Vongo: Video On The Go

I am a subscriber to Blockbuster’s online rental service, which is great, but some people just don’t like waiting. There are a few solutions to this problem; one is called Vongo (Video on the go). Don’t let late fees and late night runs to the video store interrupt your life ever again.

Vongo offers more than 2500 popular movies including many Walt Disney films. Unlike the other movie download services (CinemaNow and Movielink,) this is the only service that does not offer movie purchases. It is just rentals. In addition, Vongo requires you to register and download their software before you can start browsing their movies.

After Vongo’s 8-step registration process, I was up and running. The Vongo application is elegant and simple to use (although some beg to differ.) The download manager is also very smart. It’ll happily run in the background as a tray icon and inform you of your download status. Vongo is also able to streamline the searching and downloading process because they have their own desktop application.

Vongo sets itself apart from the competition with its rental-only subscription. For $9.99 per month you get unlimited access, as well as access to stream the Starz TV channel. Just browse the catalog and download until you get an error message telling you that there isn’t any hard drive space left! Each title has an “available until” date, at which time the content you’ve downloaded will automatically expire. One thing that gets me is the fact that you have to pay for newer video even though you pay $9.99/month. These titles are called “pay-per-view.” Once these titles are started you have 24 hours to view the content, after which the movie expires.

Bad News: Video quality is not great. Full-screen mode is poor quality. The audio often didn’t synch up with the lip movement. Once I watched it in window mode it was much better, but it still wasn’t the same video quality as watching a DVD on my computer. I was a bit disappointed in that aspect. I am picky, though. You may find the video quality to be just fine. You’ll have to try it yourself.

Good News: Vongo offers a free 14-day trial of their subscription option, as well as convenient gift cards so you can give a film away as a gift.

Vongo is a great serive, but before I try them again they are going to have to get video quality up to par, drop the “pay-per-view” for paying customers, and add a few more movie titles. Most of the movies I looked for were just not there.