All in the game: downloads via Xbox 360
The best player for movie downloads on the market: the Xbox 360
From setup to signup, to selecting a title and starting the show with a press of the remote’s play button, the Xbox 360 is simple. It is as easy to use as the on-demand and pay-per-view services familiar to most watchers of cable or satellite TV. … But at $400 for the model that includes a hard disk, which is needed to download movies, the Xbox is a big investment. If you aren’t a gamer, it is hard to justify spending that amount just to watch a few movies.
Writer Joe Hutsko notes that Xbox Live has 165 titles available for “rental.” A Microsoft spokesman vows there would be at least a title every day added to the service. The Xbox 360 elite, due this winter with its 120-gig hard drive, will make more video-related activities possible.
The story is pretty basic but a decent roundup of movie download options. It goes through the alternatives — the usual suspects such as MovieLink, CinemaNow, Vongo, the Unbox and the only Mac-friendly system, Apple TV.
There are scores of alternatives, but at this stage the movie selection is a factor for each one. Steve Swasey, a Netflix spokesman, said: “Whether it’s Netflix or Apple or Amazon or Wal-Mart.com, we’re all facing the same constraint: title availability.”
Not mentioned is the other advantage to the Xbox 360: its ability to play HD DVD movies. The format is on the run from Blu-ray, but this should be handy for a couple of more years anyway. The add-on HD DVD player
CinemaNow hears siren call of music
CinemaNow is getting back into the music video business, dueting with Warner Music Group. One problem: the $1.99 videos won’t work on your iPod or iPhone.
“This year, consumers headed to the Web for short-form content in record numbers, and we see great potential in music video downloads,” CinemaNow chieftain Curt Marvis says. The company made a watery attempt at the business a few years back with watchmusichere.com, which is being revived.
Music videos are free like air on the Web, but CinemaNow is banking on customers wanting copies that approach DVD quality instead of, say, a grainy video from YouTube.
The AP reports:
The relaunched site will feature about 1,600 videos exclusively from Warner until July 21. After that, additional videos from Warner and from other major record labels will be added to the site, the company said. Marvis said the files are designed to look good playing on a larger screen as well. Many portable players can connect to a TV either through a cable or a wireless connection.
Update:CinemaNow later signed a similar music video deal with Sony BMG Music Entertainment, EMI, and Sanctuary Records that includes European concert performances.