Playing Movies

Just as you did while playing music, there is a simple and straightforward way of watching movies – just play the DVD containing the movie. The media player installed in the PC will automatically recognize the movie and start playing it – you can use the controls of the player to control the movie.

But what if you wanted to watch some of the latest releases and have not had time to purchase the DVD yet. Better still, what if you are in the mood for a golden oldie but do not feel like stepping out to rent a movie. Ordinarily you would have waited for another day to purchase the DVD of the new movie or to rent the old movie and only then seen the movie. But with your new powerful PC, you do not have to wait anymore.

You can find many movie rental services online that will allow you to search for movies through their online store, select a movie, pay for it and download it for immediate viewing pleasure! Here is the way most of these online rental movie stores operate.

• You have to first subscribe with the online store after which you are allowed to browse through all the movies that they have made available for downloading purposes. These will range from classic to futuristic, comedy to war movies.

• You can now make a selection of the movie that you would like to rent by downloading. You can even rent multiple movies in one go.

• Once the selections are made, you can pay for the movies you have rented and proceed to download them.

• A broadband connection will help you download these movies fairly quickly. Within minutes of wanting to watch a movie, you will be able to go online, pick the movie of your choice, download it and watch it on your PC!

• Most of these downloaded movies can only be stored for about 30 days – you thus do not have to worry about returning the movie in time or worry about late fees. Best of all you do not have to return disappointed because someone else has borrowed the movie that you wanted to pick up – with downloadable files, there is no limit on the number of people who can download and watch the same movie.

The power of the PC is not merely limited to watching movies or downloading movies. It can combine TV with satellite Internet to provide you with easy and instant access to all your favorite shows. There are again many sites that will help you search and discover new TV shows or old ones that you do not mind watching again. You can opt for program on demand and choose from a great variety of TV shows ranging from popular culture to digital documentaries.

Other than the facility to view movies or TV shows, the combination of modern PCs and the Internet technology have made it possible for anyone with a digital camera or even simple cell phone to create and share videos. In fact the viewership of such videos has reached an all time high of a billion people in recent times.

YouTube is one such site that revolutionized the Internet by allowing all its members to upload and share video clips with the rest of the world. This has of course led to various attempts at personal expression but has also led to a new brand of citizen journalism wherein many take unedited and unvarnished pictures of events like war or terror strikes to reveal the story as it is.

Most of these sites have over a million hours of such video clips but perhaps that is what their members like the best - searching and finding clips with great humor, some touching scenes and some alternative views of the world.