Starz Ticket on Real Movies
Service: Starz Ticket on Real Movies
Cost: $12.95 a month
Information: www.starz.com
Review: It was like biding time in a cell next to Roxie Hart.
The blue bar inched slowly across the computer screen, indicating the molasses-like download progress of the movie “Chicago” from the new Starz Ticket on Real Movies Web site.
After two failed attempts forced me to restart the process, the dulcet sounds of Catherine Zeta-Jones crooning “All That Jazz” finally boomed from the speakers. From start to finish: 1.5 hours.
Other movies zipped into my computer in as little as 35 minutes and the quality of both the picture on the 17-inch computer screen and the sound were good. But the process of enrolling, installing and initially navigating the software in the Internet-based movie service proved a challenge for someone who had never even downloaded a song.
The Starz service allows subscribers to download as many movies as they want from a list of about 100 that rotate monthly.
The company requires users to have a broadband Internet connection of at least 600 kilobits per second. The Starz site will test your connection and deny access to computers with less than the minimum speed.
– Sandy Shore, Associated Press