Report: Blockbuster Set To Release Set-Top Box
Responding to Microsoft's Xbox 360's movie downloads and Roku player's Netflix rental services, Blockbuster is also trying to revive its offerings.

Attention movie aficionados: Bluckbuster is reportedly in the process of building a set-top box that can stream movies to your TV. Responding to Microsoft's Xbox 360's movie downloads and Roku player's Netflix rental services, Blockbuster is also trying to revive its offering with fresh new digital goodness.

The new box will reportedly use Blockbuster's Movielink rental service and will be powered by Intel chips. Blockbuster's set-top box is said to be released before the end of this year, hopefully in time for the holiday season. An exact release date, further specifications or manufacturer information have not been made public yet.

Blockbuster's initial idea was to release a kiosk solution, competing with Redbox. However, a set-top box does seem to make more sense, especially when Netflix's online watching service is becoming ever so popular. But despite previous plans, Blockbuster CEO and Chairman Jim Keyes, announced last week the company's move to a set-top box device.

But a Blockbuster set-top box would be just the beginning. HD streaming is the next big thing in online movie rentals and Netflix has already announced that it will stream 300 HD movies through Xbox 360's Live service. Physical Blu-ray rentals account for only 2 percent of the Blockbuster domestic chain revenue so if the company's new set-top box will be able to stream both SD and HD movies, together with a decent subscription price, Blockbuster might just be on the right path.

Recommend this article?
Yes0 votes
No0 votes

Comments

Post new comment

The content of this field is kept private and will not be shown publicly.
  • Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically.
  • Allowed HTML tags: <a> <em> <strong> <cite> <code> <ul> <ol> <li> <dl> <dt> <dd>
  • Lines and paragraphs break automatically.

More information about formatting options

Enter the fully qualified URL, eg. http://www.example.com/
Users posting comments agree to the PC World comments policy.
Login or register to link comments to your user profile, or you may also post a comment without being logged in.
Syndicate content Syndicate content Syndicate content Syndicate content Syndicate content
 
Gift Guide
MWave
Samsung

CXO Latest

LED Advisor
 

Colour your world with Samsung

A chance to win with every
Samsung Consumable purchase*