http://hd.engadget.com/2008/11/24/blockbuster-joins-the-movie-set-top-box-game-with-2wire-mediapoi/ Engadget HD Comments for Blockbuster joins the movie set-top-box game with 2Wire MediaPoint player http://hd.engadget.com/media/feedlogo.gif http://hd.engadget.com en-us Copyright 2009 Weblogs, Inc. The contents of this feed are available for non-commercial use only. Blogsmith http://www.blogsmith.com/http://hd.engadget.com/2008/11/24/blockbuster-joins-the-movie-set-top-box-game-with-2wire-mediapoi/http://hd.engadget.com/2008/11/24/blockbuster-joins-the-movie-set-top-box-game-with-2wire-mediapoi/Nov 24th 2008 10:57PMhttp://hd.engadget.com/2008/11/24/blockbuster-joins-the-movie-set-top-box-game-with-2wire-mediapoi/http://hd.engadget.com/2008/11/24/blockbuster-joins-the-movie-set-top-box-game-with-2wire-mediapoi/Nov 24th 2008 10:55PMhttp://hd.engadget.com/2008/11/24/blockbuster-joins-the-movie-set-top-box-game-with-2wire-mediapoi/http://hd.engadget.com/2008/11/24/blockbuster-joins-the-movie-set-top-box-game-with-2wire-mediapoi/Nov 25th 2008 12:39AMhttp://hd.engadget.com/2008/11/24/blockbuster-joins-the-movie-set-top-box-game-with-2wire-mediapoi/http://hd.engadget.com/2008/11/24/blockbuster-joins-the-movie-set-top-box-game-with-2wire-mediapoi/Nov 25th 2008 7:38AMhttp://hd.engadget.com/2008/11/24/blockbuster-joins-the-movie-set-top-box-game-with-2wire-mediapoi/http://hd.engadget.com/2008/11/24/blockbuster-joins-the-movie-set-top-box-game-with-2wire-mediapoi/
Alas, Warner announced they weren't going to support it any more last January, and Toshiba - who thus far had made most of the players but had omitted most of the features necessary to make them work as STBs for the downloads side of the standard - pulled the plug in February.

Yes, I'm talking about HD DVD.

It's all fairly funny in many ways. Warner pulled support because, supposedly, it didn't want a "format war". Yet it pulled support in favor of the format that competed with - instead of embracing - online downloads. So we're stuck with a format war anyway.]]>Nov 25th 2008 10:06AMhttp://hd.engadget.com/2008/11/24/blockbuster-joins-the-movie-set-top-box-game-with-2wire-mediapoi/http://hd.engadget.com/2008/11/24/blockbuster-joins-the-movie-set-top-box-game-with-2wire-mediapoi/Nov 25th 2008 8:37AMhttp://hd.engadget.com/2008/11/24/blockbuster-joins-the-movie-set-top-box-game-with-2wire-mediapoi/http://hd.engadget.com/2008/11/24/blockbuster-joins-the-movie-set-top-box-game-with-2wire-mediapoi/
Nope, I'm not. I felt like a sucker everytime I rented a movie off Xbox Live and now that I have Netflix (with Xbox360 streaming) I don't think I'll ever do a "one-time" rental again.

Blockbuster held out as long as they could, I think, because they realized that broadband penetration is fairly low for country like the U.S. But with everyone and their brother offering streaming/downloading they couldn't hold off any longer.]]>Nov 25th 2008 9:41AMhttp://hd.engadget.com/2008/11/24/blockbuster-joins-the-movie-set-top-box-game-with-2wire-mediapoi/http://hd.engadget.com/2008/11/24/blockbuster-joins-the-movie-set-top-box-game-with-2wire-mediapoi/
XBox 360
Tivo Series 3 Boxes
Roku Netflix player
A LG Blu-ray player
A Samsung Blu-ray player]]>Nov 25th 2008 9:45AMhttp://hd.engadget.com/2008/11/24/blockbuster-joins-the-movie-set-top-box-game-with-2wire-mediapoi/http://hd.engadget.com/2008/11/24/blockbuster-joins-the-movie-set-top-box-game-with-2wire-mediapoi/
Is this streaming or downloading?

The word "downloading" appears in the articles about this but the context is missing enough for me not to know if the journalist doesn't know the difference. $2 for a downloaded HD rental of a recent release isn't that bad. $2 for a streamed video (thus restricted to your bandwidth in terms of quality) may be better than most VOD services, but it's still not something I'd be likely to use unless I had a very good broadband connection. And I don't.

Another question concerns the audio quality. Everyone focusses on HD video, but are we talking about Netflix style stereo? Or AppleTV style low bitrate Dolby Digital 5.1? Or is someone going to do what I actually want and give the option of DTS or DD+?

At the price, it isn't bad. 25 $2 downloads included brings the effective price of the box down to $50. Considering the number of movies most of us just watch once and never bother with again, it's not bad.

But I have to say right now the only way I can see the downloads "user not allowed to keep any copies" model working in the long term is with the subscription model. And it has to be high quality, both audio and video, which means biting the bullet and allowing downloading of content.

The only other thing to note is that I find it interesting the device has an SD card slot. SD incorporates support for the kinds of DRM Hollywood would be amenable to. What might make me be willing to accept the Blockbuster model is if they allow you to "buy" titles you've downloaded, saving them to an SD card. A subscription model is fairly compelling, but so is a "Try for $2, buy for $10" model, as long as the quality is acceptable.

Summary:
- If it's streaming, forget it.
- If the audio is stereo, forget it.
- If it's all fairly high quality, and if the option exists to buy the movies, I'll jump on this one.
- If it's all ok, I'll certainly consider it. $100 including 25 downloads is a fairly reasonable price, as long as the quality is reasonable.]]>Nov 25th 2008 10:01AMhttp://hd.engadget.com/2008/11/24/blockbuster-joins-the-movie-set-top-box-game-with-2wire-mediapoi/http://hd.engadget.com/2008/11/24/blockbuster-joins-the-movie-set-top-box-game-with-2wire-mediapoi/
First, it's downloads (Yay)
Second, it's "DVD quality", not HD (Boo)
Third, the sound is stereo, not surround, according to the manual (Huge boo. Forget it.)

The manual reports that the box has enough storage to store "five movies" which sounds suspiciously like it's enough to allow for a future HD upgrade. The manual also says that the box itself supports HD, even if Blockbuster doesn't at this point. There's no mention of future upgrades to 5.1 audio, though the optical out would presumably make this possible.

So right now, no go for me.

]]>Nov 25th 2008 11:37AM