DStv’s much anticipated video on demand movie rental system, DStv BoxOffice, went live this weekend but things did not go as smooth as planned.

The DStv BoxOffice service started becoming available to DStv premium PVR users since early morning Friday 22 July 2011, but since then allot of users are yet still to receive their movie rentals.

Friday evening I set out to test out the new BoxOffice service from DStv, only to be disappointed by the slow registration progress. To sign up you have to SMS your smartcard number and then your DStv BoxOffice account will be set up, I SMS’d my smartcard number through at around 19:00 and only the next morning at around 10:00 I got an SMS telling me that they are experiencing a large demand and are sitting with a backlog of SMS messages that will be attended to. In the SMS DStv also promised an extra free movie rental on the house to make up for the long wait.

Sunday around 12:00 me and the wife decided we wanted to watch a movie, so I set out and followed the rental process by SMSing the unique code to the number onscreen to initiate my movie rental. According to the instructions, shortly after you have SMS’ed the unique code through to the number you will notified via the DStv decoder messaging system that your movie is available to watch.

It is now Monday morning close to 09:00 and I am yet still to receive my movie rental.

For a company operated by Naspers with huge brands behind their name like MWeb one would expect that they would be used to high volume launches by now, I mean DStv knows how many subscribers they have and they know how many of them have PVR decoders, working out the demand would be easy.

Have you tried DStv BoxOffice? If so, tell us about your experience.

Multichoice has launched their much anticipated DStv BoxOffice service last night at an event in Johannesburg. DStv BoxOffice is a video on demand rental service that enable DStv customer to rent the latest Hollywood blockbuster movies for a nominal fee straight from their PVR decoders.

DStv started rolling out the BoxOffice service to premium subscribers from last night and will provide them with 48 hours worth of movie rentals at a price of R25 per movie.

DStv BoxOffice provides subscribers with access to 15 movie rentals at a time that are all stored on their PVR decoders, once a subscriber has then paid for the movie rental the movie will become available to watch.

The big question is will you loose valuable recording space on your PVR now that the BoxOffice movies are downloaded to your device? The answer is no, DStv has reserved space for the BoxOffice service on the PVR decoder since day one so none of your recording will be affected, but due to the limited reserve space you will only have access to 48 hours worth of movies at a time.

New movies will be added to the DStv BoxOffice service every week, with DStv planning to provide up to 150 blockbuster Hollywood movies each year on the service a mere 4 to 6 months after the cinema release.

Payment of the movie rentals can happen via your credit card or via your DStv BoxOffice account that operates almost the same as your DStv account that you can pay monthly the same ways you would pay your DStv account.

For a list of DStv BoxOffice movies currently available or for more information about the service visit http://boxoffice.dstv.com/

MWEB the company that revolutionized uncapped Internet for South Africans by making it affordable has kept everybody in suspense over their latest announcement. Word is now out and MWEB in conjunction with DSTV will now offer subscribers free Video On Demand.

What is video on demand you ask? Well to put it simple you can now watch your latest series, movies, sports, etc when you want to.  No need to set your PVR anymore simply get your favourite program from the DSTV video on demand service.

As a MWEB customer, you now have access to so much more than just superfast Internet. All MWEB ADSL Customers with a DStv Premium Subscription have exclusive access to DStv ON DEMAND and will be able to download or stream their favourite shows to the computer. DStv ON DEMAND is available to both Capped and Uncapped ADSL Customers but given the amounts of data consumed MWEB recommends their Uncapped ADSL to enjoy the benefits of DStv ON DEMAND without ever having to worry about your data cap.

To be eligible to enjoy the DSTV On Demand service you will need to be a MWEB ADSL customer and have a DSTV premium subscription. Also a 4Mbps line is recommended for a optimal viewing experience.

For more information regarding the MWEB DSTV Video On Demand service check out the MWEB website.