cinemanow

Best Buy on Tuesday is expected to announce its own movie download service for consumer electronics sold in its stores.

Though it doesn't have a name yet--and probably won't until next week at the earliest--Best Buy says the service will be up and running sometime in the fourth quarter, which could mean anytime between now and the end of the year. The retailer is licensing the software and infrastructure from Sonic Solutions' Roxio CinemaNow service, which has more than 20,000 film titles, mostly new releases, available via its on-demand service.

The software will be available on Best … Read more

The maker of the CinemaNow video service says it wants to start adding 3D movies to its repertoire.

Sonic Solutions is working with Nvidia, Samsung, and Mitsubishi to start delivering video in a variety of 3D formats to PCs and some 3D-capable TVs. Whenever it does become available--which is not clear yet because Sonic isn't ready to discuss which hardware partners it's working with--the movies will be delivered via the same method as the company's CinemaNow service.

The technology, however, is still new. It will only work with devices with graphics processors optimized for 3D, which mostly means it will work on PCs with 3D-capable monitors. Some Samusng and Mitsubishi TVs that are 3D-enabled might also work. In all cases, you'll still need plastic 3D glasses.

Though Sonic Solutions actually sees Blu-ray as the best way of delivering 3D content, there are several issues holding that up: the technology has not been agreed upon by all the parties that subscribe to that standard. In the meantime, Sonic says its video service will be a great way to fill the gap, since there are a growing number of 3D movies in the theater.

"We see an opportunity to bridge that time gap," said Michael DiMaria, vice president of product management for CinemaNow. "Ultimately, we believe Blu-ray will be the dominant format for the distribution of 3D content. In the meantime, there's plenty of content available and several ways to display it." … Read more

We're putting the final touches on our review of the LG BD390 (the full review will be up soon), but we've wrapped up our testing of its CinemaNow functionality. We've had some experience with CinemaNow as a PC-centric download service, but the BD390 is the first standalone product with streaming CinemaNow functionality that we've seen. The service is similar to Apple TV, Vudu, or Amazon Video On Demand, allowing you to rent ($3-$4) or buy ($10-$20) movies and stream them over a broadband connection.

The LG BD390 already includes Netflix streaming, so the advantage of CinemaNow is that it includes some new releases that aren't available for Netflix streaming; Netflix's streaming catalog is heavy on older releases. There's no doubt CinemaNow includes some new releases that Netflix doesn't have ("Appaloosa," "W," "The Spirit," "Transporter 3"), but the selection feels much smaller than Amazon's; we couldn't find any of the most popular movies on Amazon ("Bride Wars," "Slumdog Millionaire," "Marley & Me," "Twilight") on CinemaNow. (CinemaNow wouldn't disclose how large the current library is, except that "thousands" of titles are available.)… Read more

Online video service CinemaNow and Best Buy are planning to launch a movie download service this summer, according to a published report.

Variety, a film industry trade magazine, quoted unnamed sources in its report about how Best Buy is talking to CinemaNow, as well as other Web movie services, about offering film downloads.

The magazine noted that Best Buy is advertising job openings for digital-movie executive positions on such sites as PaidContent.org.

Why Best Buy would partner with CinemaNow is still unclear. The service was eclipsed by much more influential services, such as those of Apple's iTunes and … Read more

Nestled squarely between the LHB954 and LHB979 in LG's 2009 home theater system line-up is the LHB977. While the midrange package lacks the bundled wireless rear-speaker option and champagne-glass design of the 979, it's still loaded with features: 5.1 speaker array with funky front tallboy speakers; built-in Blu-ray player with Profile 2.0/BD-Live capability and Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD audio decoding; support for streaming online Netflix, CinemaNow, and YouTube video; and two extra HDMI inputs, useful for connecting game consoles and DVRs. Look for the LHB977 in the spring of 2009 (price TBD).

In 2008, LG's BD300 set itself apart from other Blu-ray players by becoming the first one to include compatibility with the Netflix's "Watch Instantly" streaming service. Unfortunately, the uniqueness of the feature was short-lived: within weeks, Netflix support was added to the Xbox 360, TiVo HD DVRs, and a pair of rival Blu-ray decks from Samsung. Now, LG's back with its second take on the Blu-ray/Netflix player, the BD370, which will also include the ability to stream online content from CinemaNow (pay-per-view) and YouTube (free).

Aside from those two new online content providers, the … Read more

Starting at $25, "bundles" of mainstream films can be added to a computer's hard drive during the ordering process on Dell.com. The bundles available currently include genre groupings like the comedy collection of Zoolander, Nacho Libre, and School of Rock, and trilogies like Spider-Man and The Fast and the Furious.

Though the selection is limited and all of the movies come packaged in Windows Media DRM, the content offerings will be updated regularly in the future, according to Dell … Read more

Add movies from Disney and Jaman.com to the growing list of downloadable content you can view on TiVo DVRs.

Disney movies will be available on TiVo starting next week. Rentals will be $2.99 each, and include titles ranging from animated classics (Dumbo) to modern favorites (Pirates of the Caribbean). The content will be provided via CinemaNow. See that site's TiVo FAQ for more details.

Movies from Jaman.com should be available this week. The $1.99 rentals include international selections, independent and art cinema, and anime titles.

The Disney/CinemaNow and Jaman selections will be presented in … Read more

Updated at 2:17 p.m. PDT with number of downloads currently available on CinemaNow.

Dell is out with a new external drive that lets you expand your home movie library (legally) by burning downloads to DVD.

The PC maker has teamed with Sonic Solutions to offer the Qflix DVD burner, which lets you download films and TV shows from movie site CinemaNow and transfer them to multiple digital devices.

"Two of the key things holding consumers back in their willingness to purchase movies electronically are worries about long-term ownership and portability of the downloaded file," Tom Adams, … Read more