Movies Anywhere: Get your digital movies together

This post was originally published in the Southwest Journal, a Southwest Minneapolis community newspaper.#####I like watching movies, but it is rare that I make it out to the theater to see a movie. For the most part, I simply watch movies at home.I use both Netflix and Amazon Prime for watching movies, but there are some special movies that are worth buying and adding to my permanent collection; often they are kids’ films. This month I am excited to share about a fun, new movie service called Movies Anywhere which allows you to combine your digital movies into a single collection.Movies Anywhere is a service that lets you combine your purchased movies from various vendors (i.e. Amazon, Apple, etc.) into a single digital collection of films. Movie studios 20th Century Fox, Sony Pictures, Universal, Disney and Warner Brothers agreed to allow their films to live on multiple platforms once they are purchased.Is this sounding confusing? Let me try to break it down.Here is an example of how I used the service: I am a big “Star Wars” fan and own all of the movies (nine available and increasing). However, I bought the original six films through Google Play Movies and subsequent films through Amazon’s video service (called Amazon Prime Video). In the past, I would have had to jump between services to watch the different movies, but with Movies Anywhere, I can link my accounts to each other and all of the movies show up together under the accounts on each service, regardless of whom I originally purchased them from.The eligible services are Apple’s iTunes, Amazon Prime Video, VUDU, Google Play Movies, and FandangoNow. All of your eligible movies (the ones that the movie studios have allowed; all of mine were eligible) will be displayed under each movie service. I should point out that the service does not work for TV shows. If you like the user interface of iTunes for your movies, for instance, you will see all of your movies there and can stick with that interface; same goes for the other eligible services. You can use the Movies Anywhere website or apps to log in and see all of your movie collection in one place there as well.The benefit of using the Movies Anywhere website or apps is that there are included bonus features, including bonus features for older films that I own and did not expect to have bonus footage. One issue that I have seen with the Amazon interface is that the movies are sorted by date added, and that can be a bit frustrating when searching for a film. Other services allow you to sort by various criteria. The service is easy to use and easy to link up your accounts with. Once you have linked your accounts, you can start viewing any of your movies If I recall correctly, there may have been a slight lag before all of the movies showed up. It should be noted that only one account can be linked per service. So you could not link together two different iTunes accounts or two different Amazon Prime Video accounts.This really is a true convenience to have my entire digital collection available under one streaming service. When I want to browse my movies I can see them all together rather than have to jump up and back between different services.


Paul Burnstein is a Tech Handyman. As the founder of Gadget Guy MN, Paul helps personal and business clients optimize their use of technology. He can be found through www.gadgetguymn.com or via email at paul@gadgetguymn.com.home technology help

Previous
Previous

Smart Home Tech that Adds Value to Your Home

Next
Next

Google Clips: Clip it and forget it