MovieBeam
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
MovieBeam was a video on demand service started by Disney. Movies were beamed wirelessly into the subscriber's home by embedding digital data within local PBS[1] stations' analog NTSC broadcast to deliver the movies to a set-top box. The data was embedded using dNTSC technology licensed from Dotcast. Up to 10 new movies were delivered to the player each week. The player also contained free movie previews, trailers, and other extras.
The set top box was sold for a one time fee ($149.99 as of August 2007). The cost of renting a movie varied from $1.99 for older movies in standard definition to $4.99 for newer releases in HD. Movie rentals expired 24 hours after the rental period began.
The box had high-end hardware, including HDMI, component video outputs and coaxial and optical digital outputs. The box also had USB and Ethernet ports, although these were not activated in the last release of the software. An HDMI or DVI connection was required to watch HD content which was in 720p resolution[2].
MovieBeam connected to the servers by telephone line to trigger billing of rented movies. It may or may not have worked with VOIP lines, depending on the quality of the connection.
Disney spun-off this company in January 2006. Cisco, Disney and several venture capital firms including Intel Capital, Mayfield Fund, Norwest Venture Partners and Vantage Point Venture Partners had invested $48.5 million in MovieBeam.
On March 7, 2007, Movie Gallery Inc acquired MovieBeam Inc. Movie Gallery at the time stated that the expected cost of acquisition, plus operating expenses for 2007, was $10 million.
On December 5, 2007, Moviebeam began calling its customers informing them that Moviebeam would be ceasing operations on December 15, 2007,[3] and on that date Moviebeam officially shut down service.[4]
