CinemaNow comes to Windows Media Center

by Brad Linder May 22nd 2008

Once upon a time if you wanted to (legally) download Hollywood movies or TV shows, you turned to sites like MovieLink and CinemaNow. With all the attention focused on Apple, Amazon, Joost, and Netflix these days, we kind of forgot that these companies still existed. And then we got a friendly email from CinemaNow letting us know that starting today you could access the service through Windows Media Center, which is actually kind of awesome.

You'll need to register for a CinemaNow account to use the service. And of course, you'll need Windows Media Center, which is built into Windows Vista Home Premium and Windows Vista Ultimate. You should be able to find the CinemaNow icon in the More TV section. If you don't see it, go into your Media Center settings and force your computer to download updates.

CinemaNow is actually kind of late to the game here. MovieLink and Vongo have had Windows MCE applications for ages. But with CinemaNow making its 3400 feature length films, 3000 TV episodes, and 2900 music videos available, we're going to say better late than never. Now if only Amazon, Apple, and Netflix would release Widnows MCE applications.

Update: As we've been reminded, this is not the first time you've been able to access CinemaNow from Windows Media Center. The company released a plugin for earlier versions of MCE which you could download and install in order to watch movies using the media center "10 foot interface." To our knowledge, this is the first time CinemaNow has been available to all Windows Vista MCE users without a separate download though.

Tags: cinemanow, mce, movielink, movies, tv-shows, tweet-this, video, windows-media-center

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Quikboy said 6:10AM on 5-23-2008

Interesting. I'm guessing the reason MovieLink, Vongo, and even CinemaNow aren't as popular anymore is because they only just sell movies. People are more interested in providers that can offer a wide variety of content. That way they have little to worry about things being seamless, or at least easier to control than depending on different companies for different services.

I just took a look at CinemaNow (turns out it also works on XP SP2 Media Center), and it's not too bad. Better in content than MovieLink for sure (who only sells movies, duh), but like other most services on Media Center (XP), it's kinda slow to load, the trailers didn't show HD (though there's Cinema HD somewhere), and the whole interface is kinda boring.

I'm hoping Microsoft could release an official online media store for WMC, one with a lot more content, better (and snappier) UI, and extra features. Xbox Live & Zune Marketplace come close, but their separated with different items, and different ways to get them. Sigh.

Oh, and I doubt Apple will ever release a Media Center app. There's a far bigger chance MS would try to put something of there's on AppleTV, than for Apple to willingly try to put a "nice" experience on MS's side.

sean said 6:13AM on 5-23-2008

cinemanow has had an application at least since MCE 2005. It's nothing new, except maybe an interface update and a few added features.. don't treat this like they are "late in the game" the've been there way longer than appletv and amazon.

Brad Linder said 6:14AM on 5-23-2008

MovieLink and Vongo have had MCE apps, but CinemaNow just launched theirs yesterday. I received a nice little email from someone on the CinemaNow team alerting me to the fact, and when I went to check Vista MCE, there was no CinemaNow icon. When I forced MCE to download updates, it appeared.

sean said 6:22AM on 5-23-2008

This is what the old interface used to look like:

http://www.winsupersite.com/images/reviews/mce2004_11.jpg

Maybe it's new to Vista Media Center- as i believe Cinemanow disappeared from Online Spotlight after the MCE 2005 to Vista upgrade, but for them to say that it's an entirely new app, and not an update is inaccurate.

sean said 6:19AM on 5-23-2008

That may be so for Vista, but there has been a cinemanow mce app since mce 2005 or before.

http://www.download.com/CinemaNow-for-Media-Center/3000-11444_4-10445793.html?cdlPid=10445792
October 2005 is noted.

http://www.allbusiness.com/technology/software-services-applications-internet-social/5762609-1.html
September 2003 is noted..

Just saying..

Brad Linder said 6:20AM on 5-23-2008

The difference is that you don't need to download and install anything now. It will just show up, which should expose more people to the service. I guess it all depends on how you look at it.

sean said 6:29AM on 5-23-2008

eh, for me- an app is an app. cinemanow and movielink were on the online spotlight for mce around the start of media center, regardless if something seperate had to be installed. they both showed up in online spotlight, then directed you to a link to install the software to access their site.. i believe vongo started when vista media center was released.

i consider myself to be somewhat a media center afficianado. i bought the first hp media center when it was first released and have kept up with most of the new technologies since. not trying to be mr know it all or anything- but i believe cinemanow should have said it was an update rather than insinuating that no app was ever released- or maybe they did so, because people weren't using it much. ;)

also- movielink and vongo need to have additional software installed as well.

sean said 6:33AM on 5-23-2008

here's another example from microsoft-

click showcase or tv and movies and click cinemanow

works just the same as movielink has then and now, and vongo since vista.. click the link, install additional software (for drm most likely) and play the movie.

Jhongerkong said 8:23PM on 5-23-2008

"10 foot interface."

So we're gonna see videos of Max 300?

Andrea said 11:16AM on 5-25-2008

Where is the download?

manuel said 8:09AM on 7-03-2008

quero instalar o wimdows media center.como fazelo.

Featured Time Waster

Civiballs is a beautiful, soothing physics puzzle Time Waster

I have an absolute weakness for physics games, and while Civiballs isn't the strongest physics-based game, what it lacks in the physics department it makes up for a few times over in style and fun.

In Civiballs, you are presented with a few colored balls, and your goal is to get those balls into the same-colored urn on the level. The "civi" part of Civiballs is that there are 3 sets of levels to play, each representing a different civilization. While the civilization doesn't affect gameplay, the artwork for each level is beautifully themed to it's appropriate era.

To play the game, you are given only one tool - a sword with which to cut the chains that are holding the balls. The puzzle part of the game is in figuring out what order, and with what timing to cut each chain. Do it right, and all the right balls end up in the right urns, with no stray balls entering an urn (a no-no). Do it wrong, and you get to start over again.

Civiballs is not terribly deep on gameplay; the entire game can be completed in about 15 minutes. But if you enjoy this type of game, it will be a very enjoyable 15 minutes.

View more Time Wasters