This smacks of Circuit City's miserable attempt in the ill-fated self-destruct DivX rental thing they tried so hard to push.

I like the idea of this, but anytime I have to download a movie from amazon, itunes, etc... I will forget about it and have just spent some good money on something that really doesn't exist. This happened last week with Mad Men, forgot to watch it on TV, forced to download it due to AMC being totally lame when it comes to streaming episodes. It's somewhere. I have no idea where, but I paid $1.99 for it already.

@TheSpatulaOfLove: from the way it's explained, this is more akin to popular digital stores like itunes or kindle. it's a smart move for a big electronics retailer like BB.

the devil's in the details, though. divx failed b/c it was too proprietary, too costly & the real benefit to consumers was too small. if BB can roll out a digital store that's easily accessible, provides cost incentives to consumers & is easy to adopt (like itunes), then i can see this being an awesome offering.

I don't care if it costs half of what NetFlix does, if it is attached to BestBuy, it's going to spell suckage.

@The Cynical Librarian:

This happens to me, too, and I've decided it's more of an Operating system/ AV software problem.

There are programs you can use- Windows Media Center, Meedio, even Tivo analogues like BeyondTV that can manage audio and video files, organizing them so you don't forget they exist.

Mind you, none of the products mentioned are perfect. Some of them might not even work with your hardware. And this is a HUGE problem, as I see this as the future form of most home PCs. yeah, you'll still use them for word processing and web surfing, but the lion's share will be investing in managing local media collections and accessing media in the cloud. All of this uncertainty is making a vacuum that a startup with the right brain power could fill immediately. Hopefully someone will step into it soon.

I'll probably never go full streaming. I'll want to actually own a copy of the movies I really like. I wouldn't even want to go completely digital. When showing off your movie collection, pointing to your external hard drive isn't nearly as impressive as pointing to your shelf with 600 DVDs.

If the oh so holy "content providers" will allow it... that's what is making Netflix's streaming service be as lame as it is. Copyrights, royalties, etc. There's no other reason to hold back new releases from their legitimate streaming service other than greed.

Disney announced an identical program a week ago. As usual the industry learns from the pirates then magically one studio does it and the rest follow.

Despite having a supposably fast internet connection, I've never had much luck streaming anything other than baseball games. Just this morning I tried to watch Amazing Race on CBS's website, and it was so choppy I gave up.

Why would anyone want to stream movies. The bandwith isnt there for most people, especially for 1080P content, and even if it was, what happens when your internet goes down and you want to watch a movie. Plus it's nice actually receiving a physical copy of something you buy. streaming from your PC to TV would be OK though

Less plastic in the world makes me happy. And yes, I realize there's still a carbon footprint for streaming activity.

"The idea is to allow consumers to pay once for a DVD and then be able to play it 'any device: television, Blu-ray disc player, personal computer, handheld media player or smartphone.'"

That would require that they not use DRM...

Wait, I can do all of that already with any DVD I buy.

@Cant_stop_the_rock: Smartphone? you play DVDs on your smartphone?

@TheSpatulaOfLove: I was thinking the exact same thing.

@zandar: "There are programs you can use..."

Or you could simply remember where it saves the file, which is the same place each time. Or after downloading it, you could move it to someplace where you would remember it.

Do people have this sort of problem remembering where their meat-space videos are?!

I hate buying stuff from Walmart because I never remember were I put it after I buy it.

@diasdiem: "isn't nearly as impressive..."

So do you buy movies to watch or to impress? I'll let you in a secret, no one gives a frick about your DVD collection.

@mac-phisto:

Knowing BB's business practices and the MPAA's demands, this will likely be much the same as the DivX fiasco. I'll agree, the devil will be in the details, but I don't expect the combined ham-handedness of BB and the draconian policies of the MPAA to allow this to be an awesome offering.

If I'm proven wrong and it actually is a cool offering - you now have my public offer to have me eat my words! ;)

@MostlyHarmless:

Handbrake to the rescue!

People, we are talking about Best Buy here.

You know they will only offer DRM-laden downloaded that will only be allowed to play once, not be tranferable acrossany platforms, will be subject to remote deletion without notice, etc.

Downloaded content will never fully succeed until they offer the downloaded without DRM and that, once you download, it is yours permanently.

@zandar: It's more an issue where I forget it exists, and considering there's no physical reminder of it existing, it's tough for me to quantify it as actually being owned. It's getting to the point where ownership of media is pointless though, so I guess I can't complain.

@TheSpatulaOfLove: I know that, but thats still a BadThing (tm) according to the MPAA.

What I'm saying is that this option is nice. HOWEVER I doubt Best Buy's competence/good faith to do it right. I'm waiting till Netflix does it.

I see this failing miserably - CC tried this a few years ago and noone cared.

@diasdiem: Yea, 1 TB hard drive sitting next to your desktop is not nearly as impressive as the 5 bookcases full I used to have.
Of course converting everything over to white paper sleeves still makes an impression when I open a drawer full of about 500 DVDs.

@tbax929 is rooting for a Phillies repeat: /off topic. Gut wrenching games the last two days. Think the Phillies have it in 'em to win tomorrow?

Sincerely,
A sad Red Sox fan, just wanting to enjoy the World Series.

@MostlyHarmless: I'm assuming he has the Zack Morris cell phone plan

Call me old-fashioned, but I like having an actual, tangible, physical copy of something -- like books (on paper, not e-books), or music (I have a sizeable CD collection; hell, I still have most of my old vinyl LPs from college that are in half-decent shape), or films/TV shows (I own a nice fistful of DVDs, plus a nice healthy pile of VHS cassettes of stuff I taped off of TCM, HBO and Cartoon Network).

My wife occasionally likes to stream movies or TV shows to her laptop -- I don't know why; we already have a goddamn' satellite dish -- and it slows our DSL to a crawl, and really pisses me off.

Oh, and don't forget that little imbrogilo with Amazon and their Kindle content. Wouldn't trust them -- or Worst Buy, or Circuit Shitty -- as far as I can throw them.

@GMFish: To watch. The impressiveness is a bonus. Troll.

So if I buy one of these movies from BB, will they allow me to burn it to a DVD? If not, your hard drive full of downloaded movies is a ticking time bomb that's going to eventually die one day, taking all your precious movies with it.

@GMFish: Ummm... looking at one's DVD/book collection can be quite a conversation starter - and very informatative - when you're beginning to get to know somebody.

@subtlefrog: "if it is attached to BestBuy, it's going to spell suckage."

So true. So very true.

@redskull: I believe Best Buy would like to call that "recurring revenue."

@The Cynical Librarian:
Sadly, no. I think the Phils needed to win at least two at home, and Lee can't pitch every day. But it's been a fun World Series regardless. Even more off-topic: as a life-long Yankee hater, I often find myself rooting for your Red Sox.

I'd be willing to do this, but only if I have to bring all of my devices to the Geek Squad to be optimized.

@Gorphlog: But it depends on what you want to stream. Streaming works well enough for a replacement of the rental model: you stream movies that you may want to give a shot but may not want to actually buy.

That said, it doesn't sound like that's what BestBuy is trying to do.

@GMFish: "Do people have this sort of problem remembering where their meat-space videos are?!"

Oh, dear Lord, yes.

@The Cynical Librarian: I agree with what you're saying about the physical reminder, and I also rather like the physical object anyway. Which I also play on my computer, and from which it should be completely legal for me to make a copy for personal use on my iPod and other machinery (I know, technically it's legal, it's just not legal to circumvent the anti-piracy stuff, but that makes it functionally not legal), so I get a little aggravated at the notion of a "service" that provides what I should fairly have anyway.

@diasdiem: I like having a hard copy in case I don't have access to the internet for streaming. Plus it's nice having a back up in case a hard drive goes wonky. That's one of the reasons I haven't thrown away my CD collection. I threw away the jewel cases a long time ago but have my collection in a binder style portfolio.

However I think Netflix has Best Buy beat if they charge per DVD. I like Netflix's one time fee and unlimited access to streaming. I may not have the hard copy but it's nice knowing that I can stream unlimited titles while I'm at home. It may not work while I'm traveling though. It would be great if Netflix allowed you to 'rent' a movie like iTunes by allowing you to download a digital copy that expires after 30 days or within 24 hours of viewing. That would rock.

@Gorphlog: silverlight streaming via the zune store on xbox 360 is in fact pretty darn close. 1080P requires a monster connection on there but it scales beautifully on the fly even.

@GMFish: Have you seen four people trying to decide what movie to watch? It's so much easier to actually stand in front of some bookcases and talk about it, rather than designate one poor soul to list movie names off the computer.

@flugennock: Your wife streams movies to your TV because - guess what - it's probably not playing on the actual TV at that very moment or maybe she missed an episode of something. Just because there's TV available doesn't mean there's something she wants to watch.

It sounds like BB is going to be essentially renting DVDs at full price. Good luck when they cancel the service and your DVD's are gone.
The streaming model only works for rental/subscriptions where customers expect temporary access and are charged less because of it.

Will we have to buy online warranty packages for each download at 3 times the cost? lol

The simple fact is, the broadband infrastructure in the USA isn't developed enough for this to be feasible yet, and the strain on the existing networks is already reaching critical overload. The fastest plan offered by Concast is 50M, and this is actually slower than the average speed in Japan (~65M), and it's absurdly expensive to boot (like all their services). I also feel that this is another attempt at removing what little control end-users have, while appearing to do the opposite. Call me a luddite if you wish, but I won't give up physical media; how do you resell a digital download? You can't, and that is what the content providers want to do away with by turning their IP products into consumables.

@UGAdawg: A lot of the online titles eventually expire and become unavailable, but there are plenty of titles that seem to always be available. It's saved me the expense of buying them. Great thing about the hard copy, there's no DRM to prevent you from sharing with or borrowing from friends like there would inevitably be with digital copies.

@TheSpatulaOfLove: I'll throw this out: Napster kicks ass since BB bought it. $60/year for unlimited streaming plus at least 60 DRM-free mp3 files (you get some bonus downloads if you pay by the year or quarter). I didn't think I'd ever say "Napster kicks ass" in this century.

Hopefully they will do as well with their DVD service. I loves me some Netflix, but I'm all for any competition.

@redskull: Your hard drive is only a ticking time bomb if you're too dumb to keep backups.

All hard drives will fail one day. Be prepared for it. Backup solutions are simple and plentiful.

@subtlefrog: Napster is pretty awesome now that BB bought it. I haven't regretted the $60 I dropped on it for the year.

So what do you do when your 1 TB drive craters, along with your movie collection?

@Front_Towards_Enemy: Have you checked out Napster now that BB owns it? I'm starting to sound like a broken record here, but for $60/year you can stream as much as you'd like and download at least 60 DRM free mp3 tracks. That's right, no DRM on their mp3 downloads.

There are lots of legitimate complaints with BB. They usually stem from stupid or uninformed store employees or managers. However, if what they've done with Napster is any indication, they understand what makes a good streaming service. I'm hoping for some healthy competition with Netflix. (And I'm not knocking Netflix. I love the service. Competition will make everyone work harder, though.)