HBO on Broadband offers unlimited downloads to subscribers
By Jonathan Schlaffer
HBO (Home Box Office) is preparing to launch a new service in a limited test market, HBO on Broadband. The service will allow subscribers to download HBO shows and movies to desktop or laptop computers for watching at any time. It will be offered at no extra charge but customers must also have HBO on Demand and Time Warner high speed Internet.
DVDdossier indicates it will only be offered to customers in the Wisconsin division of Time Warner with a selection of 600 movies and shows available each month. HBO on Broadband will offer unlimited downloads of the shows and movies but the content cannot be transferred to a portable device like an iPod or Zune.
Feature films offered for download each month will included titles that are currently being aired on HBO and will be posted for a period of 4 to 12 weeks. Episodes of HBO series will be offered for a longer period of time but when the content is no longer available for download, it will automatically be deleted from your computer.
It will also offer a live streaming feed of the East Coast broadcast which will allow you to watch content as it is being shown on the main HBO channel.
To make use of the service you will need to download HBO’s proprietary media player which allows as many as five computers to be “authorized” to play content which is similar to a feature in iTunes.
HBO on Broadband will be compatible with Windows XP SP2 or Windows Media Center 2005 with Rollup 2 equipped with at least a 700MHz Pentium class processor, 256MB of memory and 2GB of hard drive space.
HBO says a Mac version of the software is forthcoming but won’t say when it will be released, however, if running Windows on an Intel Mac, the service will still work. For now, it’s only doing HBO on Demand subscribers with Time Warner high speed Internet located in Wisconsin any good.
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