NTT, Toho test digital movie distribution

By Staff and reports

TOKYO, Japan (Nikkei) -- Japan's NTT West and movie industry giant Toho are testing a service to distribute digital movies to theaters by broadband.

The tests, taking place in Osaka, will gauge how movies can be delivered digitally to theaters, the Nikkei business daily reports.

From efforts in distribution to content protection, Japanese companies have been making significant inroads in the nascent digital movie distribution business.

Films use 59 gigabytes of data

For the tests in Osaka, movies will be stored in a data center managed by NTT and digitally transmitted by broadband optical fiber to movie theaters.

The theaters will screen the films using a special digital light processing projector.

Each film to be distributed in the tests is made up of about 59 gigabytes of data, requiring at least one hour to move from the data center to the theater.

NTT West and Toho plan to complete the tests this year and then study practical implementation sometime in or after next year.

The "5C Group," consisting of four Japanese manufacturers and Intel, has also been actively developing technologies to support digital film distribution.

Intel, Matsushita, Toshiba, Sony and Hitachi have joined forces to develop and lobby a content protection standard for digitized movies exchanged over set-top boxes, televisions, PCs and cables.

Both Sony Pictures and Warner Brothers Studio have agreed to accept the digital content protection standard.