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Here’s a cool service that shows how the union of mobile technology and entertainment industries can bring benefit to each other and ultimately to consumers. CinemaNow, and uVuMobile are making this possible with a new service that lets consumers preview movies on their mobile phones and then remotely download them to an internet connected device at home. I don’t know about you, but having this feature on my mobile phone is my idea of cool. 

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CinemaNow, a leading Internet provider of downloadable videos, has taken the next step in providing consumers a way to legitimately burn premium content. They’ve partnered with Intel to legally allow Intel based PC consumers to download and burn videos to DVD.

CinemaNow offers a wide range of videos and movies. You can browse and select from their list of titles. To download CinemaNow’s premium contents, just sign up on their website at http://www.cinemanow.com and take advantage of their 7-day trial of a Platinum Club membership. If you are satisfied, you can continue your subscription and pay monthly or annually.

Currently, Intel ViiV technology-based PCs allow users to view videos locally on their PC, sync with portable devices and share content with other home devices including large-screen TVs. Burn-to-DVD is currently available in personal PC and 2-foot interface.

The Burn-to-DVD service enhancement allows consumers to watch videos in large screen viewers, such as a 10-foot interface, in their own home. A 10-foot interface is a device with menus and buttons which enables the viewer to be approximately 10 feet away from the TV set. The distance can be either shorter or longer depending on the size of the screen. Microsoft Windows Media Center is an example of this. It will be available in the early part of the year. Intel will demo the ViiV optimized Burn-to-DVD at CES 2007.

Read [Intel]

CinemaNow has been selling downloaded movies since April, the same time as MovieLink. When released, the movies were restricted to PC only viewing, and the downloads included only the film. Now at the same time as MovieLink again, CinemaNow will offer more features including bonus material, like filmmakers’ commentary and extra scenes as well as the ability to burn the video to a DVD. It will take about three hours to download and burn a movie, typically requiring advanced decisions or settling with watching the first view from your PC and later burning the disc.

Initially, CinemaNow will offer about 100 older titles, including “Scent of a Woman,” “Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle” and “Barbershop.” Prices will be about $9 to $15, the same as the films sold in versions that could be downloaded only to computers. CinemaNow has chosen to use different copy-protection technology made by a German company, Ace.

I am not sure which offering is better, burning now with a long wait and poorer quality than in the store, or waiting till next year for MovieLink, or just doing Netflix. Any of you use MovieLink or CinemaNow?

Read [NYTimes]

Movielink, announced a major expansion of its service, enabling consumers for the first time in the U.S.to buy movie downloads online (in addition to renting them for 24 hours). Movielink signed deals with the six major Hollywood studios to deliver movies: MGM, Paramount, Sony Pictures, Twentieth Century Fox, Universal, and Warner Bros. Beginning today, consumers can now create their own permanent digital library of films, which can be viewed on up to three PCs, transferred to a DVD (in Windows Media format) for backup, and streamed around the home via home networking.

Universal Studios’ Brokeback Mountain was the first major title to be released on Movielink the same day as its DVD launch and Sony Pictures’ Fun with Dick and Jane will follow thsi week. Movielink also has other major 2006 DVD releases, including King Kong, Good Night, and Good Luck, Pride & Prejudice, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Get Rich or Die Tryin’, and Walk the Line. Classic titles are also available to buy, including East of Eden, The Sting, To Kill a Mockingbird, Die Another Day, Office Space and Breakfast at Tiffany’s.

CinemaNow has signed agreements with Sony Pictures Home Entertainment and Lionsgate to offer movies for download-to-own purchase through its website. CinemaNow customers can choose from more than 85 premium Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, MGM, and Lionsgate movies for legal and secure download.

The movie may be permanently stored on the hard drive to create a permanent archive, or burned to a disc in Windows Media format for backup or playback on up to two additional tethered computers. The movies can also be downloaded to a notebook computer for traveling. Using a Media Center Edition PC, consumers can stream their copy of the movie to a TV set connected to a media center extender or Xbox.

MovieLink will charge customers choosing to download the latest films between $20 and $30, similar to DVD prices in America, while older titles will sell for $10 to $20.

CinemaNow however will only be charging $9.95 to $19.95 depending on their popularity and age. For a limited time CinemaNow has said that it will also offer an exclusive “Buy One, Get One for $4.95” promotion, allowing customers who buy one movie to purchase another for just $4.95.