No more heading out to the movie store in that blinding snowstorm for that must-have new release. No more cursing your postman when your titles don't arrive on time. No more "I'll wait til it's on cable." For the first time, major movie studios have signed deals with websites that allow people to buy movies online and download them directly to their PCs, as soon as they're released on DVD.

The two sites, Movielink and Cinemanow, have partnered with studios such as MGM, Paramount, Warner Bros., Twentieth Century Fox, Disney, Miramax, NBC Universal, Sony, and Lions Gate Entertainment, ensuring that just about all popular new releases will be available online. The sites have been around since around 2000, but until this point, had only offered movies on an "on demand" or pay-per-view basis - for about $3 for a 24-hour viewing period - and had released them long after they arrived on movie store shelves.

This new development has been hailed by some as a revolution in home entertainment, but the complaints have already started pouring in.

The obvious question, "How much?" has become a sore spot on online message boards: $20 to $30 is considerably more than consumers pay for a new DVD at discount retailers or at online stores like Amazon.com. Besides, when they're downloaded from the Internet, movies don't include all the packaged extras that come with a DVD - documentaries, booklets, and other special features. And the complaints don't stop there.

The movies' format annoys some. The 1.4 gigabyte or so movie files (dial-up users proceed at your own peril) downloaded from the sites have digital rights management (DRM) software embedded in them that limits what users can do with them. That puts a damper on copying the films to recordable DVDs, sharing them with friends, or playing them on more than three different computers. Also out of the game are Mac users. The DRM technology is Windows-only, meaning "switchers" will have to wait it out until the iTunes store makes the transition to selling movies, whenever that is.

I don't think these services will catch on, but price, lack of extras, or Mac compatability aren't to blame. At this point, the "PC as digital hub" vision hasn't quite caught on enough for people to be comfortable making their computer their primary source of entertainment. Those who invest thousands in home theater systems just don't (for some reason) want to watch movies on a computer monitor (at $30 a pop, no less). Perhaps less important to the average viewer, but even more critical in principle, is that when you buy a DVD, no one follows you home and tells you where you can watch it. You're not told what brand player to use, or that you're not allowed to share it with a neighbor – imagine the revolt that would happen if that were the case. But that's exactly what this DRM technology purports to do.

Until the movie companies find a way to deliver films in a format as portable, universally adaptable, and transparent as DVD, the polycarbonate discs, however "90s" they may seem, will reign supreme – even if that means trips to the video store in a snowstorm to get them.