Movie Rental Rant

Let me share a story that happened very recently. I stopped watching movies and tv series several months ago, because they seemed like a waste of time that could be better spent elsewhere. A few months ago, I got ill, and stayed in the living room for the whole day - what better reason would I need to watch movies?

I went to YouTube and noticed they now had a movie rental service (I just didn't know at the time). I watched 5 movies during that day. It did cost a lot - about the same price I would get if I got out of my apartment to the nearest video location center, and rented these new movies one-by-one (no economy of scale). They were all streaming, so I could watch them immediately.

YouTube (Google):

• Price: 5/10. The price was decent (4$, if I remember). Constant price;
• Experience: 8/10. Video quality was okay, and I could watch the movies straight away;
• Movies: 5/10. Video selection was mediocre - the new movies were not available.

Just a few weeks ago, I had a lot of emotions to eat. It was Saturday evening, I had work the next day, but I didn't care. I wanted to eat a lot while watching the last two Harry Potter movies, and I was prepared to go to the Videotron (video location) close to where I live.

YouTube didn't have anything - they didn't even have the 6th movie. I decided to check iTunes' selection before going out. To my surprise, they had everything, at 5$ per rent (which was also decent, though borderline expensive). I decide to rent the first half of HP7 - what? I can't? That's the only movie in the HP series that I can't rent. That's weird, but the price if I actually buy the movie is 10$, so I buy it instead. The download of 1.8GB begins. I wanted to watch the movie right now, but hey... I'll have the movie on my computer. I wait an hour, watch the movie, and rent the last movie (the only one I never saw).

The download begins again. You've got to be kidding me! I want to get a stream, not some...  gaah! Fine, I'll spend the next hour on reddit again. The download completes, I watch the movie, and go to bed.

iTunes (Apple):

• Price: 4/10. A bit pricier than I wanted to pay, but still decent. Constant price;
• Experience: 3/10. No streaming. I had to wait two hours for the downloads to complete.
• Movies: 9/10. Great movie selection.

My movie-rental experience was flawed whatever service I chose. Aside from price, what I want is the ability to either download or get a stream. Getting a download would be useful if I plan on watching a movie in a train. Getting a stream would be useful if I plan to watch the movie a second time at my sister's place, or if I want to watch the movie right away! This is especially disconcerting with Apple's renting process. Please don't bother me with such a huge download if I only want to watch the movie once...

This was only a tiny complaint about the renting process, but as I was writing the post, the scope became broader. A post will follow in the future where I will talk about my vision concerning these services, especially Google vs. Apple.