Best Buy is putting marketing muscle behind its CinemaNow video download service as it installs demonstration kiosks in stores and trains store sales staff, Sonic Solutions CEO David Habiger said on an earnings call. Best Buy bought the CinemaNow name from Sonic, but Sonic still owns CinemaNow’s underlying video download platform, now called RoxioNow. Best Buy has sent $10 coupons for the service to its Reward Zone members, a Sonic spokesman said. Best Buy also is highlighting the service in ad circulars and “commercials,” Habiger said.

TVs were among the weakest-selling products in July for BJ’s Wholesale Club and Costco, the companies said Thursday. Target, meanwhile, cited “soft sales in electronics, videogames, music and movies.” But all three companies still saw increases in overall sales for the month versus July 2009, they said.

Time Warner’s deal with Netflix to put off the distributor’s access to DVDs until 28 days after they're released for sale has helped the cable programmer’s home entertainment business, CEO Jeff Bewkes said. Time Warner is seeing DVD sales for hit movies stronger and more sustained that first month than they were before the deal, he said. It also could increase VoD revenue through Time Warner’s pay-TV partners, Bewkes said. “You still have a fair amount of upside room for activity and effort” in marketing VoD to consumers and putting more content on that platform, he said. “We think this is working already, and it’s going to work better as we go along."

Q2 is “shaping up well” for Electronic Arts, with NCAA Football 11 “off to a good start,” Chief Operating Officer John Schappert said Tuesday on an earnings call. He didn’t say how many copies had been sold, saying only that EA’s “retail checks” indicated that this year’s entry in that game series was “doing well” compared with last year’s version. Madden NFL 11, meanwhile, “has solid pre-orders” that “are pretty much on par with last year and our marketing is just kicking in,” he said.

Barnes & Noble put itself up for sale. B&N may have a hard time finding a buyer willing to take charge of bricks-and-mortar stores struggling against surging e-book sales, analysts said. With 720 retail locations and 637 college bookstores, the company had less than $61 million cash and $510 million in debt June 30, leaving the chain with the daunting task of trying to find a buyer willing to assume risk, analysts said.

TVs used in hotels, restaurants and other “hospitality” settings can continue to use for Energy Star 4.1 qualification a temporary CEA-developed test procedure to measure energy used in the download acquisition mode, the EPA said. The temporary test procedure was set to expire July 31. DAM refers to the power used when the TV is downloading things like channel listing information for the electronic program guide when the device is “not producing a sound or picture.”

Glitches in 3D implementation at the home theater level have prompted test equipment company SpectraCal to upgrade its HDMI test device with 3D features to help integrators identify issues more easily in the field, the company told Consumer Electronics Daily.

Smartphones with bundled navigation are taking a bite out of the personal navigation device (PND) market, Garmin executives said Wednesday on the company’s Q2 earnings webcast, and the company’s stab at the smartphone market has fallen short of expectations.

Electronic Arts reported results for Q1 ended June 30 that surpassed expectations on the “top and bottom line,” CEO John Riccitiello said. The results were driven by strong demand for new games including 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa and digital offerings for titles including Battlefield: Bad Company 2 and Scrabble for the iPad, he said.

The new BlackBerry Torch from Research in Motion (RIM) likely will strengthen the company’s hand in smartphones and broaden AT&T’s assortment as it appears to near the end of its exclusive deal for Apple’s iPhone, analysts said. While the length of AT&T’s iPhone exclusive among wireless carriers has long been the subject of speculation, reports have emerged that Verizon could start selling the device in early 2011. And while AT&T hasn’t disclosed terms of the agreement it originally signed with Apple in 2007, the carrier is throwing its weight behind Torch.