Best Buy is reportedly partnering with Sonic Solutions to offer customers a streaming service that provides on-demand access to movies and TV shows. Best Buy will implement Sonic's Roxio CinemaNow technology in various devices sold at its stores, including TVs, portable media players, computers, mobile phones and more, from a number of manufacturers.

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I'm curious to see if netflix will respond somehow. Perhaps its own streaming only subscription. Or do they already have something like that?

Worst Buy scams the consume once again.... not a chance anyone with half a brain will support that rip-off chain.

Netflix: http://arstechnica.com/old/content/2007/01/8627.ars (just a quick google)

Seems to be the next thing for Internet TV show and movie providers. Interesting to see if it kicks off or not.

The dawn of a new age is beginning, about time. I can only wonder what quality the digital distribution would be, obviously they will charge more for HD

Interesting. This may be a RedBox alternative for me... although I haven't even looked into Netflix's offerings, so then again, maybe not.

Well if it helps them compete i guess it's a good thing but i dont see it working for them.

Hooray! More internet tv!

I bet best buy will get hacked and loose all theyre data, theyre not the best if youve seen cnn news test the "geek squad" they totally fail!

Everywhere I see, there is more streaming video then ever, if this keeps up, soon all the bandwidth of the Internet will be used for this purpose only and then the Internet will literally come to a stand still or run at snails pace, people what are you doing, we don't have this much infrastructure and I don't see plans for the future as well.

Also have you ever considered that streaming videos only play when being streamed, so if you even buy a video through this service, you will be only able to see it once, or maybe even twice but not more than that.

I remember seeing something last year that said that the internet was close to it's total amount of growth and that bandwidth was going to be a real issue from an infrastructure standpoint. Blockbuster is all but dead because of the online distribution of video and as stated above there are more and more companies offering streaming and downloading digital content. It seems the information super highway is heading towards a massive traffic jam.

No it won't. Bandwidth is 'infinite', for all intents / purposes. The worst thing that will happen is the price will go up to compensate.

Netflix's most basic plan allows for unlimited movie viewings. Unlimited. And if the intention is a one time download, there will no doubt be a way to purchase it (like buying a movie for $5 on iTunes that is yours to keep).

Where do you guys get this stuff at? :D Despite what you've heard, the only reason there are bandwidth 'issues' at all is because your ISP is cheapo and they try to get away with giving you as little as possible for as much as possible. Technology is FAR more advanced than what you're seeing on a local level and regional/national backbone providers aren't anywhere close to capacity even on a 'bad' day.

Im not surprised to hear about this. I was waiting for it. I thought it would have been around sooner considering all the touch screen phones and smaller laptops, A service like this should be good as long as they dont charge up the nose for it! Will have to wait and see what it will cost.

I think these movie streaming companies should be required to give a certain portion of their profits to the ISPs, so that they can invest in the infrastructure. If this idea takes off, the streaming of HD videos would pretty much jam the internet if this didn't happen.

This media war continues, I still rely on ( LoggTV.com ) for TV, Movies and music. I wont pay for downloads or subscription TV models. The end of the cable era is near. Now the customers have more options . I'm not a Cable TV or Blockbuster prisoner.

Does Best Buy make its own brand of TV's, players, etc.? I don't live in the US, and was just wondering, since I never heard of Best Buy as a product brand. It seems to be implied in the news item.

@ ET3D Best Buy sells a line of products under the name Insignia. I'm not sure if they're starting to limit that business or not because I don't see them advertising it as much as they used to.

I think the streaming thing is great. Getting rid of the physical media is nice but the quality and price have got to be worked out. I don't want to stream a movie and have it look like SD or worse quality and if I had to pay the same price as renting it I would just rent the DVD/BluRay and get the better quality.

Exactly what they should do. If the future of media is streaming it then the infrastructure must be able to handle the new traffic. Otherwise, the internet will suffer a general slow down.

I've watched a few movies using Netflix streaming service and the video quality is pretty good. It's not nearly as good as blue ray but I think it's as good or better than standard DVD.

As a subscriber of netflixs I enjoy having both online and DVD available. Netflix had some growing pains but lately they have been very reliable. I've steered clear of Best Buy as a retailer, I'll certainly be careful of them as they become the middle man for internet entertainment. Best Buy - late to the game as usual.