Movie Downloads to Coincide with DVD release 313
gihan_ripper writes "The movie download firms Movielink and CinemaNow have made a deal with the big five studios to ensure that downloads will coincide with DVD releases at Blockbuster and WalMart. Unlike previous deals, these will be full purchase downloads, and not merely for a rental period. The move is aimed at stemming the rising tide of pirate downloads, and DRM will be in force to prevent copying the movies to DVD. The first batch of downloadable movies will include Brokeback Mountain, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, and King Kong."
Order of the Phoenix? (Score:3, Funny)
Brokeback (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Brokeback (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Brokeback (Score:2)
Re:Brokeback (Score:2)
Re:Brokeback (Score:3, Insightful)
Well, I guess it depends on your viewpoint on being 'gay'...I assume you think it is a natural thing...I tend to lean towards believing it is more a learned behavior and a choice, and I think the choice is a poor one. Most everyone I've ever known that was a gay man, seemed to be a product of some sort of horribly abusive childhood. I don't know that I've ever known or seen a homosexual person that was very well adjusted...and today, especially with young girls,
Eh? (Score:3, Funny)
Amazing! Not only can they transfer movies automagically over copper wires directly into my home, but the cables apparently create an inverse tachyon beam that brings movies in from the future!
Re:Eh? (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Eh? (Score:2)
Actually, I think that was more a reference to the last episode of Star Trek, TNG. When Que starts flipping Picard between the three different time periods, and he..uh..
Sorry, yeah, I'm a geek. Sorry.
It's the Steve Jobs effect. (Score:2, Funny)
I thought the Steve Jobs effect was to make you believe that G5 smokes Intel processors only to a year or two later make you believe the opposite with equal fervor.
__
Elephant Essays [elephantessays.com] - Custom-created essays and research papers.
Flamebait? (Score:2)
Obligatory 1984 comment (Score:4, Funny)
'PPC processors are evil. Good. And Apple always said that PPC processors are evil, has it not?'
Winston drew in his breath. He opened his mouth to speak and then did not speak. He could not take his eyes away from the dial.
'The truth, please, Winston. Your truth. Tell me what you think you remember.'
'I remember that until only a week before I was arrested, Apple used PPC processors. They even proved that they were the better ones. Intel's processors were the evil ones. That had lasted for nine years. Before that '
Jobs stopped him with a movement of the hand.
[..]
'Do you remember,' he went on, ' writing in your diary, "Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two
make four"?'
'Yes,' said Winston.
Jobs held up his left hand, its back towards Winston, with the thumb hidden and the four fingers extended.
'How many fingers am I holding up, Winston?
'Four.'
'And if the party says that it is not four but 4.0000000097768 then how many?'
'Four.'
Re:It's the Steve Jobs effect. (Score:2)
I for one am still satisfied by my 640kb.
Re:It's the Steve Jobs effect. (Score:2)
It's not funny!! (Score:2)
Go ahead and laugh, the Church if Mac types won't get it anyhow.
(this post written on a G4 Powerbook which unbelievably has not changed my life in any signifcant way and which does almost nothing better than my PC!)
Can't Burn? (Score:3, Interesting)
*Note* I only dl movies if I want to watch it first before buying, but I normally do actually buy the DVD (if the movie doesn't suck).
Re:Can't Burn? (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Can't Burn? (Score:3, Insightful)
and, as you were hinting, people who pay for and download a movie should be entitled to burn it to dvd if they choose. I don't see how
They remove rights from us, we take them back. (Score:2)
Bullpuckey. (Score:5, Insightful)
I'm ready to defend myself in court.
Good luck with that...your tail will be handed to you. No matter how you try to portray it, the point will remain that you downloaded and viewed content distributed through (presently) illegal channels.
Look. I agree with you in principle; my family thinks its funny how upset I get over those anti-piracy commercials. My five-year-old can recognize those as "the commercials Daddy don't like". But your "jab" at "The Man" or whatever it is you *think* you are doing to the *AAs out there only fuels their propaganda. Try before you buy does not apply.
You've got plenty of options to exercise your rights that are perfectly legal:
When you circumvent the legal distribution channel (whether you agree with it or not), what you tell the *AA is: "I *really* value your product, enough so that I will do whatever it takes to get it and I'm also willing to contribute to your propaganda regarding piracy and illegal downloads by actually being a participant in your (already) inflated statistics!". What you are not telling them is: "Your product sucks, your business model sucks, your distribution channels suck and your attitude to wards your own customers sucks. Until you change your act, I'm not willing to give you any more of my money."
Which do you think will be more effective:
Here's a hint: This isn't "civil disobedience" - its theft of service (or something of the sort - spare me the "theft only applies to physical property, yadda, yadda, yadda arguments - the point is that you've not paid for something for which you are obligated (presently) to play; there is no one feeling sorry for you who is willing to do anything about it.
You want to be effective: convince your friends and family to stop going to the first-run theaters; convince your friends and family to not download DRM'ed DVD images (should be an easy sell); if you can, convince your friends and family to not purchase DVDs.
If you value the content enough to view it (and you are giving up 120 minutes, on average, of your time to view it) you should pay the $3-4. Its not your content and the owner of that content has a right to earn money from it. Your *only* rights are to choose not to view the content or purchase the product upon which the content is found.
DRM? (Score:3, Interesting)
Cue to DVD-Jon crack in 3.. 2.. 1..
Seriously, does anyone know how much effort it would take to crack these DRM'd formats and export to AVI? What sort of security is in place? And wouldn't anyone be able to make a "bootleg" analog copy anyway?
Re:DRM? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:DRM? (Score:3, Interesting)
Having said that, the encryption can probably be updated each time a movie is released (to play this movie, click [here] to install latest player update"), making things much harder to crack. That said, there is no such thing as an unbreakable DRM system and i'm sure someone'll do it.
There's no way of making an optical (and therefore relatively
Re:DRM? (Score:2)
Re:DRM? (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re:DRM? (Score:2)
Yeah, I mean they're going to lose so much business only supporting 95% of the market...
Thanks... (Score:5, Funny)
Encrypted, cannot play on DVD players (Score:3, Insightful)
I will just buy the DVD thanks.
Re:Encrypted, cannot play on DVD players (Score:5, Insightful)
I dunno, who wants to buy a movie you can't rip to your PC without violating the DMCA?
Oh, that's right, everybody.
Re:Encrypted, cannot play on DVD players (Score:3, Informative)
Oh, that's right, everybody.
Everybody has given up ship, have gone underground, and are now setting sail from the Pirate Bay. [slashdot.org]
Re:Encrypted, cannot play on DVD players (Score:2)
people who live in countries where U.S. law doesn't apply?
Re:Encrypted, cannot play on DVD players (Score:2)
Nice idea, but... (Score:5, Insightful)
Are they trying to deliberately kill the idea of movie downloads? Simultaneous release, same price... why should anyone wait for a few hours for a download when it's just as quick to get the actual DVD? And costs as much? The DVD can be passed on to others and there's no need to install special software on the PC to actually get it running.
Looks very much like an alibi action - "we tried to offer it, but nobody wanted it! So why should we bother?"
It's worse than that (Score:5, Insightful)
Last I checked, paying more for something that I can do strictly less with wasn't the dictionary definition of "flexibility", but hey, I'm not a high-paid exec, what do I know.
"Flexibility" is unter redefinition (Score:2)
Re:It's worse than that (Score:2)
Re:Nice idea, but... (Score:3, Insightful)
Exactly. Even with cable internet on a popular torrent, you're still looking to at least an hour for a 1.4GB compressed copy, even longer if this service uses full 4.6GB uncompressed. I can go outside, wait for and take the bus, buy a hard copy, and get home all before this is done. Or just pick it up on the way home from work.
Re:Nice idea, but... (Score:4, Informative)
FYI, commercial DVDs are definetely not uncompressed, they use MPEG2 compression. Also, full dual layer DVDs are closer to 7-8GB, not 4.6GB (of course, this includes things like extras and special features, which I'm not sure if these downloads will have).
Re:Nice idea, but... (Score:2)
there are advantages (Score:2)
Re:Nice idea, but... (Score:5, Insightful)
DRM galore (Score:4, Interesting)
Of course, it would be too easy if they were let out of the DRM jail...
Customers can hook up their computers to their TV sets using specially equipped video cables
Uh? Specially equipped cables? WTF are they talking about? Something that's got to do with HD and/or closing the analog hole?
Re:DRM galore (Score:2, Interesting)
Let me guess (Score:3, Insightful)
Or I could run over to a torrent site and get BareBack Mountain,
Brokeback.Mountain.DVDR-Replica.torrent
RiPPER......: Replica GENRE......: Drama/Romance
ViDEO TYPE..: NTSC RUNTiME....: 134 min
AUDiO TYPE..: DD5.1 STORE DATE.: 04/04/06
iMDB RATiNG.: 8.0 RLS DATE...: 03/17/06
I wouldn't mind paying for it but make it worth my while.
Hollywood still doesn't get it (Score:4, Insightful)
I'm confused (Score:4, Insightful)
The download should either be
* Full retail DVD price, allowing backups, format shifting etc. Collection format.
or
* Rental DVD price, with DRM restrictions. Throwaway format.
Re:Hollywood still doesn't get it (Score:2)
They have unencumbered DVDs now? When did Macrovision go out of business?
Re:Hollywood still doesn't get it (Score:2)
WIndows only? (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:WIndows only? (Score:3, Informative)
http://news.com.com/Apple+to+ditch+IBM,+switch+to
1.8 percent of the market..
realistically, 1.8% is a fine percentage of folks to skip, when development and support would cost just as much as for the 98%
kinda like movies that no longer get released in vhs...
Re:WIndows only? (Score:2)
Couple that with a cheap system that can eaily be hooked up to a TV and *comes with a remote* and it would seem that the studios are overlooking a serious bit of cash flow.
And your argument ab
it's not dubious (Score:2)
pray good sir, how to they retain their DRM intentions, and support the alternate platform, using quicktime?
The answer is, they can't.. the download companies will only get the green light/licensing if they can secure the media~
they can only secure the media through drm development~
to serve this up on a macintosh, a small portion of the market, will cost as much as the lion's share.
I may not like it, but I acknowledge
Re:it's not dubious (Score:2)
Re:it's not dubious (Score:2)
can you give me a citation that's recent on the subject?
16% small? (Score:3, Informative)
Even if you think that number is too large, the argument they make is compelling for a market share of at least 10%.
The mistake you have made is a common one of confusing market share (percentage of computers sold per year) with the installed base. There are a variety of reasons why that is much higher for Macs, especially among home users as corperate sales mask the percentage of macs in people homes - you know, where they might actually buy and watch movies.
No worry for
Re:WIndows only? (Score:2)
The other 7% surely?
I think the whole idea is stupid, but going for a Windows-only base probably makes their lives easier in various ways, so you can understand it. If it takes off they might find it financially worthwhile to take in the Mac crowd too.
Re:WIndows only? (Score:2)
Re:WIndows only? (Score:2)
Re:WIndows only? (Score:2)
The other 7% surely?
If I were to buy a downloaded movie, I definitely would want it to play on my iPod, so that other market share is more like 70%+. I definitely would not want to be stuck in front of my computer screen to watch a moview.
Funny how Microsoft has been pushing to try and get Apple to support their DRM on iPods, claiming the need for consumer choice, but when Microsoft gives you zero choice on which OS to use their DRM with (you can choose any OS as long as it is Windows). Once a monopo
No burning to DVD? (Score:2)
So they mean unless I have an Xbox, I'll have to watch it
Re:No burning to DVD? (Score:2)
As it stands, who in their right minds is going to pay $20-$30 for a movie that they could buy cheaper and at higher quality on a DVD, with the inconvenience of it being DRMed to the PC to boot?
If they really want to suceed, they need to cut the price to half that of the
So basically... (Score:5, Insightful)
So basically, they aim to compete with piracy by selling me something less convenient at a higher price? Genius!
Seriously, when are they going to get it that the only thing they have going for them is convenience? The black market of free downloads is always going to be cheaper. The only way you can fight it is to offer a better, more convenient product. And tying it up with DRM that prevents what is probably the second most desired feature after watching it is only going to screw that up.
Why would I buy from them when I can get a copy that I can burn to DVD at a cheaper price? It's sad when anonymous pirates can provide better customer service than multinational corporations that created the damn thing in the first place.
Re:So basically... (Score:2)
It's so crazy it just might work!
Oh no, wait, that line only works if you're MacGyver or the A-Team.
-Eric
Re:So basically... (Score:3, Insightful)
What does that matter? It's *ALREADY* there anyway.
-Eric
Re:So basically... (Score:3, Insightful)
I don't know how many of these people there are out there or what exactly they'd be willing to spend, but as far as I know, no one in the movie industry has bothered to look into it.
This is simialr to iTMS where a large portion of the customers are aware tha
No DVD burning (Score:2)
Even with downloaded music, you just gotta allow burning it to a CD so it can be enjoyed on all devices. Hard to imagine how movie downloads are going to sell if they can't be burned onto a DVD.
Not to mention their limited plans for the future (Score:2)
With no way for the customer to burn the movies to disc, how is that a permanent ownership? I imagine they are expecting people to start using this as the way to buy movies, but what happens when somebody buys 10 movies? 20? 50? Are they supposed to just keep buying more HD space to store them indefinitely?
Plenty of people have already mentioned the "but I can't watch it on my TV, what's the point?" reasoning.
I think an ideal system would be a service where you can download a reduced-quality version (like i
I hates me the DRM, but this could be good (Score:3, Interesting)
The stifling effect of widespread DRM is another serious problem, but I would rather for the moment rather see legitimate, mass-consumption downloads, and then we'll see less "troll" legislation.
Re:Problem's not the DRM, it's the restrictions (Score:2)
I believe you are entirely correct. This is indeed designed from the outset to be a tremendous failure in the marketplace.
No one in their right mind is going to purchase these downloads. It makes no sense from any angle except for someone who inexplicably has access to broadband and is also not anywhere close to a store which sells the video (a virtually zero chance of occuring). There is no way that the studios don't know this
Forget the downloads... (Score:2)
Re:Forget the downloads... (Score:2)
What hellishly expensive boutique world do you live in? I haven't paid more than $15 for a newly released DVD in years. Hint: Wal-Mart, Target, and the other big chains compete well on these things. Even if you hate Wal-Mart, you can enjoy the fact that they're paying the *AA bottom dollar.
Prevent copying it to DVD? (Score:5, Insightful)
Not only that, DVDs can regularly be had for reduced prices at high street DVD stores, I'm willing to bet these downloads will not have equally aggressively prices sales periods.
This just lends credibility to people saying they are basically just setting legal downloads up to fail, so they can push for harder legal restrictions afterwards.
A download is a lower quality product than a hard copy DVD, as you don't get the physical copy and packacking. Since there is no physical reproduction, no physical transport and no extra goodies, people have certain expectations to price. Since you don't get physical media, your investment is a lot less secure.
Any download replacement should be:
a) much cheaper
b) convenient
c) easy to backup
This product fails on all of these points.
trying to fail? (Score:2)
Re:Prevent copying it to DVD? (Score:3, Insightful)
Not that I'm defending the idea (I think it's a step in the right direction, but that it doesn't go far enough), but as media PCs become more and more common, more people watching the films "exclusively on their PC" will be watching it on "their living room TV".
Perhaps this sort of thing will be a more attractive proposition as media centre-style PCs become more common, but it's a bit of a chicken an
Not relevant for me (Score:4, Interesting)
Also as WMV and RealVideo, Quicktime supports 5.1 sound for ages, if you pay the same money as Dolby Digital or DTS DVD to a stereo download, you have been err.. what was the term?
If it is kind of hard to understand why a random guy on Slashdot got real mad about the situation
1) Consider you want to watch a Region 2 DVD , you don't care about the region fight.
2) Go to Amazon.co.uk, turn OFF "one click" feature and..
3) Put couple of DVDs in your shopping list
4) Fill in the delivery form as you live in Istanbul,Turkey or some other European country outside UK
5) Look to "shipping and handling" cost and be amazed. If you have only 1 DVD on that list, it will be generally HIGHER than the Movies original cost.
Step 6 is generally launching a pirate client and download the freaking movie. As a guy in industry, I don't. Can't blame others if they would in current amazingly stupid scheme of things.
Good news, everyone! (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Good news, everyone! (Score:2)
And yet again the paying customer gets shafted. (Score:3, Insightful)
Joe six pack will soon discover the evils of DRM when they can't burn the film they legally paid for onto DVD to watch on their new HD TV or their HDD / Computer fails and they have to buy all their movies again. Unlike the pirates who can happily burn / backup their W4r3z.
A lot of people, especially the tech savvy ones will still choose to get the pirate downloads. Remove the DRM and let people burn their own DVD's.
Let me spell it out for the MPAA! Will you pay for a product which is inferior to one you can get for free?
Re:And yet again the paying customer gets shafted. (Score:2, Interesting)
A new, pretty good flic about DRM and Trusted Computing:
http://www.mustseeblog.com/?p=45 [mustseeblog.com]
Downloading (Score:4, Insightful)
Well, I dunno. That's the way it sounds to me.
just face it (Score:2, Funny)
Theatrical release (Score:2, Interesting)
Fogetaboutit (Score:2)
Just why do they think this is going to work? Only in Korporate Amerika do people imagine that you can get something for nothing.
Sell individual scenes (Score:3)
So... maybe they should try offering individual scenes from movies.
This wouldn't work for every movie, but "Basic Instinct" would probably lend well itself to this treatment.
Re:Sell individual scenes (Score:2)
Other than Porn (where there are experimenting with this) when else would this ever work. I think for movies the right analogy is huge selection very cheap. No one wants to stock lots and lots of DVDs. Netflix and Amazon have shown that there is a very long tail. What's missing is a preview site with multiple trailers organized like IMDB and instant downloads.
That's where the money is IMHO.
It's a convenience to you... (Score:2, Insightful)
Movies can't be "burned" or copied onto disks that can be played on other devices, such DVD players. The movies, however, can be copied to play on as many as two other PCs, says Ramo.
Why the hell would anyone want to pay that kind of money for crippleware? These guys just do
Did Sony come up with this idea? (Score:3, Interesting)
Movies would cost $20-$30.
They would be resticted to specific hardware (your Windows equipped computer).
You can't watch them on your HD home theatre system.
Sounds like the PSP UMD format.
Why can't we just buy the DVD from Wal-Mart for $15, and then walk to our PC and put it in, and then watch it? Then when we're done, we take the DVD, walk to the home theatre DVD player and drop it in and watch it again. Boy, all that walking has got me tired.
Re:Did Sony come up with this idea? (Score:2)
You just shot yourself in the foot. Proportionate sales notwithstanding, the PSP UMD format has been an outlandish success, sales-wise. People are buying them and studios are releasing more movies to the format than I'd ever imagined considering the constraints it offers.
Re:Did Sony come up with this idea? (Score:2)
I think this was a great example of the "early adopter" market making a great showing, but the product didn't have what it took to cross the chasm.
I can't find the original news article, but Engadget [engadget.com] is usually a pretty trustworthy source.
Writable to DVD (Score:2)
Filenames to look for:
Broken/Cracked Mountain
Harry Potter and the Pwners of the Phoenix
King Kpng
Bullshit (Score:2)
You won't even let me see your page with Firefox?
What the fuck. I hope they are a massive fucking failure of a company.
Obviously, you didn't read the small print. (Score:2)
We do not sell to potty-mouths.
Sorry, buddy!
DVD prices (Score:2, Insightful)
It seems to me the whole movie downloading thing started because DVDs were over priced. Now it seems that they aren't.
Score one for the good guys.
How about a peace offer? (Score:2)
DoubleSpeak yet again (Score:4, Insightful)
Which is DoubleSpeak, because it's untrue. If you can't transcode it to run on other devices, extract clips for purposes allowed under Fair Use, and the DRM prevents you from playing a restored backup on an upgraded or reinstalled purchase, it's not a full purchase now, is it. . .
value (Score:2)
Rent a movie for 24 hours viewing,
Buy a movie for unlimited viewing on your PC
Maybe I'm just a cheap bastard... but there is no way in hell I'm going to pay what is basically full price for an elec
Can I play it on my iPod? (Score:2)
Vivid is releasing porn that can be burned to DVD (Score:3, Interesting)
I think they're shooting themselves in the foot by not allowing you to burn a DVD of major Hollywood titles, personally, but maybe they'll fix that after they see how Vivid's experiment goes.
Burning to DVD is overrated... (Score:2)
I found this to be tedious and unreliable.
First, burning takes forever. On my AMD 64 3200+ Athalon it takes hours to burn, say, an episode of Battlestar Galactica.
Secondly, the DVDs don't play very well. In my older RCA DVD player the DVD plays for about 2 minutes, then the picture pixelates and freezes, and the sound continues to play for a while longer before it dies completely. On my el-cheapo $48 Walmart DVD