The Technophilez

Time Warner Inc pay TV channel HBO will launch a service on Tuesday to let subscribers download movies and television shows over the Web, joining a crowded market for video on the Internet.

The service, HBO on Broadband, will make its debut with a much larger library than its cable-based on-demand service in a stab at satisfying increasingly mobile and choosy viewers.

It will roll out to Time Warner Cable high-speed Internet customers in Green Bay and Milwaukee, Wisconsin, as a free add-on to HBO and HBO on Demand, HBO spokesman Jeff Cusson said.

The company has no timeline for when it will be available to all U.S. subscribers, Cusson said.

HBO is entering movie downloads as older services that sell movies on the Web are reassessing their business models.

Apple Inc this month added online movie rental to its iTunes store to bolster movie sales, while Wal-Mart Stores Inc, which launched a movie download site in 2007 to great fanfare, quietly shut it last month for lack of sales.

But DVD rental company Netflix Inc offers customers unlimited viewing of movies online as part of its subscriptions, in a move to keep customers loyal.

HBO has positioned its site as a way to keep subscribers who watch more content online, just as it gave more flexibility to time-shifting viewers with the creation in 2000 of HBO on Demand.

Cusson said the roll-out of HBO on Demand reduced the cancellation rate among certain subscribers. "They found more satisfaction with their service so they kept it longer," he said. "As more viewing occurs on the broadband platform we want to make sure we provide that option to the HBO subscription."

Targeted at younger subscribers and travelers who watch TV shows and movies on laptops, HBO on Broadband will offer 600 titles each month, with 400 of those available at any time, as well as a live stream of the main HBO channel.

HBO on Broadband will also suggest titles based on viewing habits. Programming will be available for at least a month, but will be erased from users' libraries at its expiration date.

The application can be programmed for up to five users and downloaded to five devices that use Microsoft XP or newer operating systems. An Apple version is in the works.

Each month, an HBO original series such as "Entourage," "The Sopranos" or "Sex In the City" will be available in its entirety.

LAS VEGAS - U.S. TV broadcasters will be ready to start transmitting signals for portable electronics like cell phones next year, the developers of the technology, LG Electronics Inc. and Harris Corp., said Sunday.

The technology represents a chance for broadcasters to challenge cell-phone carriers, who are trying to sew up the market for mobile TV with their own transmissions.

"This is going to let broadcasters get back in the game," said Howard Lance, chairman and chief executive of Harris, which makes broadcasting equipment.

But it's doubtful that the Mobile Pedestrian Handheld, or MPH, receivers developed by LG will make it into cell phones in the U.S. market, which is tightly controlled by the carriers.

LG's president and chief technology officer, Woo Paik, said MPH is also suitable for other portable devices, like media players, navigation devices and laptops. The cost to build TV reception capabilities into these would be "minimal," Paik said at a news conference ahead of the International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.

Broadcasters "realize the great opportunity out there in reaching customers who are now more and more on the move," Lance said.

Harris has conducted field trials of MPH in Chicago and Washington. Expanded trials will be conducted this year, and broad coverage is planned for 2009, Lance said.

MPH uses an available part of the digital TV broadcast spectrum, and the necessary equipment is easily added to existing TV towers, LG and Harris said.

Competing technologies include MediaFLO, developed by Qualcomm Inc. and deployed by Verizon Wireless, and DVB-H (Digital Video Broadcasting-Handheld), championed by Nokia Corp. and adopted overseas.

Online movie download site CinemaNow Inc. has struck a deal with software maker Macrovision Corp. aimed at making it easier for manufacturers of media players and other devices to make their products compatible with CinemaNow's on-demand movie service.

Terms of the agreement, which was being officially announced Thursday, were not made public.

CinemaNow has been pushing to make its movie service available beyond users' personal computers, with the goal of enabling users to easily transfer movie downloads for viewing on TV sets.

CinemaNow users can currently download movies and videos from the service for viewing on televisions via several devices, including Microsoft Corp.'s Xbox 360, certain portable media players from Archos and Samsung Electronics Co., and on Hewlett-Packard Co.'s Media Smart LCD TVs.

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SanDisk on Monday launched a PC-to-TV video player that lets users download content from a USB port, and then carry the files over to a living room television for playback through standard audio/video sockets. In addition, SanDisk also unveiled a video download site called Fanfare which would compete with Apple's iTunes music and video store.

SanDisk is calling the device Sansa TakeTV, and claims that it's a simpler alternative to setting up a wireless network, running wires across a living room, or burning video on a DVD. "Sansa TakeTV is the most easy-to-use, straightforward solution for watching downloaded personal video content and other shows in the comfort of the living room," Daniel Schreiber, senior VP and general manager for SanDisk's audio/video business unit, said in a statement.

To use the device, consumers would plug it into a USB port on a PC or Mac, and drag video files on the computer to the device. Consumers would then slip the gadget into a cradle plugged into standard A/V sockets on the TV and see an on-screen guide to select content using TakeTV's remote control.

"It's actually a good idea because companies have been challenged in making that connection (between the PC and TV)," said Steve Wilson, analyst for ABI Research. "And they're leveraging a model that people are very familiar with."

SanDisk also was smart in not focusing on the delivery of high-definition content, which would have made the device too expensive for average consumers, Wilson said. Launching Fanfare was also a good idea, because it gives customers a place to go immediately after buying the device, rather than having to look for their own content.

The product supports video formats DivX, XVID, and MPEG-4, as well as the Vista, XP, Mac, and Linux operating systems. The TakeTV player costs $100 for 4-Gbytes of storage, which holds about five hours of video. An 8-Gbyte version that holds up to 10 hours of video costs $150.

Fanfare, which was launched in beta on Monday, offers TV shows for download. The service requires the user to first download software to access the online store and manage downloaded content. The site offers free and paid video. The latter typically costs $1.99 an episode.

While Apple's iTunes is the most popular music and video service on the Web, the company has had its problems with content providers. In August, Apple said it would not offer NBC Universal's lineup of new shows for the upcoming TV season because of a rift over pricing. NBC wanted to double the wholesale price Apple pays for each TV episode, a move that would have forced it charge customers $4.99 per episode instead of the current $1.99.

The TiVo Rhapsody music service announcement made last January launched today.  With Rhapsody on TiVo, you can choose from millions of songs, search for your favorites, tune in to continuous music on Rhapsody Channels, and build your own library—straight from your TV using your TiVo remote. Whether you’re in the mood for classical, hip-hop, or anything in between, it’s all just a few clicks away. And with a Rhapsody membership, you can listen all you want, without the need to buy individual songs.

Essentially, anyone with a Rhapsody account ($12.99/mo, free 30 day trial) will be able to access “artists, albums, playlists and channels” via a broadband-connected Series2 or Series3 TiVo. TiVo intends to activate the service today, but you’ll need the fall software update (v9.1).

Having been a prior Rhapsody customer, I do appreciate their music service… on a computer or portable device. I’ve gone down the TiVo/TV-as-Jukebox path before and it doesn’t really do much for me. And now, with my precious plasma, I just want to turn it off when not watching something. Having said that, this new service does represent a significant technical accomplishment and further differentiates TiVo from generic DVRs.