Why browse through your DVD collection when your multimedia PC shows a thumbnail gallery of films playable at the click of a button? Well that's why I occasionally set about the tedious task of backing up my DVD collection for instant PC playback. Unfortunately I'll either get bored, frustrated or end up moaning about quality before the first film is ripped to my hard-drive. In fact it'd be quicker to search out and download the film you own on a bit-torrent site than rip and encode. So why, with the technology available, can't we download films? And I'm talking about legitimate downloads here...

Well, after a long wait, that service is finally available in the UK with download services from lovefilm.com, BTvision and Apple. In this Digital Director review we take a look at the film download service available from BT: BTvision.

The idea behind the film download site from BT is simple: download the film in both a high quality for PCs and low quality for handhelds, then get the DVD of the film by post. A simple idea that's also an extremely good one. I'm always apprehensive of something that's not tangible and getting the DVD delivered by post goes some way to justifying the expense. You see the cost of each film is broadly equivalent to the cost of the DVD, so you're really buying the DVD and getting the ripping and encoding done for you.

Setting up and account as BTvision is straightforward enough, and as long as you've got Media Player 10 installed (if you've got windows XP with all the latest updates, there's a strong change you have) you'll be watching films in the time it takes to download. As mentioned previously, your download will come in two flavours: a high quality presentation for watching on your PC and a lower quality version for watching on a handheld device. Typically the PC version is around 1.5GB and the handheld PDA version around 500MB. These have taken around 3 hours to download on my 2MB connection with various other downloads going on at the same time.

Once you signed up for an account, downloading films is as easy as adding the film to you cart then clicking on the download link to start your download. All this is done though Internet Explorer, and you'll need to install an active-x component to enable the download (this will be done automatically). You'll then see a graphical interface of your download together with any previous downloads. It all sounds straightforward. It is, but it's not without its faults.

I managed to delete my first download halfway through the process. Unfortunately there didn't appear to be an easy way to restart the download and I assumed I wouldn't be able to download the film again. Luckily, after adding the film again to my cart the BTvison site informed me that I'd already purchased the film and that I could download the film again by clicking the purchase history link in "my account", then clicking on the film, before finally clicking on "Download Now". A rather convoluted way not even mentioned in the FAQ!

It appears the BTvision software uses peer-to-peer technology to help speed up the download and reduce the cost of their own bandwidth. I say this as I was unable to move or delete a downloaded file until I exited the software. It would be nice to have this clearly show on the website so that users ensure they exit the software after download. In fact it should be noted that the software starts automatically at Windows start up. Although this is perfect for continuing a download after reboot, it does mean you files are always made available.

The quality of the high quality download is perfect, and you won't notice any difference from the DVD version. BTvision use WMV to encode the video and I really can't fault the way the quality of the video. However, the handheld download is virtually useless as I've failed to be able to transfer the video to my PDA despite various attempts. Copying the file directly and attempting to download the DRM results in failure, as does following BTvision's advice of synching via Windows Media Player.

Overall this is a great service, if a little over priced. The choice of films is currently poor, but with the a much bigger download library and the option of paying less and not receiving the DVD, this will be a winner. The service will also shortly be expanded to offer TV on demand... and that's something that will turn it into a killer service at the right price. And at the right price, it's the perfect way of killing the pirate market. In the digital age, people want low cost high quality and they want it instantly.