Earlier this week, Sonic Solutions announced that they’re planning to roll out downloadable 3D movies for their Roxio CinemaNow line and today they’ve announced that they will begin selling movies on USB flash drives.

The CinemaNow USB Movie Drives will be encoded with Hollywood-approved DRM for multiplatform playback thanks to Widewine. Said USB drives will include an integrated media player and all the necessary video codec’s for playback on a range of devices that include networked Blu-ray players, networked TVs and computers. Due out in Q4 of this year.

Novato, CA and Seattle, WA (July 23, 2009) — Sonic Solutions® (NASDAQ: SNIC) and Widevine today announced they are enabling the delivery of premium movies on USB flash memory devices. The self-contained CinemaNow USB Movie Drives™ will include an integrated media player as well as the necessary video codecs to enable instant high-quality PC playback of movie content offline. Once connected to the Internet, consumers can add the title to their Roxio CinemaNow® Digital Locker to access it on other ecosystem devices such as networked Blu-ray Disc players and connected televisions. Sonic expects the first drives to begin appearing at retail in the forth quarter.

Widevine is providing Hollywood-approved digital rights management technologies to enable secure multiplatform playback while maintaining a convenient and positive entertainment viewing experience for consumers. Widevine and Sonic are collaborating on device-optimized content preparation and delivery.

“Our technologies are helping to ensure consumers get the Hollywood new releases they want along with the playback flexibility they crave,” said Brian Baker, Widevine CEO. “The CinemaNow USB Movie Drives will be an ideal solution for Netbook and mobile phone manufacturers that want to enhance and differentiate their product offerings with premium entertainment.”

Once consumers connect to the Internet, the title on the USB Movie Drive is added to their Roxio CinemaNow Digital Locker where it can then be viewed on as many as four additional CinemaNow-compatible devices. Rather than delivering the same file used for USB playback, a unique file is delivered that has been optimized for the capabilities and display characteristics of the selected device.

“Delivering content on USB drives is the latest example of how Roxio CinemaNow is enabling access to digital Hollywood hits across the broadest possible range of devices,” said Dave Habiger, president and CEO, Sonic Solutions. “Teaming with industry leaders such as Widevine is allowing us to overcome the technical hurdles of digital rights management and platform optimization behind the scenes, so all the consumer experiences is convenient, hassle-free entertainment viewing.”

The Roxio CinemaNow USB Movie Drives are expected to be available at retail locations nationwide later this year. Sonic is also targeting bundling agreements with mobile phone manufacturers and netbook PC makers.

Sonic has relationships with more than 250 content providers and a content portfolio that includes entertainment from all major Hollywood studios and independent distributors. Roxio CinemaNow offers a massive selection of premium video entertainment for rental or purchase, including new releases from major Hollywood studios often on the same day the DVD is available in stores. CinemaNow’s cloud-based media services power devices from multiple manufacturers, forming a connected ecosystem that consumers can use to seamlessly choose, move and view video entertainment.

The CinemaNow ecosystem currently includes PCs, connected TVs, set top DVRs, Blu-ray Disc and mobile media players from leading manufacturers such as Archos, Dell, HP, LG, Microsoft, Nintendo, Pioneer, Samsung and TiVo. As well as being available on a range of consumer electronics, Roxio CinemaNow is currently powering internet movie stores for Lionsgate, Warner Bros. and Blockbuster.

Dell is apparently getting ready to offer a Qflix-compatible DVD burner as a $120 add-on to some of its computer packages. The technology works by burning DVDs with CSS copy protection so that they’re “functionally identical to standard retail DVDs,” according to the Qflix web site. The system is in use for many of those DVD-burning kiosks we’ve been hearing about. The drive will allow you to burn movies that have been downloaded from the CinemaNow movie service for playback in a standard DVD player. If it sounds dumb, it’s not – especially for “normal” people.

For instance, ask your parents to get a movie they’ve downloaded to play on their TV somehow. This drive ought to make things a bit easier. Wait, no. Ask your parents if they know what Qflix means and if they know how to download a movie to their computer. On second thought, Dell’s either going to have to upsell this drive like crazy or hope that there’s a segment of people smart enough to download movies and work a DVD burner but too dumb to know how what the word “torrent” means.

[via Ubergizmo]

Some of the movies will be available in high definition, although it’s unclear just how much of the catalog will be hi-def versus standard definition. Rentals will be facilitated through CinemaNow and will work on all Series 2 and Series 3 TiVo boxes.

Full press release after the jump.

TIVO TO OFFER MOVIE RENTALS FROM THE WALT DISNEY STUDIOS ON DEMAND

TiVo now offers movies from all major studios directly to the television set

ALVISO, CA – May 28, 2008 – TiVo Inc. (NASDAQ: TIVO), the creator of and a leader in television services for digital video recorders (DVRs), today announced that TiVo subscribers will soon be able to download movies from The Walt Disney Studios to their broadband connected TiVo® DVRs directly from the TV.

Titles will be available to rent through an agreement with Disney-ABC and CinemaNow, a digital entertainment provider of high-quality Hollywood movies and TV shows across multiple platforms, and the latest partner to join TiVo’s broadband efforts. The companies will offer the movies for a 24-hour rental period in standard definition, with many also available in high definition.

“We are very excited to be working with Disney and CinemaNow. Adding Disney movies really delivers on TiVo’s promise to offer the best television entertainment experience with unlimited content choices that are easy to navigate across broadcast, cable, and broadband using one device, one remote, and one user interface,” said Tara Maitra, Vice President and GM of Content Services at TiVo Inc.

“TiVo has always delivered a superior experience,” said Dan Cohen, executive vice president of pay television and interactive media, Disney-ABC Domestic Television. “We’re pleased that their subscribers will be able to enjoy our extensive catalog of new releases and classic library titles.”

The service is available to all broadband-connected TiVo Series2™ and Series3™ subscribers later this year. TiVo offers more than 30,000 titles through Amazon Unbox, Music Choice and more than 50 other content providers. The company recently announced that TiVo subscribers will be able to access YouTube videos directly on the TV via the TiVo DVR this summer.

If you are a Mac user, the choice is easy. Only iTunes will work on your platform. If you are on a PC you can try any of the services below, which include CinemaNow, Movielink, Guba, Amazon Unbox and iTunes. Note, however, that you’ll be forced to use Internet Explorer to download these movies unless you use iTunes or Amazon Unbox.

DRM is a big part of all of these products. Make sure you read the terms and conditions carefully before agreeing. At least for Amazon Unbox, the terms are somewhat draconian. DRM will keep many users away who’d like the ability to burn movies to DVD, transfer to other computers, etc. These users will simply purchase and rip DVDs directly (removing DRM), or use bittorent to acquire movies.

More on each below.

Guba

Since branching out from their Usenet product through a deal to sell Waner Bros. movies in June and Sony movies in July, GUBA has mainly been competing on price and referral fees for recommending more users to the site. GUBA also features user-generated and usenet videos for free alongside premium movies users can buy or rent. Usenet movies can be downloaded in iPod and PSP formats as well.

CinemaNow

CinemaNow’s most recent claim to fame has been their release of “Too Fast Too Furious” online at the same time as the DVD release, an industry first. They also have a Burn-to-DVD feature that allows you to burn a DVD playable on almost any DVD player for select titles. CinemaNow provides movies from Disney, Fox, Lionsgate, NBC Universal, Sony, and Warner Bros. Like most of the others, CinemaNow requires users to have a Windows PC and use Internet Explorer.

MovieLink

Formed out of a joint venture between major movie studios, Movielink has by far the largest catalog of new release and library titles. Their major partners include MGM, Paramount, Sony, Universal, Warner Brothers, Disney, Sundance Channel, BBC, and National Geographic. While not as consistently low priced as GUBA, if you look closely enough you can find various discounts for military personnel, college students, and mystery rentals. We go to Movielink first when looking for a movie because they have the deepest catalog.

Amazon Unbox

We covered Amazon Unbox pre-launch and post-launch. After its initial launch, Ubox received wide criticism, most notably from BoinBoing about its user-unfriendly license agreements. Unbox has by far the best meta-data on movies and TV shows, incorporating plot summaries, release information, production stills, and consumer ratings. Unbox sells from 20th Century Fox, Fox Searchlight, Lionsgate, Paramount, Sony, Universal, and Warner Bros.

Apple iTunes

As expected, iTunes launched their movie download service back in September. It features Disney movies and managed over one million dollars in sales during its first week. iTunes 7 has been criticized for the buggy 7.0 release corrected with 7.0.1, but nothing seems to be stopping the iTunes juggernaut. Our guess is that Apple will successfully bring on additional studios in the near future.

Summary

Look for studios to ink multiple deals with a number of services, and for there to be little difference in offerings or pricing over the medium term. Walmart and others will also be launching their own services, possibly with in-store DVD burning kiosks as well. As download services become more popular, the large DVD retailers, particularly Walmart and Target, will continue to push for lower wholesale DVD prices as well. Hopefully, competition from these various services and products will ultimately push consumer prices down.

The following chart sets forth additional comparison information about the services:

Our recommendations: If you are on a Mac, your only choice is iTunes. For Windows users, Movielink has the deepest catalog, and Guba has the best pricing (they are actually taking a loss on sales). CinemaNow has an outrageously priced burn-to-DVD product that may be attractive to some users (although simply buying the DVD seems to make a lot more sense).

Additional notes: All services except iTunes had rental agreements allowing users to rent a movie for 24hrs from pressing play or 30 days, whichever comes first. The number of movies in catalogs were taken either from company numbers or number of movies accessible on the site (these numbers fluctuate). The top 10 movie rentals drawn from IMDB data were: “The Sentinel”, “Take the Lead”, “Poseidon”, “Friends with Money”, “RV”, “Inside Man”, “Akeelah and the Bee”, “Scary Movie 4”, “Silent Hill”, and “Just My Luck”.

When trying out the services, I found the $0.99 rental from GUBA to be the best choice. It was cheap enough that I didn’t mind spending the time downloading a movie and deleting it after I was finished. Renting from the other services just didn’t seem a fair deal at $2.99 or $3.99 with Blockbuster down the street and Netflix in my mailbox. I can’t believe that most of these services expect me to pay the DVD price for a movie that hogs my hard drive, comes with a highly restrictive license, and sucks up my bandwidth for 1-2 hours of downloading. However, in the long run I choose iTunes as the service to watch. Their catalog is a lot smaller than the other services, but they offer the most value with their digital movies by easily integrating with my iPod and granting me more licenses. For now, I think I’ll continue using DVDs to archive my favorite movies, but rent digital versions of the ones I just want to see once. What I’d really like to see in this category is a digital Netflix service that automatically rents, downloads, and deletes movies from my computer for a flat monthly fee.