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Original material is licensed under a Creative Commons License permitting non-commercial sharing with attribution.
11/11/09
Titles: Currently Paramount and Warner titles, the rest of the studio contracts are in the works. So it's not just any no name movie that couldnt hack it in the theatre =) Should check your notes on that one Mark.
SD Cards: There are currently 100's of SD cards and as us techies know not one SD card is the same. The funny thing though is SDXC is coming out 2010, giving the ability to have up to 2TB on an SD card BUT of course thats not gonna happen anytime soon. BUT if you think about it a 32GB card which is the highest you can get right now COULD potentially fit 16 Movies since each movie is roughly 2.5GBs. Hey if your traveling and you are waiting 2 hrs before your international flight that is 14 hrs long and you have the ability to go to a kiosk and browse 1000's of titles and can download 3 movies to a 8GB card for $1.99 each u know thats better than watching the inflight movie that MOST likely was a movie that couldn't hack it in the theatre ie. Wolverine (Fail)
Deleting Content: Yup who the hell would want to accidentally delete peoples photos or files. You have to give the software developers a little bit of credit that they don't want to screw someone over. So yes deleting content from the kiosk it will only detect the movie file and won't delete your other files.
Current Model:Currently it's rental, price bounce around a bit they are trying a few different prices but entry is $1.99 for a movie that consumers have 30 days to watch once they watch they have 48 hrs before it expires. When it expires they don't need to go back to the store to return anything. Next time they go in the system will recognize that the SD card has expired content and will ask if you would like to delete the movie.
Playback: SD Cards on movies, who the hell would want to do that? SD Cards are for pictures..duh...ya thats a pretty small box you are thinking in right now Mark. An SD card is a storage device just like USB stick, just like a portable external hard drive that we all have bit torrented movies on. You can put anything on an SD card, and if we take a look at all the hardware that is being developed right now, laptops, net books, PMP devices, Phones (micro-sd), TVs. They all are coming out with an SD slot. The iphone argument is very prominent everyone argues "hey i can download it on itunes, i've got an Iphone." the issue though is apple only holds a small percentage of the market. Comeon now you know better than that Mark. And the streaming arguement get that all the time, netflix, xbox360, bit torrent. Valid arguements, bandwidth def getting better but at the same time though, it's not as portable as and SD card. Sure you got wifi coming to airlines, but how soon will that actually be prevalent with all airlines? The other issue is, could airlines charge you an arm and a leg to stream movies? Since you are goign to take up a lot of bandwidth? Current playback is a single device, yup, 1 device a set top box that shows proof of concept to say to the OEM manufacturers and hardware manfacturers and software dev that hey you know what this is real. SD cards/Micro Sd cards can be used for something different. By 2010 PC playback App, and other devices will fall in to play. So yes we can look at this current tech and argue a lot and say HAHAHA this is a ridiculous idea, but is it really that ridiculous? SD cards are only getting better with SDXC coming out, and then you have USB 3.0 coming out that will enhance download speeds. Since a movie currently downloads 1gb : 1min with a specific card again going back to the card issue, but as we move forward cards get better they get cheaper in reality this proof of concept is following the tech and if you look at the bigger picture it actually makes a lot of sense.
So Mark, great article, it's easy to say BB this is a ridiculous idea but we all know optical media is going to stick around for a long time and actual streaming of media isn't going to be prevalent for a while since we aren't Japan or Korea where broadband is a requirement. Not everyone streams movies every single day, and to get good speeds to download well you have to pay what $60/month? Most of the time it's just to surf the web, chit chat on our gchat how many people TRULY stream movies right now? So I would recommend taking a look at this one more time review the technology maybe ask a few more questions because it sounds like you asked the janitor that was cleaning the block office that over heard that bb might be trying somethnig new. I would expect better journalism than this from a Giz writer. =) #blockbuster
11/11/09
Again total technical trial, I'm pretty sure they are accepting all forms of constructive criticism boomingEchoes brings up a good point, if it's a little flawed doesn't mean they can't improve on the idea. Who would want a product that is flawed, thats a fail. Always want to make it better. #blockbuster
11/10/09
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11/10/09
For me, they'll need to overcome three hurdles before I'll start renting them:
1. They need to include all of the bonus content that typically would be left out on rentals.
2. They need to be actual DVDs.
3. They need to be selling them instead of renting them. #blockbuster
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11/11/09
Best Buy, Target, Walmart, and a host of smaller store chains would beg to differ. It's not that people aren't buying them because they're downloading them. It's that people aren't buying them _there_ because Blockbuster just isn't the place people think of when they want to go buy a movie or TV show on DVD. I don't know if their price structure is based on the fact that they'd rather have you pay them money for something that they can keep selling to the next dozen people who walk into the store, or if it's based on the fact that there's just not enough movement on that side of the business to make it worth adopting a more enticing price structure.
What I do know is that mall-based stores are prone to charging full MSRP on everything, while the big retail chains tend to discount heavily off of that price point. I bought the first few seasons of Babylon 5 at Sam Goody because they were the only ones who stocked it. I stopped buying anything there once I could start knocking $20 off the price of a box set by shopping elsewhere. And within a couple years they closed up shop (I'm sure that was because Best Buy moved into town, and not because of the small amount of business they lost with me). #blockbuster
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11/10/09
And doesn't the external ports like the sd card slot lead to greater risk of the machine being hacked? #blockbuster
11/10/09
11/10/09
Can digital rentals do that?? #blockbuster
11/10/09
11/10/09
Randal Graves: Hermaphroditic porn. Starlets with both organs. You should see the box. Beautiful chicks with dicks that put mine to shame.
Dante Hicks: And you rented this?
Randal Graves: Hey, I like to expand my horizons.
11/10/09
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11/10/09
I'd be more concerned about the DRM scheme they're using -- if I can't play it on my Myth box, there's no point.
Also, they probably should provide this online as well as in kiosks, but I won't hold my breath for Blockbuster to get that idea. #blockbuster
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11/10/09
They already "have an app for that"... Its called itunes. #blockbuster
11/10/09
11/12/09
But no way would apple ever approve another movie rental app, itunes is its #1 app for making money, hell the app store resides inside of itunes.
But then again they allowed pandora which I know is a lot different then Itunes, but it still plays music... #blockbuster
11/10/09
11/10/09
It's more cumbersome, but I can all but guarantee you, more folks are carrying around DVD drives than folks with extra SD cards.
It would cost a bit more, too, but hey they can afford it. Think of all the money they're saving from closing all those stores! .....wait.. #blockbuster
11/10/09
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11/10/09
"Oh, hey, what is this thing? A Blockbuster kiosk? Cool! I was bored and also I wanted to watch a movie! What? I need to bring my own SD card and/or buy a super-expensive one from this kiosk or the general shop over yonder? Well, shucks! I do not have that kind of money. I guess I will simply have to remember to intentionally bring an SD card for the specific purpose of watching a movie the next time that I pass through an airport."
*second time through the airport*
"Shit!" #blockbuster