Talk to any content owner and he or she willl tell you that audiences are becoming increasingly sophisticated and demanding higher quality, more accessibility and more portability. As a service provider, if you can't deliver a movie to any device, anywhere and at any time, you're looking at a relationship that's going to turn sour quickly.
Content owners have been reluctant to allow their property to float across platforms freely, worried that existing digital rights management wasn't up to the task of protecting them against piracy.
Rovi Corp. (Nasdaq: ROVI) last week at IFA in Germany rolled out what it thinks is a major step forward, DivX Plus Streaming. The solution, it said, will allow cloud-based movie services to securely stream content to any device compatible with DivX, enabling consumers to start watching a movies on, say, a smartphone, pause it, and pick it up on a tablet, a TV, or a computer screen. And, the company said, it allows them to add an array of features to a DivX-supported service like Best Buy's (NYSE: BBY) CinemaNow.
"Content owners are looking for a ‘more Blu-ray experience,' today, not just a movie rental," Richard Bullwinkle, chief evangelist of Rovi, told FierceIPTV. "DivX Plus allows a content owner to supply multiple audio tracks, director's commentary, all of those things that are part of Blu-ray are being brought back in."
And, he said, it also gives users a smooth rewind and payback experience, easy fast forwarding, and access to "a more rich experience."
DivX Plus Streaming includes support for 1080p high definition, DTS Audio, subtitles, multiple language tracks and trick-play features such as smooth fast forwarding and rewinding, quick-start playback and the ability to resume playback across multiple devices. The DivX Plus Streaming SDK is available today for retailer, CE and IC manufacturer integration.
"The inclusion of features such as smooth fast-forward, quick stream start and subtitle support are real consumer pain points with existing streaming solutions and will help differentiate DivX Plus Streaming in the market," said Colin Dixon, senior partner at the Diffusion Group.
DivX Plus Streaming will be featured in Rovi offerings for the cable industry and seamlessly integrates into the Rovi Entertainment Store, formerly the RoxioNow platform, which currently powers digital entertainment services on a broad ecosystem of consumer electronics devices for leading retailers, PC makers, consumer electronics manufacturers and studios' direct-to-consumer initiatives.
For more:
- see this release
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