Just What is UltraViolet?

Just what is UltraViolet? It's a brand new service being rolled out and is endorsed by most Hollywood studios. But, I'm not sure what it is. (In my defense, though, nobody really knows).

Neda Ulaby offers the clearest explanation I've seen yet:

Mitch Singer, UltraViolet's president and CTO of Sony Pictures Entertainment, gave me a guided tour of the back-end site.

"Most people will be managing their movies through their favorite retailer," he told me, meaning you'll buy movies through a site such as Best Buy's or Netflix's rather than through UltraViolet itself. The retailers will maintain personal information — your e-mail address, credit-card number and password — the sort of stuff they likely already have.

UltraViolet will allow consumers to maintain an online video library that can be shared with a small group. While Singer declined to give specifics on how many, and didn't seem to want to talk about pricing models, he was quick to point out the ease with which parental restrictions could be applied to children's online video choices.

Yeah, that's what I thought.

Hit the MonkeySee blog for the rest and/or to listen to the story.