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Free holiday videos for PCs, iPods

updated 05:55 pm EST, Fri December 16, 2005

Free holiday videos

has announced that dozens of Christmas movies, cartoons and television shows are available for download to both personal computers and the iPod video. A selection of shorter titles are available at no cost, allowing consumers to freely add classic holiday video content to their new video iPods while sampling the high quality of 4Flix.Net's advanced video encoding. Visitors can also subscribe to a free video podcast featuring Christmas videos throughout the month of December. Prices for the remaining catalog of available works match the iTunes Music Store's introductory price of $2 each.

"As the saying goes, 'Content is king', but customers are starving for convenient, family-friendly, DRM-free video" says Dave Holst, founder of 4Flix.Net. "We want to help break the 'content logjam' by providing an affordable, safe and simple way for new iPod owners to 'feed their need'. For folks without a new iPod, our video files play great on any Mac or PC with QuickTime 7 installed. All of our titles are encoded in the new AVC/H.264 MP4 format, which creates high-quality video in amazingly compact file sizes. And we're proud to be one of the very few content providers distributing DRM-free media, which is very consumer-friendly."

 
Previous Comments

file ext.

12/16, 06:30pm reply

I downloaded their 2 free movies, and the file extensions were all messed up. After downloading, the ext were .mp4.txt. Just delete the .txt and the files will open in QT.

mymacluvsme

Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Aug 2004

0

404 Errors

12/17, 03:50pm reply

If they want to compete, their site should not have any broken links. I don't like to spend money on sites that seem as if they don't have their act together.

JadisOne

Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: May 2003

0

ALERT! "Free" doesn't

12/19, 09:50am reply

I wish MacNN would check out these sites before they post their press releases: Using Safari 1.3.1 on Mac OS X 10.3.9 running on an iMac b...

I tried to download the "free" Rudolf the Red-nosed Raindeer movie. The system demanded a credit card to complete the order, even though the download was supposedly free. Next, I tried selecting the Money Order payment option (since I wasn't about to give them a credit card number!), and the response was that the download would be available momentarily--however nothing happened. No e-mail was received confirming the order either. At this point, I can't help but wonder if I haven't just given some phisher my home address, phone number and e-mail address.

This site is either a well executed scam or an alpha-level site and product. If it's legit, it;s a great idea and I wish the company the best, but they are rushing to market, to their disadvantage. They should first hire someone to review and test their site.

debohun

Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Feb 1999

0

Addendum...

12/19, 10:18am reply

4Flix.net's domain registration is to Word.Net Communications, not to a company named 4FLIX. I cannot locate a physical address on the website for the company. Many of the links on the 4Flix webpage take you to blank pages; either their PHP server is too slow to handle the requests or the pages simply aren't there. An inquiry sent via their webpage's contact form has so far gone unresponded to.

debohun

Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Feb 1999

0

Possible explanation...

12/19, 10:28am reply

Looking back through their site again, I noticed printed in gray on darker gray the following, "NOTE: To download files immediately, you will need to purchase at least one $1.99 title. Happy Holidays!' This would explain why I could not download one of the free videos. However, it doesn't justify, IMO, a press release that implies free trial content, when in fact they require a purchase. Some would consider that sleezy business. I would simply consider it poor business, as many, myself included, will justifiably not provide credit card information online to a company with whom they've had no previous contact. I want an established track record of functionality and product first.

debohun

Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Feb 1999

0

4Flix

12/19, 01:45pm reply

I ordered a movie almost 6 hours ago and still haven't moved out of the "Processing" stage of my download. I have never waited for downloads - and there is no explanation given on the web site - and no response so far from the contact e-mail given on the site. Press releases and ads for this service are all over the Internet at reputable sites. Has anyone else checked this site out? Yes, it sounds cool, is it for real? This is feeling more and more scamish as each hour ticks by.

RevSweetJ

Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Dec 2005

0

finally

12/19, 02:20pm reply

Okay, after 6 hours the video is now available for download. There was an apology, but still no explanation. Good luck! RevSweetj

RevSweetJ

Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Dec 2005

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