Movies to be sold on USB thumbdrives this year

Thu Jul 23, 2009 10:46AM EDT

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Once a bit of a farfetched projection (two years ago I predicted this might happen by 2012), one movie downloading service has announced it will soon begin packaging motion pictures onto USB thumbdrives and selling them in retail outlets.

The plan, from Sonic Solutions, the company which operates the Roxio CinemaNow service, is to have the movie-loaded drives on store shelves in the fourth quarter of the year.

The company hasn't offered complete details on the plan yet: The titles it will offer at launch have not been announced, nor has pricing for the drives (or their capacity). Sonic has said only that the movies available will be similar to the current selection on the CinemaNow site, including a blend of new releases and classics. Most new releases on the CinemaNow service cost $19.95 to download; library titles typically run $9.95.

The company has said that movies won't be time-restricted, and that buyers will "own the content indefinitely." That of course doesn't mean that the drives will come free of DRM: The titles will be of course protected by strong digital security tied to the CinemaNow service designed to prevent them from being copied. Movies will have to be played back directly from the thumbdrive, either on a computer or through a CinemaNow-compatible device, which includes TiVo systems and LG Blu-ray players. Owners who register their purchases online will be able to play back the content through up to five devices.

My take: This is encouraging and interesting news (USB drives are fare more durable than optical discs), though it's not quite the same as buying a DVD that can be played back on any device, any time, without restriction. And really I'm quite interested to find out what Sonic plans to charge for these drives. At $19.95, it's already more expensive in many cases to download a movie from CinemaNow than it is to buy a DVD, which is (mostly) unencumbered by playback restrictions. Add in the cost of hardware and the markup that Sonic will face in selling titles through a third-party retailer instead of through its own website and we could see a pretty expensive offering. I wouldn't be surprised to see titles hit $30 in the USB format... and that's not going to compare too favorably next to a discounted, $14.99 DVD one shelf over.

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  • 1 Posted by warriorjoe78 on Thu Jul 23, 2009 12:05PM EDT Report Abuse

    I, too, find the idea intriguing. I carry a couple of thumbdrives in my pocket every day and find their convenience factor to be a great benefit.

  • 2 Posted by rogueist on Thu Jul 23, 2009 1:57PM EDT Report Abuse

    As long as the RIAA and Hollywood like the idea, it will fly. Prices may be minorly expensive at the start, but once they start hitting that magic multi-million production mark number, we will see the same type of discounts we find for DVDs. And they will have to lift the 5 device viewing limit as well and make it unlimited devices. What will drive sales of movies in this format will be the rental industry. If they can make them available for rent and they play back on anything, then its a winner.

  • 3 Posted by janettwokay on Thu Jul 23, 2009 2:08PM EDT Report Abuse

    I'm glad someone is finally doing this. The price needs to be cheap, though, before I'd purchase it. I suppose I should have asked my dad back in the '80's what he thought the pricing would be. He's the one who predicted all this to me as we sat in the Museum of Science & Industry in Chicago. Since all his predictions have come true, it would have been fun to have had a price tag to go along with them.

  • 4 Posted by macksumum1 on Thu Jul 23, 2009 4:16PM EDT Report Abuse

    put high quality HD movies on those things and they probably will overtake blu-ray.too bad thats not going to happen.

  • 5 Posted by bella77427 on Thu Jul 23, 2009 5:47PM EDT Report Abuse

    Yep I think the idea is cool but production cost could make it not so great after all hence making it hard to compete with the already lower cost dvd over time.

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