With only a few hours sleep, we've successfully launched Download to Burn on CinemaNow.  An almost flawless execution of our rockstar team of engineers pulled it off last night at 12 AM. 

This is an industry changing event in digital media as we now have connected the traditional gap between the TV and the computer (digital media).  Some say this is the final step in connecting the two (I disagree), others say this is a ridiculous idea of enormous magnitude for a variety of reasons (Disagree as well), and many are in celebration of what we have accomplished.  The fact of the matter is downloading a dvd to burn and play in your standard dvd player is the next logical step in the chain of digital feature film supply evolution. 

For example, take digital photo processing.  When digital cameras were first coming out, there were no fulfillment methods to have your digital images printed as film quality photos.  Your options were to either buy an ink jet printer, which at the time were extremely sub-standard qaulity to a traditional film photo, or take your digital images to a photo lab. 

Convenience is king when it comes to the masses and from what I've learned quality comes a very close second.  The two seem to interchange positions, interestingly enough they actually cycle, but for the most part, in my experience, it's convenience first (impulse attraction) then quality second (thoughtful attraction). 

With that said, the convenience of having an ink jet printer at home to print your endless digital images of Grandma and Rover led to ink jet manufacturers sales growth.  Once it came time to look at the newly ink jet printed photos, it was hard to tell which one was Grandma or Rover. Now the thought kicks in, in order to get the film quality, the professional photo lab will have to process my digital images which would require a round trip to the photo lab. 

During the introduction of digital cameras, many were already thinking this and websites started appearing receiving mass funding to save that trip to the photo lab.  Upload your digital images, pay for the prints + shipping + handling and have the photos mailed to your doorstep in a week or three depending on how much of an inflated shipping cost you paid.  This led to a decrease an ink jet prices and an increase in impatience.  So it cycles again, waiting a week to three weeks became unacceptable to consumers.  With ink jet prices going down and quality rising but requiring a technical knowledge to understand, consumers were left in a bind. 

Thus born, the online photo network, in which provided the quality of a photo lab with only 1 trip while enabling the convenience of 1 hour processing.  Upload your digital images to a website which would host a network of photo labs, pay for the prints and have the prints processed at a photo lab location of your choice to pick up within an hour.  Walmart has employed this model and is now one of the leaders in digital photo processing, a multi billion dollar industry alone. 

So how does this relate to Download to Burn?

Downloading a movie rather than going to a physical location to pick up your movie has a convenience factor that is impossible to deny.  Enjoying the movie becomes difficult now since your only able to watch it on your PC.  Of course, if your technically saavy, you have a PC setup that connects your TV, fridge and toilet even Doc from Back to the Future would be proud of.  We all can't invent the Fluxcapacitor like Doc, but we can figure out how to use it. =).  Now that the quality of the movie experience is destroyed, you put some pants on, drive down to your local gas station, and purchase a DVD in which you will enjoy in the home theatre you're accustomed to. (Yes, I have seen gas stations selling DVDs)  With the problem of impatience arising again, forth come DVD's in the mail. 

Sidenote:
Here an interesting split takes place between purchasing and renting.  With renting DVD's from a site such as Netflix, they have spent a great deal of time to result in the shortest amount of wait time for you to receive your DVD, usually receiving the DVD within a few days.  Purchasing on the other hand, I have yet to see anyone strive for such a turnaround, and probably for good reason in dealing with the cost of inventory (physical real estate of having DVD boxes). 

Back on topic, so here is where Download to Burn becomes the next step.  The convenience of purchasing your DVD from home and then immediately having it in hand to enjoy bring quality and convenience closer together.  The timing in these cycles is much longer than digital photos as many outside influences have say in what can happen next, regarding studio rights, etc.  The main celebration here though is that finally, the round trip has been saved, thanks to us! (proud moment), and we can get on to the next cycle in this evolutionary chain.

P.S.  Next cycle is quality.  Download to Burn wasn't launched with day and date titles (Titles on their DVD release dates), I for one can't wait, but that's a whole other story.

-Jesse

CinemaNow Burns Movie DVDs

Company debuts download-to-burn service on heels of rival Movielink’s announcement.
July 19, 2006