Last year, Walmart announced an ambitious program aimed at getting people to convert the movies they’ve already bought in DVD or Blu-ray format to digital copies that they could stream or download from their UltraViolet digital rights locker. The disc-to-digital program was a way for the movie studios — and Walmart — to help convert users who watched physical discs to start taking advantage of streaming options and digital storefronts instead.

But there was one big problem: It involved going through the hassle of taking your discs to Walmart, getting them scanned and entered into a database. For those who didn’t want to drive to the nearest big-box store, or who didn’t want to sit around and wait for their movies to be added to their locker, the disc-to-digital program was a bust.

So the company is making it easier for users to convert their existing movies to digital, with the launch of a desktop app that will let them scan their discs at home. The VUDU To Go app, which will be available from the company’s website soon, will work on Macs and PCs, and will require users to enter a physical disc into their drive to show that they own it.

While the ability to covert physical to digital from the comfort of one’s home may seem like an awesome idea, there are some limitations. For instance, the conversion will only work for movies from certain studios. While it’s got most of the big ones on board, including DreamWorks Animation, Lionsgate, MGM, Paramount, Sony Pictures, Twentieth Century Fox, Universal Studios, and Warner Bros., Disney is noticeably absent.

Also, there’s a fee involved. It costs $2 to convert DVDs to digital and $5 to convert Blu-rays and make them available through various UltraViolet services.

But once all that’s done, there’s the promise of being able to own your movie forevermore without ever having to buy it again. In the same way that owning digital music means we no longer need to purchase a new format of the White Album every time some newfangled device comes along, movie owners and collectors should (theoretically) be able to store their digital copies and access them through UltraViolet whenever.

That’s a future that would be awesome if it worked for everyone. We’re getting there, but you know, the future can’t come soon enough.

Article courtesy of TechCrunch

Ellen Siminoff, President, and CEO of Shmoop University, an educational publishing company, and a founding executive at Yahoo, joined Zynga’s board of directors today. Siminoff joins DreamWorks Animation CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg, LinkedIn Founder and Chairman Reid Hoffman, Sidecar Rideshare CEO Sunil Paul,  Kleiner Perkins Partner Bing Gordon, LinkedIn board member Stanley J. Meresman, Zynga EVP of Business Owen Van Natta, Zynga COO John Schappert and Zynga CEO and founder Mark Pincus on the gaming giant’s board.

Siminoff’s background and comments about extending Zynga’s platform could signal a push towards the intersection of online education and gaming. But the board does have a very diverse set of backgrounds, and we’ve speculated about board members changing Zynga’s direction before, so take it with a grain of salt.

“Zynga is truly about deep connections between people and the company has built a significant, engaged player community around the benefits of play and social,” Siminoff said in a press release. “I admire this vision and I look forward to working with Mark and my fellow directors to leverage Zynga’s tremendous success and extend its consumer facing platform for play even further.”

The popular game maker, whose titles include FarmVille and Words With Friends, faces increasing competition and sliding stock performance. However, their significant cash reserves are a significant advantage over competitors.

Siminoff also serves on the boards of US Auto Parts, Solarwinds, Mozilla and Journal Communications.

Article courtesy of TechCrunch

With mobile video being all the rage, multiple startups have emerged to make it easier to shoot and share videos with friends. Following on this trends a small team within DreamWorks Animation has assembled to create an app called Ptch with a unique value proposition: Users create interesting, shareable videos with the app. But they can also share those videos and open them up so that others can remix and mash them up.

Ptch isn’t just about taking a single video, throwing a filter on it and tossing it on the social networks, like Socialcam or Viddy. Nor is it about selecting a bunch of media and having a video automatically pieced together, like Animoto. Ptch users have to do a little work to piece together their videos. However, the results end up being much better than most other mobile video tools out there.

The app is built around a really easy drag-and-drop experience to enable users to quickly piece together photos and video assets to their, um, Ptches. It works like this: Users select media from their camera roll or from networks like Instagram, Google+, Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter and Viddy. They can then drag and drop those assets into whatever order they like, add captions, and select from different “themes” to spice up their video. Users can even select from a wide range of licensed music to add to their Ptch. The app then does the hard work of stitching those assets together into a video, which they can share on Facebook, Twitter, or within the app itself.

Ptch is the brainchild of DreamWorks Animation CTO Ed Leonard, who has taken the helm as CEO of the startup within DreamWorks. And that’s how it’s being run — like a startup. While the 20-person Ptch team includes some DreamWorks employees who bring expertise around advanced video rendering and other features, about two-third of the people working on the app were recruited from outside the film studio, from companies like Yahoo and Myspace.

When demoing the app, Leonard told that Ptch was created to inspire a type of “living media,” which will allow users to remix each others videos. Users have the option of making their media available to others, who can play with their individual assets and mash them up to make new movies. The idea is in part to enable friends and people with shared experiences to tell stories with each other and re-use popular assets that define moments they were a part of. (Don’t worry, for those less adventurous, there’s always the option of “locking” videos so that people can’t mess with your media.)

The app is free, and the team hopes to make money off of microtransactions, as people will pay for different themes to express themselves. There’s also the possibility of using the app for co-marketing of major events or brands using it to build campaigns around their products. That said, it’s such a small, experimental part of DreamWorks Animation right now that Leonard and team aren’t really focused on the monetization aspect — just, you know, getting the app out there and in the hands of users, and seeing what they do with it.

Article courtesy of TechCrunch

Zynga is racking up the Hollywood and entertainment partnerships. After launching a marketing deal with Lady Gaga for FarmVille, the social gaming giant is rolling out another deal, this time with DreamWorks Animation for the promotion of the studio’s new movie Kung Fu Panda 2. Zynga says this is the first-ever in-game integration within CityVille, the company’s most popular game by monthly active users on Facebook.

CityVille, which has more than 88 million monthly players, will allow users to place a Kung Fu Panda 2 themed drive-in movie theater in their city. Players who place the theater will also receive collection items, members of Kung Fu Panda’s Furious Five: Tigress, Crane, Mantis, Viper and Monkey. When all five items are collected, an exclusive Po the Panda statue will be unlocked and available to players as a reward for completing the Kung Fu Panda 2 quest. The integration runs until May 31.

Why CityVille? Zynga’s Global Director of Brand Advertising Manny Anekal says that nearly a third of all Kung Fu Panda fans on Facebook have also played CityVille. For DreamWorks, the studio can reach 88 million users, who are engaged with the Kung Fu Panda brand, with the promotion.

This isn’t the first partnership with DreamWorks; Zynga and the studio previously launched a “Mega-Farm” promotion on FarmVille with animated movie Megamind. But Zynga says this is the first in-game marketing deal for CityVille. And this follows the recent appointment of DreamWorks Animation chief Jeffrey Katzenberg to Zynga’s board of directors.

As we wrote in the past, adding Katzenberg to the gaming company’s board represented a broader, multi-channel entertainment strategy for Zynga. I’m sure we’ll see a number of similar deals being struck with both DreamWorks and other movie studios for branded promotions in Zynga’s games.

Article courtesy of TechCrunch

In the past, Zynga has landed a number of high-profile partnerships with musicians and entertainment companies, including Snoop Dogg, Dreamworks, Nickelodeon, The Green Hornet and others. But today, the social gaming giant is announcing its largest entertainment deal to date-with pop star Lady Gaga.

Lady Gaga has partnered with Zynga previously, when the company was raising money for releif efforts around the Japanese earthquake and tsunami. On May 17, Lady Gaga and Zynga will unveil, GagaVille – a neighboring farm on FarmVille, which is a Gaga inspired farm in-gam. GagaVille will showcase Lady Gaga’s style and themes from the album and videos (crystals, unicorns, sheep on motorcycles); and gamers will have exclusive access in Farmville to songs from the artists’s new album “Born This Way” before the album is released later in the month. From May 17 to 19, players can unlock and stream a new un-released track per day. And from May 20 to 23, players can unlock and stream a significant portion of songs from the new album, plus special bonus remixes.

Additionally, Gaga branded Zynga $25 Game Cards, which will be available at Best Buy, will include a free download of Lady Gaga’s new album plus exclusive bonus tracks, exclusive Gaga virtual goods, and more.

Zynga is also partnering with Lady Gaga to offer branded virtual goods via Rewardville across ten of its games. Players can log onto RewardVille to redeem zCoins for exclusive limited edition Gaga inspired virtual items for the Zynga game. The company and artist are also holding a number of contests for players to get tickets to Gaga’s concerts.

In a statement, lady Gaga said: “I want to celebrate and share ‘Born This Way’ with my little monsters in a special way that’s never been done before…Zynga has created a magical place in FarmVille where my fans can come play, and be the first to listen to the album.”

Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. I’d expect more partnerships like these in the entertainment and music industries. Zynga just brought on DreamWorks Animation chief Jeffrey Katzenberg to its board of directors, signaling that the company sees tremendous potential in Hollywood. As we’ve written in the past, DreamWorks and Katzenberg have taken movies and titles to Broadway, TV, merchandise, and even into the video gaming world via partnerships. Katzenberg’s expertise and Hollywood roladex could help Zynga pursue this strategy into the entertainment world.

Article courtesy of TechCrunch

Scrapblog, a startup that lets you build rich Flash-based online scrapbooks, is announcing a deal with DreamWorks Animation to feature graphics from the “Shrek” film series. Shrek and other characters from the movie will be added to the Scrapblog Virtual Marketplace to allow users to add stickers, backgrounds and themes to scrapbooks.

Scrapblog, which raised $2.5 million from Disney’s Steamboat Ventures earlier this year, offers an online editor that allows users to decorate their scrapbook with text, images, colorful themes, and other embellishments, which can then be shared on the web or printed out. Scrapblog recently brought on a new CEO, Jill Braff, to lead the company after startup’s founder and CEO Carlos Garcia, stepped aside.

The startup is also launching a new product to its printed offerings: a 12” x 12” square glossy hardcover scrapbook. The company was first introduced back in 2006, briefly went offline, and relaunched in March 2007.

According to Compete, Scrapblog only had 84,000 unique visitors in September. The online scrapbooking space is tough considering that Flickr, Apple iPhoto and other popular photo sharing sites now offer high-end scrap booking options for consumers. But the scrapbook business could be a $2 billion market, and with potential acquisitions. Most recently, digital scrapbooking startup ScrapHD was bought by craft store chain Michaels.

Article courtesy of TechCrunch