• by Mark Walsh  @markfwal, December 3, 2008

After recently introducing a set-top box for downloading movie rentals from the Web to TV, Blockbuster is now working with Microsoft on letting people watch movies on mobile devices.

The new services would be built on top of Microsoft's Web software platform dubbed Live Mesh, which uses Internet connections to share data among different devices.

Launched in April, Live Mesh is already being used on PCs to do things like synchronizing home and work computers. It will soon be compatible with Macs and Windows Mobile devices.

"Eventually, we'll give customers instant access to any movie on any device with an Internet connection and a screen," Keith Morrow, Blockbuster's chief information officer, told The Dallas Morning News..

A Microsoft spokesman said the company and Blockbuster will continue to work together together to explore new ways for people to consume media.

The video-rental giant last week launched its MediaPoint digital media player to serve movies on TV via the Internet. It competes with Netflix's Roku box, which debuted six months ago.

Blockbuster has been talking up mobile ventures for the last couple of years. CEO Jim Keyes said at the start of the year that the company was developing a mobile chip enabling consumers to sideload digital video content onto portable devices as well as exploring over-the-air download options as well. He said last year Blockbuster was negotiating with handset makers to develop new video technologies to allow mobile subscribers to watch movies on the go.

A more immediate possibility Morrow suggested is for travelers to use the Live Mesh technology to download movies from Blockbuster digital kiosks to portable media players when passing through airports. The company is currently testing digital download kiosks in a couple of its stores.

During Blockbuster's third-quarter conference call last month, Keyes told analysts not to expect a roll-out of the digital kiosks for at least the next 12 months as the company gauges consumer reaction to the new technology.

"We're trying to get a read on how customers will respond to the availability of this content on a machine, their willingness to buy the portable device and to use the machine to reload their portable device," he said.