10 Enhanced Movies Coming to Windows Phone
Back in May we told you that thanks to Silverlight, Windows Phones would be able to easily get enhanced movies that are essentially inline with what you’d expect from a blu-ray or DVD version of the movie with enhanced features. Yesterday, the first came out. And now we’re happy to hear that more are on the way from Paramount.
Paramount Digital Entertainment announced today that it will be releasing ten enhanced movie apps of Paramount Pictures’ films exclusively for Windows® Phone 7. Paramount Digital Entertainment is launching SCHOOL OF ROCK today in the U.S. and Canadian Windows Phone Marketplace with additional titles to be released in the U.S. and international markets before the end of the year.
The movie apps have been built using Microsoft Silverlight technology and offer the full movie plus menus, bonus features and unique experiences not available on other platforms to deliver a rich connected consumer experience to Windows Phone 7. Other titles coming to Paramount Silverlight Enhanced Movies for Windows Phone include ZOOLANDER, WAITING FOR SUPERMAN and GI JOE: THE RISE OF COBRA, with more to be announced.
“Through our relationship with Microsoft, we’re able to provide consumers new, enhanced ways to enjoy movies from anywhere on Windows Phone 7,” said Geremie Camara, Vice President Product Development for Paramount Digital Entertainment. “Using Silverlight technology and adding interactive and social networking features, our enhanced movie apps transform the movie viewing experience into a true entertainment experience.”
Other features in the enhanced movie apps include the ability to create custom clips, view the movie with pop-up trivia powered by ‘Scene It?’, and a Movie Info feature offering users the ability to identify actors, objects, music, and places in the movie, while providing rich, contextual information, such as bios, descriptions, and even maps to the locations.
“Windows Phone 7 is backed by a rich developer ecosystem that is creating a variety of quality apps and games, like Paramount Entertainment’s movie apps, that take advantage of the phone’s unique features and design,” said Todd Brix, senior director, Windows Phone Marketplace, Microsoft Corp. “We’re proud to have these Paramount titles that offer unique experiences for consumers exclusively available on Windows Phone 7 this holiday season,” he continued.
It looks like you buy a mini-app in Marketplace that directs you to the longer download (over wifi/USB) to have the complete movie and enhanced features.
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Well, as soon as we get supported SD storage for my Focus, I’ll try this out.
Needs better movies, dont see zoolander being a big seller.
The ability to create custom clips could be totally sweet provided we are able to share them with other apps or socially.
@JD:
I agree storage problems seems to have been forgotten here. I’ve watched a few Movies on my HD2 for free (new releases not 5 years old) and I’m not excited about the Silver Screen on a little screen, why did I buy my 55″ HDTV? Plus there is Netflix and Slingbox with no storage issues.
Agree on the storage issue and watching on the small screen but had to download School of Rock anyway, just to show it to WP7 nonbelievers. Download was 1.1GB and took about 30 minutes over Wi-Fi. Was not watching it download every minute but went back a few times to wakeup the phone and it was still going. Did bounce around through some of the menus while downloading and that worked OK. No time to watch any of the movie but did take a look at some of the special features, cast members, etc. and everything loaded smoothly. Note that the movie only loads onto your device, so no sync with Zune desktop.
The special features did not play full screen (music video, video diary) but the movie does. Made a clip, which is simple to do, but it looks like it’s stuck on the device. Does not show up in my pictures or video hubs and did not sync over to Zune desktop. Tried a tap and hold and nothing happens. All you can do is play it from within the app. There is an option to delete from within the play screen.
As noted, this is more a novelty for me than anything else. Could not imagine having more than 2 or 3 of these on a device. Not sure, but I guess if you download a movie through Zune Marketplace you can also play it on the PC or through XBox. Not so with this specific movie app. So there is a tradeoff. Extra stuff, but limited use. Oh well, better than downloading a couple episodes of Family Guy to show off.