Digital Home Thoughts: Porto Media: Download DVD Quality Movies and Go

"PortoMedia has developed a high speed flash memory card (Movie Key) that enables a fully secure DVD quality movie to be downloaded from retail Movie Point in less than 15 seconds. Each Movie Point is loaded with between 500 and 5,000 titles and is refreshed regularly via satellite/DSL with the latest movie and TV content. The consumer has the option to rent or purchase content. The content is protected by Windows DRM, guaranteeing both security and compatibility with a wide range of playback devices. We will offer a low cost reader/ set top box that attaches to a TV allowing the consumer to simply plug in the key and press play to view the movie on the big screen TV. The content can also be played back on any PC, compatible MS set top box or portable player, or on the Xbox 360."



Interesting concept, though I cannot remember if this has been done before or not. There doesn't seem to be too much data available on this but it looks like it is a new technology where you can go up to (what sound like) kiosks and download many DVD quality movies very quickly onto your special memory card. These cards can then be played through special readers or on set-top boxes, PCs, PMPs and the XBox. They still appear to be waiting for Microsoft licensing but looks interesting nonetheless. Please feel free to call out in case I am mis-interpreting their product.