blinkBox, a London-based startup, has just opened up the public beta of a video greeting card service that helps users send their friends short clips from movies and TV shows.

The company’s line-up is not the newest of the new, but it’s not no-name content either, with the likes of Universal (GE) and Warner Bros. (TWX) signed on to provide movies like The Big Lebowski and Superman Returns. blinkBox has done the hard work of getting big media companies to sign up for a new way of distributing their content with a little startup, so as you can imagine, the options and functionality are somewhat limited.

For instance, I chose to make a “Blink” out of The Matrix. I had my choice of eight different short clips from the movie, and was able to edit the clip to anything under a minute long and add my own title message. Then I could elect to get embed code and/or send out a link to my creation via email or SMS. I tried to embed the Blink I created in this post but was experiencing some hiccups, which I’ll attribute to me popping in mid rollout. So above is a screenshot instead.

blinkBox, having gone out and scored these big media deals, already has a business model in place. The site features prominent links to rent or download a movie or TV show, but I wasn’t able to fully test these options as they’re for Windows only.

blinkBox is a year-and-a-half old and has had two rounds of investment, originally from Arts Alliance and Eden Ventures and more this June from Nordic Venture Partners. We don’t know the amount. Mika Salmi, president of global digital media at MTV Networks (VIA.B), sits on the company’s board.