Cork, Ireland-based interactive TV and IPTV technology provider,
DigiSoft (note: the company, which has racked up some significant
successes in the Italian market, also operates offices in the US, the UK,
Singapore and New Zealand), has announced the general availability of
its eRental Movie Download Platform, which enables consumers to
download standard- and high-definition movies from in-store kiosks to
a portable storage device for later viewing. According to DigiSoft,
eRental combines increasingly affordable portable memory technology
with the latest security technology from Verimatrix and support for
video compression standards in a patented package. The solution was
developed in partnership with Australian video rental chain, Video Ezy
(has around 1,000 stores), which has announced plans to install it in
Video Ezy and Blockbuster stores in Australia and New Zealand.
According to DigiSoft, the main components of the eRental platform
are the in-store kiosk, containing a movie library; a branded USB or
iPod-type portable storage device; and, at the consumer's home, a Java
set-top box. The consumer plugs the portable storage device into the
kiosk to select movies to rent for playback on the set-top. The platform
is based on DigiSoft's Java-based middleware technology, utilizes
high-profile H.264 encoding, and is billed as compatible with BluRay
technology. Verimatrix's VCAS security system adds forensic
watermarking, output copy protection, and various software and
hardware anti-tampering technologies; and DigiSoft's DigiHost Service
Delivery Platform manages user authentication and entitlement via a
low-bandwidth or intermittent wireless IP connection with the set-top
box.
