TVSquad

TiVo has announced plans to offer customers the option of renting Disney movies directly from their set top box. The company has already partnered with Amazon to offer Unbox video downloads. But Disney titles aren't available through Amazon Unbox, so TiVo is instead partnering with CinemaNow.

Some movies will be available in standard definition only, while some titles will be available in high definition. Rentals will be viewable for up to 24 hours.

There's no word on pricing, but CinemaNow typically charges $3.99 to rent a new release, and $1.99 for an older video. I suspect Disney movies will be offered for a similar price when the service is launched. According to the press release, the service will go live "soon," but it's not clear whether that means today, next week, or sometime before the end of the year.

Raise your hand if you'd kind of forgotten that CinemaNow existed. Go ahead, don't be shy. While Apple, Amazon, and Netflix have been making headlines for distributing digital movies and TV shows over the last year or so, CinemaNow's been doing this for ages. Along with MovieLink, CinemaNow was one of the first digital distributors to sign deals with major Hollywood studios. (MovieLink had a bit of a leg up, since it's co-owned by several of those studios).

CinemaNow's not resting on its laurels. The company today launched a partnership with Microsoft to bring CinemaNow content to Windows Media Center. That means you can browser and purchase or rent videos using a remote control and a 10 foot interface. CinemaNow has over 3400 feature films, 3000 TV episodes, and 2900 music videos in its library.

If you don't notice the CinemaNow icon in the "more TV" section of Windows Media Center right away, try going into settings and forcing Windows Media Center to download updates.

CinemaNow isn't the first company to launch an MCE application. MovieLink and Vongo have had a position in the Showcase section of Windows Vista MCE for some time.

Good news for Xbox 360 owners unsatisfied with the video offerings on Xbox Live Marketplace. CinemaNow has issued an update that lets customers download and watch movies on an Xbox 360. Up until now, the movie and TV download service was only available to PC users.

You'll still need a PC to download movies. But if your Xbox 360 is plugged into your home network, CinemaNow's Media Manager software will recognize it. That means while the movie will still be sitting on your PC, you can stream it over your network to your Xbox for viewing on your television set.

Nothing too revolutionary there, except that CinemaNow has a library of over 7,000 videos, some of which you will not be able to access from the Xbox Marketplace.