Back in August of 2007 Blockbuster jumped into digital movie distribution by acquiring Movielink. However, they’ve failed to set the world on fire with their digital distribution service, trailing far behind Netflix, Amazon VOD, and CinemaNow. CinemaNow has enjoyed a major resurgence since Sonic purchased them in November, and it seems Blockbuster has taken notice.

Blockbuster is partnering with Sonic to bring Blockbuster branded video services to consumers, including the existing CinemaNow content service. It sounds like win-win for Blockbuster and Sonic. Blockbuster gets a successful service which already has a number of deals with consumer electronics vendors, which Sonic gets the Blockbuster brand, which is still a fairly strong brand in the video rental market. It is also a pretty good deal for the CE vendors who have already made deals to bring CinemaNow content to their devices, as they get the strong Blockbuster brand.

I wonder if we’ll be seeing the Blockbuster brand on TiVo, since they currently use CinemaNow for Disney content, and more content is expected.

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Sonic, the owners of CinemaNow, have released a new CinemaNow SDK to make it easier for 3rd party vendors to build CinemaNow support into their devices. Along with this, Sonic is working with a number of vendors to bring CinemaNow content to consumers through new channels. This includes the recently announced deal with LG Electronics, the Nintendo Wii (in Japan), a Widget Channel that is part of Yahoo! Internet@TV, and more. It sounds like Sonic is really looking to breathe new life into CinemaNow, which they just acquired last November. CinemaNow had been on the fast track to being an also-ran to Netflix and Amazon VOD, but it really seems to be picking up steam under the new ownership.

Press release:
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LG Electronics announced they’d be bringing Netflix to their Blu-ray players just in time for CES 2008. That support shipped in the form of the BD300, announced in July and shipped in the fall. Now, just in time for CES 2009, LG is announcing their next additions – CinemaNow and YouTube. YouTube seems like an obvious move, it is showing up on just about every connected device out there. Pretty soon I think YouTube will just be a default feature on any networked device, which should make Google happy.

But the real interesting addition here is CinemaNow, and not so much that it is being added but how it is being added. CinemaNow will be streaming to the Blu-ray players. That’s very interesting – as far as I’m aware this is the first indication we’ve had that CinemaNow was adding streaming support to their content. To date CinemaNow has been all download-based, not streaming, including on TiVo. Right now on TiVo only Disney content is available from CinemaNow, but it has been stated that additional content would be added. Since TiVo supports streaming, as used by YouTube and Netflix, I have to wonder if CinemaNow content will also be available via streaming on TiVo.

In general we’re certainly going to be seeing more of this kind of thing, adding content sources to devices to make them multi-function. Just to support Blu-ray content and to comply with the BD-Live specification a Blu-ray player has to be capable of decoding MPEG-2, H.264, and VC-1 video in high definition, as well as handing a number of audio formats. The hardware used to do this is more than capable of handling most online video formats. BD-Live requires an Ethernet connection and 1GB of local storage, which is plenty to handle streaming buffers. And the BD-J programming environment allows for complex applications. It makes a lot of sense for Blu-ray players to pick up additional features like streaming video to make them more competitive and appealing to consumers.

Press release:

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Sonic, the digital media company best known for their Roxio products, not the drive-in food chain, is acquiring CinemaNow. I think that leaves Netflix as the last independent digital movie rental site. Akimbo is gone, Blockbuster bought Movielink. I suppose you could count VUDU, though they’re tied to their own hardware platform – so I don’t. Sonic and CinemaNow have already been working together, with CinemaNow offering download-to-burn content for Qflix DVD drives, via Sonic’s software.

Interestingly, both companies also have relationships with TiVo. TiVo recently added downloadable content from Disney, which is provided through CinemaNow. More CinemaNow content is promised going forward. And, of course, Sonic’s Roxio Creator, Toast, and Popcorn are the only commercial products officially sanctioned for use with TiVoToGo.

Press release:

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First announced in May, and reported last week to be launching soon, Disney content is now available for download on TiVo! Simply navigate to TiVo Central -> Find Programs & Downloads -> Download TV, Movies, & Web Video, and you should see a new item in the menu – Walt Disney Studios. Within Walt Disney Studios you can select from Most Popular, New Arrivals, Browse Walt Disney Studios, and About CinemaNow.

The latter is due to this offering being brought to TiVo through a partnership with CinemaNow, which has digital distribution rights to Disney content. While the offering is currently limited to Disney films, the CinemaNow TiVo page has a FAQ which states:

For now only Walt Disney® Studios rental movies can be watched on your TiVo DVR.
Stay tuned as we are working to add more selections soon.

If you are browsing the CinemaNow website, look for the ‘Plays On TiVo’ logo on the title detail page to ensure this video can play on TiVo DVR.

And back when it was first announced I did check with TiVo and was told it would include non-Disney content from CinemaNow. So we can look forward to expanded content offerings going forward. The current offering features a selection of over 100 Walt Disney Studio titles, including both animated classics like Dumbo and modern blockbusters like Jet Li’s Hero.

This service is available on the TiVo Series2, TiVo Series3, TiVo HD, and TiVo HD XL. The current offering is all SD, but hopefully we’ll see HD content added. You can get more information from TiVo’s CinemaNow/Disney page.

TiVo announced a deal to bring Disney content downloads to their boxes, via CinemaNow, back in May, and a similar deal with Jaman all the way back in January. But little had been said about the deals since the announcements, until now.

Jaman.com content should become available on broadband connected TiVo boxes starting today. Similar to Amazon Video On Demand, Jaman content will be available for purchase or rent with prices starting at $1.99. Jaman’s library contains internationally-acclaimed films, including Indie and Film Festival Favorites, Best of Bollywood and Documentaries. Titles include Oscar nominees Girl with a Pearl Earring, Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room, and Supersize Me, as well as independent gems like Oil and Ice, Bollywood greats Devdas and Chokher Bali and anime landmarks Ghost in the Shell and Robotech. Jaman will also offer some content for download free of charge.

Disney content, provided through CinemaNow, will be available sometime next week. Disney content will be available for rental with prices starting at $2.99. Both classic favorites such as Dumbo and Fox & The Hound and newer films like Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest will be available.

And while the focus of the deal has been Disney content, which is not available through Amazon VOD, it does include CinemaNow content in general. So this will give users a great deal more content to choose from.

Both should show up under Find Programs & Downloads -> Download TV, Movies, & Web Video. The content, as with Amazon VOD, will be in standard definition. However, TiVo is working to add high-definition downloads to the TiVo Series3, TiVo HD, and TiVo HD XL.

I can’t wait for the HD downloading option. I also hope that TiVo is working on streaming options, now that they have streaming in place for YouTube. I’d like to see streaming from Amazon VOD, and then Netflix, Hulu, and other sites. That would make TiVo the box to have for online content.

TiVo continues to add content partners as they continue to transform the TiVo from a DVR into a general content portal. Joining the existing TiVoCast, TiVo Web Video, and Amazon Unbox content, and the previously announced Jaman and YouTube features, is CinemaNow. While the press release (below) really stressed the fact that Walt Disney Studios content is part of the deal, I did ask and had confirmed that the deal includes other content from CinemaNow and not just Disney.

Unfortunately, rentals are subject to the same 24 hour viewing window as Unbox. This is just the industry standard, and until the studios relax their requirements we’re stuck with it. Even 48 hours would be a nice improvement. But this is a nice but of news:

The companies will offer the movies for a 24-hour rental period in standard definition, with many also available in high definition.

We could really use more high definition content downloads. This will be a nice addition to TiVo’s content sources, and we’ve already had a hint at HD content coming to Unbox and it sounds like the Jaman content will be HD.

I hope we continue to see content sources added to TiVo, perhaps Netflix or Blockbuster’s Movielink will be next. Variety and competition are both good things.

The press release:
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