Starz offers movies for PDAs

[Cybrid]

Starz Entertainment Group is launching a movie download service that allows consumers to view full-length studio films, concerts and TV shows on portable devices powered by Microsoft Corp. software.

The service will provide the content critical for the success of a number of devices that will be introduced at the annual Consumer Electronics Show, which kicks off in Las Vegas this week. Video delivered over the Internet will be a key theme at this year's show.
http://www.gadgetme.com/?view=1&showMore=2296
This might prove interesting if done well. I for one wouldn't mind renting/buying movies for my Dell. Hopefully they support VGA, and do not require a proprietary media player.

[Cybrid]

Well, this is a no go for most of the world. They are using IP's to determine geographic location and anyone not in the USA is barred.

Anyone know of a good US based proxy service?

[Janak Parekh]

Doesn't matter -- Vongo is for Portable Media Centers, not Pocket PCs. :( The article summary is misleading.

--janak

[Cybrid]

Doesn't matter -- Vongo is for Portable Media Centers, not Pocket PCs. :( The article summary is misleading.

--janakThanks for ruining my life! :oops: :lol:
I was happy about this until you correctly pointed that out.

However, if the movie is playable in WMP(PC) there is the possibility that it could be made to play on a PDA provided correct codecs and DRM are supplied. Or am I totally misunderstanding?

Hey, you're NY based, have you checked out the site? Could you tell us whats behind the ip block I'm seeing?

[Phillip Dyson]

Some experts rom the Help Link:

Vongo is the name of an entirely new Internet video download service that provides a thousand entertainment titles on demand to personal computers and portable media devices. Vongo requires a high-speed broadband connection such as DSL or cable modem. Vongo entertainment offers a high quality video playback with DVD-like features.


The Vongo Player is a special implementation of the Windows Media Player It features DVD-like functions that include PAUSE, STOP and uses a slider bar to move the forwards or backwards in the title. Use the FULL SCREEN button to have your Vongo entertainment fill your whole personal computer screen.

Once the title is full screen you can hit escape to return to a smaller view or you can use the on-screen controls. Also, if you stop during playback, the title will remember the spot you stopped at and resume to the last viewed location when you play again.


It doesn't appear to be just for PMCs only but also PCs.
If the PMC is truly a flavor of WM, then perhaps it might work.

[Janak Parekh]

If the PMC is truly a flavor of WM, then perhaps it might work.
PMC uses CE as an underlying OS, but it is not a flavor of WM, so it's not feasible at this time. Yes, in theory someone could develop a DRM solution on top of Pocket PC, but I've heard nothing in the plans at the moment.

--janak

[jlc, just jlc]

Try Pocket DVD Wizard- it will create files viewable on iPODS, PSPs, mobile devices, etc. I use it and am real happy with it - I'm currently watching ST Enterprise on my PSP. It's also very easy to convert DVDs I burn from my Tivo. You can select the final file size - I compress TV shows to 128 megs so I can fit a bunch on my 1gig card. The tradeoff is increased pixelation as you compress - 3 to 4 megs per minute was a good compromise for me on my PSP. I can still fit a whole movie on a 1 gig card and have it be quite watchable.

The PSP BTW is a nice little media device - the screen is big enough to watch a movie; the aspect ratio is great for widescreen, plus the instant on / off, decent battery life and restarting from where you left off makes it darn near perfect for use on an airplane. Now, if we could get recordable cartridges for it it'd be even better- burn a bunch of movies from my DVDs and keep the kids entertained for an entire trans Atlantic flight.

The only down sides are it takes about as long as the video runs to create the file and it can't seem to convert BW without a lot of pixelation so my Combat! DVD set is unwatchable.

URL http://www.pocket-dvd-wizard.com/

[juni]

Is this the same as DVD Catalyst? It rocks :)

[jlc, just jlc]

Is this the same as DVD Catalyst? It rocks :)

No - PDVDW is a seperate multi platform program - it will create videos formats that run on variety of platforms from iPods and PSPs to Palms and PPCs. I use it to copy TV shows and movies to my PSP for when I travel.

[juni]

So does DVD Catalyst:

DVD Catalyst / PocketDVD3 is the best program available for conversion of DVD's and Video files for mobile devices. Originally intended for PocketPC devices, others, such as PSP, IPOD, Palm and Archos, have been added, without the need of purchasing multiple programs for multiple devices.

[jlc, just jlc]

So does DVD Catalyst:

DVD Catalyst / PocketDVD3 is the best program available for conversion of DVD's and Video files for mobile devices. Originally intended for PocketPC devices, others, such as PSP, IPOD, Palm and Archos, have been added, without the need of purchasing multiple programs for multiple devices.

I'll have to check it out. Does it allow batch processing, especially of files withing a disk - for example, many TV shows are multiple files that need to be processed to get all the episodes on a disk.

Edit - answered my own question - it does according to the programmers web site. Looks like I'll have to check it out as well.

[juni]

I wouldn't have bothered with it, except for this review by Clinton Fitch:

http://www.clintonfitch.com/reviews/dvdcat/dvdcat-3-0/default.asp