Anyone Use This Yet

[AWS]

I heard an advertisement on talk radio this weekend for a product called MovieBeam. Surprisingly I remembered enough details to about it to Google it and found the following information.

Review Of

Company Site

Looks to be an interesting product.

[Juncti]

This looks like the Tivo from hell. High price and an activation fee just for the privledge of paying to watch movies.

How is this better than the indemand systems by cable providers? Makes their prices look good lol.

Just doesn't seem to make sense to me.

[mayamaniac]

Anyone know how it works?

I see it has antenna, how is it getting the content from this antenna?

[phenixdragon]

This would have been a cool box before Netflix and VoD. Now it is just a box that has limited movies and you pay per movie. No way I would use it myself. I have read about this box awhile back though. It's going to flop. Possibly though it would be a nice buyout for a company like umm...DirecTV.

[Fluffdaddy]

If they had more HD stuff in their line-up and the box was cheaper, I would bite.

Edit to add: MovieBeam will never see any of my cash money. MovieBeam does not support DVI inputs............ Only HDMI

[Menehune]

They are probably using a "subchannel" on the local PBS station and receiving that bit stream right into the box. You are locked to one channel and only receive their programming.

Kind of like how some FM stations in major cities have a commercial free feed for businesses. You buy (or rent) the FM decoder that allows you to receive the subchannel and you can run that music into your elevators without commercial interruptions or the DJs breaking into the music.

[Fluffdaddy]

Originally Posted by Menehune

They are probably using a "subchannel" on the local PBS station and receiving that bit stream right into the box.

Right you are

[obrian93]

HEY! While I might be shaming myself forever with my dumb posts, I DO know a smidge about moviebeam!

That's 'cause I'm the top nerd at just such a local PBS station.

We've been working with the Buena Vista people for MONTHS getting them set up on our transmitter. As I understand it, they're leasing some of our VBI bandwidth AND an audio subcarrier to move video. Their transmission sends data 24/7 (I'm assuming checksumming and such are handled over a phone line, haven't gotten to play with an actual box yet) and fills the client box.

All I know is that we're getting a very nice check from BV for signal bits we weren't using anyway. NO IDEA why anyone would buy into this. Reminds me of WebTV. Or Divx (the pay-per-play DVD kind, not the codec). Or VHS.

I, therefore, give it a 1 in 3 chance of taking off.