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New Disney / Samsung HDD Video Set-Top Box

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the that-might-be-neat dept.

MDMurphy writes "Disney announced a new set-top box built for them by Samsung that will hold movies downloaded over the air via what they call MovieBeam in an internal HDD. You'd pay a monthly rental fee for the box and $2.39 - $3.99 per movie for a 24 hour viewing period. Dotcast Inc. provides the movie beaming, sending the digital data out over terrestrial TV broadcast stations. "

3 of 192 comments (clear)

  1. How long until it's cracked? by Electrode · · Score: 5, Funny

    I give it 3 days.

  2. Break down the price by GreenCrackBaby · · Score: 5, Insightful

    $7/month rental fee for set-top box.

    $4/movie

    $30.00 activation fee in some areas.

    Holy shit. Break it down...let's say I watch 7 movies a month (yeah right, I wish I had that much time).

    $4 for movie + $1 rental + $.50 for activation fee (assuming roughly 70 movies a year, activation fee spread out over year) = $5.50 per movie, with more restrictions than you get with traditional rentals.

    Where's the cost savings? Why on earth would people buy this...are they really so lazy that driving to the movie store is such an effort (please don't answer that!).

    --

    "The market alone cannot provide sufficient constraints on corporation's penchant to cause harm." -- Joel Bakan
  3. Hmm... by gmurnock · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Sounds cool, but why only 24 hours? If there's one thing people want these days, it's not to be bound to any arbitrary schedule. It'd be cooler if they could allow you to have, say, five movies at a time "checked out", with no time limit. Then it'd be like NetFlix, but without the mail :)