Kiosk.net

Huge article in the NY Times today about Warner Bros. and Hollywood in general, although it’s hard to pinpoint exactly what this four-page monstrosity was about. It’s cleverly mis-named “Can Hollywood Evade the Death Eaters?” of course alluding to the wildly popular Harry Potter movies. I think Potter was mentioned once in the article.

Anyway, I tried to break down some of the key moments of the article into something that’s somewhat cohesive, and ended up with this:

Here is a statistic from Time Warner’s Web site that shows the force of Warner Brothers in the home video market: for six of the last eight years, the studio has been No. 1 in DVD and VHS sales and rentals, with a market share of 19.7 percent in 2004.

That is why Hollywood was stunned when Warner Brothers ousted the president of its home video unit two weeks ago and folded it into a newly reconfigured digital distribution division along with online operations, wireless and video games, and emerging technology. For many analysts, it signaled a radical shift - that in an increasingly digital world, DVD’s would no longer be the dominant way the studio distributed content.

Ok. The next important quote has to do with the Video iPod. Disney is letting consumers buy episodes of TV shows for $1.99 and view them on iTunes or iPod, in case you didn’t know.

But Warner, unlike Disney, is still skeptical about offering its movies and television shows for the video iPod or other portable devices. One concern is that the content will be easier to copy and share, compounding the problems the studio is already experiencing with piracy.

“I don’t know if we are ready to do that,” Mr. Meyer said. “I want to see how the Disney experiment works, how it affects the television affiliates and video retailers. A lot of people are affected by it. We want to be responsive, but everything has the overlay that we don’t want to put anything out that has a negative effect on how we manage our digital rights.”

You see where I’m going with this? I think that’s more like what they were trying to say with all of that. But feel free to read the entire article if you want to learn about how George Clooney is taking smaller advances, Warner Brothers is cutting costs wherever possible, and of course, that age old rhetorical question: what’s behind the changing movie-viewing habits in America?

Well, the TiVo/Netflix thing kinda fell through, but maybe this is what they were talking about all those months ago when they said really cool things would be coming down the pipeline. The deal is mutually beneficial to both companies, TiVo, who is striving to differentiate itself from knock-off DVR boxes, will gain a little added value. Yahoo! takes an important step in its evolution, attempting to break into other, non-internet mediums.

Yuanzhe Cai, the director of broadband research at Parks Associates, said: “We are seeing a lot of experimentation in terms of video programming through the Internet, and a lot of people are going to want to sit back and watch it on their TV. The big hurdle now is the digital rights issues of the studios and content owners.”

TiVo is caught in the middle. Its current digital recorder is capable of viewing programming from the Internet. Indeed, it recently did a test that allowed its users to download movies offered by the Independent Film Channel. “There is more video content that is coming down the broadband pipes,” said Tom Rogers, TiVo’s chief executive, referring to high-speed connections. He argued that TiVo’s technology could be important in helping providers that put programs on the Internet to gain a wider audience.

“People will be much more inclined to watch broadband-delivered video if it shows up on the TV screen,” he said, adding that business models for such programming have yet to be worked out.

But what does this mean for consumers? What does the partnership actually do?

First: what it doesn’t do. It doesn’t let you watch your recorded shows remotely from a computer. And it doesn’t let you download and watch video material from Yahoo! and watch it on your TV. Yet. It’s clearly Yahoo! and TiVo’s intention to eventually put some broadband video through the box in the future, but so far, no dice.

So what does it do? You can go online and log onto Yahoo, then follow the instructions to program your TiVo box from anwhere in the world. Let’s say you’re at the office and your boss starts talking about Wrestlemania, and d’oh, you forgot to set your TiVo to record it! Ok, bad example, but you get the idea. Also, in the next month or so you’ll be able to go onto your TiVo box and access Yahoo! news and weather updates. Not too exciting, but a lot of cool video options should come down the pipeline soon.

But of course all this is making cable and satelite providers a little edgy. And why wouldn’t they be? Cable has always feared TiVo. They’re feeling hurt, sad, possibly angry. Alone. They’re calling the move a “Cable-bipassor.” And that’s where the trouble begins.

…cable and satellite companies are becoming concerned about providers of video programming using the Internet to reach customers directly.

Larry Kramer, the president of CBS Digital Media, has explicitly called the network’s Internet video strategy a “cable bypass.”

Yuanzhe Cai, the director of broadband research at Parks Associates, said: “We are seeing a lot of experimentation in terms of video programming through the Internet, and a lot of people are going to want to sit back and watch it on their TV. The big hurdle now is the digital rights issues of the studios and content owners.”

I think this is a bit of an over-reaction, and shouldn’t hurt cable or satellite too much. What it has really done is given TiVo a new way to compete with media PCs, but turning any PC into sort of a media PC. Kind of.

We at Kiosk know how important price, service, and selection are to consumers, especially when it comes to major buying decisions like consumer electronics. You have your Netflix account, but now you need the best DVD player and Flat Screen TV with surround sound to get the theater experience. Or, maybe you’re just shopping around for the best DVR box on the market. Either way, you might be surprised on where to find the best deals.

According to this article in the Mercury News, online retailers are at the top of the list for customer satisfaction. The survey rated all major retailers on four points: price, service, selection, and information available.

At the top of the list were online retailers like Crutchfield.com, Amazon.com, Costco.com, J&R.com, and Buy.com. Retailers like Costco that have physical stores as well as online stores ranked higher online.

Of course there are trade offs. Service and instillation ranked low in online retailers. Then again, service is also poor at Wal-Mart and Costco, though the price may be comparable to online. Unsurprisingly, stores like Tweeter and Radio Shack ranked higher in service and installation, but of course it’s made up for with higher prices. So the real question is, what’s important to you?

Tips on how to get the most bang for you buck without giving yourself an aneurism:

–Do research beforehand. Internet retailers and manufacturer Web sites offer a plethora of product details and specifications — not to mention information that the item you were eyeing may already have its next model out, possibly with more features at only a slightly higher or even a lower price.

If talking to a real person is more your preference, Consumer Reports says you’ll probably be out of luck at places like Target or Wal-Mart, where sales staffing is minimal. Places like Tweeter, Ritz Camera, RadioShack and Ultimate Electronics were rated among the best in service.

–Visit a few stores to touch and examine the products first hand, but save time by calling ahead first to make sure they carry the brands and models you seek. While on the phone, ask for the price, too.

–Narrow your prospects to two to four finalists. Note the model names and numbers and the features you must have.

For delivery and installation services, walk-in stores have the edge, especially for large-screen projection TVs and wall-mount plasma or LCD screens.

If you want something immediately, you may be able to walk out with a product when you buy from a nearby store. With online retailers, you have to wait days or pay more for rush delivery.

If you’re not in a rush to buy, shop when the electronics you want tend to go on sale.

The best deals on digital cameras and camcorders are in the spring, and camcorders tend to also go on sale in winter.

You’ll find lower prices for DVD players in April and July, and lower prices on TV sets in July, November, and January, pre- and post-Super Bowl.

Good luck hunting for your ultimate entertainment system. If you have any tips, tricks, or favorite retailers, feel free to list them bellow in the comments section.

The Crazybox, aka Sony’s Sugo Roku DVR will be available in Japan in a month for around $700 dollars. It lets you record from your TV right onto a Play Station Portable (PSP) memory card.

With this versatile DVR, you could record a program from television and then handily transfer it to your Playstation Portable. But to do this, at least according to IGN news, this means you need a system 2.50 ready PSP. They go on to say in their report, that the recorder will be equipped with an “Odekake Sugo Roku” option which will allow users to transfer video footage from the recorder to the PSP’s Memory Stick via USB. With this speedy setup, you can transfer an hour of programming in just a couple minutes. Not only that, but you can use a spanning feature like in the old floppy disc days if your programming wont fit on a single stick.

If this is released in the US, it could be a major competitor with Apple’s Video iPod. If Sony made a deal with a few major broadcasters to sell $1.99 TV shows on Sony’s music store, they would have some serious pull. The PSP is by and large a better system for viewing TV than the iPod video, though the iPod has much more storage and the ability to cable link with TV. No word on whether Sony has anything to link the PSP with TV in the works.

So, by now you probably know about the Netflix class action settlement. For those of you who don’t, here’s a summary:

1) A guy is dissatisfied with his Netflix service. Sues Netflix for false advertising, as he did not get unlimited DVDs at overnight shipping. (See also, throttling)

2) Netflix loses the case, is forced to pay the guy $2,000 (and the lawyers over 2,500,000. No, really.).

3) Netflix is forced to upgrade, and this is the key part here, forced to upgrade customers’ accounts from 3-discs-out to 4-discs-out plan for one month. That means you.

But, of course there’s more to it. For instance, if you don’t change your plan back to the 3-at-once plan, you stay at the 4-at-once and then have to pay for it. Also, if you want to opt out of the law suit, you need to send a special letter to the good people at Netflix.

That’s where NetflixSettlementSucks.com comes in. It’s an interesting site, and I must admit, part of me wants the settlement thrown out, if only to rob those freaking lawyers of their $2.5mil. As I’ve said before, I am not a Netflix subscriber or investor, so I don’t have a law suit to opt out of, but if I were, I would. Yes.

I’ve said some positive things about the Apple iPod Video, and I’ve said some negative things about the Apple iPod Video. At its best, it may revolutionize the video market. At its worse, it’ll be another mp3 player with a fancy, barely usable video feature. I never doubted that video on iTunes would capture the attention and wallets of audiences, but I don’t think anyone was expecting this. One million videos sold in iTunes in twenty days is pretty incredible.

But I’ve been doing some more thinking, and I’m now prepared to make some changes to my original predictions regarding viewing habits.

In an earlier post, I said that most people would not want to watch a lot of TV on their iPods. Hooking it up to a real TV was one thing, watching on the computer on iTunes, sure. But actually watching in the iPod doesn’t seem practical. Video is more interactive than music, and takes more concentration. You can’t watch while you jog or drive. An episode of Lost is almost an hour long and requires a significant time investment to fully enjoy. A song is 3-5 minutes long and can serve as background noise as well as an aural experience. And if you’re going to watch a TV program, why do it on a 2.5″ screen when you have a plasma at home?

Makes sense. But today something occurred to me: The highest selling game consul of all time is Nintendo’s Game Boy Advance. It sold more than the N64, more than the Game Cube, more than Play Station 1, 2, and probably 3. And it has a small screen. And you have to watch it. In fact, it’s more interactive than television. So what if video games is a niche market compared with TV? Portable TV can be a niche market. It may not be the best way to watch an episode of Desperate Housewives, but what about half hour shows that usually last 22 minutes? What about short cartoons? Many shows on Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim (aka, the iPod market) are only 15 minutes long. I’ve spent twice that long on a subway and three times that long on a train. What about on a long car trip? Anywhere you’d want to bring a gameboy, the Video iPod can be there.

And once you get to where you’re going, you can still plug it into the television like a VCR.

And, in other news:

Robert Cringely now reports that “There’s an outfit called DVDstation that puts video distribution kiosks in stores and malls. As its name implies, you go to the DVDstation to pick out a movie and burn it on a DVD right there. Well, DVDstation just announced that you can plug your video-enabled iPod into their kiosk and download an HD movie in 90 seconds or less.”