New Way To Rent Movies Without Discs

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- Imagine a Redbox kiosk that, instead of the giving you a DVD, uploads movies onto a USB drive which you provide.

That's how you could describe Digiboo, a new way to rent movies on the go that just arrived in the Twin Cities.

The company is all in for a share of the evolving movie rental market, and executives are hoping consumers will notice the benefits to the new technology.

"What we've tried to do is create a fantastic consumer experience," said Digiboo CMO Blake Thomas.

Customers use a touch screen to navigate the Digiboo kiosk to find a movie, and can upload multiple flicks to a USB drive. (USB 3.0 technology is preferred.)

The movie must be viewed in 30 days and customers have 48 hours to watch it after it begins playing. The file will then automatically delete, so there's no need to return the movie.

Rentals cost $3.99 per movie. Customers also have the option of buying the movie for $14.99.

The Digiboo movie player has to be set up on a PC the first time a movie is rented or purchased. From then on, the computer will automatically open the movie player when a Digiboo file is opened.

The benefits Digiboo has over some of its competitors is that it offers more titles (about 700 in total). And since the movies are digital, the machines won't run out of popular copies.

"We're always in stock and you'll never have to return a movie once you've watched it," said Thomas.

One drawback is that the movies are not in high definition, though they are still "DVD quality."

Another obstacle is that the Digiboo player is not compatible with Apple's operating system, Mac OS X. As a result, the movies can't be played on Apple computers unless they can operate Microsoft Windows.

Digiboo is already available at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport, and executives hope to expand to malls, grocery stores, and other places where there's a lot of foot traffic.