The previous post about Consumer Reports’ latest survey explained that price, convenience, selection, and flexibility are all important factors in satisfying video renters.  While Netflix scored highest in every category, they only serve a small percentage of the 92 million US DVD player households.  We think there is a better way to serve the majority of movie renters.

MovieBurn is a patented system that allows digital media to be written onto limited-play DVDs, on-demand.  MovieBurn offers the technology allowing consumers to purchase content from a virtually limitless media library for a price comparable to or less than the cost of standard DVD rentals.  In order to serve renters everywhere, the system can be utilized in online DVD rental services, standalone DVD rental kiosks, and manned DVD rental kiosks.

As an online DVD rental service, content can be duplicated through an on-demand manufacturing system such as Amazon’s CreateSpace; however, instead of using standard DVDs, the content would be written onto recyclable limited-play DVDs.  Customers could order DVDs one at a time, through a subscription service, and/or as promotional items. The DVDs would be created and then mailed to customers.

The same process can be scaled down and added to on-demand DVD burning kiosks similar to MOD Systems and Polar Frog Digital.  Customers would be able to browse and select content from a website and at the kiosks.  The DVDs would be created then delivered to customers at kiosk locations.

Unlike other rental services, the DVDs rented with MovieBurn’s system are not limited by stock availability and never need to be returned.  We believe that MovieBurn is an ideal transitional product, filling the gap between physical media rentals and pure digital media delivery; but more importantly, the technology provides a service that exceeds in all of the factors important in satisfying video renters.

Home Media Magazine reports the DVD Forum is working toward finding an industry standard for digital copies of movies and working to make sure discs burned on-demand will play in almost every DVD player.

In the download-to-burn and manufacture-on-demand arena, the Forum is halfway there: You can already order a newly burned DVD via Amazon.com, and do-it-yourself computer drives from Dell and Pioneer are available, with CinemaNow as their online partner. Retail kiosks — where consumers can order ahead of time or while they shop — and fully independent standalone at-home manufacturing on demand DVD burners are coming soon.

The Digital Media Wire reports:

Japanese electronics firm Toshiba announced that it has made a $20 million investment in MOD Systems, the developer of a digital media delivery system for retailers that lets consumers download digital content for burning to an optical format.

Seattle-based MOD said that early next year it plans to expand its media delivery system, which lets consumers download content from store kiosks to SD memory cards, to include downloads of movies and TV shows, in addition to music.

Read the entire article here: Toshiba Invests $20M in Download Kiosk Firm MOD Systems

Video Business reports Polar Frog Digital kiosks will offer burn on-demand to college campuses.

Polar Frog Digital will begin rolling out digital download kiosks to seven college campuses next month through a deal with the National Assn. of College Stores, the two announced today.

NACS, a collegiate retail trade organization with 3,100 member stores, will add kiosks to campus bookstores at NYU, UCLA, San Diego State University, University of Colorado—Boulder, University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign, University of North Carolina Chapel Hill and Bowling Green State University.

Students at those schools will be able to use the touch-screen kiosks to download movies and TV shows and burn them to DVD or transfer them to a Flash or USB drive. They also will be able to buy downloads online or via mobile phone with the ability to download to a PC or burn it to DVD for pickup at the bookstore.

Read the entire article here: Download and burn kiosks roll out to colleges

Nero and Polar Frog Digital partner to make on-demand DVD kiosks a reality.

Each year thousands of movies, television programs, educational and special-interest titles are created. However, due to shrinking shelf space and cost of manufacturing, only a fraction will become available on DVD, and fewer still will remain available six months after release. By using kiosks, retailers can stock an entire physical DVD inventory in as little as two square feet of store space. Gone are the days of needing to anticipate how many copies of a new title release to have on hand or worrying about DVD theft. With a kiosk format, inventory “shrinkage” can be eliminated and retailers are able to offer their consumers an unlimited quantity and assortment.

Read the entire article here: Nero unveils burn-on-demand DVD tech for retail