Check out these articles guys.
Soon (probably by next month), Blockbuster will be installing kiosks in their stores that can be used to download movies directly to your portable device, and Archos players will be the first to be tested..

http://www.electronista.com/articles/08 ... tore.d.ls/

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5gb9c ... gD90UQ6300

I posted this here: http://archosfans.com/2008/05/28/blockb ... n-the-usa/

Read this article, sounds like it could be an very nice feature, hopefully it all works like it sounds.

Initially, the service will be available only in the Dallas area (according to this article):

http://www.crunchgear.com/2008/05/28/bl ... d-service/

Finally a benefit for me living in Dallas!

The concept is kind of strange....travel to a brick and mortar store to download a movie?

LOL I thought Blockbuster was as dead as dodo

Hopefully Blockbuster and Archos will do very large partnership here, also in cooperation with CPFK who is the equivalent of Blockbuster in France.

Consider that you are downloading with 400mbit/s and have access to hundreds of terrabytes of movies when you connect to such a brick and mortar Blockbuster vending machine kiosk. Which Blockbuster could install hundreds of thousands of all around the world, not only in the current Blockbuster and Circuit City stores (in which there could be up to 10-20 kiosks per shop depending on the amount of people using it). The price of making such a kiosk could be below $1000, all that is required would be a fiber optic or gigabit lan connection from Blockbuster's movie servers to each kiosk.

Also, this does not exclude Blockbuster from also providing the downloads and streaming over the Internet, even though the bandwidth probably is going to stay 100 times slower then going down to the kiosk.

Simply use an Archos with WiFi and you've got a device that works both with the kiosk and with unlimited movie streaming over the Internet.

I'd say that that Blockbuster should provide a HD enabled Archos that has HDMI on the TV-output and 400mbit/s transfer speeds from the kiosk, 80GB or 160GB, no screen and no battery (for the low cost $100 production cost model) and the normal Archos with screen and with battery for people who want to have the option to watch the movies on a portable device (that normal portable video player Archos should be subsidized by Blockbuster and for example sold for an extra $10 per month subscription with the DVR Station or something like that). The pricing should be $10 per month for the basic movie subscription (with the non-screen non-battery Archos with the basic TV-output Dock) which might be limited to 5 or so movies per month and a free Archos, to $20 per month which should provide the screen and battery Archos WiFi and HDMI model, unlimited access to 80 thousand movies, TV shows and more. Blockbuster could charge extra for new releases (below $2) and charge a little for the service of getting the movies downloaded or streamed over the WiFi or HSDPA connection (less than $1 per movie). That payment to unlock such extra features should work over WiFi or HSDPA and not only over the SMS code as the french Moovyplay system currently works.

The only cost difference between an HD and a normal DVD resolution version of the movie should be the time needed to download the video from the kiosk. And there could be a little extra fee to stream or download the HD version over WiFi.

So DVD quality: 30 seconds to wait using the kiosk, $0.50 fee to download or stream over WiFi (1.5mbit/s download speed required to instantly stream DVD quality to the WiFi connection) or HSDPA (using HSDPA, the quality is portable screen quality which would be a 5th of the bandwidth required for full DVD quality, around 300kbit/s).

HD 720p quality: 1 minute and 30 seconds to 2 minutes to wait using the kiosk but there should be no cost difference from DVD quality, $1.50 to $2 fee to download or stream over WiFi (instant streaming playback requires over 4mbit/s download speed to the WiFi connection).

HD 1080p quality: would take 3-4 minutes to transfer per movie using the kiosk but there should be no cost difference from DVD or 720p quality, $3 to $4 fee to download or stream over WiFi (instant streaming playback requires over 8mbit/s download speed to the WiFi connection).

So where is the 400mbps number coming from? Are you assuming a firewire connection? I hope you're not thinking you'd get that from USB 2.0. It may be spec'ed at 480mbps, but that's not a sustained transfer rate. You wouldn't do any better than the transfer rate from your current PC....

Mike

My film distribution company is a vendor with Movielink, the download service now owned by Blockbuster. We recently were asked to amend the agreement to include downloads from other Blockbuster-owned properties (including Blockbuster.com), so I'm assuming this arrangement will make our licensed films available under this option as well. I think the aspect of having to go into the store to download a film to your player isn't really going to appeal to most people... sounds to me like a brick & mortar dinosaur trying to cling to the edge of the tar pit as long as possible, maybe.

They'd be better served by launching a service as part of Blockbuster.com like Netflix has done, which I'm sure is just a matter of time as well. But the reality is, none of these broadband vendors are really going to break out until we get faster download speeds. The meager license fees we get from Movielink and others is a good indication that it's not ready for primetime... meanwhile the DVD business is faltering and dropping off each year. Everyone's eyeing downloads as the replacement, but we've got awhile before that happens I'm afraid...

I'm talking about 480mbit/s because of the Blockbuster CEO who said that the movie download would take only 30 seconds in the second generation of the prototype products, the first generation Blockbuster devices currently being tested in Dallas Texas being the first generation non-HD Archos 40GB Moovyplay. I'm not necessarilly talking about the USB 2 connection, but how about that proprietary connector that Archos has, perhaps it is able to be faster then USB2. Otherwise Blockbuster, CPFK and Archos must be working on a Gen6 proprietary connector that can transfer even faster. The limit perhaps only being the speed that a file can be recorded to the 2.5" hard drive.

One way I imagine this could be done is to leave the player at a kiosk controlled by the Blockbuster store clerk behind his counter. This way you can walk around the store look at stuff for 10 minutes while the 20 movies are being automatically transfered to your Archos based on the "Wish List" that you have prepared from home, having the complete catalog of available movies loaded onto the interface of the device and the whole recommendations engine also being there on the device and working while offline (synchronizing ratings and recommendations when connected to the kiosk).

I guess also that one kiosk could serve more than one customer at the same time by just having more than one proprietary superfast Archos connector per kiosk. There probably is a water proof touch screen on each kiosk, but I guess if you make sure to prepare your selection from home you just need to connect it and you don't need to click on anything to get your selection synched (and the movies you have already watched are automatically deleted to make space on the device). Or if you want just click "Load 20 recommended movies" based on your previous movie watching history and your submitted ratings. One thing you may do at the kiosk if you want is pay for somekinds of credits and put them on your Archos to for example unlock certain movies and features depending on the subscription plan you would have.

Blockbuster will most certainly easilly get deals with all the McDonalds, 7elevens, supermarkets, post offices and gas stations to install such $1000 kiosks (guessing that's the kind of price such kiosk can be mass produced for as long as the tens of terrabytes of storage is not necessarilly built-in but pulled from gigabit lan or fiber).

Who cares if this comes off or not one great side effect is that Archos will have to clean up it's little glitches and update the interface so it will appeal more to the non-techy. 605 users will not be abandoned!!! Expect the updates fast and furious for a while.

I would hope that Archos will also update the DVR Station to include HDMI output for better playback on HDTV sets (even if the source material isn't HD... right now playback via component to my 50" HDTV is barely serviceable)... what good is it to download all these movies at Blockbuster if one has no way to watch them on their TV?

Yup full 1080p H264 .mkv support would be nice. That is around 4.5GB for a 720p movie and around 8GB for a 1080p version. Even if the format would be .mkv, or some other container, they can put a layer of DRM onto that if for example they want to make sure people don't take the digital copies and put them unprotected on p2p networks.

The screen native resoultion is only 800 x 480, there's no point supporting even 720...
Might be nice for Blueray rips but it would take a shed load of processor power to reduce the image to the screens display size.

Best idea is to aim the video at the display size. Better for the processor and battery and better quality as the unit doesn't have to scale the image.

Now .mkv and .ogm formats and H264 would be nice....

TV-output can be HD. Using component output or HDMI output.

The point of the Archos Moovyplay is to be a TV-output only device, you take it to the Blockbuster kiosk, put 20 movies onto it, take it home and connect it to the TV-output docking station by your TV. The Archos Moovyplay which is what Blockbuster is going to use, it has no screen and no battery, so it does not need to downscale to any 800x480 resolution.

The whole point of this is to replace the DVD and Blu-ray for renting movies that you watch at home on your TV, costing too much in shelve space, distribution, transportation, get scratched and much more.

My Netflix 3-at-a-time plan nets me about 24 movies a month for about $18US. Thats about 75 cents a movie.

So where's the beef?

I'm not sure what the advantage of this is for the film industry and the end user. I have my doubts that the major studios would agree to this, at least for their big releases. Or at least until sell through and rentals have been exhausted. Unless of course they price downloads at the same level as rentals, but then what is the advantage? The studios want their cut, so if you think this will be cheap, think again. BB has to get a cut, the studio gets a cut, etc. And what is the advantage to the customer? You still drive to the BB, you still wait around, you still pay. And now you have to bring your device with you. And let's not forget that within weeks of being released BB sells off their excess rental copies at very cheap prices, like those 3/$25 deals. My local Movie Gallery sells off their overstock at 4/$20.

I think this is BB's attempt to show the Circuit City stockholders that selling the company to BB is a good idea, since that would allow CC to sell the devices that would be used at BB. Then it makes sense, at least for BB. I'm not so sure it makes sense to anybody else.

And why Dallas?

Blockbuster headquarters are in Dallas.

Blockbuster already has unlimitted movie subscriptions at $20 per month: https://www.blockbuster.com/signup/s/reg

Netflix, Vongo, Best Buy, Walmart and many others are about to licence unlimitted movie deals. This is not special, Blockbuster has already the best connections to the movie industry so any type of licencing deals will be easier for Blockbuster to negotiate then anybody else. The movie industry makes billions of dollars each year thanks to Blockbuster.

You will drive less using this Archos Moovyplay system, since each time you drive to your Blockbuster kiosk, which doesn't have to be in Blockbuster stores but can also be at any supermarket, 7eleven, post office, McDonalds and any other place you will go to anyways, you transfer 20 movies to your Archos in 10 minutes. Which means you save 19 drives if you use to rent only 1 movie at a time. Also you save all the drive necessary to return the DVD.

There is a benefit to everyone, to Blockbuster, to other places that will have this Blockbuster kiosk and who will share the revenue, and to the movie studios who will have their movies seen by many more people, especially for the long tail content which there is not enough shelve space in Blockbuster stores, but that there is no limit in the amount of content with the Kiosks. Also the Kiosk does not have that limit in number of copies and popular content being not available on the shelves of a normal Blockbuster store.

Yeah, I just hope Kiosks come in stores soon. I am really looking forward to get it and enjoy downloading movies on my Archos player.
Thanks for the information...
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