Blockbuster Working on Set-Top Box

An anonymous reader writes "According to the Hollywood Reporter and news.com, Blockbuster will soon be announcing yet another reason not to go to a rental store. A media-delivering set-top box is in the works for the company, leveraging the store's existing competence in the industry to provide a viable alternative to iTunes, Xbox Live, and Amazon. 'There was no mention of price or how such a service would work in the report. But let's think about this: to compete with Apple TV or Vudu, the device would have to cost around $200, and rentals of movies and TV shows should be around $3 to $4 each, which would be slightly cheaper than rentals of new releases from Blockbuster currently. The big advantage Blockbuster would enjoy over Apple TV, Vudu, and TiVo, it seems, would be selection.'" I still think they're kinda doomed.

Comments

Re:Doomed by the integrated computer

[Lumpy]

Exactly.

Give me a service that will work with my non MS media center PC and I'll be all over it.

NONE of them work with the decent media centers, only a couple that kind of work with the crappy Windows MCE product.

I want a mediaportal plugin or a MythTV plugin etc...

support standards not specalized DRM.

Re:Why the negativity?

[TheRaven64]

Sell it for $200, with your first 20-40 rentals being free. Once someone has rented 40 movies on the device, Blockbuster have made back most of the cost and the customer has got so used to on-demand movies that they don't think of using other services.