Google launched Google Play Movies in India earlier today, making India the 13th country to get access to film rentals and purchases in Google Play.
Similar to Google Play eBooks, Play Movies can also be accessed on multiple devices and don’t need you to have an Android phone or tablet. You can also watch your purchased/ rented movies on your computer or any other device will an internet connection and Adobe Flash Player 10.1 or more (Android tablets/ phone don’t need Flash Player as they have the Google Play Movies and TV app to stream or watch the content).
The Play Movies India availability announcement comes days after the search giant unveiled Nexus 7 tablet in the country via Google Play for INR 15,999. With Movies availability, Indian nexus 7 users will now have access to e-Books, Movies, as well as Android apps on their tablet – brining the much needed content ecosystem. Music and Magazines are still absent and both should also be made available in the coming weeks in the country.
How to use Google Play Movies?
On Android devices:
- First, you will need to install Google Play Movies and TV app from Google Play, use this link to download in on your tablet or phone.
- After installing the app (or even before), you can buy or rent movies from Google Play Movies.
- The movies will then appear in the Google Play Movies & TV app, you can play the movies from the app.
- You can directly go to https://play.google.com/store/movies to buy or rent movies, once you have done either of these – a Play button will appear and you can easily watch the movie.
On Computer:
The movies have a rental period of 30 days, however once you start watching a rented movie; you will have just 24 hours to finish it.
You can also return or cancel your movie purchase anytime within 7 days of purchase if you have not begun playback. You can find any issues with the rented or purchased movie; then you can request a refund at any time.
You can also download rented or bought movies for offline viewing. How to do that:
- Find the video you want to download under either the Movies or TV Shows section of the Google Play Movies & TV app.
- Tap the circular gray pushpin icon toward the bottom-right corner of the video, and your download will begin automatically.
Note: Purchased movies and TV shows can be downloaded on five devices at a time. Movie rentals can only be downloaded to one device at a time, and when downloaded, streaming of the movie rental will be disabled on your computer and any other devices. Removing the download of the movie rental will re-enable it for streaming or for downloading onto additional devices.
Catalogue
At the time of writing this post, Google Play Movies had a decent selection of English movies available for purchase or rent, however not every movie can be purchased or rented, probably because of market specific restrictions.
The Hindi movie catalogue is especially disappointing right now and Google Play Movies had less than 30 movies that too just from Yash Raj studios. Google might be already talking to other production houses for rights to sell or rent movies in Google Play, so we can expect to see more movies in coming days.
Google Play Movies vs Apple iTunes store movies: Pricing Comparison
In terms of the sheer catalogue size, Google Play Movies is surely behind Apple iTunes store in India, however on the pricing front, Google Play Movies had some advantages. Here is an example of pricing on both the stores:
Movie: Underworld Awakening
iTunes Store
- INR 150(HD), INR 120(SD): Rent
- INR 590(HD), INR 290(SD): Buy
Google Play
- INR 120 (HD), INR 80 (SD): Rent
- INR 490 (HD), INR 190 (SD): Buy
Movie: Ek Tha Tiger
iTunes Store
- INR 150(HD), INR 120(SD): Rent
- INR 590(HD), INR 290(SD): Buy
Google Play
- INR 150 (HD), INR 100 (SD): Rent
- INR 590 (HD), INR 490 (SD): Buy
Movie: Ted
iTunes Store
- INR 150(HD), INR 120(SD): Rent
- INR 690(HD), INR 490(SD): Buy
Google Play
- INR 157 (HD), INR 120 (SD): Rent
- INR 650 (HD), INR 490 (SD): Buy
There are many other movies on Google Play that we checked with lesser or same pricing than Apple iTunes store. There may still be movies that are priced more on Google Play, but overall in the first look, the pricing seems to be on the lower side in Google Play.
What are your views on Google Play Movies? Do let us know in comments.
Not clear on how “buying” a movie works.
Do “purchased” movie have any sort of DRM protection?
Can I buy a movie, download it on to my PC (service reportedly supports “offline viewing”), copy it to my USB drive, connect the USB drive to my TV and and watch it there?
Or am I restricted to only watching it on the PC I downloaded it on?
Any clarification appreciated.
Watching within 24hours is low. If we had 2mbps as base for broadband sure but with 512kbps it is very difficult.
same here.
wow…awesome….i m lovin it….thanks google..
I tried to purchase Startrek movie but it says it is not available in your country.
movies?? nah that doesn’t excite me. Have torrents to do the job. Bring on devices Big G. Eagerly waiting for a slice of Moto X.
Why i should buy rather i can get free by torrents doesn’t impress me too much sorry Google just show off your next NEXUS 5
and you wonder why the big companies don’t give a high priority to indian market when launching products and stuff.
First please note the fact that downloading movie torrents is illegal.. Only after making strict cyber laws in India, you people will understand about piracy…