Starz Entertainment has gone public with a new movie and video Internet download service for those that have PC's and portable devices running version 2 of Microsoft's Media Center software. It's a $9.99 a month subscription type service with no limit on downloads. They are calling it "a kind of iTunes for movies" and also will offer concerts and television shows. They also say the Vongo service will be a "key feature" of the Sony Connect video service set to launch later this year. They also mention that the CES show this year will present many new portable devices that will be compatible with the Vongo service and will compete with the Apple iTunes video player. The addition of Sony at first seems surprising, until we read this quote from the AP article:
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Portability also will make it easier for films downloaded to a computer to be viewed on a TV, where most people prefer to watch movies. Films downloaded from existing online movie services, including Movielink, a joint venture of five Hollywood studios, and CinemaNow, which counts studio Lions Gate as an investor, can be viewed on a TV. But the process involves stringing a cable from the computer to the TV set. Wireless home networks are not yet robust enough to handle the large video files. Viewers will still have to attach a cable from a smaller portable device to a TV, but it will be easier to carry a movie from a computer in an office, say, to a TV in another part of the house. "It's not elegant, it's not perfect, but it's a step," Behrens said. The Starz service will not include films from every studio. It has exclusive rights to films from The Walt Disney Co. and Sony Pictures and has licensed some films from other studios. |
Those interested can find more information by visiting the rather annoying Vongo website. The software is free to download. Special thanks to
RTV71 who used our news submit to tell us about this interesting
story!
Source: My Way AP News
