Wal-Mart Stores Inc quietly canceled its online video download service less than a year after the site went live, a company spokeswoman said on Thursday.Wal-Mart shut down the download site after Hewlett Packard Co discontinued the technology that powered it, Walmart.com spokeswoman Amy Colella said in an e-mail. She added that it will not look for another technology partner.

HP spokesman Hector Marinez said the company decided to discontinue its video download-only merchant store services because the market for paid video downloads did not perform “as expected.”

A message at www.walmart.com/videodownloads said the service was stopped on December 21 and Wal-Mart offered no refunds for the downloaded videos.

Videos purchased on Walmart.com can be played using the Microsoft Windows Media Player or the Wal-Mart Video Download Manager, but cannot be transferred to a computer other than the one used to download them, according to the site.

Wal-Mart cancels movie download service | Reuters

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Tags: Walmart, Movies, DRM

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Apple Inc and Twentieth Century Fox are set to announce a deal that will allow consumers to rent Fox movies through Apple’s digital iTunes Store, according to media reports on Thursday.

Apple and Fox plan movie rental deal: reports | Reuters

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Tags: Apple, Online Movie Rentals, The Long Tail, Fox

 In the midst of an expected announcement from Apple, the iTunes store is current unavailable with just the curious phrase, “It’s Showtime.”

 It is expected that Apple will be announcing the addition of full-length movies for purchase from iTunes.

 In other video iPod news, 4Flix.net has announced non-DRM movies and TV shows, via a monthly subscription fee.  But most of them seem to be the out of copyright films already available for free at Archive.org.  The movies will be viewable on the video iPod.

 UPDATE:

iTunes is updated with movies and games.  Enjoy Pirates of the Caribbean, Life Aquatic, or play a game of Pac-Man.  All with your iPod.  Sadly the movies are way more expensive than if you just bought the DVD, ranging from 9.99 to 14.99.  The games aren’t cheap either at 4.99.

Vongo’s movie downloads to compete with Netflix? For either a subscription fee (9.99/month) or pay-for-view (price depends on title) you can download movies to your Windows PC or portable device. The service currently only has 1,800 titles, which could seriously hamper their ability to compete with Netflix. Netflix has over 60,000 movies, with 35,000 - 40,000 different titles are rented on any given day. Hopefully this number of movies will grow rapidly.

Once you download a movie from Vongo, you are limited on how long you can keep it.

Before you download, check the date next to “Available Until” under the preview box. That date will tell you when the title will expire from Vongo. Some titles are in the service for many months, and others last a few weeks or days. Once a title expires from the service whether it is a Vongo Membership or Pay Per View title it will automatically delete from your hard drive. Pay Per View titles will also automatically delete 24 hours after you have first started playback.

And Vongo can also be used with portable devices, but currently on two exist.

Apple is rumored to be announcing a video rental service for iTunes in the near future.

Disney is planning on sending Chronicles of Narnia content directly to the iPod. This will be the first promotional campaign to automatically sync with the iPod.

Broadband-enabled consumers can visit the site at www.narnia.com to see trailers, clips, behind-the-scenes segments and interviews on their notebook and desktop computers. Maven software will let them automatically download and synchronize trailers and clips directly to video-enabled iPods.

After its installation, the “Narnia” channel will automatically check for content updates. It also will offer options like the ability to send the link to a friend, check for movie times or buy tickets online.

The downloads do not use the iTunes store, rather it uses iTunes just for synching to the iPod. In a similiar way Odeo works. No word on whether Disney will be releasing full movies for the iPod.

Originally from the planet Kashyyyk, Chewbacca is set to become a US citizen. In an upcoming ceremony in Arlington, Texas, British-born actor, Peter Mayhew, will be taking the oath to became a naturalized American citizen. The 60 year old, Mayhew will be one of 441 people from 77 countries to become naturalized in the ceremony, but I bet he is the only one to be from another planet.

AngryAlien.com has posted two new 30 second movies reenacted by bunnies. Highlander and War of the Worlds, the 1953 version.

These have been made for Stars, the cable movie channels, and then are released to the website.

I am still waiting for Star Wars. Which is suppose to be up by December 16, 2005.

There can be only one!

One what?

Positive reviews and fervent fans couldn’t save Serenity from plummeting in the box office. Serenity opened at number 2 in the box office last week with a take of $10 million. This was not to be repeated, the movie made less than $5 million this week. Barely beating big budget flop, “Into the Blue”. Next week this movie could be off the radar altogether.

Fox cancelled FIrefly, the TV show for which Serenity is based, in 2002. Buoyed by strong DVD sales of the first and only season of Firefly, the studio commisioned the movie. With a $45 million budget they will be lucky to break even.

A normal decline of 30% is expected between the 1st and 2nd week. Serenity clocked in a 50% revenue decline.

Still interested in Serenity? You can watch the first nine minutes of the film online.

Serenity now, insanity later.

Everything you could ever want to know about Serenity is here. And if it’s not, I am sure someone will add it. This is the first wiki I have seen dedicated to a movie or TV show.

Contains everything from plot points to characters to technology. Be sure to check out the wanted articles section in case you are wondering what you can contribute. And there’s an RSS feed of recent changes.

Peter Jackson has been recruited to produce the big screen version of Halo. While it is a popular game and single-handedly catapulted the Xbox into must own territory - few, if any, games have translated well to the movies. They often contain cheesy acting, lame plots, b-movie actors, and often don’t resemble the game in question. But Peter Jackson, having successfully directed the Lord of the Rings movies, could change all that.

Peter Jackson is a avid fan of the Halo series, and says he cannot wait to work on the movie. And if he shows commitment to this movie as he did to LOTR, I think we will all be in for a real treat.

Of course, I would just be happy if he would make The Hobbit.