How to Get Free Zune Video

There’s nothing like watching video on your Zune. It’s even better if the videos are free. You can get all the video you want from Microsoft Zune marketplace, but, as the name suggests, you’ll have to pay a subscription fee to enjoy the privilege. That’s great if you can afford it, but those subscription fees can really add up. You’ve already got cable, phone, Internet access, and so on. You may not want to add another $15.00 a month to your video content bill.

That’s where the free services come in. You can just sidestep all the subscription fees altogether. Are the sites legal? At this point yes, they are, but who knows how long it will be before the laws are changed to reflect the whim of some legislator. After all, they’re under constant pressure from recording and motion picture industry lobbyists to eliminate these loopholes. Any time one party feels they aren’t getting their fair share of content revenue, it seems like there’s a lawsuit.

First of all, they’re not entirely free. These are actually private membership sites and downloads are for members only. The membership fee is typically less than you’d pay for a month of basic cable TV, but the actual cost depends on the specific service you join. And, unlike the subscription download sites, you aren’t hit with a bill on your credit card every month. Most of these sites have millions of songs, videos, movies and TV shows for you to download. You just pay your one time fee and go to town. Any kind of content is yours for the taking Weather you think it’s a better deal than the subscription models is purely a matter of personal taste.

Some of these membership download sites are heavily supported by advertising revenue, so you can be deluged with pop up ads and banners strewn throughout the site, but that’s the price to pay for free Zune video. Actually, the popularity of the one time fee membership sites is soaring as a large number of consumers discover these kinds of sites. It’s kind of no brainer if you download a large amount of content, and if you really use your Zune like it was intended, you will.

Another revenue model used by Zune download sites is a pay while you use it subscription fee. The fees are lower than the pay and you own it sites, but as soon as you stop paying the monthly fee, the music on your hard drive goes away. The new Napster is an example of such a download site, as is Rhapsody. Weather you like such a service is up to you, but many prefer to pay only once and be done with it.

The best of the membership sites not only have a positively huge variety of content, they are quite fast. No more waiting for what seems like forever while your selections download, it’s more like right now! To top it off they’ll offer 24/7 technical support as well. I’d advise against getting a membership at a site that doesn’t include 24/7 tech support. You don’t want to wait for your download and you don’t want to wait to get a problem resolved either.

Typically you’ll need to get the video format of your movies converted to be compatible with the Zune. This helps balance the demands of storage and video quality. You can pay for one of the many applications available that will do this, but the better download sites will give you one as a bonus when you join. This should help you know what to look for on your journey into the world of free Zune video. Happy downloading.