Andre Yoskowitz
15 Sep 2008 15:12
Dell is expected to become the first company to offer DVD drives that will allow users to burn their legal movie downloads and then play them back on any standalone DVD player.
What makes the drives different is that the drives will add CSS copy protection, thus appeasing the media companies.
The new drive will use Sonic Solutions’ "Qflix technology with CSS" and will cost $120 USD as an add-on to its laptop and desktop computers. Dell will also be offering legal movie downloads through CinemaNow which has partnered with Sonic in the past to use Sonic's Roxio to burn movies with CSS.
CinemaNow says they will offer 100 new releases from Warner Home Video, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, Universal Studios Home Entertainment, Paramount Home Entertainment and Lionsgate. The company hopes to offer CSS burning from 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment, Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment and MGM Home Entertainment soon.
The new Dell Qflix drives will come with the CinemaNow software already loaded. Buyers of the drive can then download the movie and watch it on their PCs, transfer it to portable media players or burn it to disc to play in their DVD players.
Making the deal a bit sweeter is that CinemaNow will off their CSS burning-capable movies for less than $10 USD. “We’re definitely very excited about it,” added David Cook, CinemaNow president and COO. “We feel like it starts to add to the ecosystem. The DVD player is the widest deployed device in the living room.”
There are, of course, more downsides then just the price of buying the new drive. The new CSS burning will require new recordable blank discs, and we can be sure they will not be as cheap as current DVD-+R are.