Startup to Rent Movies On Flash Memory Cards
An Irish startup called PortoMedia (no, they don't sell entertainment systems for portable toilets, despite the name), will soon offer MOVIE RENTALS ON FLASH DRIVES. Here's how it will work. The company sells you a flash storage device and special $50 card reader with a proprietary USB connection that's ultra fast (95 megabits per second!). You take the flash card to any location that has one of the company's kiosks. Each kiosk contains hard drives with hundreds of movies. You enter your ATM pin code, pick the movie, and it downloads in less than a minute -- take it home and watch. The advantages of this system over DVD or Blu-Ray disks are: 1) they never run out of movies; 2) you don't have to return it; 3) you don't have to wait in a long line; and 4) the kiosk could potentially be anywhere -- supermarket, mall or convenience store.
Comments:
Two more benefits:
1. The power draw should be less than those power-hungry BluRay drives so you may be able to get through a movie on a flight without a spare battery.
2. There's nothing to prevent them from, in the future, offering an "Internet Kiosk" to allow you to download the movie over a high-speed broadband connection.
IMHO the ultimate killer app in this space would be to get a player for the XBox 360 so you can avoid the dock. Of course, they'll also need to get HD content eventually but the terrified movie industry probably can't do that after accepting Sony's BluRay bribes, er, "incentives".
This is a very neat concept. The only thing I am not sure I like is the fact that you have to buy a proprietary device. I suppose it's the only way to make sure people don't start copying their moveis (?). I'm sure it will be hacked immediately.
I'm guessing you meant to write 95 megaBYTES per second. 95 megabits per second is about 1/5 the speed of USB 2.0.
From the linked article:
PortoMedia's interface emphasizes sustained, rather than peak downloads. USB 2.0 can provide peak bandwidth at 480 megabits per second. "But I've never seen anyone achieve that and I'm in the industry," Armstrong said. Average speeds are far lower.
Great! how big exactly is this "flash storage device"? What happens if I want to rent multiple movies, will I be able to fit 5 HD movies on said device? How exactly will their hardware interface with my hardware, such as my home theater receiver, my tv or projector or is this a PC playback only device? There are tons of questions that have yet to be answered and until I start to get details it's just a pipe-dream.
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