Gizmodo: movielink

Blockbuster OnDemand Download Service Coming to Blu-ray Players, Soon

John Herrman — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 07:26:46 EST

Netflix streaming has been making waves with its wide, fast integration into just about anything that'll have it, and the reception has been generally positive. As has been the pattern for the last decade, Blockbuster is slightly but embarrassingly behind: according to company Chairman Jim Keyes, we'll be seeing Blockbuster's download-to-rent service in a Blu-ray player by Q1 of next year. It's not clear if this will come in the form of a firmware update for existing hardware or as part of a new player, but it'll need to be fairly ubiquitous (and probably lower its rental prices) to have a fighting chance against the 'Flix. [RegHardware]

Blockbuster Beta-Testing Movielink Downloads

Jason Chen — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 11:30:00 EDT

Blockbuster may be planning in-store download kiosks, but their recent beta-testing of Movielink downloads seems like they're aiming for at-home downloads as well. They've picked 500 Total Access customers to test out the $2 rental, $8 purchase system from Movielink, which will allow customers to rent when flicks hit video-on-demand, and buy when they hit DVD. It's fairly interesting that Blockbuster will charge extra for movies when Netflix is going with a free, albeit limited, streaming service. We'd like Blockbuster to follow suit. [Dallas News]

Blockbuster Planning In-Store Movie Download Kiosks

Matt Buchanan — Fri, 09 Nov 2007 03:30:42 EST

Blockbuster really is falling back hard on its B&M outlets, so hard they're missing half the point of digital distribution, which is not having to drive to the store to grab a movie. Part of their revival plan is to install kiosks at B&M stores where you can download movies straight to your portable media player. Awesome! Except that I have one of those at my house: a computer.

I wouldn't really call having to trudge all the way to a Blockbuster location to jack my iPod or whatever player into a big blue box to download a movie "bypassing the need for...transferring videos from a computer." It takes the worst aspect of each form of distribution—leaving your easy chair and middling quality video that's not easy to throw up on my TV—and combines them into one totally not ideal experience. Better idea on Blockbuster's part: integrating MovieLink's direct download store with the Blockbuster site and services. That's the way digital distribution is supposed to work. If I come to your store, I expect to walk out with a piece of shiny plastic. [Electronista, Flickr]

Blockbuster/Netflix Blood Rivalry Gets Bloodier: Blockbuster Buys Movielink

Matt Buchanan — Thu, 09 Aug 2007 05:23:54 EDT

Blockbuster's acquisition of Movielink makes it a bit late to the IP VOD party, but we get the feeling the goal isn't so much to break new ground as it is to plant their feet more firmly in their showdown-to-the-death with Netflix.

In the deal, Blockbuster also picked up the rights to show flicks owned by Movielink's now-former owners, which include Warner Bros., MGM, and Paramount, giving it something of a leg up on Netflix's service, which has a slightly limited selection.

The war's only going to get uglier until it gets better, and by better, we mean when Netflix rolls out that set-top box we've been drooling over for God knows how long. [NYT]

ExtremeTech Puts Movie Download Sites to the Test

Louis Ramirez — Wed, 03 Jan 2007 18:01:12 EST

We all know about the Internet's illegal movie sites, but what's a law-abiding netizen to do if they want a quick movie fix from the comfort of their PC. ExtremeTech has gone through the trouble of taking five of today's most popular movie services out for a spin.

Their verdict...?

CinemaNow

CinemaNow is the most mature movie download site we've reviewed, and the only to let you burn DVDs of Hollywood content that will play in a regular DVD player.

We Say: CinemaNow is MS' bitch, requiring both IE Explorer and Windows Media Player 10, but it's one of the few to offer adult content. Respect.

MovieFlix

MovieFlix has no player/manager software that you need to download. It relies on its web site and RealPlayer to get you the movies you want.

We Say: At $7.95/month it's one of the cheapest out there, and it works with Macs. But as ET points out, it requires the use of RealPlayer's ghetto popup-loving player.

Vongo

Lots of movies and shows included for $9.99 a month, but you can't purchase movies permanently and the selection doesn't include current DVD blockbusters.

We Say: Hope you like Pretty Woman cause those are the kinda movies you'll be watching.

Movielink

Does a good job of getting you recent, popular titles at decent resolution...but there's no subscription option to access a library of films.

We Say: Good for those afraid of commitment.

Amazon Unbox

We found Unbox to be one of the best services we tested, in terms of ease of use, content selection, and picture quality.

We Say: Granted, Amazon offers the most flexibility when it comes to movie download sites, but personally we prefer to get our movies via our Xbox 360 especially since MS made the smart choice of tempting us with HD downloads (of the movie sites above only CinemaNow offers HD content, and not a good selection either).

– Louis Ramirez
Which Movie Download Site is Best [ExtremeTech]

MovieLink Live, Does not Support Macs

johnb — Mon, 03 Apr 2006 14:00:11 EDT

We know, we know... 99.99% of computer users can't be wrong, but we don't use Windows much anymore, cause we're too cool. Let's have a little user interactivity here and why don't you all tell us a bit about the MovieLink site in comments.

We're actually taking a conference call today at 1PM to discuss it further, but the gist is this: downloadable movies to rent or buy. The conspiracy theorist in us says that the timing of this launch was probably a jab at Apple seeing as how we all expected an iPod AV this weekend and didn't get it.

The first DVD with concurrent Movielink release will be Brokeback Mountain and the service allows you to view downloads on up to three computers, copy the content to a DVD, or stream it via Windows MCE.

Pricing is a little rough. $26.99 for Walk the Line. We love us some Johnny, but Amazon.com is looking awfully tempting.

Press Release [BusinessWire]
Product Page [Movielink]