CinemaNow launches "Burn to DVD" service for select films

Just days after MovieLink announced that it has licensed technology for burning flicks to DVD, rival download service CinemaNow has stepped up to the plate and begun actually offering consumers this very option. Starting today, about 100 titles are available for download through the "Burn to DVD" beta service, complete with all the interactive menus and bonus features you'd find on a store-bought DVD. Burnable titles start at $8.99, though if you're looking for the latest releases, you won't find them here -- Disney, Sony, Universal, and friends have only provided older films for the initial roll-out. While MovieLink partnered with Sonic Solutions for its presumed entrant into this space, CinemaNow decided to go with technology based on fluxDVD from Germany's ACE GmbH. Even though there may not be a lot of demand for the current crop of titles, assuming that the encryption scheme is able to ward off pirates and at least a few folks show some interest in "Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle" and "About a Boy," among others, it's likely that newer and more popular films will be added to the library in the near future.

[Thanks, Michael]

[Jeff Foster @ Jul 19th 2006 4:09PM]

At $9 per title, with the costs and efforts of printing on the DVD, printing a case sleeve, buying a Case and Paper and a Blank DVD, this is just stupid.

I'll go to walmart and pick up the same movie on DVD, professionally made, for $4.50

Or i'll just rent it from Netflix for about a dollar assuming i pay $15 and rent 15 movies a month.

Maybe for like 1.99 it would be worth considering, but for a CENT over $5 this is a worthless service.

damn greedy movie companies... they gouge prices and wonder why their crappy new "services" never work.

what we need is the iTMS to allow burning to DVD. ...and fixed prices, and wide selections, damnit.

[tf @ Jul 19th 2006 4:23PM]

I don't have a problem with the pricing: I'm just trying to figure out the fear: the end result is a product equivalent to a DVD, a product they already sell. Yes, maybe in the process, there are more opportunities to circumvent the DRM, but the DRM on a DVD is already circumventable. Why not save on production, materials, distribution, stocking, etc...?

[Chris @ Jul 19th 2006 4:45PM]

ummm exactly how does this DRM work... i mean cant all dvd's be duped? and even if the drm makes it so the iso can only be burned once somehow cant the dvd itself be dvdxcopied?

[Angel @ Jul 19th 2006 4:54PM]

@Jeff Foster - Why would any Cinemanow sell you a movie for $1.99 that you can play on your computer and standalone DVD player and that you "own"? That's a prime example of the CONSUMER being greedy!

I think $9 for some of the titles is more than a reasonable and as any person with a sizable DVD collection knows, eventually those boxes take up too much space.

[Wonderboy @ Jul 19th 2006 5:28PM]

Agreed... I don't need the boxes or the label... just a blank disc. But still, Jeff has one thing right, you can get these types of titles from the Walmart bin for $5.

Seriously, a download should be much cheaper than the original title. The movie companies are saving on packaging (which is cheap), shipping (cheap), and retail mark-up (not so cheap). They should figure out how much it costs to sell a DVD, then subtract the materials/shipping/mark-up costs, then sell the download for that price.

But hey, logic never did seem to be popular with the masses.

[Jeff @ Jul 19th 2006 5:33PM]

"That's a prime example of the CONSUMER being greedy!"

The problem is that it's the consumer that needs to actually buy these things. Your way of thinking is exactly how these sorts of plans go down in board meetings - "screw the consumer, we think $9 is totally reasonable!" Yeah, well, that's not exactly how successful plans are made.

If consumers are "greedy", you need to cater to that greed. It doesn't matter what your judgment of consumer tastes is; you can't dictate what a consumer is willing to spend on a product. Consumers are willing to spend what consumers are willing to spend.

And Jeff gave you a whole lot of reasons why he doesn't think consumers will be willing to spend $9 per title. For myself, as a Netflix renter, I see no reason to spend $9 on a DVD I can rent for what amounts to nothing (I'm on an unlimited plan). I do still buy DVD's but the DVD's I buy are those special movies that I want to keep for archival purposes - and I'm not going to be replacing those with downloaded and burned copies I've made myself, because the whole *point* is having a nice package that I own.

I think the bottom line is that it's Netflix's model that works for movies and if anyone's going to be successful in movie downloads, it'll be them. I'm just waiting to see what they do.

Movielink and CinemaNow were DOA long ago, and no amount of CPR is going to bring them back from the dead. Certainly not charging $9 for a data file you've got to burn on your own disc.

[Bob the Builder @ Jul 19th 2006 6:04PM]

@ Jeff,

First of all, yes, we all enjoy the cover art of DVD's. Some people even like to show them off. But, I am in college and my tiny apartment dosen't seem to have enough space for 200+ DVD cases.

So here is what I did. I went out and got the 64 CD holders (reasonable size i think) and put all my movies in there in ABC order. Then went to IMDB and got the image of each DVD cover art and put that in an excel file.

Now when friends come over and want to watch something all I do is hand them 5 sheets of paper with all the cover art and then a printed list (for those youngins who still enjoy reading). It works great.

I would love to be able to just buy the movie and not have to mess with storing all the cases.

Bob

[tf @ Jul 19th 2006 6:14PM]

Jeff, that's not what's going on... (Yes, they (studios... consumers, too really) are greedy but...) There is ultimately convenience for the consumer too. Yes, maybe net connection speeds aren't entirely there yet; yes, maybe NetFlix is more convenient.

But the studios should not be taking existing prices and subtracting all costs they eliminate. There are additional costs ultimately for the distributors (bandwidth and others). But more importantly, the entire goal of moving towards new digital formats is that there is greater convenience for the consumer as well.

So... what you do is this: try to establish a price you think the consumer will pay while still ensuring some profit.

That's fair. I don't think all the conveniences are here yet, and I don't think they've got it right yet. But Apple did a pretty good job with music. Maybe slightly more expensive, maybe slightly less, but worth it for the convenience, simplicity, and ability to grab singles.

Presumably the same can be done with movies in some form. It's not just a matter of: it's got to be much, much cheaper.

[Jeffrey M Foster @ Jul 19th 2006 6:40PM]

"First of all, yes, we all enjoy the cover art of DVD's. Some people even like to show them off. But, I am in college and my tiny apartment dosen't seem to have enough space for 200+ DVD cases. "

I have bookshelves full of books, and another full of DVDs (and videotapes, and even about 30 laserdiscs, haha) ...Space is not an issue at all.

and i'm exactly the type of fool that RE-buys in new formats (the movie studio's prime customer) ...i have The Fifth Element on VHS, Laserdisc, DVD, Superbit DVD, and in about 6 months, BluRay.

Even though 18-24 year olds are a great market demographic, i somehow doubt the space-saving college dorm market is really where the DVD money comes from . (in fact i think that a majority of pirating comes from there.)
The way to get into that market, where physical space is an issue, is to stay all digital. What use do you have, really, for a DVD collection, when theoretically you could have a single xbox-sized device with a digital catalogue of thousands of movies? How about an iPod sized devices?

[Jeffrey M Foster @ Jul 19th 2006 6:40PM]

i just really dont think there is a market for buying DVDs that you have to burn yourself, then come up with some sort of storage mechanism yourself, for TWICE the cost of buying it in the walmart bargain bin.

Now if these movies were a flat-rate $9, and their catalogue of movies was ENORMOUS, along with new releases being available 0-day, with VERY fast connection speeds, we might have something.

...but starting it out with back-catalogue bargain movies at (what i consider, for the market) premium pricing, this thing is just destined to flop.

also: "Burnable titles start at $8.99" ....Starting? what do you think they'll charge for New Releases that WEREN'T boxoffice flops?

how about this: "as of May 2, 2005, Movielink no longer supports Windows 98 and ME operating systems. Movielink also does not support Mac or Linux."

that's pathetic - give me a break.

[RagnarokAngel @ Jul 19th 2006 7:04PM]

What about "the industry" cutting costs severly for competetive pricing in China to Piracy with boxes and coverart, for somewhere near half the price...

Sounds a lot like gougeing to me also.

(BTW I don't think ANY website should support Windows ME, let alone that anyone should own it)

[bartsimpson @ Jul 19th 2006 8:33PM]

Speed?????

They say it will take 3 hours to download!!!

Best buy and Blockbuster are 10mins away.

[sxesean @ Jul 19th 2006 11:14PM]

haha its called dvd x-copy

[Mike @ Jul 20th 2006 5:01AM]

The way I look at this, there are already three kinds of DVDs: the film, the film-Special Edition and the box set. I don't see how downloads can compete with the last two of these, unless there is a significant price advantage with the possibility of downloading the DVDs covers and booklets.

For the film only, many of the other posters have it right: why pay $9 plus however many hours it takes to download, when you can pop over to your local store and get even more for less than half price in a matter of minutes?

Sure, some people may go for this, but, isn't there an expression "another sucker is born every minute" or something like that?

[Skrilla @ Jul 20th 2006 9:30AM]

I have been doing this for years for free, why would I want to start paying $9+? Suck it MPAA!

[Brian Baxendale @ Jul 21st 2006 12:44AM]

Their wonderful new DRM has been cracked already. The DVDs that "cannot be copied" launched yesterday by CinemaNow are showing up on YouTube (see http://youtube.com/watch?v=RZ6HZtq3GXY). So much for their great copy protection.

[Zhao Wen Xio @ Jul 28th 2006 11:20AM]

About 5 years too late.
The industry is just now trying to recover money spent to illegal movie exchange and dl thru P2P clients.

If these same companies weren't so greedy and had offered movies for legal dl in the first place maybe they could have set a precidence instead of being followers.

[Aaorn @ Aug 2nd 2006 4:45PM]

The one thing I think you also have to consider is the cost of the DVD media. Most DVD's that you buy from the store are dual layer, do you know how much DL DVD's are?!? Then you have to have a DL-DVD-RW drive. When you add it all up, your better off buying the DVD off the shelf at walmart or the first day of release when it is on sale.