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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Roxio Monday launched Toast 10 Titanium for Mac OS. This new update to Toast adds a number of features, but most significantly for Mac OS users it includes an implementation of ‘TiVoToComeBack’, video transfers to a TiVo, which they’re calling Mac2TiVo. This has been sorely missing from any official solutions for Mac OS using TiVo owners.

Toast 10 Titanium also includes AVCHD Archive, which makes it easy to burn content form HD camcorders to BD or DVD, Web Video To Go, which allows users to grab video from websites to save locally or transfer to portable devices, place-shifting support which streams content from the Mac to a Streamer application on an iPhone or iPod Touch, and a number of others.

Toast 10 Titanium goes on sale today at http://www.roxio.com/ for $99.99, with special pricing at MacWorld Expo January 5-9. The High-definition/Blu-ray Disc (HD/BD) plug-in, which is required to author BD discs and is normally $19.99, is available free to those who purchase Toast 10 Titanium from http://www.roxio.com/ through February 5, 2009. Toast 10 Titanium Pro is also available for $149.99.

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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Just last night I posted about Blu-ray.com reporting that, based on ‘inside sources’, Sonic would be dropping HD DVD from their Scenarist professional authoring tools to focus on Blu-ray. Well, this morning Sonic dropped a press release which makes it official. They will “conclude sales of its Scenarist® HD DVD authoring product line” to focus on Blu-ray authoring, including BD-Live content, as well as authoring content for digital distribution (read: downloads). Sonic will offer Scenarist HD DVD customers a special promotion to exchange them for the Scenarist BD version of the tools. For now there is no impact on their consumer authoring tools, such as Roxio.

A market leading company like Sonic walking away from the format certainly isn’t good news for HD DVD, especially on top of all the other hits they’ve been taking. This basically means Sonic doesn’t feel they’d be able to achieve a high enough return on investment to continue developing their HD DVD tools and they see more return from Blu-ray, so they’re shifting their resources appropriately.

The full press release is below:
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Another distributor has dumped HD DVD in favor of Blu-ray exclusivity, and this time it is Finnish distributor FS Film. They handle Finnish distribution for several studios, but seem to focus mainly on titles from Fox. Via Blu-ray.com.

Additionally, Blu-ray.com is reporting that ‘inside sources’ inform them that Sonic Solutions will be dropping HD DVD authoring support from their Scenarist line of professional disc authoring tools. They will continue to support existing HD DVD customers, but will focus on Blu-ray authoring going forward. There is no indication of changes in their consumer products, such as Roxio, at this time.