January 06, 2005
MSN TV 2 and CinemaNow!
MSN TV and CinemaNow Will Stream Movies From the Web to Television
Man, I can't believe I've kept my mouth shut about this for so long, but the press release is out so I can talk about it...woohoo!
This is a pretty sweet because, I don't know about you, but I HATE going to the video rental store. Why? Lines. Lines at the checkout counter totally suck and mess up my movie going experience. Also finding the video I want takes ages. Have you ever tried to find a DVD on Amazon.com? It takes seconds...too bad I can't start watching it right away (but at least I get it for a good price, don't pay tax, and most likely get free shipping).
Then came services like CinemaNow that offer movies for download or streaming...great! But who wants to watch movies on their PC? I rather enjoying kicking back on the sofa with my wife and snack on apples and pomelo while watching movies. The only way to do this in the past was to crack open your PC and pop in some sort of TV output. This was ok, but have you ever tried to navigate your PC using just your TV? I have...it's not fun or easy (does your keyboard cable reach to your sofa?)
Finally! There is (or will be) a way to do this easily. Connect your MSN TV 2 to the TV and boom...stream movies from CinemaNow. Saweeet!
It's about time. ;)
I previously asked about Cinema Now, and you said "not possible due to DRM issues"
Then I was told by others "through the grapevine", just wait til the spring upgrade.
I'm assuming this will be available to Broadband users only?
Sounds like a great feature! I clicked on your link that you posted and even with reduced text size was unable to fit the article on my screen. I am hoping that msn will add the ccp function so I can copy articles like this and re-post in a textbox so I can read without all of the left-right scrolling. Thanks for your efforts :~)
Posted by: fred at January 7, 2005 06:11 AMHas anyone here successfully rented and viewed a movie from CinemaNow on their MSNTV2? Thanks.
Posted by: Adam at February 16, 2005 09:48 AMI read somewhere that Windows Media Player 10 is required but not yet available for MSN TV 2, is that true? Thanks.
Posted by: Adam at February 16, 2005 09:49 AMAdam: This is a planned feature (meaning we're working on it right now and it is not yet available). MSN TV 2's version of WMP is being upgraded to handle CinemaNow's protected content. Everything will come in the form of an update that the box will download automatically.
Posted by: Tommy at February 16, 2005 02:53 PM