Reeltime to launch September 12 offering online “DVD-quality” on demand system |
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While everybody will be talking about the rumored launch of iTunes with movies, meanwhile Seattle-based Reeltime (symbol: RLTK.PK) will also be launching next week, September 12 [source: Yahoo] with their “DVD-quality” on demand rental system.
From a July press release they bill themselves as (emphasis mine):
the first broadband network offering a true full screen, DVD quality, “point, click and watch” online television experience, today announced it has been awarded the rights to offer movie trailers of upcoming summer blockbusters, from a host of major studios and independents, according to Beverly Zaslow, Vice President for ReelTime. Major studios participating in this promotion, which is a prelude to ReelTime’s premium launch scheduled for late third quarter, are Disney, Miramax, Lion’s Gate, 20th Century Fox, DreamWorks, MGM, Columbia, Tri-Star, Buena Vista, Castle Rock, Revolution, Sony Classics, Screen Gems, Warner Bros. and New Line. Also participating are leading independent theatrical distributors, including Focus Features and Magnolia Pictures, among others.
They also purchased a dot com address: reeltime.com, their CEO believing that a “short, concise, easy to remember ‘dot com’ name is critical to business success in a highly competitive online marketplace.” Can’t say I disagree there as .net, fair or not, has a perceived stigma among some. Better than .tv or .biz, but not as good as .com.
I checked out the Reeltime instant demo (PowerGrid Application Suite™ requirements: Windows 2000 or Windows XP and Internet Explorer 6.0, Netscape, Opera, or Mozilla) in IE using our cable connection and received the following “not enough bandwidth” message:
Curious, I stopped by DSLreports and ran a bandwidth speed check and received the following results:
dslreports.com speed test result on 2006-09-07 09:37:19 EST:2567 / 340
Your download speed : 2567 kbps or 320.9 KB/sec.
That is 53.4% worse than an average user on comcast.netYour upload speed : 340 kbps or 42.5 KB/sec.
That is 20.5% worse than an average user on comcast.net
I didn’t see what Reeltime actually deemed a “high enough” broadband internet connection, but this has been plenty fast enough to stream via Slingbox. I went ahead and selected the option that said: “continue anyway” and the trailer of Pirates of a Carribean Deadman’s Chest played without any skipping or choppiness at full screen.
There were noticeable artifacts in the video quality very similar to every other movie streaming experience, including Vongo. The Hmm Vongo Review has been a heavily commented and accessed post so that suggests to me, at least in this tiny vacuum of web publishing that there is significant interest in some type of video on demand through the PC system.
Since we’ve now been without TV for 79 days and counting, I’m following TV/Movie to PC options much closer. This morning I watched episode 3, Season 2 of Prison Break on Fox’s website. Stream quality of Reeltime was noticeably better than that.
The Reeltime website has no details on pricing, nor in its numerous press releases I combed through, although it does indicate on the website that there will be a free 30 day trial option available. If the movie selection is better than Vongo I’ll probably give this one a try.
According to John who appears like a Reeltime insider (or marketing shill) and left a comment on the Vongo review thread, Reeltime will have “much better picture quality.” I wouldn’t expect any different from a competitor but from what I actually experienced with their live demo wasn’t that close to “DVD quality” unless you ratcheted down the screen size to sub PSP dimensions. We’ll be better able to compare and judge with a full length movie than a trailer and once the pricing is announced. If Reeltime is priced too expensive this is going to go over like swimming with a pair of concrete boots.
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Man, can they pick a date or what!? If you were their product launch advisor would you recommend this date? Well, maybe if you wanted to launch quietly on page 12b while all eyes were on the iTMS.
But, if their quality is as good as you’re reporting… Launch Friday September 8! Get ahead of the Apple frenzy. (Sept 11 is a terrible idea for other reasons too obvious to expand upon).
Comment by Gerald Buckley — September 7, 2006 @ 10:32 am PST
Yeah, the timing clearly sucks. Seems like they’ve had this date in mind for a little while. Friday is a great day to launch a movie service, I like your date much better.
Comment by TDavid — September 7, 2006 @ 10:58 am PST
I downloaded the Player and I think it works very well, I participated in their Beta launch as well. I like that it is streaming and you do not have to download the content, much faster than anything I’ve seen and quality wise at least when I compared it to trailers on Google or Yahoo is hands down much better for streaming.
Here is the pricing super inexpensive, they do not have much content yet but I actually called the company a few days ago and they said to just keep your eyes on the site that some big providers will be coming.
Free Offer Instant Access to Free ReelTime Titles
> Access to all Free Trial titles
> Rent any Premium or Standard TV or movie title at any time
1 Month $4.99
3 Months $9.99
6 Months $19.99
Complete Access to All ReelTime Movies and TV Titles
> Choose from one, three or six-month packages
> Anytime access to all Standard movie, TV and Free Trial titles
Comment by michaelmccaskill — September 12, 2006 @ 9:40 pm PST
I’ve been following ReelTime for a long time. The picture quality can absolutely be DVD quality if the original stock is high quality as well. Participating in their beta, some stuff looks unbelievable, while other stuff looks like everything else that out there.
The big thing holding them back right now is that they don’t really have any worthwhile content. I’ve read that they are working on it, but right now the selection is pretty slim.
Overall, the technology appears to be there, but content is king, so that is the key.
Comment by ZoSo — September 12, 2006 @ 9:46 pm PST
I to participated in the beta. I also did the demo at GridNetworks (better content). I also hooked up my lap top to my flat screen tv and it worked great. I watched Spiderman II and was impressed. The only downside I see right now is vontent and I have no doubts that that will come along as this is a very new company. I am impressed and am looking at options for a wireless connection. I also plan to use the service while at airports waiting for flights. The quality is better than anything I have seen and it is very very quick to start. The site need improving but again that is a very small thing at this point. Overall this is going to be worthwile for a very long time!
Comment by Frank Harris — September 14, 2006 @ 5:32 am PST
I also tried connecting to a tv and also received very good results. Old movies were not nearly as good as the new ones though but then they are as good on regular cable either. The sound quality was also very good and comparable to a video or DVD. I agree with the others that content is lacking at the present time however they just rolled this out on the 12th so I think that is to be expected as long as they keep adding new movies and get more current movies. I really would like to get all my TV off the net and this seems possible all of a sudden. If reeltime could get hooked up with the major stations and movie companies it would be a great location free way to go. Sony, samsung and other manufactures have PC to wireless systems available and I am wondering how well they work. One question I have is that since this works so well why hasn’t Blockbuster, or others tried to buy ReelTime? Seems to me to be a likely thing as this moves forward and they already have the content!
Comment by Bill Mc — September 14, 2006 @ 7:07 am PST