Movie Night, Courtesy Of The Internet

Courtesy: Vudu, Inc.

Movies for rent on Vudu, a service that uses a $150 set-top box and a high-speed Internet connection to bring you its library of films.

Today's All Tech Considered segment is about the living room tradition of movie night and how it's changing with downloadable movie streams and rentals.

Whether you're looking to rent "City of God," which may be troublesome, or you're just looking to browse from a collection of titles the way you'd scan the aisles at the video store, the future definitely points toward movies-on-demand, delivered in high-def.

Unfortunately, the present is still a bit problematic for those who aren't technically inclined or who are confused about the array of options for getting Web video on the big-screen TV.

Here's some additional articles and info related to the piece:

• Some of the products and services we mention in the piece include iTunes' movie rentals, Netflix's Watch It Now streaming, the Vudu movie box, Hulu Desktop (just released), TiVo's streaming video options and the Roku Digital Video Player.
  
• Cutting the cord on cable/satellite service. The Wall Street Journal says about 900,000 families have done it. That actually doesn't seem like that many.
  
• More on that: too many online video services, not enough people using them?
  
• For cinephiles: theauteurs.combrings much more indie/film festival circuit movies to the Web, for free or $5, depending on the title. And hey, Martin Scorsese is bringing restored films to the service!
  
• Netflix on your HDTV, no set-top box required. We'll be seeing a lot more Internet-enabled TVs this year.
  
• Microsoft doing surprisingly well in video streaming compared to the Apple TV.
  
• One of many articles on how to connect your computer to an HDTV.
  
• And a recent All Tech Considered blog entry about living without cable TV. Good comments in there, too.
  
• And a video from AMD on the subject.