Hasta La Gadget!

28 days. It’s more than an unappreciated flick from the turn of the millennium, it’s also driving the executives at Redbox, Netflix and a smattering of other unorthodox rental companies mad. Movie studios have been hellbent on keeping their new release DVDs and Blu-ray Discs out of instant-rent hands for 28 days after release, noting that dollar-per-night rentals could drastically reduce DVD / BD sales in the all-important launch window. Now, however, it seems that at least a couple of ’em are willing to bend. Starting this week in four major cities (Atlanta, Miami, Phoenix and San Francisco, for those curious) DVDs for Warner Bros.’ “Inception” and 20th Century Fox’s “Knight and Day” are being slipped into NCR’s Blockbuster Express kiosks. The catch? It’ll be $2.99 per night to rent either of them, a nearly threefold increase in the nightly rate that Redbox charges. Additional details on the trial are few and far betwixt, but it’s safe to say that Redbox isn’t any closer to nabbing fresh flicks sooner, and unless you’re down with a 3x price hike, neither are you.

Blockbuster Express kiosks test $2.99 per night new release rentals, Redbox looks unimpressed originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 07 Dec 2010 23:07:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The concept’s far from new — Warner and Paramount signed up way back in the heyday known as “2009” to offer movies on SD cards, and select Blockbuster rental kiosks have been popping ’em out ever since. But Flix on Stix is an expected twist on the models that are already out there, and it’s one that will no doubt face some difficulty in reaching the same level of acceptance as Redbox. Put simply (or as simply as possible), consumers waltz up to a kiosk, select a TV show, game or movie, and then they choose whether they’d like to purchase or rent the title. The outfit has yet to come clean with specific pricing, but the (presumably mocked up) video embedded after the break shows rental rates of $1, $2, $3 and $4 for 3, 6, 9 and 12 days. There’s also no clear indication how TV episodes and games will be handled, but we’re hearing that users can either bring their own USB stick (USB 3.0 is accepted!) or opt to procure one directly from the machine. Swipe your Visa or Mastercard (c’mon, no Discover or AMEX?), and then… wait.

In fact, this is apt to be the biggest hurdle. What are the resolutions being offered? What if you select a 1080p film that’s 7GB, and only have a 4GB USB drive? Or better yet, what if you’ve got a 8GB USB 2.0 drive and a doctor’s appointment in ten minutes? Comically enough, the demonstration video actually shows the patron playing a game of poker while she waits for the transfer to complete — something tells us that’s not going to go over well with prospective customers waiting in line. We’re guessing that most folks will peace right on out if the wait to purchase something from a box exceeds a few minutes, and given the very nature of this scheme, it sounds like that scenario is almost guaranteed to happen ad nauseum. At any rate, expect to see the first of these popping up in two to three months, and meanwhile we’ll be digging for more details on pricing and distribution plans.

Continue reading Flix on Stix kiosks coming soon: it’s like Redbox, but with USB thumb drives

Flix on Stix kiosks coming soon: it’s like Redbox, but with USB thumb drives originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 04 Dec 2010 14:58:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Is there a more depressing product on our nation’s shelves than the the non-3D Blu-ray of James Cameron’s dragon sex fantasy cartoon? Just one: Avatar on DVD. More »

Amazon’s Disc+ is simple and smart: buy a DVD or Blu-ray disc and get a free digital copy to stream right away and keep for later. It’s based on the premise that physical and streaming media go better together. Now, the program is expanding, going from just a few hundred titles at launch to over 10,000 today.

“Customers love instant gratification,” says Amazon’s Steve Oliver, “and this program allows customers to watch Disc+ On Demand titles instantly, without having to wait for their DVD or Blu-ray to arrive in the mail.”

Disc+’s expansion means more than it would have just a few months ago, as more televisions and set-top boxes offer direct support for Amazon’s VOD, including the new Roku Player, TiVo Premiere and Google TV. This makes the downloads much more valuable than just streaming the device to your laptop. And it’s a natural way for new customers who might be reluctant to pony up for download-only or streaming video to get familiar with the service.

Amazon started offering digital downloads with physical media purchases to customers years ago with music, leveraging their unique position as a top retailer of both physical and virtual media. The model is slowly growing in movies and television. Now we just need a Book+ program for books offering a Kindle edition bundled with hardcovers. Then we’re really talking about something.

See Also:

• Amazon Will Offer Video On Demand, Streaming Direct to TV
• Streaming Wars Heat Up: Now Amazon Reportedly Is in the Hunt …
• Amazon Prepares to sell HD TV Shows on Demand
• 7 Ways to Watch Web Video Without Google TV
• Amazon's Online Video Gambit

When CEO Reed Hastings called Netflix “primarily a streaming company that also offers DVD-by-mail,” he wasn’t messing around, as the company’s quietly made streaming-only plans a reality on US shores. Strangely enough, however, it seems the firm hasn’t quite decided how much the new plan should cost, as depending on which computer and web browser you use to navigate Netflix’s website you’ll see a different result. Our Windows desktop running Chrome was invited to sign up for the same $7.99 disc-less plan as our Canadian counterparts, while Firefox asked us to pay $8.99 for the same privilege, and in either case it’d cost us $9.99 in total if we wanted physical discs as well — while a MacBook Pro on the other side of the country was given the choice between $8.99 for streaming-only or Netflix’s previous plan of $8.99 for both. In short, there’s a chance you might get a $1 discount if you only use the company’s online service now, but if you like DVDs delivered to your door you may find yourself subsidizing those who don’t. See a picture illustrating the discrepancy right after the break.

[Thanks, Michael S.]

Continue reading Netflix testing $7.99 and $8.99 streaming-only plans in US right now, one is not a discount

Netflix testing $7.99 and $8.99 streaming-only plans in US right now, one is not a discount originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 23 Oct 2010 15:36:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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