Netflix streaming videos now unlimited
Looks like it’s time to give Netflix another look, even if you don’t want to fool with those dorky red envelopes.
The mail-rental giant’s Watch Instantly feature today went to unlimited video streaming for almost all customers. Unless you’re paying $4.99 a month, you’re in. Previously there were caps on the number of online viewing hours. (Mac users, you get nothing — Windows only.)
Netflix says its streaming video library has about “6,000 familiar movies and TV episodes.” The main DVD library has something like 90,000 titles. I will be checking out the service via the 2-week trial offer. Self-serving ad link below.
As the world knows, Steve Jobs is about to announce movie rentals for iTunes in a few hours. This annual MacWorld speech has become a one-man CES for Apple and its competitors (last year it was the iPhone unveiling). Jobs’ rivals won’t let the man get onstage without a bunch of last-minute random vectors. First it was Amazon and its giant MP3 giveaway, now it’s Netflix.
Amazing to see the download/streaming universe expand so suddenly — in just six months — after years of slow growth. And much of the credit goes to, yep, Steve Jobs.
Clear case of bias: I sat in on a meeting with Jobs a few years back. Told him we loved his Macs, and he said he loved our web site and visited it daily. Cool guy. I’m a Mac owner as well but I put up with a PC laptop. And yeah, I own some Apple stock, too. Go stock.
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iTunes rental card: Disney, Fox, Par, WB
Studios on board for Apple’s new iTunes movie rentals are Walt Disney Studios, 20th Century Fox, Paramount Pictures and Warner Bros., the L.A. Times reported Sunday, citing “people familiar with the plans.”
The movie industry’s hometown paper usually gets this sort of thing right. That list of studios is similar to speculation here and there. Fox was the known partner in the new-deal iTunes Store.
Pricing will be $2.99 for older films to $5 for high-definition downloads, the Times said, again echoing earlier reports. The rentals hang around on your computer for a month, but once viewing has begin the file has 24 hours to live. Yeah, like “Mission Impossible.”
Steve Jobs hits the stage at Macworld at 9 Tuesday. I’ll be blogging it live and … Um, hold on. That’s 9 a.m. Tuesday. Blog amongst yourselves, sorry.
Linking up with CES video news
CES came and went without much drama beyond the Blu-ray victory, but the tech show’s odds and ends always are worth digging through. Dig:
Divx scored its first major content distribution deal, with Sony Pictures Television. “We are dedicated to finding legitimate outlets for our content and … are excited to be working with DivX,” said Michael Arrieta, exec vp at Sony. Interesting choice of words. DivX usually is seen in the company of pirates and copyright scoffers, but seeks to go legit with its cross-platform video download format. This is apparently the first time major studio content has flowed through DivX.
Divx also partnered up with D-Link for a media hub that wirelessly streams video content from the Net to your TV. Unlike Apple TV, no hard drive is involved. Also unlike Apple TV, HD is involved. Sorry Mac users, it’s Windows-only.
Comcast, one of those super-popular cable companies, debuted Fancast, a web site that’s part TV Guide, part IMDB, part Hulu. It’s still in marketing-friendly beta. The idea is you either watch the content there (usual suspects NBC, Fox, CBS — hey! more Hitchcock) or find out when your show is on. Or program your DVR from afar via the listings.
Comcast also broke out a video download process called wideband that allows really big movies to flow into your system in a little amount of time — say 4 minutes. They’re using 120 Mbps now while floating next-gen speeds of 160 Mbps or more. Catch cable chieftain Brian Roberts looking like a presidential hopeful on this video from his keynote. Yet another indication that the old-school guys realize our future isn’t going to involve shiny discs delivered via dinosaur fuel.
Envive Inc.’s TheaterStation is billed as a media server for people who never learned to program their VCRs. The $2,500 box comes with space for about 200 hours of DVD-quality video and is upgradable. The unit can handle high-def as well, delivered to the flatscreen via HDMI cables. View your own movies and buy some more via the same no-mouse onscreen interface. A pretty low price point for owning the consumer future right now, I’d say.
Marantz showed off its six-input HDMI switcher. Supports 1.3. Yep, we’ll be needing one. $350.
Samsung rolled out another HD DVD/Blu-ray combo player. Good luck, fellas. I’d be happy if my Samsung Blu-ray player played most Blu-rays successfully.
Engadget did a superior job covering the tech trade show. Check out their CES coverage and be amazed. Reuters has a low-fi CES slideshow.
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Xbox on Blu-ray: Let consumers vote
The past two days have seen speculation that Microsoft’s Xbox 360 could have built-in Blu-ray in its future. The new-generation Xbox consoles have an optional add-on HD DVD drive. Most Blu-ray players in consumers’ hands are built into PlayStation 3 machines.
“It should be consumer choice; and if that’s the way they vote, that’s something we’ll have to consider,” Albert Penello, group marketing manager for Xbox hardware, said today at CES. Start considering, gentlemen and ladies of the Great Northwest.
Meanwhile, Paramount was busy today denying published reports that it was bailing on HD DVD.
“Paramount’s current plan is to continue to support the HD DVD format,” Brenda Ciccone said in an e-mail to Bloomberg news wire.
The Financial Times of London reported that Paramount was ready to make the move in the wake of Warner Home Video’s decision to go Blu-ray exclusive. FT said Par had a contract clause allowing the studio to dump HD DVD if Warner left the format.
Paramount, Universal and DreamWorks Animation are the remaining HD DVD-only studios. Actually, it would be surprising if there wasn’t speculation about Paramount and Universal bailing, with the media trying to get the jump on what seems inevitable. Team HD DVD hastily canceled its dog-and-pony show at CES. Format creator Toshiba went onstage with a shaken exec. Poor guy.
Xbox Marketplace rings up Disney, ABC, MGM
The Xbox Live Marketplace is clearing shelf space for content from the Disney-ABC Television Group and the (sort of ) film studio MGM.
Later this month, about 500 hours of content from the ABC and Disney TV networks will surface, a chunk of it in HD. Shows include your basic hot sellers: “Lost,” “Hannah Montana,” “Desperate Housewives” and “Grey’s Anatomy.” Classic ABC news broadcasts and specials dating back to 1963 are in the mix as well.
The MGM films — “Rocky,” “Barbershop,” etc. — include titles from UA, which are getting a big DVD push this year. “Many” of the films in the Xbox deal will be in HD.
“The ability to offer such great content in high definition further expands Microsoft’s commitment to connected entertainment with Xbox 360,” press-released Robbie Bach, president of the Entertainment and Devices Division at Microsoft.
The annoucement came as the Consumer Electronics Show gets under way in Vegas. Xbox’s nemesis, Sony’s PlayStation 3, got a big boost late last week as Warner Home Video went Blu-ray exclusive, instead of continuing to output titles in both formats.
Meanwhile, Britain’s BT has hooked into the Xbox Marketplace, allowing BT customers to use the 360 console to access the BT Vision service and its library of on-demand video content. BT Vision customers with an Xbox 360 console now can get BT Vision from either the console or a set-top-box.
“For the first time consumers in the U.K. will be able to experience the advantages of an advanced TV service together with the benefits of next-generation gaming,” said Dan Marks, CEO of BT Vision, live via press release. So motivated couch potatoes can watch TV, voice chat, IM and segue over to games off the same interface. Cool.
No indication that this hookup will allow frustrated Brits to beat U.S. studio delays on release of movies and TV shows there.