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The prospect of on-demand access to movies will attract many people to the MovieBeam service. But despite its long-term promise, this first iteration needs fine tuning before I'll count on it as a regular entertainment option.

A bit slimmer than a typical cable box, the $200 MovieBeam Player gives you access to a changing group of 100 titles that it stores on a 160GB hard drive (the service sends 10 new titles to the box every week, while arbitrarily deleting others; you can't specify titles that you might want to hold onto longer). Each time you access a movie, it costs $2 to $4; and you can view your new "rental" as often as you like during the next 24 hours.

The player is exceptionally easy to set up, thanks to a handy step-by-step guide included in the box, well-labeled ports, and an attractive TiVo-esque on-screen menu.

The menu system is fast and convenient, which makes scrolling through movie titles a pleasure. And the nicely balanced remote is easy to use.

My gripes with the player are practical ones. You never know exactly when a movie is going to disappear, you can't search the offerings by type, and the unit sometimes exhibits quirky behavior (such as a delay when you move between movie and menu). The player's image quality is iffy, too (it reminds me of the pixelation that I see with Tivo's 2-hour mode). Finally, although having 100 titles to choose from sounds like a lot, it isn't really, and far too many of the titles offered are mediocre.

For now, MovieBeam is too much a work in progress for me to recommend, but I see enough potential here to look forward to what the service has coming up next.