4Flix.Net Provides Hundreds of DRM-Free Movies and Television Shows Online

- 4Flix.Net has announced a new video download service that delivers hundreds of feature-length movies, TV shows, independent films and other video content over the Internet for playback on Macintosh, Windows, and the video iPod without cumbersome Digital Rights Management (DRM) restrictions.

4Flix.Net is not the first online movie download service — various Hollywood studios-backed sites have been offering films over the Internet for some time now.

But it is one of the first commercial sites to provide downloadable video files free of Digital Rights Management (DRM) encoding designed to limit consumers’ use of the downloaded files. Many DRM schemes are “Windows-only”, whereas digital media content from 4Flix.Net is compatible with Macintosh, Windows, Unix, the video iPod and Apple’s upcoming media-savvy Mac Mini.

"Everyone in this industry is familiar with the phrase 'Content is king', and yet there is a shortage of convenient, portable, DRM-free video" says Dave Holst, founder of 4Flix.Net. "As other cyber-rights advocates have pointed out, there really is no market demand for DRM. Nobody woke up this morning and thought: ‘I wish there were more restrictions in place so that I could do LESS with the media I buy.’ Our service helps to break the 'content logjam' by providing consumers with control over their digital media, enabling them to watch whatever, whenever and wherever they want, WITHOUT the inherent hassles of DRM limitations.”

4Flix.Net visitors have instant access to hundreds of movie and TV show selections, all priced at $1.99 or less. Customers may immediately download their purchases to their computers and then move the files freely between viewing devices, including portable media players like the video iPod and living room-based media centers such as the new media-savvy Mac Mini, providing unlimited viewing options for family enjoyment. The service is currently available for broadband subscribers worldwide at http://www.4Flix.Net/

Launched in November 2005, 4Flix.Net served up free holiday video downloads to nearly 20,000 visitors from 80+ countries worldwide throughout the month of December, allowing consumers to sample the sites’ high-quality, multi-pass encoded AVC/H.264 media while loading up their new video iPods. This advanced video compression codec allows for high resolution at lower bitrates, which enables smaller filesizes with superior quality. Besides the video iPod, the DRM-free media files are cross-platform and play on any Mac or PC with Apple’s free Quicktime 7 installed.

A selection of shorter titles are available for download at no cost, and visitors can also subscribe to a free Video Podcast featuring regularly updated short films. The 4Flix.Net Video Podcast is also accessible directly from Apple's iTunes Music Store by searching in Podcasts for "4Flix.Net”.

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