Hollywood recasts its download allies

(continued from previous page)

McInerney and Navin are friends, often playing cards together, and their San Francisco-based headquarters are just blocks from each other. Perhaps that's why the two sound so similar when discussing their companies' prospects.

First, BitTorrent is going to download movies more efficiently than Movielink and CinemaNow, Navin says. BitTorrent is a file-sharing system that allows a single file to be broken into small fragments, which are distributed among computers. People then share pieces of the content with each other. This reduces bandwidth costs for content providers and speeds up the downloading process.

In contrast, Movielink and CinemaNow send large digital movie files directly to a user, which often clogs available bandwidth. The companies say they can deliver a film as quickly as 90 minutes. In a comparison of both sites, USA Today reported last month that it took four hours to download the movie "Flightplan" from CinemaNow and three hours and 10 minutes to retrieve "Underworld: Evolution." To be sure, a movie's download time can depend on a person's Internet connection and other variables.

When it comes to ease of use, Guba and BitTorrent will shine, those companies' executives say.

CinemaNow and Movielink require customers to run Internet Explorer in order to make purchases. Movielink also requires a user to download software before they make their first buy.

"Collectively, these sites amount to the most hostile movie procurement option since the video store in Kevin Smith comedy 'Clerks,'" Rob Pegoraro, a columnist at the Washington Post, wrote after reviewing the sites last month.

No software downloads are needed for Guba visitors to obtain a movie. The company, which also requires movie buyers to operate Internet Explorer, is making upgrades that will allow users of Mozilla's Firefox browser to make purchases. Navin said BitTorrent, which has a reputation for being complicated to use, is undergoing a video store overhaul, due to launch this fall, that will make the service more consumer-friendly.

Plenty of challenges await these two new entries to video-on-demand, none the least of which is the approach of Apple.

Multiple news agencies have reported that Apple is in negotiations with the movie studios to offer full-length features at its iTunes store. The talks are reportedly hung up on price. Should a deal be struck, Apple could do to movies what the company has done to music and TV shows. The company has sold more than 1 billion songs, and more than 35 million videos have been downloaded from iTunes.

An Apple spokeswoman said the company does not comment on rumor and speculation.

Guba and BitTorrent also have yet to prove their sites can protect movies from piracy, or that their Web sites will attract mainstream audiences. Both companies acknowledge that their audiences are predominately technology enthusiasts.

And none of the four companies allows users to download a movie and then burn it to a CD, which could then be played on any DVD player. Sean Carey, executive vice president of digital distribution for Sony Pictures, acknowledges that regardless of who is selling movies online, much work needs to be done to improve the viewer experience.

"We at Sony (are) quite satisfied with the sell-through results at Movielink," Carey said. "This was a baby step for the digital distribution of our product, but we know the consumer proposition needs to get better over time."

[thedreaming]

braincell activated

I think hollywood finally figured out that people don't want to pay dvd pricing for a movie they download, especially when the quality of the download is horrible.

Or if the movie is bad too

Who wants to pay DVD price when you have to download it and it still blows.

[thedreaming]

braincell activated

I think hollywood finally figured out that people don't want to pay dvd pricing for a movie they download, especially when the quality of the download is horrible.

Or if the movie is bad too

Who wants to pay DVD price when you have to download it and it still blows.

[jimbomovies]

Downloading movies to DVD

One company is doing this right: EZTakes (www.eztakes.com). They make it easy for you to download movies to DVDs that will play in almost any DVD player. It's all legal and it works.

[jimbomovies]

Downloading movies to DVD

One company is doing this right: EZTakes (www.eztakes.com). They make it easy for you to download movies to DVDs that will play in almost any DVD player. It's all legal and it works.

[paulsecic]

Downloads of movies won't work

until we get fat pipes.

[qazwiz]

That's why you use p2p

most all consumer pipes allow ten tines the DL as UL.

p2p (that's bit-torrent) allows a hundred to up to your download so one hundred customers, starting at the same time could each get it faster with the initial giver only needing to put out ten to twenty copies instead of the one hundred now.

plus, those who stay connected can continue to upload to new customers on that otherwise unused bandwidth.

the same number of bits get sent but bit-torrent spreads the traffic like ripples on a pond instead of the shotgun approach of the standard model

[paulsecic]

Downloads of movies won't work

until we get fat pipes.

[qazwiz]

That's why you use p2p

most all consumer pipes allow ten tines the DL as UL.

p2p (that's bit-torrent) allows a hundred to up to your download so one hundred customers, starting at the same time could each get it faster with the initial giver only needing to put out ten to twenty copies instead of the one hundred now.

plus, those who stay connected can continue to upload to new customers on that otherwise unused bandwidth.

the same number of bits get sent but bit-torrent spreads the traffic like ripples on a pond instead of the shotgun approach of the standard model