Movie Gallery Readies Launch of Download Tech

Speaking as a former video store clerk, Movie Gallery has been one of the “also-rans” of the movie store game.  First you think of Netflix, then Blockbuster–Movie Gallery and its sister venture Hollywood Video kind of get short shrift, and that’s a shame.  Movie Gallery, you see, has an awesome all you can rent plan which actually is a step up from Netflix because you can get more videos, and you get games besides, but you have to choose from a much smaller selection than Netflix offers.

But now, Movie Gallery may be out to beat that one little problem with its video download services.  Initially, one hundred download kiosks will be installed in stores across the United States as a test measure.  From there, they’ll decide whether or not to expand the program, which just might solve one of the greatest video store problems EVER.

See, video stores are limited by their size.  They can only hold so many titles, and new ones emerge every week.  With a digital download kiosk like this, stores would be able to hold literally thousands of titles instead of the hundreds they can hold now, as they would be limited only by hard drive space or network availability. Patrons will simply plug in their USB drives and download their choice of titles.  More than likely there’ll be some DRM or something to kill the rental after a few days have passed.

Remember, folks, four gig holds one DVD, so a few terabyte hard drives in sequence could hold most of mankind’s video achievements.  Look for the video store to become a whole lot smaller in the future.