Movies Delivered Via Television Signal

valdean writes "Disney, Intel and Cisco have teamed up to launch Moviebeam, a $200 set-top box connected to your TV set that offers 100 movies at a time, with 7-8 new films replacing the 7-8 oldest each week. Movies cost $4 for new releases and $2 for old ones, with each payment granting 24 hours of access to that movie. There is no subscription fee and no monthly minimum. The nifty part? MovieBeam's movies are encoded in the broadcast signal of PBS stations across the United States, so you don't need a computer or an Internet connection. The bad part? The Moviebeam player also requires a connection to a phone jack -- every fortnight the box dials a toll-free number in the middle of the night to tally how much you've spent on movies so far, for the benefit of your monthly statement."

Trusting the client?

[Anonymous Coward]

So.. they trust the client box to report which movies the user has paid for?

<sarcasm>Yeah I don't think this is going to be cracked.</sarcasm>

This seems surprisingly similar...

[50m31sl4sh.]

... to DIVX [wikipedia.org].

Let's see:

1. Pay-per-view fee.... check
2. Movies expire in 24 hours.... check
3. Phones home.... check

Oh yeah, now we have replaced DVDs with a cable. Anyway, it won't work.

Will they never learn?

[xpeeblix]

Isn't this just another, slightly more convenient form of Circuit City's disastrous DiVX idea?

First lay out $200 for their proprietary player, then pay for a phone line for the damn thing, all for the pleasure of paying $2 - $4 a movie.

I'm still waiting for Apple and Netflix to make a move.

And PBS is getting how much?

[Overzeetop]

Or at least, as a taxpayer I should be getting a kickback. They are, of course, using both bandwidth and power that should be going to the PBS broadcasts. I know, the power is used anyway, but do you get to ride on a bus for free 'cause they were going to be driving around anyway? Of course not.

Yes, I read TFA the last time it was posted, and I clicked over to make sure it was the same (type) of service - I didn't see a "dollars back intot he public coffer" section on the front page.

Not going to fly.

[Dr_Barnowl]

It's also likely that the phoneline will be required to download new decryption keys to the box on a regular basis. Each movie is probably encrypted with its own key.

Hell, even the protocol is probably going to be encrypted up the wazoo. Man-in-the-middle attacks are likely to be challenging on this.

Man in the Middle attack

[ajs318]

The bad part? The Moviebeam player also requires a connection to a phone jack -- every fortnight the box dials a toll-free number in the middle of the night to tally how much you've spent on movies so far, for the benefit of your monthly statement.

Am I the only person who thinks this is going to be spectacularly easy to hack?

You will need one of these [grandstream.com] handy little gadgets plugged into your PC, a copy of Asterisk [asterisk.org], and you're almost good to go. Just convince the Moviebeam player that your PC is the Moviebeam central office. It'll phone through and report your usage. But your PC isn't the Moviebeam central office, so no bill will be generated. You may also have to get your PC to call the real Moviebeam central office and report no usage.

Old-timers will have heard of various coloured boxes in connection with the phone system: Black Box {free incoming calls}, Blue Box {in-band signalling generator}, Red Box {payphone coin-insertion signal generator}, Beige Box {croc-clips to phone socket adaptor} and so on. More esoteric ones included the Jade {timer to avoid itemised bill threshhold}, Primrose {phone-line powered battery charger} and Violet {line holding circuit, defeats money-run-out on some subscriber-owned payphones} Boxes {all the good colours were already taken by the time they were invented}. But this setup truly is the fabled "sky blue pink box with yellow spots on"!

Re:Working Clicky

[Spasemunki]

I have a funny feeling that this is not nearly as aimed at 'tech savvy' people as you think. It would be a much more likely seller in smaller and rural communities where broadband penetration- and even the cable company- are not a significant presence. A 'tech savvy' person in a wired, urban area already has a lot of other viewing options: Netflix, local DVD rental shops, TiVO, digital cable, broadband media content (streaming video, audio downloads, pirated movies), etc. This sort of a product would more be in competition with satelite TV in low-density populations, where everyone has a POTS line and very few people have broadband. While some urbanites are ditching their land lines for cell-only, POTS is still ubiquitous and plenty of people outside of major urban centers continue to use it for their only Internet access.

If the product is a success with the target market, it will be dead simple to bring out an Ethernet or wireless capable version that can run over broadband, but there's no reason to be wading into already thickly infested waters for a product launch.

I already do this... sorta

[mjh]

I have a the DirecTV integrated TiVo. I can already receive a huge number of movies, watch them on demand, and pause/rewind/etc.

The difference is that this takes a little bit of planning. Recently DirecTV had a free everything weekend, in which we got everyone of their non-PPV channels for free for the entire weekend. That weekend, my TiVo recorded pretty much non-stop on HBO, Starz, Cinemax & Showtime. I've gotten through a few of those movies that I recorded. By the time I get through all of them, it'll be time for another free weekend.

But if I get impatient, I can order a PPV and record it and watch it whenever I want, as many times as I want, until I delete it.

There are pros/cons to Moviebeam. For example, they have a much better selection. But that's countered by the fact that what I do record, I can keep until my hard drive dies.

Doesn't seem like a service that I really want/need.

Re:Bandwidth comes at a cost

[Overzeetop]

Oh, that will be a great in 2009 when stations will be required* to give up their analog spectrum an move entirely to digital. Are you sure this isn't using a portion of the the digital b/w? (I have no idea, but this would certainly be bonehead move if your $200 box turned into a doorstop in 3 years)

*required, just like they were in 2003 and 2006.

Re:Bandwidth comes at a cost

[Intrepd]

Yes, its short-sighted but maybe thats why they are unloading these boxes at $50 now.

From Dotcast [dotcast.com]
"dNTSC® allows broadcasters to cost-effectively and reliably distribute large volumes of digital data using existing commercial television broadcasting infrastructures. Dotcast uses its technology to insert a broadband digital data signal inside the analog television broadcast signal and transmit it in a manner that is invisible to the television viewer."