Movies coming to a memory stick near you

If you're not already bamboozled by the sheer number of different ways you can get your hands on movies, hold on tight because yet another means of movie procurement is about to hit the US and the world.

Paramount studios and memory maker, Kingston yesterday announced an alliance that will see big title blockbuster movie titles made available on Kingston memory media and USB memory sticks.

Things are expected to initially kick off with Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen on a 4GB Kingston DataTraveller USB drive for $29.99 (£18).

While a Paramount/Kingston statemnt talks at length about the partnership, it gave no details on whether the movies will be available in standard or high definition, and what devices the movies will play on.

It also fails to mention if movies will be locked down with digital rights management and, annoyingly, how much of the 4GB capacity will be eaten up by movies.

A dual-layer DVD is holds around 8GB and high-definition Blu-ray is even more capacious at 50GB, so it's a fair assumption that movies will be of lesser quality.

Assuming Paramount and Kingston do manage to deliver movies that aren't locked down with DRM, are in watchable formats and are playable in a range of devices, the partnership could be win-win for both parties.

Not only will Paramount gain access to a new and potentially lucrative movie distribution channel with increasingly popular memory card-friendly portable devices. But Kingston will also gain the means to sway potential buyers away from other brands.

Grabbing a movie on a USB stick could also come in pretty handy if for instance you happen for instance to be waiting for a flight.

This said, there are only so many USB sticks, SD Cards and other memory media that the average consumer needs. For people not wanting to purchase every movie on memory media, downloads through services such as iTunes are still likely remain a more compelling option.

Source: NZ Herald