In our increasingly wired world, it seems somewhat "old school" that movie fans must still drive to a video store to rent a flick burned on a piece of plastic, then drive back to return it in time to avoid an overdue fine. Sure, there's pay-per-view on television, but that means waiting for the movie to start, and if you read last week's column, TV-based video on demand is still lacking in selection (especially for anglophones in Quebec). Services such as Zip.ca are handy because they use mail delivery to send DVDs to your door, but you still need to wait for those DVDs to arrive - if what you want is available - and then mail them back again. Sigh. This is why video-on-demand (VOD) services over the web are so appealing - using the Internet as a quick and convenient distribution medium for downloading a DVD or HD-quality movie onto a hard drive or streaming it to a PC so the movie begins within seconds of clicking on it. Similar to VOD services on television, VOD movies can also be paused, rewound or fast-forwarded.
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