Filed under: Internet, Video, Hardware
Is Blockbuster video on demand coming to the Wii?
There are 48.5 million Wii's out there, and Blockbuster may be positioning itself to deliver video on demand to them thanks to a newly-announced partnership with Sonic Solutions. Sonic is the force behind the CinemaNow service, which is available on LG networked blu-ray players and other devices - like Nintendo's wildly popular gaming console.
With the "Everybody's Theatre" streaming anime service set to go live on WiiWare in Japan January 25th, the stage is certainly set for the Wii to gain some additional functionality.
As WiiBrew users already know, the two USB ports at the back work just fine for attaching external hard drives. The Wii has plenty of room for expansion, and it would certainly make sense for Nintendo to offer a service to compete with Netflix on the Xbox 360.
Personally, I'd love to be able to watch video on demand with my Wii. Since I'm in Canada, though, I won't hold my breath.
[ via BetaNews ]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Kamal said 6:01PM on 1-14-2009
Unless Blockbuster is planning a free instant watch program like Netflix it would be hard for users to buy into it. I kept my Blockbuster acct for a long time even after Netflix insta-watch was introduced but I switched once the Xbox NXE came out.
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samuel said 7:04PM on 1-14-2009
A job for life, remember that one. Well some of those Nintendo workers have been with the company for a long time and after all their attempts to make the Internet work with their console (Network NES Satellaview, 64DD) they finally have it working and its no big deal anymore.
Well I remember.
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Doron Ben Chaim said 9:52PM on 1-14-2009
The folks on the Opera team should get flash 10 working, i would love to watch hulu, sidereel, megavideo, anything would be awesome
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michas_pi said 11:13PM on 1-14-2009
480i, here I come!
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Level 5 said 7:27AM on 1-15-2009
Blockbuster sees a market, and they're thinking about going for it. That's pretty much it. I can understand the whole HD vs SD arguement but that's not the point. If you really care about HD you probably already have a PS3 considering it's one of the cheapest BD players out there. Or perhaps an X360 and one of the HD-DVD addons. It's simple, if you don't like the method, choose a different console. These download services are INCREDIBLY lucrative, they require much much less overhead than a traditional video store chain.
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Josh said 10:04AM on 1-15-2009
Meh.
Prefer Netflix.
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Roland said 4:46PM on 1-15-2009
Do people really want to watch movie on Wii which has only 480 resolution?
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Brian B said 6:19PM on 1-14-2009
480p resolution? You mean like DVD-quality? Yeah no one watches DVDs.
chizenguy5 said 9:49PM on 1-14-2009
um, no one i know watches dvds at 480p resolution. first of all non hd tv's only do 480i, and everyone i know has at least one hdtv, and a dvd player that upconverts to at least 1080i( ps3s, blu-ray, hd-dvd, upconverting dvd players). I personally have a ps3, an xbox 360(which doesn't upconvert) and an old hd-dvd player. I personally sold my wii, cuz it failed to grab my interest, and the interest of many other core gamers. the whole blockbuster vod thing is busted, paying for everything, netflix it is. also most of the people i know either download their movies, use netflix, or go and buy them. no one goes to blockbuster anymore, except for used movies and even then they're way overpriced. die blockbuster, and take the wii with you
gonintendo said 8:14AM on 1-15-2009
Excuse me, I have a 480p plasma.
Roland said 4:48PM on 1-15-2009
I guess what I meant is in the long run, 480 is not gonna cut it.