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Redbox continues to frighten other established movie-rental venues, as two new studies indicate that the kiosks are having a huge impact on the home video industry. Last week, Variety reported that a study by the research company NPD estimates that Redbox, who plan to add to their over 15,000 kiosks with additional boxes in grocery and convenience stores, will own 30 percent of the rental market by the end of next year. Currently, mail-order services like Netflix control 36 percent of the market, while traditional video chains like Blockbuster still drive the market with a 45 percent share.

The fast growth of the company, which is owned jointly by Coinstar Inc. and a subsidiary of McDonalds, is making the studios very nervous. As reported here previously, Lionsgate, Sony, Disney and Paramount have all cut deals with Redbox, but the company was forced to sue Universal and 20th Century Fox when those studios attempted to strong-arm Redbox into signing a deal that would limit the rental company's distribution and kick profits back to the studios.

If you thought that DVD's effect on film preservation and restoration was minimal -- or only for hard-core film nerds -- think again: CNN.com is running an excellent piece (including before-and-after comparisons of individual frames) about the restoration of Criterion's new Seven Samurai DVD that does a great job of articulating the challenges of repairing a classic -- without completely altering it, or falling into the abyss where the perfect becomes the enemy of the good. Criterion Technical director Lee Kline is quoted as saying "For the most part, you wish you had a few more weeks ... people are used to pristine. But if we did that, we'd never get it out." Has DVD made people expect perfection? And can you make an older film 'perfect' without losing its soul? I for one love the Criterion Samurai, right down to the flaws and scratches that remain -- but are there film fans out there who, in this bit-heavy, high-def day and age, would turn off a film that offered anything less than perfect image quality, regardless of how great the story is?

There's a lot of excitement going on with home entertainment this week, as studios are continuing their progress towards new media:

• CinemaNow has added Twentieth Century Fox to its roster of studios selling movies and TV shows through the download website. As of Tuesday, customers could buy films including Cheaper by the Dozen 2 and The Ringer as well as episodes of 24 and Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Other television programs shown on Fox, FX, FUEL TV and SPEED will also be available starting next month. Fox joins recent CinemaNow partners Warner Bros. and Disney. I still haven't heard one good case in favor of the service, though.
• Next Tuesday, you will be able to buy your first Blu-ray Discs, as Sony is unveiling its first slate of titles (players arrive in stores five days later). The seven movies you can own in the new format are 50 First Dates, The Fifth Element, Hitch, House of Flying Daggers, XXX, The Terminator and Underworld Evolution. Then, on June 27, they will release Ultraviolet, The Last Waltz and A Knight's Tale. And next month we'll get Basic Instinct 2: Risk Addition, Kung Fu Hustle, Legends of the Fall, Stealth, Species, SWAT and Resident Evil Apocalypse. The most significant of these titles is likely to be Ultraviolet, which was filmed entirely in high definition.
• As if worried about the new competition of Blue-ray, Universal is slashing its prices on all of its HD-DVD titles, down from $34.95 to $29.95, beginning August 8th. The only titles that will go on sale at the old price are the upcoming HD-DVD/DVD hybrid discs of Animal House and Unleashed. HD-DVD first went on sale two months ago.
• Blockbuster Video filed a counterclaim against Netflix on Tuesday in response to the latter's April lawsuit against the once-mighty video rental chain. While Netflix is suing Blockbuster to knock them out of the online rental business, based on patents Netflix holds for the service, Blockbuster is stating that those patents are "unenforceable" because they were obtained deceptively.
• This last bit only applies to Southern Africa, but it is still pretty interesting. Moonyeenn Lee, the casting director for Tsotsi, told Mmegi Online that after excessive piracy of the Oscar-winning film in and around her country, the official DVD, to be released in South Africa later this month, will feature three different endings, and future films she represents will now be going straight to video, bypassing cinemas altogether.

Universal, 20th Century Fox, Paramount and Walt Disney, along with the three major broadcast television networks, have filed a lawsuit against the cable TV provider Cablevision over copyright issues. It seems they aren't very happy with a certain new service that Cablevision is about to launch. This "on-demand" service will let subscribers save and store shows and movies on a computer server and then play them back whenever they like. Sound a lot like TiVo? Well, the difference -- and the problem -- is that unlike TiVo, a digital recorder that stores the programs onto a personal server in the viewer's home, Cablevision's service will be storing them on the company's servers. The details aren't as complicated as they seem -- the copyright law is pretty specific -- but the suit does seem a bit picky. Still, it seems that Cablevision could just simply rework its idea so that it complies with the law in the same way that TiVo does. They could put a server into the cable box, for instance. But the cable provider is instead insisting that their service is more legit than it seems.

If Cablevision somehow wins the suit (I doubt it), it will likely cause other changes in the cable industry, as the other major providers, Time Warner and Comcast, might follow Cablevision's lead. Not only would this change increase the possibilities of "on-demand" services already available -- the difference now being that only select programs are available -- but it would also make the TiVo an obsolete device in the home. Hmm. Maybe TiVo would like to get in on this battle?