Sandy Bridge Owners Can Rent CinemaNow HD Movies

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Intel is once again trying to leverage Hollywood fame to promote its processors.

The company said that owners of PCs with Sandy Bridge processors can now buy or rent movies from CinemaNow in 1080p resolution via its "Intel Insider" program. Previously, CinemaNow only offered standard definition movies, Intel said. Intel also offers movies from the Warner Bros., however, that content is not limited to Intel-based PCs only.

Intel has some history using movie content as a promotional tool for its chips. Some readers may remember Viiv, a brand and software that Intel used back in 2006 to market certain Intel PCs as home entertainment systems. Back then, Intel invested into a Clickstar, a venture co-founded with Academy award-winning actor Morgan Freeman. Clickstar was supposed to produce movies that were solely distributed over the Internet and made available on Intel Viiv PCs. Clickstar became the first company to actually offer a movie for download, 10 Items or less, in 2006, but was eventually shut down in 2008.

Intel has become much more careful since then and the investment into the exclusive partnership with CinemaNow (trademark owned by BestBuy) is probably not quite as expensive as ClickStar.

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Douglas Perry
19 Comments Comment from the forums
  • CaedenV
    wow, I completely forgot about clickstar!
    Reply
  • Jerky_san
    Surprising Intel is going to the lengths it is. I guess they want to completely steamroll bulldozer. =) To be honest though I hope AMD puts up a hell of a fight the next few months..
    Reply
  • theconsolegamer
    Ah so now we can rent movies at 1080p. We couldnt do that before! Go Morgan Freeman!
    Reply
  • livebriand
    But do they have DRM? If so, I won't bother with it. Besides, my 1st gen Lynnfield i5 is plenty fast.
    Reply
  • AbdullahG
    Jerky_sanSurprising Intel is going to the lengths it is. I guess they want to completely steamroll bulldozer. =) To be honest though I hope AMD puts up a hell of a fight the next few months..Well, it certainly isn't drawing as much attention as BD is (AMD hasn't had a major arch change since 1995 I believe with the K8 arch). I see this is more of a perk Intel is offering for SB owners to probably draw in more buyers, especially for those looking for an HTPC center (not really something a gamer would need, but it's still nice). It probably won't give a sales boost for the i5s and i7s, more likely the i3s.
    Reply
  • face-plants
    LOL @ hearing the name Viiv again. That whole marketing plan never did make sense to me....and I was running a store that was an authorized Intel re-seller and retail partner. Seems like this latest perk to Sandy Bridge owners is way more tangible than there attempts in the past.
    Reply
  • zybch
    AbdullahGWell, it certainly isn't drawing as much attention as BD is (AMD hasn't had a major arch change since 1995 I believe with the K8 arch). I see this is more of a perk Intel is offering for SB owners to probably draw in more buyers, especially for those looking for an HTPC center (not really something a gamer would need, but it's still nice). It probably won't give a sales boost for the i5s and i7s, more likely the i3s.Really though, Intel hasn't either. The entire Core arch was based off the old Pentium III after Netburst (pentium 4) was hopelessly unable to scale.
    Reply
  • elusion11
    zybchReally though, Intel hasn't either. The entire Core arch was based off the old Pentium III after Netburst (pentium 4) was hopelessly unable to scale.
    you have absolutely no idea what you are talking about do you?
    Reply
  • dimar
    1080p means nothing if the bit-rate info is not included.
    Reply
  • The cool thing about this new technology is you can buy or rent the titles and it is the first time 1080p has been avaible for delivery to the PC. I like it because before I had the problems that my disks would get lost or damaged. Now I can download a digital copy (for up to 5 systems) and not only watch it on my big screen (either over HDMI / DP, but also with Wireless Display) or take it with me and watch it on the plane or on my TV in the hotel. Good stuff!
    Reply