CinemaNow
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CinemaNow all growed up, has its first PMP on the way from Zoran
Deets are slim at this moment, but Zoran is prepping a new OEM PMP that's designed to party down with CinemaNow, among other services. With a portable component, short of any fancy haxoring, CinemaNow gets a little more cred, but there's no telling if this will be enough to compete with a market now populated by Wal-Mart, Amazon and of course Apple. The player itself supports WiFi via a SDIO card, and sports its own HDD of indeterminate size, along with that plentiful amount of screen real estate. The player is also designed to work with the PassAlong Networks music store services. That's all we know for now, but we'll be keeping an eye out for Zoran and its partners.
Qflix brings CSS to download-to-burn DVDs: a new day has dawned
It's been a long time coming, but the major Hollywood studios have finally agreed to amend the CSS (content scrambling system, found on store-bought DVDs) licensing restrictions to include support for both commercial and private download-to-burn options. First mentioned last summer, this new agreement uses technology from Sonic Solutions called Qflix (initially adopted by Movielink) to slap that good ol' digital lock on discs that consumers burn either on their PCs or at in-store kiosks like the ones Wal-Mart and other big box retailers have been planning for some time now. Of course you can already burn downloaded flicks to DVD through CinemaNow's aptly-titled "Burn to DVD" service, but compatibility issues have relegated this option to merely a stopgap solution. While Qflix burns should be readable by any old player that supports CSS, the downside is that new media and -- in some cases -- new drives will be required to perform this neat little trick (some current burners can apparently be made Qflix-compatible through firmware upgrades). Besides the studios, other companies that are down with Qflix include disc manufacturer Verbatim, video-on-demand provider Akimbo, your friendly neighborhood Walgreens, and of course, Movielink. It's not clear when consumers will start seeing this these new devices and kiosks in the wild, but rest assured that you'll soon have a way to spend those 10 to 15 minutes waiting for your prescription that doesn't involve sitting next to a bunch of sick people in a germ-ridden pleather chair.
Sony moving forward with video download service
GI.biz is reporting that Sony is finally revamping its pledge to bring PSP owners more video content. With the UMD format dead, Sony is looking towards digital distribution. Strangely, it appears that Sony is avoiding their failing music store, Connect, and are in talks with other content providers, such as Amazon's Unbox, MovieLink and CinemaNow. Unlike downloadable PSone games, which require the purchase of a PLAYSTATION 3, the movies will be downloaded to a PC and then transferred to the PSP.This move gives PSP more of an edge in its continuing struggle against Apple's iPod and iTunes Store. Apple's iTunes Store offers a wide assortment of downloadable movies from big-name partners like Disney, but the iPod itself currently features only a 4:3 screen, making it less than ideal for movies. Sony's PSP will provide a better movie-watching experience, but users will be responsible for purchasing sufficient flash memory. With Microsoft also providing video content downloads via Zune and Xbox Live Marketplace, this battle is sure to be an interesting one.[Via Joystiq]
CinemaNow and Universal team up for same-day DVD burning
Unbox and iTunes have been getting all the attention lately, but movie download "veterans" like CinemaNow still have a few tricks up their sleeves. CinemaNow is still the only service to allow DVD burning of select downloaded films, and now they're about to get their first same-day title, which will be downloadable and burnable the very same day the retail DVD hits stores. Universal Pictures is providing the pic, "The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift," for a CinemaNow-standard $9.99, and everybody else will be watching from the sidelines to see how such an "unprecedented" release affects the market. We can't quite seem to muster as much excitement for the release, but maybe that's because such a thing is so long overdue -- it's hard to argue with it being a decent evolutionary step in the realm of online video distribution. Now if CinemaNow could just get the infernal things to play.[Via Ars Technica]
DVD Copy Control Association to lighten DVD restrictions
It only took them, what, 10 years? The DVD Copy Control Association is finally setting about loosening some of the restrictions they've had on DVD copying -- at least to an extent. It doesn't sound like they have any plans to expand usage rights for consumers (perish the thought!), so we're guessing burning copies of a disc for backup purposes is still going to be less than legit. What they are planning to do is license their Content Scramble System (CSS) to Online distributors and makers of in-store kiosks, to allow for the burning of full-fledged DVDs from legal downloads. They're also in talks with media manufacturers to produce CSS-compatible blank DVDs for use with the services. We're guessing this new tact will bring some improved compatibility for services like CinemaNow, who already offers DVD burning with their download service, and hopes are high for a DVD burning feature from Apple for that eternally-rumored movie download store.[Via DVD Newsroom, thanks Ann]
CinemaNow claims 94% of download-to-burn DVDs work
Somehow we had a feeling CinemaNow wouldn't take the news sitting down with regard to the claims espoused by an anonymous engineer who claims their new pseudo-DRMed download-to-burn DVD service is horribly, fatally flawed, and won't play but in any but the most robust standalone DVD boxes. CinemaNow shot back stating that the service has been "well received by our customers and studios alike," (ah, isn't that the trick?) and that tests had the burned DVDs working on "94 percent of DVD players." Which tests and using what DVD players we don't know, but somehow we don't expect to have that data readily divulged. Guess there's only one way to find out though, right? Download a marginally overpriced flick for about ten bucks, get yourself a spindle of DVD-Rs, and go to town. And while you're at it, howsabout letting us know how it worked out for ya by shouting it out in the comments, yeah?
CinemaNow DVD burning "irresponsibly defective"
If we sounded a little skeptical about CinemaNow's DRM-free DVD burning plans, there's good reason. One one side you have the content industry, which absolutely abhors the idea of allowing download-to-burn movies; on the other side, you've got CinemaNow trying to broker a deal to appease consumers without getting themselves sued, tarred, feathered, and caned. That deal they reached was to use fluxDVD's technology to take care of the magical DRM-less DRM that would allow customers to take their secure CinemaNow content and move it to a DVD which would play back in any old device Unfortunately, that vision may have been a little sanguine, since the reality is apparently turning out to be an "irresponsibly defective" solution, according to the report of an anonymous engineer. Apparently the burning technology deliberately introduces disc checksum errors when writing the disc, thus making the DVD both very difficult to copy, as well as making it nigh unplayable in most consumer DVD devices. And why are we not surprised this kind of solution is the compromise, hm?[Via Ars Technica]
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]
Movielink to allow movie transfers to DVDs?
Have you been shunning Movielink because you don't feel like watching all your movies on your PC screen? If so, you're obviously not alone. The missed business is making the online film distributor re-think their insistence on refusing burnability in their downloads; it's been discovered that software technology from Sonic Solutions has been purchased to presumably allow for the DRM-infested files to be burned to DVDs somehow playable in any off-the-shelf DVD player. This approach could get real sticky: how does it keep DRM implemented on native DVDs, how does it stop dupes from showing up everywhere, and at this point, will anyone even pay attention? It's already known that studios are already finding alternate ways to get their films to viewers over the 'net: Warner Bros. and Sony Pictures have already inked deals with Guba in hopes of making downloads feel a bit less restrictive. Whether this (supposed) change will be enough to revitalize Movielink remains to be seen; the bigger question, however, is whether there's actually that big of a pent up demand for a DVD download-and-burn service. [Via Digital Lifestyles]
Seven major studios line up to sell movies online
We have no idea why they chose today to do it, but today seven major movie studios announced they'll be selling movies online through Movielink and CinemaNow. Warner Bros, Universal, Sony, Paramount, Fox, and MGM will all be distributing first-run titles online -- definitely something they've never done before -- through Movielink for between 20 and 30 bones (way, way too much if you ask us), with older movies going for between $10 and $20. Lionsgate (and Sony) also announced distribution through CinemaNow. Really this was only a matter of time -- for these guys it was either sell these things online DRMed all to hell for way too much money (see above), go the subscription route (like Vongo, for example -- not likely) or continue whining without any justification whatsoever about pirates stealing movies in the Internet. At least now they can say they've legitimately offered their digital content up online (hey, you can even make a DVD backup for use only on Movielink-authorized computers), even though they still can't account for the artificial demand they try to create by releasing movies for purchase months after the films have gone out of theater.[Thanks, Phil]
