We’re inching closer to a dream movie watching setup: an online downloadable rental store with HDTV quality and movies available when they come out on DVD.

Moviebeam hopes to bridge this gap, but don’t get too excited just yet because not every new DVD movie will be available there, nor will this bring the theater experience home yet.

The box, with capacity for 100 movies, is priced at around $200, after a rebate, and a $29 activation fee. It is meant to be stacked on top of a cable TV set-top box and comes with a paperback-book sized antenna to receive movie updates.

Argh, yet another box to put atop the TV. And now — drumroll please — the damage:

First-run standard format videos will rent for $3.99 and high-definition videos rent for $4.99. Older movies in the catalog cost $1.99 for standard format and $2.99 for high- definition — roughly in line with rates at video stores.

Too expensive for older movies, and ok not great pricing for movies that come out the same time as the DVD. This isn’t 2000, this is 2006 and $2-5USD for renting a movie, even one in HDTV is too much. I wonder what first run titles we can expect through Moviebeam? Would be nice to see feature films that are available on Moviebeam and in theaters at the same time but it doesn’t sound like this will be happening very often, at least at first. The article is pretty vague on actual first run title specifics and ultimately that will prove Moviebeam’s value.

But why, why, why is it necessary to have another freaking box to put atop the TV? Why can’t they make software that runs on Windows, Mac and Linux? That’s a rhetorical question. The answer is they still don’t understand that we want to be able to watch movies on our TVs, computers, on portable devices, phones, etc. I wonder if Slingbox or Sony’s LocationFree could be integrated with this badboy (I’m thinking yes)? John Q. Public that just bought a Media Center PC is now looking at some really crowded space in the living room when you factor in game systems, cable/satellite boxes, Media Center, SlingBox/LocationFree … or maybe that’s more like John Geek Public that fits this scenario (people like me).

Despite possibly more questions than answers, this still seems like a step in the right direction. It’s a forward motion move, just like what HarperCollins is doing experimenting with ad-supported books. If this is just like having blockbuster in your home, then do you think it’s too expensive for heavy movie watchers who are already using Netflix to compete? I do.

Did this post make you go hmm?

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