HungryFlix Pushes HD Movies to Apple and iTunes

HungryFlix, the Internet’s first distributor of premium, independent video content specifically formatted for portable devices, is continuing to drive innovation in the movie download space by announcing that content providers can now upload movies of up to 1GB in size. This increased storage capacity will allow for high quality movies to be delivered to Macs, PCs and especially Apple TV.

HungryFlix was the pioneer in providing indie films for portable media players such as the Apple iPod, iPhone and Sony PSP. The web startup is also offering support for the new class of home media servers such as Apple TV and slingmedia’s slingbox. In order to support growing demands for high definition video, HungryFlix has deployed Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3), a component of Amazon Web Services.

Amazon S3 provides a web services interface that can be used to store and retrieve any amount of data from anywhere on the web. S3 provides the same highly scalable, reliable, fast, inexpensive data storage infrastructure that Amazon uses to run its own global network of web sites. This infrastructure will provide HungryFlix with greater capacity while reducing costs.

“We are seeing more and more independent productions adopting HD,” says HungryFlix.com CEO Brian Andrews. “In the portable device space, HD hasn’t been a concern due to the obvious issues of small lower resolutions screens and limited storage space. But, when we look at continuing to expand to Apple TV users, where we see great growth is in the ability to deliver HD or near HD quality video. The demand is coming from both the producers and consumers.”

HungryFlix content is delivered as MPEG4 files that look and sound great on PCs, handhelds and now large screen TVs. All files are DRM-free so that users can also view movies on their computer, iPod or any other compatible device, provided that the film was encoded to support each device.

The web startup is drawing video content providers from across a wide range of genres. The site accepts feature films, short films, documentaries, animation, how-to videos, sports video, music video and more. The goal of HungryFlix is to become another means of distribution for the vast amount of incredible indie content being produced today.

“One of our main goals is to help independent filmmakers and video producers get their content out to the world,” continued Andrews.

“When you look at the movie watching experience, especially for feature length films, many people still want to watch movies in the family room. By supporting Apple TV, we can push video from the web down to the home computer and then the last 100 feet to the family room. When we reach the family room we want be able to provide a higher quality experience. Increasing our file sizes will enable providers to deliver much higher quality video than was previously possible.”

From the movie fan’s perspective, HungryFlix’s goal is to give the people what they want - the widest array of compatible video content free from restrictions so that consumers can watch when and where they wish. The site offers paid movie downloads which means users will own the rights to view movies as often as they would like, on as many devices as possible. Membership is free and downloads start at just $0.99.

Article published on Techmedia on 6th March 2008