PC to TV, Part 1.
And that’s exactly what my family and I did one recent night: We sat in our living room and watched the Will Ferrell flick, “Talladega Nights,” on our 42-inch plasma TV.
Because both Vongo and Movielink compress the films they offer, it wasn’t quite as crisp as a DVD. But it was pretty darn close. And on a night when we all had the urge to laugh—and couldn’t get to the video store—it looked just fine to me.
About the author
Michael Stroh is a writer on the Windows team at Microsoft. Before joining the company in 2007, he spent more than a decade writing about science, technology, and medicine for publications that include Popular Science, The Baltimore Sun, ESPN The Magazine, and The Los Angeles Times. His work has been cited in The Best American Science and Nature Writing.
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