MusicGiants launches high-quality video service

The high-quality music download service is making the logical progression into high-quality downloadable video with the launch of VideoGiants.

A distribution deal has been signed with Paramount Pictures to make it the first to offer its films through the service. MusicGiants' MediaStore software has already been built into high-end media servers across the industry, and VideoGiants would see the same type of distribution.

The ongoing format war over next-generation DVD has seemed to always come with a caveat among many analysts: If it wasn't decided quickly enough, download and streaming services could come in and decide the winner for both of them.

If it's streaming media, that means neither side wins, and Microsoft could benefit from such a turn as a high-definition platform based on downloadable media rather than on a disc seems to work to its advantages.

MusicGiant's movies would be delivered in two ways: a collection of movies that come prepackaged on a hard drive for easy installation into the server, or on an a la carte basis. Some of the first titles to appear would be Mission: Impossible and Braveheart. Altogether, 'hundreds' of titles would be available at launch.

Unlike MusicGiants however, the service at least initially appears not to be available for download to the standard PC -- although the company's announcement isn't 100 percent clear about whether that is the case.