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Just in time for Christmas, you'll be able to carry movies in your coin purse ... wear them around your neck ... hold them on one finger ... lose them in your shirt pocket. Two companies have announced technology that will allow full-length movies to be sold on USB flash memory devices -- legally. CinemaNow USB Movie Drives "will include an integrated media player as well as the necessary video codecs to enable instant high-quality PC playback of movie content offline," according to a prepared statement released by the companies, Sonic Solutions and Widevine.

"Once connected to the Internet," the press release says, users will be able to access the content on other devices, "such as networked Blu-ray Disc players and connected televisions." High-Def Digest suggests that the devices may be "an effort to meet with consumer demand for digital copies while keeping retail stores in the loop."

Movie-themed USB flash drives have been around for a while -- like the one for The Godfather -- and with the growing memory capacity on the drives, for ever-lowering prices, I suppose this kind of device was inevitable. Sonic Solutions and Widevine have not yet announced any partnerships with movie studios, and there's no word on how "high-quality" the movies will look or what the prices will be. This sounds like a stop-gap device, something for non-tech folks who don't want to mess around with downloads or loading digital copies from DVDs onto their personal computers. Would you buy movies on USB flash drives?

It's been awhile since we last heard anything about Movielink. Actually, it's been awhile since we last heard any news regarding movie download sites in general. Honestly, I had pretty much forgotten about them, despite the news earlier this year about Hollywood giving the greenlight on download-to-DVD options. But today we get a doozy of an announcement relating to the topic: Blockbuster Video is buying Movielink.com. I'm sure I'm not the only person not surprised by the decision. I've been expecting Blockbuster to do something with downloads for a few years now -- though I did think they'd develop something new, in-house. Going with Movielink seems easier, but it also brings any baggage the download site has in terms of reputation and satisfaction -- something I can't speak for since I've never tried their service. All I know is that in two years Movielink (and CinemaNow and Guba, etc.) has failed to show the world that this is the wave of the future. Part of this, I believe, is due to the high price of movie downloads. Then there's also the matter of iTunes jumping in late and stealing the show. Blockbuster will have to figure out a cheaper cost -- among other things -- if it hopes to compete.

Personally I have little interest in movie downloads, because I have little patience and a terrible attention span when it comes to watching stuff on my computer. If anything I would rather watch streaming videos on the web, and even then I prefer short stuff or segmented films (unfortunately my favorite segmented streaming movie site was not legal). Even as a longtime fan and subscriber of Netflix, I haven't yet been able to finish a whole feature on the company's new streaming, Video-on-Demand-style "Watch Now" option (and even though I don't take full advantage, I'm still disappointed that Netflix's recent price decreases caused customers' streaming hours to decrease as well). Blockbuster's purchase of Movielink is probably going to be seen as more directly competitive with this Netflix service (than with iTunes), so we'll have to see what people prefer -- streaming or download -- in the future. Blockbuster's plan for now is to continue to operate Movielink as is, but they'll also be integrating the site's technology and elements into Blockbuster.com.

We may have the first important movie tech story of 2007: The major studios have approved new security technology for downloaded movies that are burned to DVD. Sonic Solutions Inc. has introduced their Qflix system, which adds a digital lock to the DVDs. This copy-protection lock isn't much different from the locks used on store-bought DVDs, though because it is for burned discs, it will require customers to buy a new kind of blank DVD and a new kind of DVD burner.

This could be a very big step in the movie download business, because one of the downsides so far has been that few movie sites have been given permission to offer a download-to-burn option. CinemaNow introduced such an option last summer, but it got a bad reputation. Another concern for downloaders is with the restriction of multiple burnings, but the movie download sites will likely allow for two burns, which seems in my opinion to be plenty for non-pirates.

In addition to benefiting the personal computer movie downloaders, Qflix is going to aid the in-store download kiosks that were being discussed last year. These kiosks will offer an extensive list of titles to be downloaded and burned at places like Walmart and Target.

Significant issues still exist for movie downloads, such as reasonable cost and picture quality, and until these issues are dealt with or bettered, downloaded movies are still not that appealing for mass consumption. But at least the studios are headed in the right direction.

In totally unrelated news, Blockbuster Video has shut all its stores in Peru.

More on movie downloading:

Film Clips: Direct-to-Download: The New Wave of Film Distrib?

Cinematical Seven: The Most Important Things to Happen in Film in 2006

Those of you interested in buying The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift, which goes on sale today, have an interesting option. Instead of purchasing the DVD, which Best Buy has for $14.99 (other chains may sell the DVD at the MSR price of $29.99), you can download the movie from CinemaNow for only $9.99. This may not sound like an especially novel idea, with movie downloads having been available for some time, but the deal here is in the price. Typically CinemaNow offers new releases for about twice as much, a factor that has been the cause of most consumers' disinterest with the site. Even with their announcement over the summer that their downloads can be burned to disc (Chris told us about some problems there, though), a perk that puts the service ahead of iTunes and other download shops as far as viewing options go.

But is $5 off a good enough deal, really? Maybe for those of us who don't usually bother with the featurettes, deleted scenes and commentaries (the DVD has one with director Justin Lin), but in a culture that likes to own and collect things, near-ten-bucks sounds a bit much for a burned DVD. I still see shops like CinemaNow being good for renters, the audience that doesn't care about possessing the copy, and since The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift isn't available to rent on the site yet, Netflix still sounds like the better idea.

Earlier this month, Lionsgate CEO Jon Feltheimer let out the news that the studio would soon be selling movie downloads through Movielink, CinemaNow and iTunes. Not only that, but when asked when the movies would be available on iTunes (keep in mind Apple hasn't announced a service for feature films yet, since they were only said to be in negotiations with studios), Feltheimer said before the end of 2006. That gives us only a few months left in this year until we get to see if Apple can do for movies what it has done for music.

Industry experts are expecting Apple to make an official announcement on September 12, when the Apple Expo 2006 opens in Paris. BusinessWeek is also reporting that the pricing for these iTunes movie downloads will be $14.99 for new releases and $9.99 for older titles. Additionally, the magazine says that Apple will be releasing a new wide-screen iPod, news of which has been rumored for many months now.

Now, according to every internet complaint out there, the pricing for movie downloads are still a problem. If this pricing plan is correct, then iTunes is a bit cheaper for new releases than their competitors, but it still isn't great. Yet, when the service first began with music downloads, it didn't seem plausible that so many people would pay even a dollar for songs they were previously downloading for free, and look what happened there. Could Apple revolutionize digital distribution of movies within the next few months? We'll just have to wait and see.

This has been the year of the movie download, as studios have finally accepted the concept and have partnered with sites like CinemaNow, MovieLink and Guba. The problem is, downloading movies -- legally anyway -- still isn't a very popular idea. This could be due to many problems, such as picture quality and limitations on burning the movies to disc, but the main deterrent to consumers seems to be the price. All of the sites have been selling movies for a price too close to the cost of a DVD, which is certainly a better format.

Now Guba, which offers titles from Sony and Warner Bros., has slashed its prices. New movies are now only $9.99 (down from $19.99) and older movies are $4.99 (down from $9.99). But don't get too excited from this news. The site is only discounting its downloads for a limited time, likely not much more than a month. This seems like a desperate move and will undoubtedly attract people who can't decide which site to sign up with, but it's just bait for customers who probably won't stick around when the prices go back up.

While some reports are saying the move is simply to compete with iTunes for TV Show downloads, there is no logic in that thinking. Even though Guba is now offering shows for only 49 cents, compared with iTunes' $1.99, Guba only offers four shows, and none are probably that much in demand. But Guba does have reason to fear competition with iTunes, as Apple's in-the-works movie download service will probably blow them away when it finally arrives.

Movie download service CinemaNow has been signing deals left and right to make movies from Warner Bros., Disney and others available for purchase. Recently the site/service made headlines when it enabled customers to burn DVDs from the movies they purchased. BoingBoing, though, passes on word that the DRM the movies are embedded with is causing the DVDs to be almost completely unplayable. Apparently the DRM uses a land-to-pit ratio called the Digital Sum Value that is freaking out and causing completely unfixable errors. The problem is that this DSV is so random that when you introduce variables such as DVD burners, software, blank DVDs and ultimately players, the ratio is so fouled up as to be completely uninterpretable. So if you were all excited about this program and planning to try it out, take care, especially since CinemaNow has a strict one-copy-only restriction on burning.

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.

The movie download sites are going to have to find new ways to compete, as they aren't going to be duking it out with boasts of who has what studio's films for much longer. Pretty soon both will offer the same movies from all the major distributors. Just one day after Disney announced that it would be releasing its movies on CinemaNow, Warner Bros. has made an announcement that its films will be available on the website, too. Warner Bros. is already selling movie downloads through Movielink, having joined in the original deal announced on April 3, and the studio now joins MGM and Sony as having relationships with both of the sites. Warner's titles, which include TV shows, went on sale today.

Well since I haven't yet gotten a response from yesterday's post, I will assume that either none of our readers has tried CinemaNow or Movielink, or none will admit to being ripped off. Maybe now that the Harry Potter films are available on CinemaNow, a fan may check the site out and report to us about it. Please.

Walt Disney has finally sided with one of two leading movie download sites. Beginning June 6, the studio will be releasing its films through CinemaNow on the same day they come out on DVD in stores. The first release in the deal will be Glory Road. CinemaNow movies cost $20 each for new releases and $10 for older titles and they can be transferred to up to three other devices, such as portable players. Disney says they went with CinemaNow because of this slight leniency with copying the downloads because parents like to transfer movies to players in their vehicles for their children's backseat enjoyment.

In April, a competing download site called Movielink signed with a number of studios -- Universal, Sony, Warner Bros., MGM, and Paramount. At the same time, CinemaNow only worked deals with Sony, MGM and LionsGate. Disney's partnership with CinemaNow is not exclusive, though, and they could very well sign with Movielink in the future.

Now that studios are getting with the program, I'd like to meet somebody who has actually used either Movielink or CinemaNow, because I just can't believe they are worth the money right now. Since you can't burn the movies to DVDs and show them on your TV, and the quality probably isn't good enough anyway, there really seems little incentive for the consumer. Then again, I still think buying movies is a waste while there's rental sites available. But at least buying movies can result in impressive libraries or collections, which is important to other people, if not to me. Downloading movies can still only be important to people who do it illegally.