Each request for a youtube video is routed through the Speedbit servers which open five new connections to the video server offering the video which results in a speed increase which can be remarkable.

The service has to be running in the system tray while watching youtube videos and starts automatically whenever a new video is requested from youtube. I was not able to take a look at some of the program features that are shown at the developers website but the video acceleration is working fine.

As you can see the technology is working in Firefox and Internet Explorer, unfortunately not in Opera. I found the software at the Connected Internet Blog.

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Movies are downloaded using the EZTakes download manager which downloads and unlocks the movies after the download is finished. The movie is separated into different parts to get faster transfer rates and unlocking simply means that the parts are merged and the VIDEO_TS folder is created. You may burn the movie using the build in dvd burner or an external tool like Nero Burning Rom. You may select the viewer of your choice to view the DVD from within the download manager or simply point your DVD viewer to the Video_TS folder of the downloaded DVD.

Speaking about download rates. I first downloaded a free DVD movie from their site and received the 1 gigabyte movie in less than 20 minutes. The average download speed was more than 8 Mbits. You can try and download the free movie as well to test your connection to their service and take a look at the download manager as well.

It is basically not only a download manager but also a program that lets you burn and move movies to different locations on your hard drive. It even comes equipped with a build in site browser. The download manager is clever enough to let you move files if you run out of hard drive space. I suggest to edit the download preferences to increase the speed to fastest and raise the number of threads from 3 to 5 for maximum speed.

My first movie that I purchased had a average transfer rate of 13.5 Mbit almost maxing my 16 Mbit connection. I did purchase several movies to find out about the service that regular customers would get and download rates were always around 13 Mbit.

The most important aspect of a movie store are of course the movies that are available for download. You will not find the latest blockbusters at EZTakes but a very good selection of cult and classic movies. Movies like The old man and the sea with Anthony Quinn, Oliver Twist or the Junglebook are well worth watching.

The majority of movies dates a while back but you find the occasional movie from the last years. Supersize me would be one for instance. EZTakes has a strong selection of documentaries, lots about the DaVinci Code for instance and sports. You find Fitness, Wrestling and Martial Arts movies there. Just take a look at the movie index or select one of the categories from the left menu.

EZTakes is however not only about movies. It is also a way to express your opinion about DRM. If you purchase movies at sites that infest the movies with DRM you accept DRM. They see that customers buy the movies anyway and continue to provide movies with DRM that can’t be played on all computers and standalone players.

If you download movies from EZTakes you clearly state that you do not like DRM and that you will only give your money to services that offer DRM free media files. I’m not saying that you should go to their website and download all the movies to support them but if you find some that are interesting enough you should prefer EZTakes over other services that use DRM.

Prices for movies vary a lot and I think that some movies are overpriced; They vary between $1.99 to $24.99. The majority of movies has a price tag of $9.99 or lower though and you find some pretty good ones for the bargain price of $1.99.

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The question that arises for me is the following: Why would anyone buy a movie for $19.99 online and face additional restrictions like drm, copy protection and limited use if he could also buy the same movie at the same time in a normal store and receive a case, a DVD and a booklet. You may also take the DVD, visit a friend and watch the movie on his DVD player. You might face troubles with services like Unbox who make it impossible to burn the files on DVD to play in a DVD player.

I have another question: Why are they pricing the items that high ? Is it because of the entertainment companies that produces the movies who want a large share of the earnings or are the portals themselves responsible for this irrational pricing ?

Why would someone pay more than a few dollars for a crippled movie that you probably can’t play in your dvd player ? Isn’t it kinda strange that some people still buy those items even though they face those restrictions ?

I decided to ignore any movie portal for the moment. If one would emerge that would offer movie downloads in dvd quality for half the price of the DVD I would consider it; if they do not cripple the functionality to burn the file on dvd and watch it on my dvd player.

Did you buy a movie from such a service ? What is your experience ?

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