Blockbuster eyes vending machines

Co. teams with NCR for 10,000 DVD kiosks

By Dade Hayes

originally posted in: Variety

Seeking a weapon to fight off upstarts like Redbox in the DVD vending machine biz, Blockbuster and cash-register maker NCR have teamed to roll out special kiosks this fall. Installation of the first 50 Blockbuster-branded kiosks should start in the coming weeks, with a rollout of up to 10,000 in the first 18 months. Exact markets and locations have not been finalized.

The machines will initially offer only DVD rentals, but future applications could include digital downloads and sales of DVDs and videogames. The McDonald's-owned Redbox has succeeded in undercutting some Blockbuster sites with machines in grocery stores or McDonald's restaurants.

Blockbuster will report quarterly earnings Friday. Its shares have lagged badly in recent months, dropping 1% Monday to $2.77, despite signs of new strategic direction under the leadership of chairman-chief exec Jim Keyes.

Earlier this year, Blockbuster and NCR set a deal to test digital movie downloading kiosks in select Blockbuster locations. The first should be installed in two Dallas stores this summer.

Keyes said the kiosks rep "one more step in the fulfillment of our mission to transform Blockbuster into a multichannel provider of media entertainment."

According to Blockbuster, analysts project the number of DVD-vending kiosks to grow by more than 60% over the next three years, increasing from 9,300 units at the end of 2007 to more than 22,400 by the end of 2010. Consumer spending on movies from vending machines during that span is expected to grow from $197 million to more than $760 million.

Read the full article at: http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117990044.html

Blu-ray Movie Bitrates Here

Bitrates, video and audio encoding for recent available titles in Blu Ray.

originally posted in BluRay Forum

Very interesting to study technical encoding for BluRay titles.

Just to remember: BluRay disc works with MPEG2-TS (Mpeg2 Part 1 Transport Stream) identical to DVB (C or S).

Check for Last Samurai, Cars, Ghost Rider, Juno. 

Check all info at http://forum.blu-ray.com/showthread.php?t=3338

Time For Apple To Get Serious About Apple TV

Apple executives continue to refer to their Apple TV set-top box business as a "hobby".

originally posted in: Alley Insider

Dan Frommer  - August 1, 2008

Time for that to change: If Steve Jobs wants to make a serious run at owning our living room's "digital hub," then Apple TV needs a serious overhaul, ASAP.

Why now? Because even though the industry is still nascent, the Internet-connected living room is becoming more of a realistic proposition. And the market is quickly getting more crowded.

Yesterday, LG announced it would begin selling a Blu-ray player in September that can play Netflix (NFLX) streaming movies -- and other digital content -- for "well under" $500. Wednesday, Dell (DELL) showed off a sexy new mini computer, starting at $499, with a built-in HDMI port for hi-def TVs and an optional Blu-ray drive. So on and so forth.

Suddenly, Apple TV has lost most of whatever edge it may have had. It can play iTunes movies, and YouTube videos, and... well, that's about it. Piper Jaffray's Gene Munster estimates Apple has sold 2.6 million Apple TVs since spring 2007, which sounds high to us. But no matter what the number is, Apple TV isn't a mainstream product. So how can Steve Jobs change that?

Open it up, by adding the Web. We realize the company likes controlling as much of the user experience as possible and boxing people in to Apple-supplied media. That's helped make Apple products among the most useful and elegant in the consumer electronics industry. But the Apple TV is too confined. It should be more like Apple's Mac mini, which some serious home theater-types actually do use in their living rooms.

What does this mean? Add a Safari browser with all the plugins you'd need to watch videos from Hulu, MLBTV, NBC, ABC, Fox, etc., listen to audio from Muxtape, Last.fm, Pandora, and other sites that aren't too directly competing.

In theory, this also means that Apple is eventually inviting iTunes competitors like Netflix (NFLX) or Amazon (AMZN) onto its box, since they offer browser-based video services of their own. But better to have to compete for space on your own platform than have a platform no one uses.

Add an optional Blu-ray drive. When Apple last updated the Apple TV in January, the the next-gen disc format war was just ending, which meant it was too late to add a Blu-ray DVD drive. But the DVD format isn't going away for a while -- at least for another 5 years or so. An Apple TV with an optional Blu-ray drive could replace the DVD player in every living room. An Apple TV without one is a compromise -- there just aren't enough movies on iTunes to make digital delivery a feasible, primary option today. Don't forget that TVs have a finite number of hi-def ports, and the cable/satellite box -- which Apple will increasibly compete with -- is taking up one of them.

That's it. For now at least -- let's not get ahead of ourselves. AppleTV doesn't need too many features, and it doesn't need to be a full-fledged PC. It just needs to make our TV-watching experience better, by adding as many video sources as possible, in one nicely designed package. What do you say, Steve?

originally posted in: http://www.alleyinsider.com/2008/8/time-for-apple-to-get-serious-about-apple-tv