What is the Keychest?

Disney is secretly (not so much anymore) working on a new technology codenamed “Keychest” that would allow consumers to access a movie they’ve purchased on any device imaginable. And while they hope it will be a revolutionary leap in home entertainment, it just leaves me slightly confused. They’re rationale, according to a Disney insider, is, “Dad has a Zune, Mom has an iPod, there’s a Mac and a PC at home and a Roku box; right now, those devices don’t talk to one another. We intend to blend those worlds.” Huh?

So I pop a Blu-ray disc on at home and my Dad could sit next to me and watch it on his Zune? While Little Suzy watches it on her iPhone up in her room? Who watches movies like this? I could see the benefit of buying a DVD or Blu-ray and having a digital copy to put on your laptop or handheld device but don’t they already have that with the “Digital Copy” bonus features that come with almost all Disney releases?

I suppose with this new technology you could watch the film from your Xbox dashboards or, like the guy says, your Roku box. But if you have the disc, which they seem to be indicating would be the launching point for this feature, why would you watch it from your Xbox dashboard? Perhaps I’m missing the key “ingenious” part of this functionality but it doesn’t seem like anything revolutionary at all.

The technology is currently being worked out with an announcement due before the end of the year. Let’s hope there’s something more to it than what we have here…

UPDATE – I’m learning a little bit more about the technology and apparently what could happen that might be useful is that you could start watching a movie on your TV. You fall asleep, get interrupted, whatever. You could finish watching it the next day on the bus to work on your iPhone. Or call it up at a friend’s house to show them a scene. That’s slightly more interesting than previously anticipated…