It was cool at the time, but it only lasted a short while.

Oh Blockbuster, how will we go on without you? :D

Plus if this is for on-the-go movie viewing wouldn't any reasonably smart person make sure they have their entertainment needs taken care of before taking a trip?

I fail to see a market for this but then again I was one of those who swore that "Friends" wouldn't last.

Downloading Movies after leaving the house? I think that's how it works in the Bizarro World.

Whoever pitched this gem at the board meeting has no kloo how the intertubes really works.

I'm the last one to think that digital distribution of movies is going to replace disc-based delivery anytime soon. But this is just stupid. What's the point of having to go to their store to do something I can already do in iTunes?

FAIL.

For chrissakes. What kind of cage full of chimps cooks this crap up??

@mbd:
Oh yeah, I forgot about that BS. That crap pissed me off.

Companies such as Blockbuster (brick-and-mortar video stores), AOL, NetZero, PeoplePC (ISPs whose business structure prevents them from offering any connection but dial-up, which is increasingly archaic) and the like need to see the writing on the wall. Their business models have been rendered obsolete. It's almost comical to see them thrashing about in a desperate-but-vain attempt to stay alive.

Yet another excuse to raise their Total Access pricing to pay for these.

I was finished with Blockbuster when they renamed their late fees "Restocking Fees", and tried to pawn that off as No Late Fees.

Cheers!

Man - this is a GREAT idea.
Make people get out, use their gas.
Make people get out and must have a device to put the content to.

Boy oh boy, Blockbuster's just got tons of GREAT ideas. I say everyone, let's head over to Blockbuster RIGHT NOW!*

*Results not typical. Your experience may vary.

This idea sort of makes sense when you're somewhere without high bandwidth capabilities. While it would not make sense for people living at home, this would make perfect sense if you were on a road trip or at the airport. If I was about to plug in let's say my external hard drive to the kiosks at the airport to get a movie to watch on my Dell XPS m1330, then I think this would make sense. Price is also a factor as well.

I download new releases from Amazon unbox on my TIVO device. It makes me happy. I vote no to a vending machine.

They already have these at the Atlanta airport. The company that rents you DVD players for your flights (I can't remember the name) will let you plug in various PMPs to download movies to watch on the plane.

Think of it as a mini-store?

I have an awesome idea. Ok, so first we'll offer a kiosk that let's you download a movie to your laptop. Then we'll allow you to burn the movie to a disc we will call a "DVD"... oh wait...

NETFLIX all the way

It's like telling : ''Let's do heart resuscitation on this headless corpse, then it'll walk and come back to life.''

Don't you see how convenient this is?

Before when you wanted to throw your money away, you had to choose between actually going to a Blockbuster store or just burning your money/tearing it up. Now you can just toss it into one of their ATMs.

Awesome.

/couldn't possibly be any more sarcastic

Please do all of us a favor and exist on a level just significant enough to keep Netflix sane. Stop with the exclusive deals though.

Thanks.

These guys are trying to tank this company. That's all there is to it.

It's not hard to imagine that people prefer to do as little as possible in order to enjoy entertainment (see: television).

When the Netflix blood was in the water, Blockbuster should have been all over the new content distribution system like a fly on a hot dog.

Glad I'M not a share holder of this company, yeesh.

It takes a long time to earn my trust back after I've been abused.

I wonder how hacker-proof those would be. I can see someone rigging one of them to flood a device with a lot of crap, or get credit card numbers/personal info off them. They'd probably have a shitty, DRM-heavy selection of movies anyway...

FAIL.

The whole point of Netflix is that you don't have to go to any kiosk. I can maybe see this being useful in airports, but that's about it.

Blockbuster should have jumped on the download bandwagon a long time ago. Amazon wised up to the need to offer downloads. Netflix recognized it and capitalized on it. Cable companies have been offering their equivalent to downloads for years, e.g., pay-per-view and on-demand.

Clearly someone has been asleep at the Blockbuster foresight/visionary wheel. Shareholders ought to be livid that their multi-million dollar execs are pissing their profits away with piss poor (pardon the pun) management. Execs need to spend less time on the golf course with fellow millionaires and more time with keeping track of the what everyday people are up to and maybe Blockbuster wouldn't be so darn clueless.

@Noris: Did you notice the picture where it shows a kiosk in the airport?

Yep, and I think the caption should have read "Off-Premise"

We won't know if the world needs it until its released and people decide to vote with their dollars. I don't know how this is a Consumerist piece though. Seems more like a Gizmodo feature.

Download to where? I'm a little confused by this...are they assuming you'll stand there while you download to a handheld? Or are you supposed to drag your laptop to the store?

I've been using the Netflix streaming service for a couple weeks (no Roku box for me) and have been pretty impressed when hooked up to my SDTV.

Does The World Need A Blockbuster Digital Download "ATM?"
No