Video Ezy has moved one step closer to its promise of in-store digital downloads.
The rental giant has spent the past two years planning its in-store service that will deliver latest release movies able to be downloaded for playback on a dedicated in-home set top box.
This week Video Ezy announced it has signed a crucial contract for the software platform that will form the heart of the "Video Ezy Electronic Video Rental service."
Irish company DigiSoft.tv has been signed to supply the IPTV delivery platform and set top box middleware that will form the heart of the service.
While Australia's broadband woes are frustrating the general take-up of IPTV in Australia, Video Ezy believes it has an opportunity to succeed with a middle road that limits the digital delivery to its more than 1000 stores across Australia and new Zealand.
That means you will still need to make the trip up the road to your local Video Ezy or Blockbuster store to pick up a few movies (Video Ezy bought the Blockbuster chain in 2007). At the store you will look up movies on a kiosk screen then download them to portable storage.
According to Digisoft, this will be either a "branded USB or iPOD type storage system". The movies will be over 1GB each in standard definition, so it looks like Video Ezy will offer a range of different options for storage capacity.
You will need to purchase a dedicated set top box to watch them when you get home, although the whole process will have the advantage of removing the horrors of late fees, as you only need to activate and pay for a movie when you choose to watch it.
So there are swings and roundabouts. You need to add up the amount you spend each year on late fees and figure out if that covers the cost of the Video Ezy hardware, which has been reported to cost around $A550.
Details of the service are still sketchy, and it does not look like Video Ezy will have it available in "early 2008" as they promised last year. Local executives could not be reached for comment.
However the Digisoft announcement shows that the project is still on track. Announcing the deal at a broadcasting industry conference in Las Vegas, Video Ezy MD Paul Uniacke said, "Video Ezy primary objective has always been to give our customers a service that is dynamic and innovative with a focus on quality and value for money for excellence in home entertainment. The Electronic Video Rental service provides our customers with a new compelling and dynamic content delivery platform that offers them a truly flexible rental model,"
"The set top box solution from Digisoft provides our customers with a range of feature rich applications combined with support for the latest high definition technology TV viewing and gives us the flexibility to adopt new advanced online delivery models in the future," he concluded.
Dean
18/04/2008 12:41 PM
Pfft, there's _no way_ anybody is going to fall for this joke. What value does this "service" provide over regular renting of DVDs? There's already plenty of movie rental services that don't have late fees...
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Elliott
18/04/2008 03:14 PM
I agree with Dean, the service will be too expensive for it to be any more time effective than just renting a DVD. Especially with those DVD rental places that post you the DVD, there just doesn't seem to be a middle ground where Video Ezy can profit from it. Unless they pull out some big, impressive features, or just rid of DVD's in their shops altogether so we're forced to use this service, sounds like it'll be a flop. Points for effort though :)
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nons
18/04/2008 11:04 PM
I believe with this option from video Ezy they won't have to maintain a large stock of physical DVDs, thus reducing cost and maintainence. Also a user will not encounter scratched DVDs.
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Pho
21/04/2008 12:25 PM
This is the stupidest idea I've heard in some time. Who's going to shell out $500 for a piece of hardware locked to Video Ezy? How is this any more convenient or advanced than DVD rentals? Who is this even marketed at? This does nothing to discourage piracy - in fact in my eyes it does the opposite. Untill our broadband service and plans are improved to allow for iTunes style on-demand movies, DVD rentals will suffice...this is just pointless...
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katie
12/05/2008 05:43 PM
as someone who works at a video store, have to say this is not for everyone, but we have alot of heavy users ($30+ a week) who spend HEAPS on late fees, theres definitely a market, although at the moment a very small one. In terms of costs though, the amount saved from processing the dvd's coming in and going out and the general maintenance HUGE i spend over 70% of most shifts on this.
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db
02/07/2008 11:26 PM
it sounds okay, until you read the "You will need to purchase a dedicated set top box " and "reported to cost around $A550." bits. It would make a lot of sense if there was a software player or similar for your computer, but just like the ch7 tivo deal - I can't picture most people thinking "oh great" and going out and buying it when they can have much the same experience without forking out hundreds of dollars.
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