The Machinist will be available to download free

About 100 titles from two major film studios will be available when the service launches in April, with prices starting at �9.99 per movie.

The company already offers about 2,500 films for download, but these have to be watched on a PC.

In a separate announcement, Lovefilm said it would start offering free movie downloads sponsored by advertisers.

Christian Bale's The Machinist and Guy Pearce's The Proposition are among the first films to be given away in the deal.

'Evolution'

Although Lovefilm is the first to offer films to copy to DVD in the UK, similar services are already available in the Australia, the US and France.

"Download-to-burn is the next step in the evolution of movie purchasing and viewing," said the company's chief executive Simon Calver.

"Whereas consumers may have been reluctant to watch films directly on their PC, they now have the choice to burn a huge library of films to DVD and watch them on their preferred medium of choice, and all without having to leave their living room."

It takes between half-an-hour and 90 minutes to download a film, depending on its length and the speed of a user's internet connection.