With the recent proliferation of MP3-based music on the Web, it was only a matter of time before a technology would allow videos to be delivered over the Net.
For San Francisco's Tranz-Send, that time is now.
The company has developed a system for delivering DVD-quality films, TV programs, or software over the Net as compressed files that can only be used according to terms established by the copyright owner.
Similar to Real Networks' G2 media streaming system, the Tranz-Send technology uses server software to distribute the files and a specialized player device to read the files on PCs and set-top boxes.
By charging less than Blockbuster for movie titles -- and offering others with 60-second commercials for free -- the company hopes to take the first big stand in the online movie distribution market.
In May, Tranz-Send will release the first generation of the system, along with several thousand movie titles. Scott Redmond, president of Tranz-Send, said his company has already struck deals with several major movie houses to distribute films on the Net.
"Companies like TriStar, Sony, and Columbia have a list of about 220 different issues [technical requirements] that need to be addressed to do video on demand," said Redmond. "We answered all of the issues regarding copyright protection, bandwidth usage, parental issues, customization issues, upgradability."
Redmond has built security systems for the US Department of Defense and has designed flight simulators, interactive media, and gaming technologies. He said Tranz-Send will announce a technology that will bring true video to gaming systems later in the year.
When videos and other multimedia are converted into Tranz-Send's format, they are encrypted in such a way that the player can run them through only once, with a five-minute window for rewinding, said Redmond.
A PC version of the technology will be released in May, and the company is also building a set-top box that will hook directly into a TV set.
"What's so impressive is the quality that they are able to download over the Web, and also the mechanism that they use to download multiple copies of the same movie," said Jerry Butz, director of business development at Interactive Transaction Services in San Francisco. Butz recently previewed the system and said the downloaded video didn't have any of the jitters that are often visible in Net-based formats.
