Lionsgate first to sign content deal with XStreamHD
By Ben Drawbaugh 
posted July 14th 2010 10:00AM
posted July 14th 2010 10:00AM
XSTREAMHD SIGNS DISTRIBUTION AGREEMENT WITH LIONSGATE® TO DIGITALLY DELIVER THE LATEST FULL HD MOVIES TO CONSUMERS
XStreamHD Offers Consumers the Ultimate Convenience with Access to Thousands of Cinema-Class Quality Titles in the Comfort of Their Homes
McLean, VA and Santa Monica, CA – July 14, 2010 – XStreamHD, an emerging leader in the delivery and distribution of Full HD entertainment directly to the home, announced that it has entered into a long-term Electronic Sell-Thru and Video-on-Demand home entertainment distribution agreement with Lionsgate (NYSE: LGF), the leading next generation studio and distributor of motion pictures. The agreement will enable XStreamHD to offer its customers the ability to digitally purchase or rent, the latest HD releases from Lionsgate, as well as provide access to Lionsgate's content library of over 12,000 titles.
XStreamHD's ground-breaking whole-home HD entertainment system delivers Full 1080p HD video and up to 7.1 channels of lossless DTS-HD Master Audio™ directly to the home via satellite, enabling consumers to enjoy the very latest entertainment, in uncompromised Full HD, exceeding the quality of physical media. Additionally, every XStreamHD customer has exclusive multi-room access to Pre-Fetched Entertainment (PFE), which provides unparalleled convenience by automatically delivering just-released HD entertainment directly to each user's personal library based upon their individual user preferences and advance title selections.
"Our partnership with XStreamHD presents us with a new opportunity to distribute our content in the digital marketplace," said Lionsgate Executive Vice President of Distribution and Digital Jon Ferro. "Our decision to distribute our titles through XStreamHD reflects our commitment to offer consumers the highest quality home entertainment and access to our enormous library of titles."
"We are excited to provide our customers with access to Full HD digital cinema, on the DVD release date, from the Lionsgate library of daring, original and high quality titles," stated George Gonzalez, president and CEO of XStreamHD. "Our customers will enjoy unparalleled digital quality, access and convenience to HD entertainment without the hassles associated with slow Internet downloads or limited retailer inventory."
Consumers can pre-order either XStreamHD's FAST Start or PRO Start packages to receive priority shipment of the first release systems at HYPERLINK "http://www.XStreamHD.com" www.XStreamHD.com. The XStreamHD FAST Start package includes one HD Media Server with 1TB storage, one HD Media Receiver, RF One Remote Control, and all of the accessories, including one 3m High-Speed Cat2 certified HDMI cable and two 3m Cat5e Ethernet cables. The PRO Start package includes all of above plus customers will receive an upgraded HD PRO Media Receiver, which replaces the HD Media Receiver. The FAST Start package is priced at only $399 while the Pro Start package will be offered for $499. 2TB and 4TB storage configurations are also available with both starter packages.
So wait, I have to buy the equipment, pay a monthly service fee, and pay 3-6 bucks per title when I want to rent them? Shenanigans I say.
@admlshake Looks like it.... Look alot like it... Bullshit that is... No good reason what so ever to be paying a monthly fee PLUS EXTRA for the actual goods?.... Lame i say
@admlshake - I was about to type exactly the same thing! Word for word!
so I buy a special 400 dollar device, pay $9 a month, AND I still have to pay $3 to $6 for rentals?? Sounds like a winner!
@Tony Clifton
Winner of annual crapfest!
Wait what? So you have to pay to pay to play?
Or Netflix could start offering less compressed HD selections and push better than DVD quality audio and I'd be happy. I'm not paying them for hardware + fee + rental costs.
@DizWhiz Or netflix could stop showing Trash on their streaming service and give us an up to date movie selection.
Netflix streaming = All you can eat Documentaries.
@ComboBreaker or you could get better taste in movies. or watch the blu-rays, that you can also get through netflix.
I predict...failure
@chris2
I predict... for this price (after all is said and done) people will just end up buying the damn movie on blu-ray, watch it, and then sell it for some money back (oh yeah, and still come out ahead financially). Just my prediction!
Hey assholes, stop using three periods after your first two words. It's almost as bad as injecting your opinions in the middle of a sentence with parenthesis.
@memaf Shut up...
@memaf It's called an ellipsis.
@jo3lr0ck5
An ellipsis is used to omit words. What words were the poster omitting?
@memaf
Dear "memaf",
How about you keep your comments related to the article, rather than making personal attacks for no concern to you? While you're at it, maybe you can enrich your own vocabulary while you're at it. By the way, if you come across any big words and need some help with them, feel free to ask me how to pronounce them. Finally, just for you my dearest pal (...) (...) (...) this is a blog you pretentious idiot. If I were to write my comments in a formal letter to the company, rest assured, I will not use the "3 dots" as you call them. But as far as this goes, I'll write/post "my" comments however "I" want...and "you" worry about "you". If you don't understand what I just wrote, or are just too incompetent to understand that I am insulting you, let me put it in a way you will understand: you're a... "wait for it"... douche bag!
@memaf From the ever insightful wikipedia; "Ellipsis (plural ellipses; or "three little points of suspension"; from the Greek: ἔλλειψις, élleipsis, "omission") is a mark or series of marks that usually indicate an intentional omission of a word in the original text. An ellipsis can also be used to indicate a pause in speech, an unfinished thought, or, at the end of a sentence, a trailing off into silence (aposiopesis) (apostrophe and ellipsis mixed). When placed at the end of a sentence, the ellipsis can also inspire a feeling of melancholy longing. The ellipsis calls for a slight pause in speech."
I really like DTS Master Audio and high bitrate 1080p, but not their pricing model.
How about free device and no monthly service fee. only pay for renting cost then I'll consider.
I hope you guys realize that you need a 60-80Mbps connection to stream Blu Ray material (high bitrate 1080p + DTS-HD Master Audio). The cost of the internet bandwidth is the real problem...
@GreenEyez
whats the bandwidth for satelite?
@memaf yeah what memaf said, this service is supposed to use satellite AFAIK.
@hodedofome - Yup, my bad, i didn`t read the press release
These people expect to make money? That's why it has taken them 3 years to even come up with what they have now. Now if they are planning on putting brand new movies out there then that is a whole different story; for that I'll pay but not for movies that are weeks/months old. I'll stick to blockbuster for this.
@jo3lr0ck5
The deal is supposed to bring movies to the service the same day as DVD, that is what day and date with DVD means.
@BenD Isn't a movie being released on DVD weeks or rather months old? When I say new movies I'm talking about movies that are in theaters.
Sorry, between Redbox and Netflix this Xstream business model is outdated before its inception.
I suppose as compared to say buying a Kaleidescape, this service could be much less expensive (XStreamHD would need to bring all the studios on board however). I mean, Kaleidescape doesn't even support blu-ray in any meaningful way yet people spend $10-30k on those systems on top of the price of their movie library. If this service's video/audio quality is pretty on par with blu-ray then I could see myself looking at XStreamHD over a dedicated movie server. However, I'm not. So this is all just rambling:)
@hodedofome
The quality is very good, some of the movies in the demo were a higher bitrate than Blu-ray.
Nice idea, but way too expensive. I'm pretty sure they were forced into that pricing scheme by the movie studios to minimalize impact on physical disc sales.
@LANjackal
I think thats exactly whats going on here.
You can rent currently 720HD content from Zune and iTunes for just $6. 1080 doesn't make a huge difference with most movies, it is barely noticeable. You MAY only notice a little in computer animation movies. But 720 is as good as the definition you get at at movie theater or better. Plus what is the point of watching a movie in 1080p when you may have to actually reduce it because its aspect ratio is wider than 16:9, so the movie may have 1080 horizontal lines, but in order to fit it in your screen you are squeezing them in much less lines. Only if you zoomed and cropped the sides you would see line-to-line. Only 1080 movies filmed at 16:9 are worth it, if at all (some come with natural or artistic film granularity that actually defeats the purpose of 1080).
@ckeledjian Uhhh that depends on how close you're sitting to the screen and how big the screen is you're looking at. 1080p definitely makes a difference at a certain size/distance. 32" tv at 10 ft away? Yeah no. 100" screen at 10 ft away? Heck yes.
DOA
Just use the Vudu services, offers 1080p 24fps and no monthly fee.
@tkabal
Vudu is great for video quality, but the audio is only DVD quality (still beats the beejezus out of Netflix). With their recent emphasis on streaming rather than pre-loading onto a hard disc based STB, they're leaving those of us in areas with lousy internet access behind. I have their STB, and wonder just how long they're going to keep supporting me.
XStreamHD could be just the thing people in areas without broadband access. That's the only audience I can think of for it though.
@UnknownUser
Vudu is DD+ which is better than DVD, but yeah, still not as good as DTS-HD that XStreamHD uses.
Red Box has plans to rent Blu-Rays for $1.50 a pop. How is this better?
I want to have Netflix's baby.
Wow, Delta Farce, Crank 1&2, Hulk, Brothers, and Good Luck Chuck?! Where do I sign up? I want to pay a lot for horrible movies.