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Consumers have patiently waited for serious movie download services to arrive

Much to the delight of consumers, six major movie studios plan to begin offering movies over the Internet that users will be able to download and keep.  The six studios: Warner Brothers, Sony Pictures, Paramount Pictures, Universal Pictures, MGM and Twentieth Century Fox will offer films through Movielink.  The other movie download service, CinemaNow, will only offer films from MGM, Sony and Lionsgate.

Newer download-to-own films from Movielink will cost between $20 to $30 - a tad bit higher than what most analysts originally anticipated.  CinemaNow will charge around $19.95 for new DVD releases and around $9.95 for classic films.  Movielink should naturally have a better selection of films to purchase.  

Burning a copy of the movie to a DVD will make it playable only on other computers; but users may be able to one day watch the movies just like any other DVD, especially if movie download services become popular.

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Doomed
By headbox on 4/3/2006 6:56:31 AM , Rating: 2
$30 so I can't watch it on my TV? Good luck with THAT




RE: Doomed
By Wonga on 4/3/2006 7:29:31 AM , Rating: 2
That CinemaNow sounds a lot more reasonable than the service Universal launched the other week in the UK; They were wanting £20 for a film download (ok, a DVD was included in the post later, but the deal still stinks considering you could buy the DVD by numerous other means for cheaper).

I'll have to see if this service works outside of the US - could be tempting.


RE: Doomed
By SunAngel on 4/3/2006 9:20:08 PM , Rating: 1
It works well. The catch is you have to backup you drm license. So, just burn the movie and the license to dvd or whatever and your okay. Oh, they (movies) can only be played on a pc at this time.

I must say after reading on this website all the cracks about drm I was against it also...until I bought my first drm movie. I don't find drm that bad. Just connect yor pc to the tv and your in business. And always make multiple backups of the movies' license.

I would assume those that are bashing drm are the ones robbing the movie studies.


RE: Doomed
By AlexWade on 4/3/2006 9:33:18 AM , Rating: 3
You're right.

Let's see. Suppose a purchase enables me to put it to a DVD so I can watch it on my HDTV. I can go to the store, get a copy with annoying required previews and some extras for $15 OR download a copy $30, pay $2 for a dual-layer DVD, and burn me one.

I rather put up with the annoying required junk than an extra $17 for movies. Once again, big media doesn't get it.


Still a Rip Off
By Haggar on 4/3/2006 8:01:57 AM , Rating: 2
It's still a rip off.

You can buy a brand new legit DVD delivered for that price.




RE: Still a Rip Off
By Viper007Bond on 4/3/2006 8:10:50 AM , Rating: 2
Yeah, why would anyone in their right mind use this service? You can have a DVD overnighted to your for much less than that.

And if their intent is to cut down on illegal downloading like iTunes probably has done, well then they are doing a pretty shitty job.


RE: Still a Rip Off
By masher2 (blog) on 4/3/2006 9:27:37 AM , Rating: 2
> "You can have a DVD overnighted to your for much less than that..."

What sort of math is this? New releases at most online retailers are $16-$22, and overnight shipping is generally $8-$12. How is that "much less" than a $19.99 download?


RE: Still a Rip Off
By jtesoro on 4/3/2006 9:42:51 AM , Rating: 2
The article keeps using words like "experiment", "first step" and such. Still, I'm not sure it's enough. The iTunes model somehow works because you get fairly cheap, reasonable quality music. It fills the void between the free but irregular quality pirate downloads against the expensive but very good quality retail CDs. With Movielink and CinemaNow, you pay more to get less (probable lower quality and without the extras).


they didn't learn a thing from the psp...
By cubby1223 on 4/3/2006 11:57:02 AM , Rating: 2
Does anyone in the movie industry have a brain? Shouldn't they have already learned that people will not pay more money for inferior quality & restricted use?




RE: they didn't learn a thing from the psp...
By Scorpion on 4/3/2006 12:16:09 PM , Rating: 2
No. These corporate execs do not have brains. They should all be drug into the street and beat sensless with every Betamax tape still in existence.


By kalaap on 4/3/2006 1:16:05 PM , Rating: 2
While I wouldn't pay that much money for a downloaded movie, I think the studios atleast agreed to one site for their films. It could've been worse if they decided to create 7 diff sites with 7 diff pricing structures.


pfft
By shabby on 4/3/2006 11:29:21 AM , Rating: 2
These new services cant compete with usenet...




RE: pfft
By Gatt on 4/3/2006 1:37:43 PM , Rating: 2
Wow,

Took 10 posts this time for a pirate to show up.

Gotta be a record...


Common Sense
By breethon on 4/3/2006 7:00:27 PM , Rating: 2
They save money by offering a purely digital copy that you download (ie. no discs, distribution & middle man costs), why can't it be even a couple dollars cheaper than the NEW DVD? I don't understand their logic. It would be a win / win to have it cheaper. But, alas, $20+ for them is nothing when you have x millions of dollars paid to you as a CEO every year because you supposedly have better ideas than joe schmoe down the street....$20+ is something to the AVERAGE working class Joe. Prediction, Pirates will still pirate (though I bet most would reconsider if the price went the way CD prices have for the downloadable content movies), and DVD buyers will continue that path. Get your heads out of the clouds!




RE: Common Sense
By masher2 (blog) on 4/3/2006 7:31:22 PM , Rating: 2
> "They save money by offering a purely digital copy that you download (ie. no discs, distribution & middle man costs)"

They don't save nearly as much as you believe. Making a DVD now costs next to nothing...whereas the download approach requires paying for massive bandwidth, creating, maintaining, and advertising a site, and a cost per movie to transcode and add DRM.

As soon as the fixed costs are amortized, they'll start playing around with the pricing structure, and likely decide upon fairly steep drops.


Looking at the prices....
By Chadder007 on 4/3/2006 7:58:19 AM , Rating: 2
Seeing the prices here....it looks like they want the download service to fail. To freaking high.




Sony in the cheaper group?
By Aquila76 on 4/3/2006 8:31:15 AM , Rating: 2
quote:
The other movie download service, CinemaNow, will only offer films from MGM, Sony and Lionsgate.

Sweet merciful crap! Sony following a business model that might actually benefit it's consumers???

CinemaNow might work out for those of us with HTPC's connected to our home theaters; but, Movielink's $20 - 30 is ridiculous - I could buy the DVD (twice in some cases) and rip/encode myself for less. Anyone know what quality video they're using?




WTF
By michal1980 on 4/3/06, Rating: -1
"Paying an extra $500 for a computer in this environment -- same piece of hardware -- paying $500 more to get a logo on it? I think that's a more challenging proposition for the average person than it used to be." -- Steve Ballmer

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