Gizmodo: Rentals

iTunes Movie Purchases and Rentals Go to UK and Canada

Jason Chen — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 12:52:53 EDT

Apple's finally taken their movies to the UK and Canada, giving them 700 and 1200 films respectively to buy or rent. The flicks will be available the same day as their DVD release, and if you've got an Apple TV, you can watch 100 (UK) or 200 (Canada) of them in HD on your TV. Both countries have the standard 30 days to start watching a rental, and 48 hours after you've started to finish it. If you've been aching to give Apple the money you used to give retailers and not have to shower and get dressed in order to buy a movie, this is fantastic news! [Apple (UK) and Apple (Canada)]

Blockbuster Planning In-Store Downloads, Not At Home Streaming?

Jason Chen — Wed, 28 May 2008 17:06:20 EDT

This is an interesting turn to the Blockbuster media streamer rumor we heard last month. The Hollywood Reporter says Blockbuster will be going for the in-store kiosk download scheme where customers can download a movie within two minutes onto portable devices (we're thinking iPods as opposed to USB hard drives).

The plan is to have a fee of about $10 a month as well as a free device, but the pilot test in the Dallas area will only work with Archos players. Individual movie rentals will be $3.99, but if you're going to have to go down to the store AND pay about the same amount for a movie as you do already, why not just rent a DVD? [Hollywood Reporter]

Update: Looks like we heard about this before. Well now it's official.

"Blockbuster" Living History Museum Offers Insight Into the Past

Jason Chen — Tue, 13 May 2008 23:30:00 EDT

I don't want to spoil anything here more than the headline already has, but the visually hilarious Onion News Network has a biting critique of the movie rental chain Blockbuster. We actually like Blockbuster because of our grandfathered unlimited in-store exchanges and two free game rentals a month, but this is still pretty funny. [The Onion]

Apple Falls 601 Movies Short of February Promise

Mark Wilson — Sat, 01 Mar 2008 17:31:07 EST

Macworld did some follow-up on a promise made by Apple in a press release from January's keynote. In it, the company claimed:

iTunes Movie Rentals launches today and will offer over 1,000 titles by the end of February, including over 100 titles in stunning high definition video with 5.1 Dolby Digital surround sound which users can rent directly from their widescreen TV using Apple TV.

Now that February is over, a "Power Search" on iTunes reveals that only 399 rentals are available.

All in all, that's 601 movies short of their 1,000 title promise. As for "100 titles in stunning HD," Apple fell short here as well, but they at least came close offering 91 films that meet the standard (however, many of those films are not actually in 5.1 surround).

And when counting all the movies you can watch from iTunes—including both rentals and purchases—Macworld found that Apple is still short of any 1,000 movie goal, offering only 770 films total.

Hopefully, Apple will meet their 1,000 rental goal in March. Because while AppleTV's recent makeover was impressive, we'd like to be able to, you know, watch some movies on it or something. [macworld]

$0.99 Pick-O'-the-Week Comes To iTunes Rental Store

Benny Goldman — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 09:55:14 EST

The iTunes rental store now offers weekend specials, just like your local RST Video. Thursday through Monday each week, one movie will rent for $0.99, or $3 less than usual. If we keep heading down this path, the next update of iTunes will bring streaming video of a crushtached geek who snickers at you when you bring You've Got Mail to the checkout. This week's special is The Hours. [MacRumors]

Question of the Day: How Do You Get Your Movies?

Sean Fallon — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 19:30:42 EST

The recent Apple TV 2.0 update got me thinking about the myriad of ways that consumers can get movies in their home these days. There are numerous companies out there vying for your entertainment dollar in both brick and mortar stores and online. So our question to you is: how do you get movies at home?

Apple Wheeling and Dealing For Movie Rentals From Multiple Studios?

Sean Fallon — Fri, 28 Dec 2007 18:40:34 EST

According to the New York Times, Apple is in negotiations with multiple studios for iTunes movie rentals, not just Fox as was previously reported. The NYT sources did confirm the Fox deal but, not surprisingly, they declined to comment further saying only that more than one studio would be on the stage at Macworld. Wusses. [NYT]

Movie Gallery, the number two video rental ...

Matt Buchanan — Tue, 16 Oct 2007 18:50:42 EDT

Movie Gallery, the number two video rental chain, has been browbeaten into bankruptcy by the vast array of forces assaulting B&M rental outlets—the bloodbath between Netflix and Blockbuster, web video, VOD and so on. Quick and dirty takeaway: The picture's not looking pretty for your corner video store. [Crave]

Blu-ray Signs Profit Sharing, Ruffles Some Feathers, Probably Shouldn't

Mark Wilson — Sun, 22 Jul 2007 15:30:08 EDT

Last week, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment signed an agreement with rental company Rentrak to offer revenue sharing on Blu-ray titles. Some are calling this an aggressive move by Sony, bordering on on anti-competitive. But as far as I can tell, it's a fair play that's probably pretty smart.

Rentrak is a go-between company for independent rental companies and movie studios. They allow rental companies to lease films instead of purchasing them, on the basis that a piece of every rental is shared with the studio (and of course, Rentrak). Many major movie studios already participate in the program—including Sony—but the difference at hand is that the titles now extend to Sony's Blu-ray offerings as well as their standard DVD offerings. That's it.

While Blu-ray's competitive practices have been questioned in Europe, and the specific details of Rentrak's Blu-ray profit sharing are undisclosed, to claim something newly evil has occurred is overstepping the bounds of our current knowledge. For now, Sony is playing a card that's been played in the past in order to subsidize otherwise expensive Blu-ray title adoption for rental houses.
[Rentrak via engadgetHD]

Blockbuster's Blu-ray Endorsement Having Major Impact on HD DVD Player Sales

Jason Chen — Tue, 19 Jun 2007 16:00:50 EDT

Blockbuster's decision to support Blu-ray in all of its 1,450 stores is having a bigger impact than it seems. A tipster at an unnamed retailer tells us they've had more HD DVD player orders canceled over the last few days than they've seen over the entire life cycle. The kicker? All of them were canceled because of the Blockbuster announcement.

Not only that, new sales of HD DVD players are nonexistent, with Blu-ray being the only things moving now.

The more tech savvy of us rent our stuff on Netflix or Blockbuster Online (which is still supporting both formats for now), but this announcement—covered in many mainstream media sources—had a big impact on people who actually rent at Blockbuster.

Any of you tipsters working at other retail outlets see something similar? Email us if you have. – Jason Chen

Thanks tipster!

Blockbuster Deals Blow to HD DVD Camp By Choosing Blu-ray

Jason Chen — Mon, 18 Jun 2007 04:00:16 EDT

After testing out both Blu-ray and HD DVD rentals in 250 of its 1,450 stores, movie rental chain Blockbuster has gone with Blu-ray as the format it's going to widely deploy next month. The decision comes as customers in those 250 stores chose Blu-ray 70% of the time, obviously more than doubling the amount of HD DVDs rented. That's a pretty big margin this early in the format war.

However, HD DVD diehards have a slight bit of hope left. Blockbuster will still continue renting HD DVDs in the original 250 locations, so there could be a possibility in changing the decision if customers start renting a lot more of the HD discs or studios start pumping out a lot more movies on that format. We wouldn't count on it. – Jason Chen

Blockbuster to favor Blu-ray high-definition discs over rival HD DVD format [Pittsburgh Live]

Hertz to try RFID Rather Than Keys for Rentals

Travis Hudson — Thu, 10 Aug 2006 17:30:53 EDT

A Hertz at the Nice Cote d'Azur Airport in France will begin using RFID to start up and check out cars, rather than keys. A group of 60 frequent Hertz customers will be guinae pigs in this test to see if using RFID-enabled cards for vehicles will speed the rental process. There are 10 Renault Megane cars equipped with the RFID technology.

The users will no longer have to deal with customer service agents. They will go up to a display board, find the location of their car and simply go get it. When their RFID card is close to the display screen it will configure the card to be linked to the specific car. Sounds like a pretty damn cool system, but the question remains: how secure is it? Having your rental hacked and stolen in a red light district in France could be disastrous ... maybe. – Travis Hudson

Hertz Trial Uses RFID Cards Instead of Keys [RFID Journal]

iTunes to Get Movie Rentals

Travis Hudson — Tue, 18 Jul 2006 11:33:08 EDT

Think Secret has learned that Stephan Jobs himself will announce the availability of movie rentals via iTunes at the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference on August 7. It is also being reports that Walt Disney, Universal Studios, Paramount Pictures and Warner Bros. have already signed on to offer content for the iTunes movie rental service.

Jobs was persistent to get a movie purchasing program via iTunes—similar to their music purchasing service—but it was a no-go from the picture studios. So the rentals will have to suffice. To prevent piracy the movies will include some kind of time stamp that will restrict playback to either a certain number of playbacks or a certain time period before rendering the downloaded flick useless. – Travis Hudson

WWDC surprise: Apple to announce iTunes movie rentals [Think Secret]

MovieBeam Price Drop

Charlie White — Mon, 15 May 2006 13:07:42 EDT

MovieBeam, that service where you download movies via a broadcast signal, has just dropped its cost of entry to $49. That's compared to its already-reduced priced of $199.

Keep in mind, though, that you still need to rent each individual movie that you want to watch. But then, there's no returning that DVD to the store or dropping it in the mailbox, either. The good news is, some of the movies are even in HD. Might be worth a try.

MovieBeam On The Cheap, Only $49 [Zatz Not Funny]

Netflix Adds HD DVD Rentals

Charlie White — Tue, 14 Mar 2006 10:27:25 EST

We reported earlier that Netflix would support HD DVD at its launch this month, and while the launch of the players and disks is behind schedule, Netflix has quietly begun to accommodate HD DVD rentals on its website. If you go to the your account area, it gives you the option to set up your account for HD DVD, reminding you of the sharper images, better sound and more features of the new format. It then gives you the option of automatically placing the HD version of a movie in your queue rather than the standard DVD. Not that Netflix is actually offering any of the HD DVD disks yet, but it's ready when the disks are.

Netflix Adds HD DVD Rentals [Hacking Netflix]