Our choices over how we get our movies have increased tremendously with the expansion of services provided by the Internet. We can choose our favorite movie online and then have it delivered by mail. However, we can simply skip the mail delivery and watch the movie immediately online.

There are two ways to go about this. We can pay a fee and use a movie download site or get the movie without paying for it by whatever means. This article will compare offline video rental stores as well as the various ‘free’ online alternatives against the benefits of a movie download membership.

The enormous selection in movies that are available is one clear benefit of a movie download site. From these extensive movie archives, you can download as often and as much as you please. Because of a limited amount of physical space, no offline video store will ever be able to match this.

Because of this they have to go with only the popular movies. Online download memberships can accommodate a broader variety of movie genres because they don’t suffer from this type of restriction. You will get more satisfaction by going online if your tastes go beyond what is deemed popular by everyone else.

It is often an easier task to search online than browsing through endless shelves for a particular movie in a brick and mortar store. A search box that will search by director, title, actor, or any keyword will make your search for a movie online very easy. There are also lists that split movies into various genres and categories.

These lists also group movies by the latest additions, critic picks, popularity, and alphabetically. For some memberships, you can even write your own review and rate a movie. When it comes to judging the pure entertainment value of a movie, nothing beats a user’s review.

A large selection of movies in their archives is typical of online memberships. Any movies that are legal and free are almost always public domain which means that they are no longer copyrighted. These are the golden oldie film classics.

Recent episodes of popular TV series are available for viewing on the web sites of the major television networks. These will only be up for viewing for a brief time and will be limited to just a few series.

Movie download memberships are safe from worms, viruses, mal ware, and spy ware. By contrast, there is a real risk to the health of your PC when you get free movies from questionable sources. For instance, you will be sharing files with a multitude of strangers and will be trusting that none of them will infect your file with spy ware or viruses if you use peer to peer for your downloads.

In short, these are a few of the reasons why paid movie memberships are the best choice for getting your movie entertainment. The benefits of speed, economy, and convenience that the Internet provides over video rental stores are obvious. However, the potential risks that ‘free’ downloads pose to your computer greatly overshadow any of the inconveniences of the local video store.