Wal-Mart embraces digital video with HP service
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(InfoWorld) - Tapping a new service from Hewlett-Packard, Wal-Mart joined a growing field of providers of digital video download services with the launch of an online movie store on Tuesday. The offering is built on HP Video Merchant Services, a Web-shopping technology also launched Tuesday that allows businesses to set up an online video store. HP holds hundreds of petabytes of digital films and TV shows in its data centers and provides back-office sales and search applications, said Willem de Zoete, vice president and general manager of Digital Entertainment Services at HP. Customers like Wal-Mart use the service as part of their online retail offerings, allowing cinema fans to browse movies based on genre or search by entering the name of an actor, director, or film. Customers can then download the movies to play on their PCs or portable video players or order a packaged disc to arrive in the mail, choosing a DVD, HD-DVD, or Blu-ray format. A first-time user must install a program on the PC before starting the 30- to 45-minute process of downloading a 1.5GB movie over a typical household broadband connection, although most can start watching within five to 10 minutes, said Kevin Swint, Wal-Mart's divisional merchandise manager for digital media. Once the movie is downloaded, each user has the right to transfer it to three separate portable media players using Microsoft's Windows Media Player and to watch it an unlimited number of times. Customers who own media extender boxes can also play the digital file on TV screens, Swint said. The service will compete against Apple's iTunes store, which is limited to movies from Disney and Paramount in addition to TV and other programs. Other video download services are available from Amazon.com, AOL, Movielink, and CinemaNow. Microsoft also offers a movie and TV download service to Xbox users. Wal-Mart claims it has a market advantage over those sites since it offers movies from most of the major Hollywood studios and television networks. Compared to conventional movie rental stores, the digital movie rental industry is still struggling to build the size of its catalogs. Wal-Mart now sells about 3,000 of the movies and TV shows stored in HP's digital vaults and expects that number to rise quickly as content providers convert their own libraries to digital versions. "Today, the majority of movies are stored on tapes in buildings. That is a choke point at this moment in time. Part of my focus is to work with Hollywood studios to make movies available in digital file formats," de Zoete said. Another bar to building larger catalogs is that many obscure movie titles are never brought to the rental market if studios think demand is too small to sell the vast quantity of discs created in bulk reproduction batches, Swint said. That also stops retailers from taking advantage of the "long tail," the marketing theory that shops can make more money selling small quantities of each niche item than selling a large amount of trendy, short-lived items. To solve it, HP plans to offer "manufacturing on demand" in the future, opening up a huge catalog of old titles by producing a single disc to meet each online order. HP has started building a factory to do that work, and will add it to their Video Merchant Services package. In the meantime, Wal-Mart is selling new releases, which become available the same day as the DVD release, for $12.88 to $19.88. Older movies cost $7.50, and TV programs cost $1.96 per episode. DVD buyers will also have the option of paying an additional fee to download the digital version for playback on PCs and portable devices.
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By GARY GENTILE LOS ANGELES - Wal-Mart Stores Inc. is launching its long-awaited online movie download store, entering a market that has yet to catch on with consumers but is expected to grow rapidly.
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LOS ANGELES -- Wal-Mart Stores Inc. has launched its long-awaited online movie download store, entering a market that has yet to catch on with consumers but is expected to grow rapidly.
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HP is replacing its over-ambitious HP/UX utility data centre (UDC) service with a business automation module for OpenView, which it says will let companies be more flexible.
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Hewlett-Packard, the top global PC vendor, Thursday introduced a multimedia notebook packed with high-definition features, including a screen that allows users to watch full HDTV movies.The HP Pavilion HDX laptop, targeted at multimedia enthusiasts, has a 20.1-inch high-definition screen that plays back true 1080p high-definition television, according to HP. Users will have the option of selecting from an HD DVD or Blu-ray Disc drives to play back high-definition movies.Powered by the Core 2 Extreme or Core 2 Duo processors from Intel, the system includes a hybrid TV tuner that lets users watch high-definition or analog TV broadcasts. The tuner will also provide digital video recorder capabilities, with users able to record and pause live TV.The system includes an Nvidia GeForce 8800M GTS graphics card with 512MB of video memory, HP said. It also includes has four Altec Lansing speakers with a subwoofer built in. The system will support storage of up to 500GB and have integrated wired and wireless networking.The system will run on Windows Vista Home Premium or Windows Vista Ultimate. Starting at $1,999, the system will ship in the U.S. this month, according to HP.HP on Thursday also introduced the Pavilion tx2000 tablet PC, a portable laptop targeted at students and professionals. Users can rotate the screen 180 degrees and use a stylus to capture handwriting or surf the Internet, according to HP.Powered by Advanced Micro Devices&#39; Turion 64 X2 dual-core processor, the PC comes with a 12.1-inch screen and Windows Vista OS. It will have a DVD+/- RW drive, up to 250GB of storage, integrated wireless and wired networking, a fingerprint reader and a webcam. It weighs 4.29 pounds (1.95 kilograms) with a four-cell battery, according to HP.The PC will be available starting at $1,299, depending on configuration. It will ship later this month in the U.S.The laptops were announced ahead of the Consumer Electronics Show, to be held in Las Vegas between January 7 and 10, where they will be on display.
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Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and  Hewlett-Packard Co. are set to announce a deal with several  major Hollywood studios that would allow the retailer to sell  digital movies and television shows on its Web site, according  to media reports on Tuesday.
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HP has unveiled a new multimedia laptop, the HP Pavilion HDX, that offers high-definition capabilities, including a 20.1-in. screen.
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Hewlett-Packard on Friday unveiled its much-anticipated HP-branded iPod, a deal that instantly gives the company a popular product and greatly extends the retail reach of its partner, Apple Computer.
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Sony Pictures Home Entertainment  has become the first major studio to license niche and older  DVD titles for production and distribution through HP's   year-old DVD manufactured-on-demand service, the two companies  said on Thursday.
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Integrated video engine to offer DVD quality on a handheld
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HP introduced several new products that will support the HD DVD standard.
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Niche titles given life through HP Sony Pictures Home Entertainment is to use HP's DVD manufacturing-on-demand service to release DVDs that would otherwise not see the light of day.â¦
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Wal-Mart Stores Inc  has  decided to exclusively sell high-definition DVDs in the Blu-Ray  format, dealing what could be a crippling blow to the rival HD  DVD technology backed by Toshiba Corp .
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Hewlett-Packard Co., one of the &quot;initial eight&quot; product distributors in the Wal-Mart RFID trials, will unveil on Monday pacts with systems integrator BearingPoint Inc.
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Sony Pictures has become the first major studio to license select DVD titles for production and distribution through HP's manufactured-on-demand service.
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Hewlett-Packard&#39;s new OpenView software is designed to help companies automate IT responses to business events, such as a jump in order-processing transactions.
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&quot;HP technology helps us to differentiate ourselves from other retailers in the way we run our stores, select and distribute products, work with suppliers, serve customers and communicate