What You Need To Know
Netflix offers 20,000 titles to choose from -- a big part of its bargaining chip.
It's easy to find good deals on paid content through Amazon.com.
iTunes charges 99 cents to rent a TV episode -- the same price Amazon charges to own it.
"The streaming wars are as hot as ever, as the marketplace is getting larger and larger. So we have to ask the question: Is Netflix still the champ? "
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If This Is The Future, It Looks Awesome Amazon.com became the first major competitor to Netflix's dominance in unlimited streaming content, by adding unlimited video streaming to its Amazon Prime memberships. Services like Vudu and AppleTV offer pay-as-you-go rentals. The streaming wars are as hot as ever, as the marketplace is getting larger and larger. So we have to ask the question: Is Netflix still the champ? HowToDoEverything1 tells you how the newer options available compare to the reigning champ, and how each company’s offerings stack up. Remember, these services are extremely new, so this information is changing rapidly, but was correct as of this writing. 1- Netflix: The Reigning Monarch . As the dominant player in the streaming market, it's Netflix's game to lose, and it's doing all it can to hold on to market share.
Cost: $7.99 a month for unlimited streaming, $9.99 and up for plans that include disc by mail. Content: Netflix boasts 20,000 titles and has deals with major content partners that ensure a supply of new and old titles are constantly being added to the service. Of the five titles featured on Netflix's splash page when we visited, four were from the past year. Quality: Good to great. Netflix has begun offering streaming HD on some titles, and while it's not available for everything, the normal quality is acceptable. Netflix is also bringing 5.1 surround sound streaming to the market. It's already available on the PS3, with more devices to come. Device support: Netflix is everywhere. All three major gaming consoles support Netflix streaming; dedicated streaming boxes like the Roku are well under $100; and there are set-top boxes, DVRs, Blu-ray players, and even “Smart” TVs that all have built-in Netflix support. There are dozens of ways to get the content to your home TV, and Netflix has also gone mobile. The streaming app for iDevices is already released, and a leaked (nonworking) copy of the Android version has already hit the web. The trick up its sleeve: DVD rentals. Netflix already offers the widest selection of movies to watch instantly, but if your taste is eclectic, you can add DVDs by mail for as little as $2 per month and get access to its whole library of rentals. 2- Amazon.com: The Challenger
Offering the only other unlimited plan currently on the market, Amazon is the first to directly challenge Netflix's model. Cost: Amazon's big gamble is pricing. At $79 for the year, Amazon's pricing model is $6.58 per month. Netflix's cheapest plan of $7.99 comes out to $95.88 per year, and while that's hardly expensive, there's no denying Amazon's price advantage. Content: Amazon's biggest stumbling block at the moment is content. It offers 5,000 titles versus Netflix’s 20,000. This wouldn't be a huge issue if the 5,000 were good (let's face it, Netflix’s 20,000-title lineup has some real filler alongside its hits), but a lot of it isn't. We browsed over to Amazon's Prime streaming portal, and the five featured films at the top were Exit Through the Gift Shop (2010), Miss Congeniality (2000), Syriana (2005), Food, Inc. (2008), and Charlie's Angels (2000). Setting aside whether the movies are good, you compare release dates with the five features on Netflix's site, of which four out of five were released in the past year, and it's clear that Amazon needs to shore up more content to compete. To be fair, Amazon is doing that, and given its good relationship with the studios as far as paid streams and downloads, we're sure the company will get it worked out. But until it figures out how to go from paid streams to unlimited, the content available will be a bit lackluster. Quality: Not much is offered in HD (300 at this writing), and most is in 480p. That'll look fine on your computer or a tablet, but in the living room? Not so much. Amazon's paid rentals are offered in HD, so this may change soon. Device support: Getting better. It's possible to hook up an older device to your computer using your computer's media ports, but the new generation of internet-ready TVs and set-top boxes makes it dead simple. If your TV is older and doesn't have a web connection, we'd recommend picking up a Roku box if you're committed to Amazon's service. Cheap, highly regarded and the easiest way to sling Amazon content to your TV. The trick(s) up its sleeve: First, while Prime streaming includes only 5,000 titles, Amazon's pay-per-rental streaming library has over 75,000 titles. With new releases hovering around $3.99 and older content even cheaper, it's a good option if you can't find something free. Amazon is also forever running sales and offers on this paid content, so good deals are easy to get. Amazon's second value-add is the Prime service itself. In addition to unlimited streaming, Prime also gives customers free two-day shipping and dirt-cheap one-day shipping on everything Amazon sells or fulfills (note: third party sales through Amazon's site don't qualify). While bundling free, fast shipping with video streaming is an odd pairing, there's no denying that both for $6.58 a month is a great deal. Maybe Amazon hopes to lure more subscribers, or maybe it hopes Prime subscribers will buy more things through Amazon. Either way, its prices are lower than Netflix's, and the provider throws in fast, free shipping all over the site, to boot.
3- iTunes: Have You Heard Of It?
Apple is trying to do for movies and TV what it did for music: fast, one-click shopping in a huge marketplace that's available from any computer and most of Apple's other devices. Cost: $3.99 for new release rentals (The Fighter), and $4.99 for an HD copy. You can also purchase movies outright, but at $19.99 for a digital copy, it's no cheaper than a physical copy. TV shows are 99 cents an episode to rent, the same price Amazon charges to own. Content: Good. Apple figured out how to play nice with the studios, and except for a short phase where NBC pulled out of the iTunes marketplace, it has loads of current TV shows and movies. There's still a lot of content missing when compared with Amazon's paid rentals. Movie selection is good, and because of Apple's relationship with Disney, Disney content appears on the iTunes store before anywhere else. Quality: SD or HD depending on what you pay, but the HD is only 720p. So you can't get full 1080p, though it's not as big a deal as you'd think. Bit rate is more important than resolution when it comes to streaming (ever hit the HD button on a YouTube video and still had it look like garbage?) Apple's slinging a high bit rate to the device, and the average viewer is going to be duly impressed with the picture quality. Device support: Besides allowing you to watch on your computer, an Apple TV device will sling it to your TV. You can also watch from your iDevice, and Apple's smart system means your rental time won't start till you start watching. True downloads instead of streaming also means you can watch on an airplane or anywhere else where streaming isn’t possible. The trick up its sleeve: It's Apple. Besides the built-in audience of the iTunes store, there's the massive amount of iDevices in consumers' hands. Apple is also aggressively building its AirPlay framework, which will let you sling media from one compatible device to another. Go from watching your movie on your iPad to your big screen, quickly and seamlessly. Apple's secret sauce has always been making tech easy, and that's going to appeal to a lot of people who are intimidated by streaming.
4- Vudu: Walmart Gets In On The Fun.After being acquired by Walmart in 2010 for a reported $100 million, Vudu has a powerful backer in its corner. Its pricing and partners are positioned to go toe-to-toe with Apple's rentals.
Cost: $3.99 for new releases (The Fighter), $4.99 for HD and $5.99 for something called HDX, which serves up 1080p at 24 FPS (Blu-ray quality) with 5.1 surround sound. Vudu also has a $2-for-two-nights price that offers up lots of older titles at a bargain price. Content: Over 15,000 titles, so in the same ballpark as Netflix's streaming service. However, Vudu has new releases, and it’s a pay-as-you-go service, so the content is much more current. Many titles are released to Vudu the same day as they are to DVD. Quality: Ranging from 480p to 1080p, but you pay more for higher def. Vudu currently has the largest library of HD titles. Device support: PC, Mac, and to your TV via web-ready TVs, set-top boxes and the PS3. The Vudu-branded set-top boxes are no longer being made, but if you can get Netflix to your TV, you can probably get Vudu. The trick up its sleeve: New releases. Lots of movies are available on Vudu the day they release to DVD. That's 28 days before Netflix offers the DVD for rent, and who knows how much longer till it hits Netflix's streams.
It's A Great Time To Love Movies
The streaming wars are underway, and the winner is the consumer. Netflix continues to secure new content to keep customers, and the other services offer cheap prices to entice consumers to switch. Each service will appeal to a certain group of consumers: Netflix has the library for those who match streaming with DVDs. Amazon's low prices and bundled shipping make it a contender, and if it gets more of its massive library licensed for streaming, it will be tough to beat. And if you prefer to pay for content as you go, the Apple TV can get content to your TV or Vudu if your TV is web-ready on its own. Whichever you choose, get ready to enjoy the next few years. Because the way we enjoy content is changing, and it has never been easier to be a part of it
Apple is trying to do for movies and TV what it did for music: fast, one-click shopping in a huge marketplace that's available from any computer and most of Apple's other devices. 
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