Buy and Rent DVDs

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Movies: From the Web to the Silver Screen

Whether you're looking to go to a movie, learn about the movies, or add to your home collection of movies, the Internet can provide the tools you need. Find current listings and buy movie tickets; read and compare reviews, track the box office, and view trailers online; track major and minor film festivals or explore movie history and trivia; buy or rent movies on DVD. Whatever your film needs, you can find what you're looking for on the Web.

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Movie Tickets and Show times

It's certainly still possible to find show times and theaters the old-fashioned way, by picking up ... read more »

Movie Reviews

Perhaps you trust a certain national reviewer above any other film critic, or like to compare ... read more »

Film News and Gossip

Whether you're a movie fanatic or just like to dip into Hollywood gossip now and then, there are ... read more »

Learn about Film Festivals

Film festivals used to be the preserve of industry professionals, but recent years have seen the ... read more »

Research Movies

There's an enormous amount of film history, movie trivia, and industry facts available on the Web. ... read more »

Buy and Rent DVDs

The high picture quality, relatively low price, and ready availability of DVDs mean that a lot of people choose to recreate the film theater experience at home. Here are the links to help you do that.

Dulcinea's Insight

As with buying anything online, be sure to factor in shipping costs if you're trying to save money. Sure, it might seem a really obvious point, but some outlets only reveal the shipping costs at the end of a number of pages in the buying process.

If you're building a library of movies, you might want to consider the new formats that are currently battling to succeed regular DVDs: HD-DVD and Blu-ray. The extensive collection you create could be unplayable one day soon because your films are recorded on an obsolete medium.

The DVD review sites listed below differ from regular film review sites in that they place more focus on the disc technology. Plus, the reviews help you determine whether you want to own a movie, not just watch it. You'll also be able to keep track of what's soon to be released.

Full-service sites, such as imdb.com, usually indicate whether movies are available for purchase and provide links to online retailers.

Dulcinea's Picks

For DVD reviews ...

DVD Review & High Definition features reviews and news about DVD, HD-DVD, and Blu-ray Disc releases. It also has a chat forum and a blog.

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The Digital Bits provides news, gossip, reviews, and blogs about DVD, HD-DVD, and Blu-ray Discs. It's a site for the true film fanatic with excellent eyesight-the black background does make the site difficult to read.

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For purchasing DVDs ...

Amazon.com sets the standard for DVD shopping. If a movie is available to buy--or will be soon--it can normally be found here, along with professional and consumer reviews and free shipping.

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eBay , the well-known auction site, has a section devoted to DVDs. You can select your desired format and genre, and probably get a pretty good deal, too.

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Zunafish is a site for trading media, which of course includes DVDs. Sign up, list the items you want to get rid of and the items you'd like to get. Then wait to make a match with another member.

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For renting DVDs ...

TopTenReviews researches and reviews just about everything. Their "Online DVD Rental Review" compares DVD rental companies and their services on one easy-to-read chart.

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Netflix is the original online movie rental site. The pre-paid envelopes and absence of late fees make the service extremely user-friendly. The company offers payment plans that allow members to rent anywhere from one to eight movies at a time.

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Blockbuster operates a service (an offshoot of its physical stores) that is almost identical to Netflix. The main difference is that movies can be returned and exchanged at Blockbuster stores, so renters don't necessarily have to wait for DVDs to arrive in the mail.

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