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Now that Apple has announced that it is renting movies off iTunes and improved Apple TV, it looks like the rental/download market is getting ready to blow up. According to analyst firm ABI research, video downloads will grow from 215 million in 2008 to over 2.4 billion in 2012. About half of all downloads will be for online movie rentals.

Today, the online movie rental business is slow-going. There’s Amazon Unbox, NetFlix Watch Now, iTunes and a few other scattered video download businesses. Additionally, competition will come physical rentals like NetFlix and Blockbuster, as well as cable and satellite companie. So the competition will be fierce and now everyone’s trying to get a piece of the pie now before a clear video download winner emerges.

Additionally no one is sure what the business model will be: subscription, rent-to-own, rent. And what kinds of restrictions should be set on downloadable movies, such as copying to DVDs or portable media players.

[ABI Press release]

[tags] movie rentals, online movies, iTunes, Apple, Apple TV, video downloads, online movie rentals, Internet video [/tags]

Sling Media (now owned by EchoStar) announced that it was now supporting BlackBerry smartphones.

The Slingbox allows customers to watch and control their home TV on an Internet-connected computer, or mobile phone including those based on Windows Mobile, Palm OS and Symbian operating systems. Having support for BlackBerry was a long time coming and it should bring some more users to Sling. BlackBerries, however, were never known as multimedia friendly devices, which is probably why it took so long to support them.

There are other ways to get your TV content on the go, but Slingboxes are the best way to actually connect and control your home TV, DVR and other components while you’re traveling or away from your home. However, you must have pretty fast broadband connections in order to make it work. Since you don’t have the videos saved locally to your PC or phone, you do save on storage space, which can be a premium for older smartphones. However, the streaming, live nature of Slingbox makes it only for those with fast connections, like broadband cards or unlimited data plans for your phone.

Here are the ways how I see how to watch your home DVR/TV shows while on the road.

Transferring to Portable Devices. Rather than use a Slingbox, I use Tivo’s Desktop software to transfer shows to my PC. From there, I can burn videos onto a DVD or transfer it to my portable device, like my Windows-based smartphone. The downside? It’s a slow and clunky process–I have to wait for Tivo to transfer the file over my home network, then wait while I burn the show on a DVD. The whole process can take about 1 hour or more.

Portable DVRs. Comcast’s upcoming portable DVR is going after the same market–those who want complete access to their DVRs while away from the home. But the Comcast portable device is the actual set-top. So what happens when you un-dock the device from your home and take it on the road? Will you miss recordings? Will your family that’s not traveling be able to watch TV? Or should this portable DVR be relegated as a second set-top and not the primary one for the home? I guess it’s still too early to tell since the Comcast DVR isn’t out yet.

Network DVRs. This would seem to be a great option since you theoretically wouldn’t need to buy anything. Network DVRs save your shows on your TV provider’s hard drive so you don’t actually need to buy a separate set-top box like a Tivo. Everything is saved out there in the network. The benefits are that you get unlimited storage (well, almost), and access from anywhere. Imagine recording a show like American Idol, traveling to another city, then just logging in to your cable provider’s network DVR via your laptop (or smartphone) and streaming it. All your shows would be available and you don’t need to buy a Slingbox. Unfortunately, here in the U.S. network DVRs are available because of a lawsuit between Cablevision and the TV studios and networks. Things are different in Europe, and maybe things will change here in the future.

I think network DVRs are a great idea and wish that consumers were able to use them. In the short term, I would really like it if Tivo started offering place-shifting (Slingbox functionality) in its boxes. I just don’t feel the need to go out and buy and hook up yet another device to my TV/DVR right now. Perhaps if I traveled more often I would feel differently.

At CES, Comcast and Panasonic teamed up to unveil a portable HD DVR player that also functions as a regular set-top box for the home.

Some specs: The AnyPlay P-DVR TZ-LC100 has a 8.5 inch LCD screen that folds down when not in use. It also has stereo speakers, a docking station that charges a battery, and 60GB of storage. Reports say that the device can also play DVDs and CDs.

This is somewhat suprisising news from Comcast which hasn’t come up with anything really exciting in the time-shifting or place-shifting arenas. The partnership with Panasonic was crucial because Comcast focuses on software.

Generally, this looks like a great little player. The biggest downside is the storage capacity. Although 60GB is a lot for a portable player, most regular set-tops have about 160GB, which will make it less than ideal for storing lots of HD content.

The portable player will be available in early 2009 but did not disclose pricing.

EchoStar currently offers PocketDish and SlingMedia makes software that lets customers view TV shows on their set-tops via PCs and many models of smart phones.

Some questions about this device:

Is it networked? Can it grab music or videos stored on my PC?

Will there be any Wi-Fi capabilities? Having Wi-Fi would be a great for grabbing content on the go. Otherwise, you’ll be stuck with whatever you recorded on TV.

Can you transfer videos to other devices? Sharing TV shows or movies with friends would be a great idea, but something the networks or movie studios probably wouldn’t allow.

[Via Engadget]

[tags] Comcast, Panasonic, CES, AnyPlay, DVR, cable, portable DVR, HD DVR [/tags]

A survey by ChoiceStream found that consumers are comfortable watching TV programming on computers and mobile devices instead of TV sets.  ChoiceStream found that 55% of Internet users that watch TV also watch video on devices other than their TV sets.

That’s not too surprising since consumers are driving the market. Once the TV networks start offering their shows on the Internet and in different formats, consumers will respond. It’s really just the networks giving consumers what they want.

After all, consumers are currently using work-arounds for lots of things they can’t get yet. They download shows online, encode them for their iPods or use Slingboxes to watch their DVR recorded shows on the road. People want content in many different formats.

Other highlights:

The Younger Are More Comfortable. Not surprisingly, younger consumers (18 to 24) are leading the way with 66% saying they watching TV on other devices.

TV Programming Rules. Most interesting of all is that 65% of consumers watch TV programming rather than user-generated video (39%).

Computers Are Most Popular Device. Most consumers (36%) watch content on their computers more than mobile devices

Four Hours A Week. 33% watch at least four hours every week

Many Will Watch More Internet or Mobile Video. 20% said they will watch more TV away from their living rooms in the next six months.

They Watch Commercials, Don’t They? The survey determined that 23% of viewers that record TV shows take the time to watch commercials when they view the recorded program.

The New York Times has a quick article about a new gadget called the iLuv i182, which converts video from your TV to an iPod.

It connects via an S-video port and records directly to an iPod’s hard drive. The i182 costs $229 .