Betting on both physical media and digital files, Sonic plans to load up USB drives with movies and sell them at retail.
The company will put one film on each drive, coming from Sonic's CinemaNow catalog, Video Business reports. The USB films won't go on sale until the fourth quarter of this year, and Sonic has yet to say which films it will offer.
Sadly, but predictably, there will be some DRM attached to the files, but it's not all bad. The movies can be played directly off the flash drive, but they can also be added to CinemaNow's "Digital Locker," which allows playback on any device that supports CinemaNow's online service. That includes LG Blu-ray disc players, TiVo boxes and Dell computers.
The downside is a restriction that limits playback from the online locker to four CinemaNow devices. I don't expect too many people to own more compatible set-top boxes and computers than that, but the DRM is a drag nonetheless.
Sony has sold movies on USB, but to a limited extent, and without the online playback features.
As for the file itself, a few details are still missing. We don't know the format, quality or size of the file, nor has Sonic specified the size of the USB drive. That means it's not clear whether users will be able to pull the file off the drive or use it for other storage purposes.
I'm not crazy about buying moves on USB, but I like the idea of getting both a hard copy for storage and a file that can be used across several online platforms and devices, without the need to actually carry the file with you. Wouldn't it be nice to have this service for DVDs and Blu-ray discs?
