VideoPlay

#REDIRECT Bell Video StoreVideoPlay was the name of the premium Internet video-on-demand service offered by Bell Sympatico. The service is now marketed as Bell Video Store. It has a French language equivalent, LaBanqueVideo. It started in Beta mode on May 04, 2007 and offers movies, television shows and music videos/concerts for $1.99 and up, with a pricing structure similar to that of iTunes by Apple Computer and Unbox by Amazon. A purchase includes a full resolution video file with the rights to download on up to 3 devices.

Compatibility

The VideoPlay player is compatible with the Windows XP family of operating systems and Windows Vista. The content can be viewed using the VideoPlay Video Player, Windows Media Player, a Media Centre Compatible computer (coming June 2007) and a PlaysForSure portable device (coming July 2007). With the Media Centre launch, content can then be streamed to a television using a Windows Media Center Extender such as an Xbox 360 console from a PC running Windows XP Media Center Edition or Windows Vista (Home Premium or Ultimate). Downloaded videos may be burned to a DVD disc for storage purposes, but the resulting DVD will not play on a DVD player.

Video Quality

The content delivered by VideoPlay is "DVD quality". The encoding rate used creates a file size which makes one hour of programming roughly equal to one gigabyte (1 GB) of file space in a computer. In comparison, a typical DVD makes a 2-hour movie about 4.7 GB.

Due to the large size of the files being downloaded, the service requires a broadband internet connection capable of sustaining transfer speeds of 800 kbit/s. A 2-hour movie may take 7 hours and 20 minutes to download using a 750 kbit/s DSL/cable connection or 1 hour and 50 minutes with a 3.0 Mbit/s DSL/cable connection.

For VideoPlay users with an internet connection of 3 Mbit/s or more, the service delivers a progressive download feature which aims to have any VideoPlay file start playing within 5 minutes.

Requirements

For display on a computer or transfer to portable device, the service requires the installation of a client application (Media Player) which manages playback and the transfer of video to portable devices (coming July 2007) that bear the Microsoft PlaysForSure certification, such as the Toshiba Gigabeat or a Portable Media Center.

Criticism

VideoPlay videos will only play in desktop applications that support Windows Media DRM, of which none exist for Mac OS X and Linux.

When portable capability is launched in July 2007, VideoPlay will only support portable devices that support the Microsoft PlaysForSureformat, thereby excluding popular devices such as the Apple iPod.

Competitors

None in Canada yetFact|date=December 2007, but soon to be a mixture of the following:

* Apple iTunes Store
* Google Video
* Video
* Movielink
* CinemaNow
* Vongo
* Vudu
* Walmart Video Download (beta)

External links

* [http://www.bellvideostore.ca The Bell Video Store (beta) - formerly VideoPlay]
* [http://www.LaBanqueVideo.ca LaBanqueVideo.ca]
* [http://www.canada.com/topics/technology/games/story.html?id=174de329-81e9-42c6-b2f7-0b40e1ab7eec&k=66250&p=2 VideoPlay.ca to be the online movie download service for XBOX]