Stung by falling DVD sales, Best Buy is on the verge of launching a digital movie service with a third-party partner that could debut as early as this summer, according to studios.

The chain is in talks with CinemaNow and other online movie services to create a download business that Best Buy hopes will offset falling DVD sales, studio execs said.

Details on how exactly Best Buy would benefit from a potential partnership with CinemaNow, and others, are still being finalized. But one possibility, according to studio execs, is that Best Buy would market and sell Web-enabled hardware devices—from TVs to Blu-ray Disc players—that would include immediate, built-in access to CinemaNow’s library. Such devices could roll out as soon as this summer. Best Buy would presumably share with CinemaNow or another third-party provider the resulting download and/or streaming revenue.

Physical DVD merchandising also is undergoing changes at Best Buy, following the chain reducing staff to cut expenses. Jill Hamburger, VP of movies and entertainment, has left the company, according to sources. She reported to Mike Vitelli, VP of consumer electronics/product management, and it’s not expected that her position will be replaced. Marlys Thorson, merchandise leader for DVD software, also has exited Best Buy.

http://www.videobusiness.com/article/CA6652262.html

Engadget's take:

Apparently Blu-ray sales aren't increasing fast enough for everyone, in its ongoing plan to not pull a Circuit City, Best Buy is reportedly in talks with CinemaNow and other, unnamed, movie services about launching a digital delivery arm as early as this summer. CinemaNow is well prepared to set up online video stores for others, with Blockbuster (bad example) and Dell already on board. Variety suggests Best Buy could market and sell Internet-connected TVs and set-top boxes that include CinemaNow access, with a shared revenue stream between the two, but nothing is final. Netflix has a hit on its hands with Watch Instantly so think it over, would you give an Insignia Blu-ray player or HDTV a second look if it could download movies?

http://www.engadgethd.com/2009/04/17/best-buy-prepping-an-entry-into-the-digital-distribution-game/

Nice to see all the interest in this, but man....another device? Can you say market oversaturation and consumer confusion?

Nice to see all the interest in this, but man....another device? Can you say market oversaturation and consumer confusion?

Yep!

I stated several months back that this is exactly what was going to happen. A bunch of people releasing devices and services because the pay-off was so high. I really do hope that Disney/ABC signs up with Hulu as I believe that will cement at least the broadcast side of the house.

The movie area is going to take a while to shake out because there is no one provider that is dominant (for new releases), so each studio will likely try their own service.

The biggest problem with streaming movies online is the video quality. Until it can match the quality of a BD disk then I will pass.

The biggest problem with streaming movies online is the video quality. Until it can match the quality of a BD disk then I will pass.

Well I find video quality of 1080p downloads to be easily adequate and comparable to blu-ray. It is the audio that is lacking however.

Well I find video quality of 1080p downloads to be easily adequate and comparable to blu-ray. It is the audio that is lacking however.

Really? You realize that they compress the video so much that it is hardly even considered high def? My cable company does the same thing and I can certainly tell a difference.

Really? You realize that they compress the video so much that it is hardly even considered high def? My cable company does the same thing and I can certainly tell a difference.

Just out of curiousity, can you check out this clip and let us know if you consider it "high def"?

http://silverlight.services.live.com/31260/Big%20Buck%20Bunny%201080p24%204%20Mbps%20Smooth%20Streaming/video.wmv

Shhh don't tell the ISP's or they will give us more bandwidth caps.

Just out of curiousity, can you check out this clip and let us know if you consider it "high def"?

http://silverlight.services.live.com/31260/Big%20Buck%20Bunny%201080p24%204%20Mbps%20Smooth%20Streaming/video.wmv

Looks HD to me. Why do you ask?

Looks HD to me. Why do you ask?

That is likely to be what 1080p streaming video looks like in the coming months. I would expect that to be surpassed in the coming years.

The point is that streaming 1080p can look like (and is) HD.

That is likely to be what 1080p streaming video looks like in the coming months. I would expect that to be surpassed in the coming years.

The point is that streaming 1080p can look like (and is) HD.

Any MY point is Netflix and Blockbuster will try and compress the video as much as possible to cut down on bandwidth requirements. Otherwise it won't work for 95% of their customer base. And BTW, ISPs are starting to charge per bandwidth used so if you watch alot of streaming HD videos or tv then expect a nice bump in your monthly bill. :D

Any MY point is Netflix and Blockbuster will try and compress the video as much as possible to cut down on bandwidth requirements. Otherwise it won't work for 95% of their customer base. And BTW, ISPs are starting to charge per bandwidth used so if you watch alot of streaming HD videos or tv then expect a nice bump in your monthly bill. :D

That stream you viewed is a very manageable 4 Mbps. Services like Netflix can handle dynamically providing the correct stream based on your own peak bandwidth available. Bandwidth continues to increase at either little (or in some cases no) increase in price. And these places will provide quality due to competition. Just yesterday, Netflix received a stock downgrade due to looming competition in the streaming space. They (and everyone else) will need to provide quality encodes as the competition is going to be fierce to try and be the premier destination for video streaming services.


And ISPs may want to try and charge per bandwidth used, but that is hardly written in stone. Take a look at some of the threads in this area discussing the issues that Time Warner Cable ran into with their plan to impose unreasonable caps and overage charges. With just about every provider of streaming video offering HD, and devices like the XBox 360, Roku, Tivo HD, etc all providing HD streaming support directly to your primary display, I expect that usage and consumer acceptance will drive lawmakers to limit ISPs using caps to protect their monopolies.

don't forget even politicians are getting on board with fighting the caps:

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=1136803

This whole streaming/bandwidth cap thing is going to be a huge hot-button issue as more streaming services come online, and the ISPs have to fight Best Buy, Netflix, BlockBuster (if they survive), Vudu, AppleTV, Amazon, Hulu, Youtube, etc etc etc...

I fully expect the ISPs to lose on this. Where one ISP puts in an unreasonable cap (i.e. Time Warner), you'll see another raise their caps to take their business away. ISPs won't be able to fight the future.

Has anybody ever thought that BRD sales haven't "taken off" because of the pricing? Even movies at $20, it's too expensive for me. I can watch a movie once at the theaters for $8. I can own it at home and still probably watch it once for almost 3 times the price. It's absurd. They should be $10 or less. An entire or even part of a series should not cost $100+.

They really should make series without features to cut down on discs and thus (supposedly) price. That was one of the big bullet points for BRD. LESS DISCS. But they still want to cram junk I'll never watch into more discs to keep the price on par with what DVD box sets used to be.

Has anybody ever thought that BRD sales haven't "taken off" because of the pricing? Even movies at $20, it's too expensive for me. I can watch a movie once at the theaters for $8. I can own it at home and still probably watch it once for almost 3 times the price. It's absurd. They should be $10 or less. An entire or even part of a series should not cost $100+.

They really should make series without features to cut down on discs and thus (supposedly) price. That was one of the big bullet points for BRD. LESS DISCS. But they still want to cram junk I'll never watch into more discs to keep the price on par with what DVD box sets used to be.

If you can't spend $20 on movie you should probably start looking for another hobby... Those price are on par with what we used to pay for DVD at this time in its life.

Exactly why I never had a DVD collection as well.

Buying DVDs or BDs makes no sense to me. Renting is much more practical. I have purchased maybe 10 dvds in my life and I have only watched them once or twice total. If I want to watch a movie again, I just add it to my netflix queue and receive it in 1 day. I have friends who have a massive DVD collection and 99% of them never get watched more than once. I guess they just want to have a collection to say they have a collection.

Buying DVDs or BDs makes no sense to me. Renting is much more practical. I have purchased maybe 10 dvds in my life and I have only watched them once or twice total. If I want to watch a movie again, I just add it to my netflix queue and receive it in 1 day. I have friends who have a massive DVD collection and 99% of them never get watched more than once. I guess they just want to have a collection to say they have a collection.

I have over 500 DVD and HD media in my collection plus some terrabytes of programation on HDD. All of them get viewed many times and will be again. I even make a point of rewatching some titles at fixed date (Rocky Horror Picture show and my Hammer Film horror film around halloween or Bufy/Angel during my summer vacation). I also read my book many time (I read the Belgariad and the Mallorean from David Edding every year) and listen to my CD many time, so in my case buying make sense.

I also hate commercials so I never watch TV series while they run. I do rent, I even use 2 netflix like service (zip.ca and cinemail.ca). I would even use some streaming services if they were available and if I wasn't capped. But I like to own things. Blame it on a bad case of being extremely poor when I was growing up.

I know streaming is instant gratification, but needs mucho bandwidth especially if you want DTS-MA/TrueHD. Downloading obviously takes longer but shouldn't you be able to equal BD video/audio once downloaded to your system? Which for me would be fine, I only rent BD from Netflix, never buy and love the quality of the BD video/audio. I only have time to watch about one movie a week, so if it took 24 hours to download, no problem, I'd download it and watch when I got the chance or within whatever window of time they allowed.

I know streaming is instant gratification, but needs mucho bandwidth especially if you want DTS-MA/TrueHD. Downloading obviously takes longer but shouldn't you be able to equal BD video/audio once downloaded to your system? Which for me would be fine, I only rent BD from Netflix, never buy and love the quality of the BD video/audio. I only have time to watch about one movie a week, so if it took 24 hours to download, no problem, I'd download it and watch when I got the chance or within whatever window of time they allowed.

I don't know of any streaming services that offer DTS-MA or TrueHD. At most you get DD.