It seems like every day a new company is launching a new way to stream movies online or download them to your computer. Today, there's one less. Vongo, a service provided by Starz Entertainment, was one of the first major players in the online movie space. But it looks like Starz has decided to pull the plug on Vongo.

Starz will now focus on Starz Play, a service the company recently launched for Verizon. Starz Play looks and feels a lot like Vongo -- but it has Verizon branding all over it. Starz is pursuing similar partnerships with other companies.

Current Vongo customers can continue using the service through September 30th. There's some good news in the announcement. Vongo customers paid $9.99 a month for unlimited movie downloads. Starz Play charges just $5.99 for access to the same content library.

[via NewTeeVee]

Amazon is sending out a survey to a select group of folks asking what changes they'd like to see to Amazon Unbox, the company's digital video download service. At one point, the survey asks what participants think of several possible improvements to the service:

• Free video streaming with ads
• Paid video streaming without ads
• Burn downloaded movies to DVD for playback on a DVD player
• Ability to purchase a DVD from Amazon.com and watch a streaming copy of the same movie while you wait for the physical disc to arrive
• HD video downloads
• Ability to purchase a DVD and get a digital media copy for a small additional fee
• Subscription service that would allow you to watch a certain number of videos per month for a flat fee
• Subscription service allowing you to watch a certain number of independent films for a flat fee
• Ability to watch DVD extras when renting or purchasing a movie from Amazon Unbox
• Browse your Unbox library on your TiVo

Now, there's no guarantee that any of these "improvements" are actually on their way. But it's nice to see that Amazon's at least considering them, because we'd kind of like to see one of each.

Wal-Mart has closed down its video download store. We'll forgive you if your forgot that Wal-Mart was selling video downloads in the first place. We kind of forgot too. But the company jumped on the digital media bandwagon late last year. But apparently sales were a bit lower than expected.

Wal-Mart closed down its video download store after Hewlett-Packard decided to discontinue the technology that powered the store. Wal-Mart is reportedly not going to bother looking for another partner, thanks to the underwhelming performance of the video download store.

This isn't to say that there's no money to be made in online video distribution. But Wal-Mart is the single largest seller of DVDs in the US, so whatever the company was making in digital sales was probably small potatoes by comparison. That, and while you might think of Wal-Mart when you're looking for a place to get cheap retail goods, it's not really the first name that pops into our heads when we're thinking of places to find downloadable movies.

If you've already purchased movies from the Wal-Mart download store, you can play them as many times as you like on your current computer. But thanks to the magic of DRM, you'll lose them if you ever switch computers.

[via paidContent]

Pioneer spinoff SyncTV launches in private beta today. The service is hardly the first, or even the 30th company trying to get into the video download game. But there are a few things that set SyncTV apart from competitors like Amazon, Apple, and NBC.

First up, although SyncTV uses DRM, the system is pretty flexible. It works with Mac, Linux, and PCs. You can specify up to 5 computers for playing back videos. And once compatible portable media players are released, you'll be able to watch videos on up to 10 different devices.

The service uses a subscription model. Engadget reports you'll pay about $2 to $4 per channel of content you want to subscribe to. A limited number of channels will make their content available on a pay per download basis. But generally, once you shell out the monthly fee, you can download as many episodes as you'd like, even entire seasons of TV programs.

The biggest problem with the service is the same that faces every new startup in this space: a lack of content. The only big name that appears to be attached to SyncTV right now is Showtime. And while we love us some Dexter, it'd be nice to have a bit more variety. Because honestly, we don't feel like signing up with 12 different services just to download the handful of TV shows we're willing to pay to watch.