Interesting article on MovieBeam, a new service backed by Disney, Intel and Cisco. MovieBeam is a set top box that stores 100 movies at a time for your viewing pleasure. You pay for only what you watch and there are no monthly fees. What fascinates me is how they get the movies onto the box. According to the NewYork Times:

This wireless movie-delivery feature gives MovieBeam its name. The company doesn’t require an Internet connection or even a computer. Nor does the service depend on what cable or satellite setup you have, if any. How, then, can it send enormous, multigigabyte movies to MovieBeam owners nationwide?

Answer: Very cleverly. MovieBeam’s movies are encoded in the broadcast signal of PBS stations across the country. You’re actually receiving MovieBeam’s movies at this very moment — but they’re invisible unless you have the MovieBeam box. (MovieBeam pays PBS for these piggybacking rights.)

I didn’t even know you could do that!

This service doesn’t seem to solve the problems I raised here, but perhaps it is a step in the right direction. (via LJ)

This entry was posted on Monday, June 5th, 2006 at 2:44 pm and is filed under Government, Technology, Television. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.