Download burners expected in Q1
More burning issues: Audio-tech good guys Sonic Solutions confirmed they’re bringing to market a technology that allows video downloaders to copy their content to discs that’ll play on standard DVD players.
The news comes just days after the DVD Copy Control Assn. announced it had cleared software that allows burned discs of downloads to be played on home-system DVD players. Burners and discs utilizing the Sonic Solutions Qflix software aren’t expected until sometime in the first quarter. Blu-ray player maker Pioneer and Dell computers are lined up as supporters of the technology, the L.A. Times reported.
“It removes the last real obstacle toward on-demand movie purchase,” said Van Baker of Gartner Inc. “You don’t have to go to a store anymore. You can just log on, say “I want this for my library, and away you go.”
“It’s not going to take the world by storm, because people haven’t been screaming about the fact that they have to go to the store to buy a DVD,” Baker said.
Sonic Solutions’ press release says the players will run on “new drives by companies such as DataPlay, Pioneer, PLDS (Philips &Lite-On Digital Solutions Corp.), Plextor, TSST (Toshiba Samsung Storage Technology Corp.), and others using special blank discs being released by Mitsubishi Kagaku Media (MKM)/Verbatim, and RITEK.”
Dave Habiger, president and CEO of Sonic Solutions, said: “By creating a system that combines the convenience of electronic delivery with the simplicity and compatibility of DVD, we are helping the industry deliver to consumers a far greater range of content than ever before – at home, online, or at their favorite retail location.”
Further Sonic Solutions spin went like so: “Qflix Pro also enables retailers to broaden the number of movies by augmenting physical product with on-demand DVD creation kiosks in their stores. The consumer version of Qflix provides a long-awaited downloading and burning solution for movies and premium video content in computers and consumer electronic devices such as set-top boxes, networked DVD recorders, and DVRs.”
Online video: Networks play musical chairs
A lot of spinning and dancing in the past week as the Big 4 TV networks try to find promotion-friendly digital outlets for their content.
Some of the activity no doubt is linked to the beginning of the fall season, and some comes in response to the NBC Universal feud with Apple. Change is good — at least for online downloaders and streaming video viewers.
- ABC (Disney) teams up with AOL for free online viewing of the alphabet network’s top shows. New and current primetime series will go online a day after they air. Up to four episodes of a shows will be up for viewing at a time. Anne Sweeney, president of the Disney-ABC Television Group, told the Wall Street Journal that the move would protect the network’s shows from piracy and appeal to both advertisers and affiliates. The scheme allows for insertion of a local ad or two along with the network’s national pitches. This calms down affiliates, who are good and worked up over alternative digital distribution channels.
- NBC creates NBC Direct, which makes the network’s hit programs available for downloading the same day they’re broadcast. Computer users can have the programs sent to them. The online network TV service looks like it’s up and running.
- Fox routes season debuts of its shows to iTunes for free downloading. Making the premieres available as a one-off is a bid to woo iTunes customers to Fox for future episodes — or to get them to pay for them online. Freebie shows on the iTunes store as of this morning include pilots for “K-Ville” and “Back to You.” No expiration on these episodes and users are free to route them onto their iPods.
Network TV chiefs insist that what looks very much like a Keystone cops routine, perhaps inspired by NBC’s petulant pullout from iTunes, is in fact a sea change in the way networks look at distribution.
Fox’s William Bradford, a content strategy suit, told AP: “I wouldn’t call it fumbling around. We are trying a lot of different things and there is a lot of learning that the TV industry is going through.”
Burn baby burn: Download copying OK’d
Downloaders soon will be able to legally burn discs of movies and TV shows they buy from CinemaNow, Movielink, Unbox and some of their rivals.
The industry watchdog DVD Copy Control Association said it will release software allowing the burned discs to be played on home system DVDs players. The content burned onto a disc cannot be daisy-chained, or copied again.
“This is great news,” CinemaNow chieftain Curt Marvis told the L.A. Times. “We expect the proliferation of burners that can burn these types of discs.”
The process of linking computers to TV screens to play movies hasn’t thrilled many consumers. Even using a device such as Apple TV, the images can look crappy and weirdly framed — good for Starwars Kid but not “Star Wars.” Presumably, the download-to-burn content will permit reproduction that’s competitive with studio DVDs.
The DVD CCA is the same bunch that enforces regional controls on DVDs, allowing distributors to control release patterns around the world. Multiregion DVD players, common overseas, are needed to override that control.
Update : Audio good guys Sonic Solutions detailed their download-burner software technology and said players should be hitting the market in the first quarter.
Movie Downloads. 100% Legal. No membership fees.
NBC Universal going Direct to consumers
Fresh from feuding with Apple’s iTunes Store, NBC Universal announced Wednesday that it would allow many of its hit shows to be downloaded via personal computer.
The new “NBC Direct” makes shows available for download the day they’re broadcast. Computer users can watch the programming over a seven-day period. After that, the files self-destruct, much like the short-lived disposable DVD rental scheme of a few years back.
“Kind of like ‘Mission: Impossible,’ only I don’t think there would be any explosion and smoke,” NBC Universal Television Group chieftain Jeff Gaspin told the New York Times.
Consumers can have the shows sent to them. They will contain ads that can’t be fast-forwarded past. NBC plans to offer downloads for pay next year, as it did via iTunes. The network recently put its new shows’ pilots on Amazon’s Unbox for free.
Service is set to roll out in October and November.
Sorry Mac users, you’ll have to wait in line — for the foreseeable, this deal is PC-Windows only.
Xbox Live plays for BBC content
The BBC and Microsoft are in talks for the British pubcaster to offer video on the Xbox Live Video Marketplace.
“We are working diligently on multiple fronts to make it happen,” said Ross Honey, senior director for media at Microsoft’s content and partner strategy group. “The BBC is a great content provider.” His comments appeared in the Sunday Times.
The BBC’s “Planet Earth” (pictured) has been a sensational seller in the high-definition DVD formats HD DVD
It wasn’t clear if British audiences would be able to access the content due to U.K. restrictions linked to its public TV license fee.
Hat tip to our friends at the digital media site last100.
