Disney is rolling out a new video-on-demand service called MovieBeam that is sort of a cross between a TiVo and HBO On Demand. What it is, is a a set-top box (made by Samsung) with a hard drive which has 100 DVD-quality movies stored on it that you connect to your TV. The box costs $6.99 a month to rent, plus anywhere between $2.50 to $4.00 for each title you want to watch, with ten new movies becoming available on the box each week. The movies are downloaded onto the box wirelessly, and though none of the articles mentions how it's done, a little bit of research reveals that Disney is using Dotcast's system, which squeezes a digital signal into existing analog television broadcasts, to transmit all that data. The system is being tested first in Jacksonville, Salt Lake City, and Spokane, and will feature movies MGM, Miramax Films, New Line Cinema, Sony Pictures Entertainment, Universal Studios, Warner Bros. and 20th Century Fox, as well as Disney.
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