News Item: Movie Downloads on PCs...

Discussion in 'Visual Arts' started by nukevor, Jun 14, 2004.

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  1. nukevor

    nukevor Active Member Thread Starter

    Location:
    CA
    Maybe in a few years when all the kinks are ironed out.
    There's a Netflix connection in here as well. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

    Service to offer movies over Net
    RealNetworks, Starz Encore Group team up in venture
    - Benny Evangelista, Chronicle Staff Writer
    Monday, June 14, 2004
    http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2004/06/14/BUG9974EU61.DTL&type=printable

    RealNetworks Inc., hoping to build on the momentum started by Internet music services such as iTunes, Napster and its own Rhapsody, plans to offer another form of online entertainment -- downloadable movies.

    The Seattle online media software company is teaming with premium cable television movie service Starz Encore Group LLC of Englewood, Colo., for a subscription service that lets movie fans rent films like "Pirates of the Caribbean'' and "Finding Nemo'' by downloading them to their computers.

    The two companies plan to start the service, called Starz Ticket on Real Movies,' today. The service, which costs $12.95 per month, is only available to PC users with high-speed Internet access.

    The firms first announced plans for the new service in December 2002. But executives said the timing hasn't been right until now, when broadband Internet access has spread to about 26 million U.S. homes.

    And the success of licensed music services like Apple Computer's iTunes Music Store and RealNetwork's Rhapsody against free but unlicensed file- sharing networks like Kazaa "show consumers are willing to pay for online content,'' said Richard Wolpert, RealNetwork's chief strategy officer.

    The new service will offer a selection of at least 100 new major Hollywood movies and older films that are released to the home video market at the same time as they are on the Starz cable channels, which reach about 23 million homes with digital cable. About 25 percent of the selection is replaced weekly with new films.

    The movies, which are about 600 MB each and take an average of 20 minutes to download, are played back in "near DVD quality'' on the computer, Wolpert said. A movie like "Pirates of the Caribbean'' takes longer to download because it takes up 700 MB of hard drive space. Subscribers can download as many films as their computers can store. To prevent piracy, however, the movies can't be transferred out of the computer.

    The new service will compete against two existing online movie services, Movielink LLC and CinemaNow Inc. Movielink, a joint venture of several big Hollywood studios, has attracted about 100,000 users per month for its service, which rents movies that can be downloaded individually for $1.99 to $5.99 each. Earlier this month, the service began offering TV cartoon classics like "Speed Racer.'' CinemaNow offers similar pay-per-download service and a subscription service that charges $9.95 per month or $49.95 per year.

    But Wolpert said unlike the other services, which have restrictions such as limiting playback of a movie to a 24- or 48-hour period, or requiring a continual Internet connection, the Starz-Real service will allow subscribers to watch new releases an unlimited number of times during the period they are available to Starz. For example, a newly released movie downloaded at the start of that period could be available for playback for a month and a half, he said.

    Subscribers will also be able to watch movies shown on one of the Starz cable channels that will be streamed over the Internet.

    The online service is expected to find new customers who may not subscribe to the Starz cable offerings, said spokesman Tom Southwick. The service is expected to initially attract fans who download films into laptops "and watch in the car or on airplanes,'' Southwick said. "That's not something you can do currently with cable.''

    The service could also compete with Netflix Inc., the Los Gatos firm that has attracted more than 2 million subscribers. For a monthly fee, Netflix subscribers pick a selection of DVD movies online and the discs are sent and returned by mail. Like Netflix, the Starz-Real service allows unlimited viewing and has no late return fees, but eliminates the need to mail a disk, Wolpert said.

    The quality of the downloaded movies isn't as sharp as a DVD, and subscribers will have to find a way to hook up their computer to a regular TV if they don't want to be limited to a small monitor or laptop. Silicon Valley firms have long sought to bridge the gap between the computer and TV.

    Mike McGuire, media research director at GartnerG2, said it's too early to tell whether the subscription or pay-per-download methods will succeed. But he said the new Starz-RealNetworks venture is a "pretty interesting step forward'' in the delivery of digital entertainment over the Internet and could be a bellwether for future services.

    And the new service shows the movie industry has learned its lesson from the music industry, which has been rocked by the popularity of online music file-sharing.
    "What you have to give them credit for is rather than pretending (illegal movie downloading) doesn't exist on the Internet, they're making a decision to try to embrace this and figure out a way to get their part of the revenue from this new distribution system,'' McGuire said.

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  2. Beatle Terr

    Beatle Terr Super Senior SH Forum Member Musician & Guitarist

    I see many problems with this up ahead. I love my Video Store. After all I own it! :shh:
     
  3. Michael

    Michael I LOVE WIDE S-T-E-R-E-O!

    It's s win-win situation for THEM:rolleyes: On the flip, I believe Panasonic 's DVD standalone recorder has a 120 gig HD...at least one can OWN the movie recorded on the HD! Who wants to be tied down to a PC monitor? Not I...Indeed! Hogwash...
     
  4. Anthology123

    Anthology123 Senior Member

    The only way this could work is to make a Tivo device that can access on-line the movie list and safely download it to your Tivo and you can show it on your home theater or TV, not a computer screen.
     
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