Download To Own
Encyclopedia
Download To Own is a concept of legally downloading movies to your computer
via a network
such as the internet
. Generally to obtain movies this way a user must have a broadband connection and an account from an internet distribution company.
Download to Own movies are more convenient to watch, as opposed to having to find and insert a DVD into your computer because once it is saved on the hard drive it can be viewed instantly. Movies are saved on the hard drive, typically in AVI
format, and are compressed using MPEG-4
or DivX
compression formats.
Disadvantages to "Download to Own" movies are that they have generally large file sizes, usually from 600MB to over 1GB. They may take a long time to download, and will fill up a hard drive quickly. The movie may be accidentally deleted or lost through a hard drive crash, but with proper back up procedures, and the continuing drop in prices for larger hard drives becoming commonplace, these problems can be minimized.
Another disadvantage is that due to compression and other factors they rarely have the same image-quality as a regular DVD, much less than that of a high-definition format, and also often lack multi-channel audio. They may also be distributed in a DRM-protected format (such as through iTunes
), which makes it difficult to play them on other portable devices, or to burn to a DVD to play on a television.
Computer
A computer is a programmable machine designed to sequentially and automatically carry out a sequence of arithmetic or logical operations. The particular sequence of operations can be changed readily, allowing the computer to solve more than one kind of problem...
via a network
Computer network
A computer network, often simply referred to as a network, is a collection of hardware components and computers interconnected by communication channels that allow sharing of resources and information....
such as the internet
Internet
The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide...
. Generally to obtain movies this way a user must have a broadband connection and an account from an internet distribution company.
Download to Own movies are more convenient to watch, as opposed to having to find and insert a DVD into your computer because once it is saved on the hard drive it can be viewed instantly. Movies are saved on the hard drive, typically in AVI
Audio Video Interleave
Audio Video Interleave , known by its acronym AVI, is a multimedia container format introduced by Microsoft in November 1992 as part of its Video for Windows technology. AVI files can contain both audio and video data in a file container that allows synchronous audio-with-video playback...
format, and are compressed using MPEG-4
MPEG-4
MPEG-4 is a method of defining compression of audio and visual digital data. It was introduced in late 1998 and designated a standard for a group of audio and video coding formats and related technology agreed upon by the ISO/IEC Moving Picture Experts Group under the formal standard ISO/IEC...
or DivX
DivX
DivX is a brand name of products created by DivX, Inc. , including the DivX Codec which has become popular due to its ability to compress lengthy video segments into small sizes while maintaining relatively high visual quality.There are two DivX codecs; the regular MPEG-4 Part 2 DivX codec and the...
compression formats.
Disadvantages to "Download to Own" movies are that they have generally large file sizes, usually from 600MB to over 1GB. They may take a long time to download, and will fill up a hard drive quickly. The movie may be accidentally deleted or lost through a hard drive crash, but with proper back up procedures, and the continuing drop in prices for larger hard drives becoming commonplace, these problems can be minimized.
Another disadvantage is that due to compression and other factors they rarely have the same image-quality as a regular DVD, much less than that of a high-definition format, and also often lack multi-channel audio. They may also be distributed in a DRM-protected format (such as through iTunes
ITunes
iTunes is a media player computer program, used for playing, downloading, and organizing digital music and video files on desktop computers. It can also manage contents on iPod, iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad....
), which makes it difficult to play them on other portable devices, or to burn to a DVD to play on a television.