CinemaNow

CinemaNow is an Internet-based digital video distribution company founded in 1999.

The CinemaNow library contains approximately 14,000 feature-length films, shorts, music concerts and television programs from more than 250 licensors, including 20th Century Fox, ABC News, Disney, Endemol, MGM, Miramax, NBC Universal, Sony, Warner Bros., Sundance Channel, Koch Entertainment, and Lions Gate Entertainment. Video from CinemaNow is available for electronic sell-through Download To Own, in the home video release window including DVD burning using Qflix as well as rental time-limited viewing in the pay-per-view window.

In November 2008, CinemaNow was acquired by Sonic Solutions. In January 2009, Sonic and Blockbuster, Inc. announced an alliance to provide digital content delivery under the Blockbuster brand, essentially merging CinemaNow and its erstwhile competitor, Movielink, which was acquired by Blockbuster in 2007. In November of that year, Sonic Solutions and Best Buy announced a strategic alliance which resulted in Best Buy acquiring the CinemaNow trademark.

Codecs and DRMs

CinemaNow video is generally encoded in VC-1 at 700 to 2500 kbit/s. H.264 and MPEG-2 encoding is also used for certain playback devices. CinemaNow primarily employs Windows Media DRM to control access to downloaded movies. In August 2008, CinemaNow added Widevine Technologies DRM for streaming to Internet-connected consumer electronics devices.

References

• CinemaNow website
• PC Magazine reviews of CinemaNow, Movielink, and Netflix
• "The Low Down on Movie Downloads," a review of CinemaNow, iTunes, Movielink and Vongo.
• "CinemaNow Selects Widevine to Enable Multiplatform Content Distribution to Consumer Electronics Devices and PCs" CinemaNow moves away from Microsoft DRM
• Comparison of video on demand services
• Best Buy press release announcing the re-launch of CinemaNow Best Buy is now the owner of Cinema Now.