 
tater_gunz
Shoot to kill
Premium
join:2003-08-22
Toledo, OH | Who? I'm not familiar with these guys, but the concept sounds cool enough. Too bad their execution didn't match their ambition...
- Tate
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Happiness is an OC-48 in your basement... | |
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wruckman
Ruckman.net
join:2007-10-25
Northwood, OH | Re: Who? Rrrrriggghhhhttt....... | |
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| kcblack
Premium
join:2000-09-11
Chicago, IL | So are they still around?
I haven't heard anything more.
Kevin | |
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DotMac
Shill H8r
Premium
join:2007-10-26
Huntington Beach, CA | Still taking orders From the looks of their site, they're taking orders. | |
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anon123
| Moviebeam CS I called them and they wouldn't confirm or deny it. | |
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| afiggatt
join:2007-07-12
Sterling, VA
| Re: Comcast, Verizon, others? offer OnDemand said by TK Junk Mail  :For a huge majority of the country this service wasn't needed or any cheaper than OnDemand services from various providers. MovieBeam was for people who don't have high speed broadband or cable VOD (or want to use it). Not all cable systems have VOD or much VOD yet. The idea was a simple box people would hook up to their OTA antenna and have access to the most popular movie titles. No need to go to the video store or wait for Netflix delivery. MovieBeam did supply some HD movies, but not many as far as I know because of the hard drive size and the limits of download speed.
When I heard about it, I figured this would never succeed because of the limited selection. They could download only so many titles per day and store only so many. Unless you are house bound or a long way from the local video rental outlet (which may be the video rental kiosk at the grocery store), why not rent the DVD? There is a market for something like MovieBeam, but like the failed broadcast "cable" USDTV, just not big enough to make a sustained profit. | |
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| disc
join:2005-12-31
Raleigh, NC | I think the key bit was HD. At the time MovieBeam started, I don't think HD VoD was available anywhere. Even now, I don't think there's much of a footprint for HD VoD. | |
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BodyBumper
join:2004-06-21
Beverly Hills, CA
| Why am I not suprised Not everyone has a clear LOS with OTA Digital TV towers and until this problem is fixed (and it won't) services like the now defunct USDTV and this will fail.
Unlike cellular towers which are everywhere, in most TV markets 1 tower services hundreds of miles and of course with OTA digital you either get a good signal or you don't.
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"Time does not actually exist beyond an artificial measure we create in our minds to separate events we experience into blocks that are easier to reference instead of as a whole single event that just happens and continues happening" - evolvedant | |
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RR Conductor
'Boarrrd
Premium
join:2002-04-02
Redwood Valley, CA | Re: Why am I not suprised I checked, it's not available here in the Ukiah, CA area. This area receives OTA TV signals from a repeater on Spanish Mountain, overlooking Ukiah, it rebroadcasts weaker signals coming out of SF (100 miles south). | |
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| afiggatt
join:2007-07-12
Sterling, VA
| said by BodyBumper :Not everyone has a clear LOS with OTA Digital TV towers and until this problem is fixed (and it won't) services like the now defunct USDTV and this will fail. Moviebeam uses the analog signal from PBS station to carry the embedded digital signal, not the digital ATSC signal. I was checking the website and they make a point of this small "digital" antenna is all that is needed. That may be ok in most places up to 20 or 25 miles, but not at longer ranges. And how would that small antenna work for PBS stations on VHF low? Typical gloss over the technical issues sales pitch. 10 new movies a week? Not much of a catalog.
I assume they had a plan for the post-analog shutdown era, but maybe that is one reason they folded up. Converting the PBS stations to a digital ATSC distribution may have been a significant cost hit. Anyway, there will be a bunch of useless boxes soon. The USDTV boxes could still be used for digital OTA reception. The MovieBeam boxes are only useful for their system. | |
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Tzale
Ron Paul 2008 - Proud Conservative
Premium
join:2004-01-06
NJ, USA
 ·Verizon FIOS
 ·Optimum Online
| said by BodyBumper :Not everyone has a clear LOS with OTA Digital TV towers and until this problem is fixed (and it won't) services like the now defunct USDTV and this will fail. Unlike cellular towers which are everywhere, in most TV markets 1 tower services hundreds of miles and of course with OTA digital you either get a good signal or you don't. Cell phones and OTA TV service are two different things.... OTA TV service should have no problems going up to 100 or more miles.... It's also broadcasting a couple hundred thousand watts probably, compared to a cell phone broadcasting a quarter of a watt or so. It also uses different parts of the radio spectrum, thus different propagation characteristics.
-Tzale
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Hello Verizon FIOS 12.03.07!
457,000,000 miles of fiber optics placed and counting!
~THANK YOU MY ANONYMOUS FRIEND~ | |
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| | NOCMan
Verizon Fios User
Premium
join:2004-09-30
Flower Mound, TX | Re: Why am I not suprised Cell towers output at high power as well. For every 3 feet of air the power is reduced by 1/2. | |
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Tzale
Ron Paul 2008 - Proud Conservative
Premium
join:2004-01-06
NJ, USA
·Verizon FIOS
·Optimum Online
| Re: Why am I not suprised said by NOCMan :Cell towers output at high power as well. For every 3 feet of air the power is reduced by 1/2. Hmmm, I thought it had to do with the Inverse Square Law.
The energy or intensity decreases by a factor of 1/4 as the distance is doubled
-Tzale
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Hello Verizon FIOS 12.03.07!
457,000,000 miles of fiber optics placed and counting!
~THANK YOU MY ANONYMOUS FRIEND~ | |
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EnasYorl
Thieves World
join:2001-12-02
West
 ·Verizon Online DSL
| said by NOCMan :Cell towers output at high power as well. For every 3 feet of air the power is reduced by 1/2. Cell towers are low power less then 1k Watt ERP. TV broadcasters are 100K Watts with a 1 million Watt ERP on an attennae array.
And your loss in Air isn't true for power.
It's the inverse square law. You have to square the power output of a tower to get a 3db (x2) increase in power x distance away. | |
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RR Conductor
'Boarrrd
Premium
join:2002-04-02
Redwood Valley, CA
·Comcast
edit:
December 6th, @11:48PM
| Maybe 100 miles in flat New Jersey, but in mountainous areas like here in NorCal, signals have to be retransmitted via translators. TV signals, like FM and cellular are line of sight, put high mountains in front of the towers and you lose your signal. | |
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Tzale
Ron Paul 2008 - Proud Conservative
Premium
join:2004-01-06
NJ, USA
·Verizon FIOS
·Optimum Online
| Re: Why am I not suprised said by RR Conductor :You mean those bumps you call mountains?  I've been there, I know it has hills, but to a westerner like me accustomed to mountains up to 14,500 feet, it's flat  It ain't flat to radio signals, LOL... I should know, I'm an Amateur Radio operator and deal with the curse / gift of NJ's "hills." Luckily, I live on top of a hill. LOL
-Tzale | |
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benc
join:2007-06-17
Glen Carbon, IL
 ·Callcentric
·AT&T Midwest
·Charter Pipeline
| Who's Moviebeam? That's the thing. Their advertising must be awful, because until I saw this article I didn't even know they existed.
I might have even been interested in this service. But, unfortunately it's more expensive than renting a VHS or DVD at my local video rental store.
Now, if only they could rent out at $1.50 for five days ($3.25/two days for new release). That's how much Schnuck's charges at their video store for DVD.
The only alternative would've been cable VOD/PPV, but that costs too much. Since I don't watch TV I'd then have a cable bill for no good purpose. | |
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kba4
join:2001-10-23
Akron, OH | they'll be back someone is bound to buy up their assets and utilize them correctly. i for one think this is a great idea, perhaps poorly executed is all. | |
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| kcblack
Premium
join:2000-09-11
Chicago, IL
·RCN CABLE
| Re: they'll be back I "won" one of their boxes about a year and a half ago.
I thought it was too expensive.
I'm the first to be a early adopter. I used movielink mostly because I could rent and the clock didn't start till I watched it.
Also, for me, since Redbox now has a kiosk in the Walgreens across the street and will rent you a new release DVD for $1.00 a night, it was a no brainer.
The box itself had a lot of hardware possibility but none of the "features" were ever activated.
Since the box is mine and they are going out of business, I'll probably open it up and scavenge the hard drive since I don't think it will ever recover or be bought out.
Kevin
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"Because we’ve invested over $4 billion in building our MegaBand network so you can enjoy the internet the way it was intended to be – fast and uncapped." (RCN marketing Promo) | |
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An early adopter
@jetblue.com
| If I were CEO of Moviebeam -- How I would fix it! I am an early adopter of Moviebeam, and have enjoyed watching movies on it from time to time. If I were running the company, I would do the follwing to make it work:
1. Change the requirement for a phone line connection for billing. This was the most annoying, and not everyone has a phone jack close to their TV set. It only worked with land lines, and was not compatible with Vonage and other phone services, which limited their customer base. Why not have a smart card or account number that could be reloaded on the net?
2. Charge a monthly minimum subscription such as Netflix and other competitors, and either credit it toward movie rentals, or allow unlimited rentals. There were several months I did not watch a movie, and paid absolutely nothing. I wondered who thought up such a dumb business model?
3. Allow longer than 24 hours to watch a movie -- perhaps 36 hours, so you could finish watching a movie at the same time the next day you started watching it. If I started a movie at 8 pm one night, the window to complete watching it was over at 7.59 pm the next day.
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| kcblack
Premium
join:2000-09-11
Chicago, IL
·RCN CABLE
| Re: If I were CEO of Moviebeam -- How I would fix it! They phone line thing was stupid. It had an ethernet port on the back...why not use it. Even Direct TV figured that one out for their VOD.
That was one of the other things that killed it for me.
Here's a pic with the back panel connections.
Kevin
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"Because we’ve invested over $4 billion in building our MegaBand network so you can enjoy the internet the way it was intended to be – fast and uncapped." (RCN marketing Promo) | |
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| kcblack
Premium
join:2000-09-11
Chicago, IL | Still haven't got a call telling me that they are closing down. I called CS and they said they've been getting lots of calls but haven't heard anything.
Kevin | |
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Comcast, Verizon, others? offer OnDemand
