Movie Vault for iPad ($4.99) is a fun application that streams classic feature films to your device, and allows you to watch them on your giant LCD TV. The title and app icon are deceiving, as you might think you can watch movies that came out a year or two ago. However, the app only streams movies that are so old, they are classified as being in the public domain. If you’re a classic movie buff, then this app is definitely for you.
No matter where you left off, the app always opens up in the action and adventure genre. There are 12 genres to browse through, or you can search for a specific movie by title. In each genre, the movies are listed in alphabetical order. When you tap on a movie, its information is displayed, including a summary, director, date, writers, actors and duration. If you decide to watch the movie, it quickly loads, and starts streaming from the servers. It’s important to note that these are very old movies, some dating back to the ’30s, so you can’t expect the quality to be HD. Many are in black-and-white, and have lines constantly running through the film. That’s the way old movies often are.
There have been several reports of the app crashing in the middle of a movie, or sound cutting out. The only crashes I experienced were while hitting the “done” button. It only happened a few times, but enough to become irritating. Other than that, all the movies I tried ran well, both picture and sound.
I’m sure there will be plenty of new movies added to the app in the future, but there are definitely some features I would love to see added as well. As of the date of this review, the app has absolutely no social networking features. This would be a great app to integrate with Facebook: I would love to share on my wall that I’m watching a classic film from the ’40s. How about a rating system, so people can rate their favorite films? Then, you could add a search by most-popular, or most-viewed, films. Comments would be fun, as well.
There’s a ton of potential for this app to grow, in both features and library of movies. For now, it probably only satisfies those people who are huge fans of classic films.
