Many of us have spent some time on sites like YouTube watching that short funny film that your friend emailed the link too. Maybe you have even taken the time to watch some full length independent films which can be found on sites like Jaman or CinquestOnline. If it's just a little entertainment that your looking for there are literally hundreds of free sites that house video for us to watch. What about when you want to watch the latest Hollywood blockbuster that you missed while it was in theater?

This article briefly looks at some of the top video rental/purchase site that are online today. It is no longer necessary to run down to your local movie store to rent or buy your movies. With new online digital rental/purchase services available you can rent and watch movies right on your PC. Although the picture quality varies between the sites, as does the availability of the latest movies, renting movies online ads gives you the convenience of watching what you want now without a trip to your local video store. Best of all there are never any late fees!

There are many sites that allow you to purchase or rent movies for digital download. For brevity, I am just going to talk about the three that I found the best and the reasons why.

My favorite online movie site is CinemaNow. The site -- although it doesn't always have the most current selection like your local video store -- has a huge selection of movies, ranging from some of the latest blockbusters to free independent films. With most newer films you have the option to either purchase or rent the movie. The thing that I liked best about CinemaNow was that, when you purchase a movie, they give you the option of burning to a DVD that you can watch on your television. Of the sites I looked at CinemaNow seems to be the only one that will let you do this. The picture quality is good for paid content (some of the free or subscription content is lower quality), and the site overall seemed to be the best that I could find.

The next site that I found which topped the pack is Amazon's new service Unbox. Of the rental sites I talk about today Unbox is the both, the easiest to use, and has the closest to DVD quality video. Movies become available as they are released to DVD, so the selection at the Amazon owned site is great. The best thing I found with Ubox was how easy the site was to use. Movies are properly categorized and easy to find. Being the largest online book retailer in the world has given Amazon experience in organizing an online storefront, and it shows with their new Unbox service. Great quality and ease of use make Unbox a viable contender for the best movie house online.

The last site that I would place in the top three is Apple's Itunes. With itunes it isn't picture quaility or ease of use that bring it to the top. In fact I find the itunes player clunky and the interface hard to use. What the Apple owned service does have going for it however, are the gadgets that you can buy to replay your purchased movies (no rental option on itunes). Movies downloaded from itunes can be played on your PC, through your video ipod, or through your television set with the new Apple TV unit. Combine the hardware with the up to date selection of movies and itunes stays in the top three on my list.