Coming soon: Movies on flash memory cards

GALWAY, Ireland--PortoMedia is probably the only start-up in the world inspired by the movie Carlito's Way.

Company founder Chris Armstrong explains: Four years ago, he set out to his local DVD store to rent a movie. First, he stopped at the ATM to get cash. The store didn't have Twelve Angry Men, the movie Armstrong wanted. He settled for Carlito's Way instead. He then waited in line, paid for his rental, and returned to his car.

Then he remembered another movie, Gone in Sixty Seconds, the title of which got him wondering why the process of renting movies, from start to finish, can take so long.

While other companies see the Internet as the answer to that question, Armstrong has another idea. PortoMedia is setting up kiosks that will let consumers download movies to a flash memory key or portable hard drive.

The kiosks will be packed with hard drives that can hold 350 to 5,000 titles. Users then plug in a memory device from the company, enter a PIN code, and buy or rent a movie. When consumers get home, they simply slide the memory device into a dock connected to a TV.

The key to the service is a proprietary USB interface that transfers data at a faster average rate than standard USB devices. A standard-definition movie can be loaded onto a memory device in 8 to 60 seconds, depending on the length and chip speed. High-definition movies, which won't be available initially on the service, can be downloaded in 18 to 45 seconds. The USB interface works just fine with the USB slots on PCs and notebooks.

Credit: Michael Kanellos/CNET News.com

PortoMedia's small flash key sits in the
company's discount dock. This hardware
will sell for around $50 in the U.S.

The company did a trial run in Dublin at the end of 2007, with plans to go live in four U.S. cities toward the beginning of the second quarter, though Armstrong declined to name the cities. Two retailers have signed on to put the company's MoviePoint kiosks in their stores.

More importantly, major studios have agreed to let the company rent standard-definition movies out of the kiosks, he said. Getting permission to build a library of high-quality content has been the bane of several would-be Blockbuster killers. Armstrong wouldn't divulge the name of the studios, but said they were major and well-known.

"We will have them (movies) the same day and date as DVD," he said. The pricing will be about the same.

Advantages over current models
If the company can pull it off--and that remains a big if--PortoMedia potentially can short-circuit some of the problems and shortcomings of the various methods for delivering movies. First up is cost. Delivering movies via hard drives and flash memory eliminates many of the packaging and shipping expenses associated with DVDs. Shelf space at retailers now dedicated to discs is also freed up for other products.

In addition, selection is improved. Most video outlets don't have 5,000 titles, he noted. Kiosks further let more companies into the video rental market. The kiosk version holding 350 titles will sell for around $2,000; it could be placed near the counter at convenience stores. Retailers will also be allowed to put their own brands on the box, so it could be hawked, for example, as "7-Eleven MoviePoint."

The time for viewing the rental won't kick in, he further added, until the movie is actually started, which lets the company copy the Netflix "no late fees" model but without monthly subscription fees.

Even more important, the system erodes the desirability of downloading movies. While great in theory, movie downloads have yet to become a big hit. Consumers have complained about long download times with some services, while others only let you watch a movie on a PC. PortoMedia rentals can be for one, or multiple viewings, depending on the fee and service selected. Because the company can control access to the box and makes the devices for downloading movies, viruses become less of a worry.

A physicist by training, Armstrong claims the Internet can't handle movie downloads anyway. He did the math on last year's release of Shrek 3. In the first three days, 11 million copies got sold. That's 66 petabytes of data.

Movies from PortoMedia can be watched on TVs or PCs. To prove his point, he transferred Spiderman from a portable hard drive to an iPod Touch. It took six seconds.

"And I didn't need permission from Apple to do that," he said.

But what about piracy? "It will never be perfect, but we are going to make it as hard as we can," he said. Movies rented from the service will comply with Microsoft DRM standards.

If anything, the company has lined up legitimate technology partners. IBM helped it developed the transaction system. The drives come from Seagate Technologies (which has said for about a year that we will see video rental kiosks with hard drives), while Samsung provides the flash memory. Toshiba is fabricating the chips that make up the high-speed interface. Investors include former film execs like Jay Emmett and Lindsay Gardner.

PortoMedia's interface emphasizes sustained, rather than peak downloads. USB 2.0 can provide peak bandwidth at 480 megabits per second. "But I've never seen anyone achieve that and I'm in the industry," Armstrong said. Average speeds are far lower.

The company claims it can hit a sustained bandwidth of 95 megabits per second or higher. Some venture capitalists advised him to turn the company into an interface chipmaker that would license technology to other semiconductor manufacturers, but Armstrong decided to stick with movies.

The hardware will be sold in bundles with movies. The starter pack, which will sell for around $60, comes with a flash key, a dock, and six movies. At the high end, users can spend around $160 and get a handheld with a 1.8-inch hybrid hard drive with 240GB of storage, a fancier dock, and 12 movies.

[RobertAPierce]

Another failed attempt

I'd be willing to bet that this will be yet another failed attempt at taking on the blockbusters of the world. Why would anyone want to purchase hardware that will lock them into using one particular vendor, then pay for media that will only work on that hardware, and only for a pre-determined amount of time?

Why not simply either purchase the DVD, or rent it the way it's traditionally been done? I'd be much more likely to download, rent or buy it than I would to buy into some other proprietary system.

[blsith]

66 petabytes

Wow, yet another person with a calculator trying to figure out something simple.

66 petabytes over what period of time and what delivery method. Using multicast-type delivery the average provider would only use the bandwidth once for as many folks as are requesting the data. Add a bit-torrent structure to it, so it can round robin the data as requested, no big delivery issue.

Remember, each of those 11 million people will have a maximum delivery speed to their home of 1.5 to 10meg on average. Add onto that fact that not everyone would be requesting it at the same time, and you get to statistical multiplexing. Amazing how oversubscription works! Add in other possible delivery methods - see how Akamai works for an example - and the needed upstream bandwidth for a provider shrinks even further.

I love how figures don't lie, but liers can figure. And this marketing guy figured out how to wow folks with numbers. The real trick is time to download. If the average person can download at 8meg per second, they can download an average "high definition" DLC movie in about 20-30 minutes. I don't see the convenience of going to the 7-11 to buy a rental when you can have it in your house while making/eating dinner. Didn't they try this same delivery method with the DVD's that decay in atmosphere and DivX (not the cool MPEG4 thing, but the crazy movie rental thing) in the past?

[mycrapsgame]

Entry price prohibitive to consumer success

This all sounds good on paper. The sticking point is the entry price point being too high. We didnt have to pay $60 to start renting or consuming anything before. Consumers are looking for ways to cut costs. This aint it.

[Dale Sundstrom]

Microsoft DRM---and also plays on an iPod??

The article says the movies "comply with Microsoft DRM standards" to combat piracy. It also describes transferring a movie to an iPod Touch--but that's not possible without stripping off Microsoft's DRM first (which will not play on an iPod).

Sounds convenient--but unfortunately, impossible (legally).

[wildchild_plasma_gyro]

Everything is lovley

Yep i wanted to be immortal and go to the stars.
so i get this crude charge up of my life and DNA and then i feed from the earth Readying for Social experiences every StarBurst.

Earth is just assisting me
what was that old chinese saying
Of course everyone likes being free that bit more so they're all half encouraging me.

[HaloZero]

HaloZero

But DVDs are something you can get multiple sources of content. I can get DVDs from a bunch of retailers, everything. Just like Blu-Ray now, i know that it will be the industry standard thus I know that it will be worth the investment. This might not be worth the investment because it might die out.

[Thomas, David]

Leave the House?!

Albeit a silly subject line, but the main draw to online access is, you
don't have to go anywhere.

[megustansalchichas]

YAF, WTF?

yet another format? i can already download acceptable quality movies to my TIVO, and hd quality to my xbox (and I assume playstation allows the same thing). if you don't have broadband, chances are you are still renting your movies from blockbuster. in that case this model will work for blockbuster -distribute a digital copy to the branch, have the teenagers burn as many copies as they need to rent that night, dispose of when they return. flash drives don't plug into most people's tvs.
'those who know sell to those who don't...'

[meshugge]

Coming soon, movies on flash memory

I have a few problems with this concept:

1) M$ (Malware Society's) DRM - do Ineed to say anything more!

2) Proprietary USB interface??? I don't think so.

3) Introduction of nasty stuff into mu computer.

4) To me, this is a fine example of 'vaporware': Now, you see, now you don't.

5) Price point is all wrong for me.

Just my worth(less) 2 cents worht.

[jared0001]

better solution in short and long run

I have two problems with this service:

1. Short-Run: Only early adopters would sign up. Those early adopters are a. already streaming movies on the internet via set top boxes or b. ripping and burning media. No non-early adopter is going to sign up for this service.

2. Long-Run: In the long-run, rental movies will be streamed to the user via set-top boxes through 3rd parties or tv service providers (ex: comcast on demand).

In sum, early adopters have a better solution already and the masses will skip right over this service and direct to on demand rentals in a few years.

[DJRWolf]

USB too slow

I've transfered video on my Dish Network HD DVR to an external HDD and movies like Full Metal Jacket are around 8.6 GB when in HD. That would take at least 15 minutes to transfer on USB 2. A better choice would be eSATA with it's 3 Gigabit/sec transfer rate.

[JReefer]

What about box art

I'm a fan of the artwork on DVD boxes. I think it's part of the whole experience but I see why someone would want take the usb route,though.

[max_march]

When will people learn? The key is fast, wireless, and ubiquitous. Kiosks are dead. Physical format distinctions are dead. Anything that relies on either is dead. If this was 1998, this might have a chance. But we have the bandwidth, we have the upcoming larger wireless spectrum, we have consumer behavior embracing the cloud. This idea is D.O.A.

[celticbrewer]

This is a great and viable concept. They could even consider sending the chips via mail a'la netflix to deal with the "I don't want to leave home" crowd. From a business stance, this is better than blockbuster because you don't need all the retail space and (unlike the redbox kiosks/netflix) you won't ever run out of a movie or have to replace a damaged/lost disc. For consumers, this is better than downloading because most people suprisingly don't have broadband or (people like me) don't want to wait to download that hi-def movie. I've downloaded very short hidef trailers and those were agonizing to wait for- I couldn't imagine a whole movie coming down that way. If it wasn't for the initial cost of the hardware, this would be a great revolution in content delivery.

[step69]

Internet movie viewing is the future. It's much easier than this "solution".I believe in the future new feature films will be available online as well.There won't be a movie you can think of that wont be available online.I don't believe we will actually be downloading the movies either.I think there will be membership sites that will have the movies stored on their hard drives that we will be able to access with a single click of the mouse.I also think it will eventually make DVD/Blu-ray obsolete by allowing us to store our movies digitally on personal webpages like MySpace.I think that makes much more sense then portomedia does.

[joe3x]

How about a machine that lets you select the movie, it burns on a disc, and spits it out. Never run out of stock and a machine can do it. No shipping or printing materials needed. It will keep cost down. I dont think were ready for all digital content yet and the dvd will thrive for a while longer. Again we buy.....it burns, it spits it out. Why not? It can burn at a good quality iam sure with a professional type burner than standard PC burners.

[starlifter701]

I don't think this will fly. For a lot of the same reasons as the other comments, (1) onther device to deal with, (2) same hassle as going to the video store, (3) REbox works better with a hard copy.

[SimonJLeonJr]

At first this sounds okay! but after thinking about it and reading the other comments you realize that this may go for awhile and I can see TV makers adjusting and putting in ports for this type of technology. But I think that the initial cost will make it prohibitive. I won't be spending that amount of money to try it. No if you could bring in your own Flash drive to down load the movies onto for a reasonable price it might make it. And it would be more cost effective than shipping DVD's around the world. Wow, whats next?