Disc rental and online streaming service LOVEFiLM have made it possible for their subscribers to enjoy online film and television content in high definition. Today a selection of movies and television episodes were unveiled in the HD format, with more to apparently follow soon.
Many of the films currently available in HD are from the library of French-owned distributor StudioCanal, who struck a deal to make online content available to the LOVEFiLM service last year. Titles to stream in high definition include Francis Ford Coppola’s classic war film Apocalypse Now, satirical comedy The Thick of It and recent science-fiction thriller Attack the Block.
The television currently on offer is more limited, although LOVEFiLM assures its customers that more content will be added. Currently available are BBC nature documentaries Human Planet and Planet Earth and Disney’s long-running drama Lost.
LOVEFiLM’s most active competitor, Netflix, opened for business in the UK at the start of this year, and have made high definition content available to subscribers since the outset. This has caused customers to wonder why Amazon-owned LOVFiLM have not, until now, made HD films available. In a blog post on the film provider’s website, digital product director Ben Lavender accepted this: ‘Yes, lots of people have been asking for it and yes, it’s taken us a little while to get here, but LOVEFiLM Instant titles are now available in High Definition.’
Although the video quality of the online streaming content will vary from device to device (Xbox streams only get 720p, PCs get 1080p, and iPads remain restricted to standard definition), Lavender claims LOVEFiLM remains ‘as committed as ever to providing our customers with the best quality in viewing entertainment.’
Customers who prefer to enjoy films in the best possible high definition experience will still be able to rent them on blu-ray via LOVEFiLM’s established postal rental service.
For more information, please visit http://blog.lovefilm.com/uncategorized/lovefilm-instant-in-hd.html#more-822.
