Sonic Brings CinemaNow Films To USB Flash Drives
Sonic Solutions, best known for its CinemaNow movie venture, has just teamed up with Widevine in order to bring Hollywood hits to a place they've never been before: USB flash drives. Mind you, we've seen major motion pictures show up on flash cards of all sizes, but this is the first time a respected outfit has announced plans to launch films on flash drive.
The self-contained 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. Once a user connects to the Internet, they can then add the title to their Roxio CinemaNow Digital Locker to access it on other ecosystem devices such as networked Blu-ray Disc players and connected televisions. That's the real kicker to us--you buy the film on flash drive, but you can access it elsewhere. Handy!
Of course, there will be a significant amount of DRM loaded onto the drive, with Brian Baker, Widevine CEO, noting that his company's technology is "helping to ensure consumers get the Hollywood new releases they want along with the playback flexibility they crave." The Roxio CinemaNow USB Movie Drives are expected to be available at retail locations nationwide later this year, and Sonic is already courting certain mobile phone companies and netbook manufacturers in order to boost adoption from the get-go.
The self-contained 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. Once a user connects to the Internet, they can then add the title to their Roxio CinemaNow Digital Locker to access it on other ecosystem devices such as networked Blu-ray Disc players and connected televisions. That's the real kicker to us--you buy the film on flash drive, but you can access it elsewhere. Handy!
Of course, there will be a significant amount of DRM loaded onto the drive, with Brian Baker, Widevine CEO, noting that his company's technology is "helping to ensure consumers get the Hollywood new releases they want along with the playback flexibility they crave." The Roxio CinemaNow USB Movie Drives are expected to be available at retail locations nationwide later this year, and Sonic is already courting certain mobile phone companies and netbook manufacturers in order to boost adoption from the get-go.
