The concept of downloading movies is not a new one. Fact is, the technology to stream or download movies has only become viable in the last year or so with many households adopting broadband or cable connection.

As a result, many movie download sites are popping out all over the internet. Here are some of the top movie download sites currently available that are legitimate.

1) Movielink

Movielink is a joint project of MGM studios, Sony Pictures, Paramount Pictures, Warner Bros and Universal Studios. That’s a lot of heavyweight companies supporting this site.

Currently, the movies are on a pay per view rental basis. That’s means you pay anywhere from 99 cents to $4.99 to watch each movie. It can last for 30 days and it has a pretty wide selection of current hollywood movies. Currently, it is only available in the US.

2) CinemaNow

CinemaNow is another top movie download site. They have a huge selection of movies around 1,200 but most of it aren’t new hollywood movies. You can either rent or buy a movie. If you choose to rent, it’s available for 24 hours and if you buy, it’s available indefinitely in your cinemanow’s digital library. You can even download and burn to dvd for some movies.

I recommend the subscription plan which is $29.95 per month if you watch a lot of movies since it is more worth while.

3) Vongo

Vongo is a relatively new movie download site. They offer a subscription plan of $9.99 per month where you can download and watch unlimited movies. There are premium pay per view movies which cost an additional charge and available for 24 hours upon payment. It’s currently only available in the US.

There are also many other top movie download sites available but you need to be careful as not all are legitimate and it is illegal to download pirated or bootleg movies.

Regardless of which top movie download site you choose, you need to have a fast broadband connection to be able to watch the movies smoothly. A large capacity hard disk is recommended if you plan to download the movies.

The latest method developed for buying movies is using movie download sites. With movie download sites you buy movies from the comfort of your home. There are two main systems that can be used. You can use a system that offers downloading unlimited sometimes) with a monthly subscription or you can use a movie download site where you buy one movie at a time. Most sites use very similar and classic movie searching structures, with films organized by title and genre. Rating systems and evolving recommended lists are also available on many movie download sites.

There are two ways to move from the library to purchasing. One system is a download manager where you will queue up your movies. The other system is a required system that you install that will act as your video player for the movies you download.

As long as you have an account, you are now ready to buy movies. To buy a movie you will typically follow a few simple steps. First find you movie and follow the systems protocols. In some cases you will click a purchase now button. On other sites you will have a shopping cart set up. You will be billed at this point.

From there the movie download site will initiate your download. Some sites will allow you to start watching even before the download is complete, this is called a streaming video. Other films are downloaded on a rental basis where you will have a predetermined amount of time that you can view the movie, usually one day. These downloads will then be remove from you hard drive when the time is up. In most cases you will be downloading a movie that is yours forever. Exactly what you can legally do with your purchased depends on the DMR (digital management rights) of your purchase. Sometimes you will have the right to burn the movie to a DVD, other times you will be limited to watching the film on specific devices. There are a lot of things to consider in choosing a movie download site.

Other thing to consider in selecting a movie download site is the functionality of the player (if you need one) that you watch the films on. Can you pause, rewind and fast forward? Do you have more than one option of the devices you can store and watch the file from? For example can you store in on an iPod so you can easily take it with you.

Movie download sites are a fairly new and an evolving form of movie watching and purchasing. There are a lot of options when selecting which movie download site that you want to use. Take your time and really try to get a good understand of what your options really are.