Microsoft Invents A 'Play-Once Only' DVD 740
auckland map writes "Microsoft has developed a cheap, disposable pre-recorded DVD disc that consumers can play only once." From the article: " Buying an ordinary DVD of a new film costs between £15 (E22, $26.40) and £20. Microsoft's new disc will enable the studios to release a "play-once, then throw away" copy for as little as £3, much the same as renting a video or DVD. But unlike a rented DVD, the new disc allows consumers to decide when they watch films and there is no need to return it. The new generation of DVD disc will spearhead a fresh assault by Microsoft on the home-entertainment market." Update: 10/06 03:38 GMT by J : Kinda important to read the followup story.
Dealing with waste? (Score:5, Interesting)
So how environmentally friendly are these? If MS is going to be trying to put rental places out of business, do they have a plan for millions of now-useless single-play-DVDs and the associated packaging?
What happens if one pauses/stops early? (Score:5, Interesting)
Power Outage, etc... (Score:5, Interesting)
Or I'm part way through the movie that I just rented, and I have to leave the house for whatever reason, come back later to find out someone took the dvd I was watching out of the player because they wanted to watch something else. Now it won't play again.
I just see this being another headache for customers and customer support.
Call up the tree huggers (Score:3, Interesting)
Because coming from the previous article on Sony, we all known consumers will lap up new DRM.
if it has new DRM and new requirements (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:We buy disposable cars, why not DVDs? (Score:3, Interesting)
Correction, twice a day: once to get to work and once to get home.
At that point you're better off sticking with the bus -- i.e. watching broadcast/cable/satellite TV.
Re:We buy disposable cars, why not DVDs? (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Here we go again... (Score:5, Interesting)
It failed miserably for a variety of reasons. First and foremost it was more expensive than consumers were willing to pay for something they got to 'keep'. It's a mindset problem - if you rent it, it must be returned, and is probably rentable because it's too expensive to purchase. If you buy it, regardless of the cost, then it's "property". They didn't want to market it as "disposable" or "consumable" which customers understand instantly, and it wasn't a rental. So it failed.
Microsoft is trying to give the mdeia companies something they used to have, and have wanted for years: a bigger slice of the rental market. I don't think it's really going to work out, though, unless they also raise the cost of the DVDs.
But what if they stopped making DVDs for sale. Waht if they went whole-sale to HD-DVD, charged $30 per disc, and also produced a "throw away" DVD that worked in any 'old' DVD player for $3-5. Of course, the rental companies will simply offer the HD-DVDs for $3-5 rental, but those customers who want to view the DVD version will be forced to "rent" it multiple times, or upgrade their equipment and either purchase expensive movies or rent them.
It's temporary. In no case can this type of disc ever really be marketable long term, and it can only work short term under special circumstances.
Of course, if it depends on a windows OS or codec with web access (which would allow multiple plays with purchase of additional keys) then it's going to fail out the door - there's no hardware for the average consumer, and no boxed disc is going to make it in the market unless the average consumer is going to buy into it.
Lastly, it would be a boon for pirates. If it plays once in a regular DVD player, then it can be ripped once.
-Adam
Re:We buy disposable cars, why not DVDs? (Score:3, Interesting)
Why would video stores want this? (Score:5, Interesting)
If video stores started sending home these self-destructing discs, they could only rent them once. Then they'd have to buy new copies from the manufacturer. Why would they choose to do this? The answer is, simply, they wouldn't.
What a thoroughly crap idea. (Score:4, Interesting)
If these awful things don't evaporate in a flash of smoke the minute they've been used then people should get together and mount a campaign to send every single used DVD back to Microsofts headquarters. And then their local waste collection people should make sure they charge them top dollar to dispose of them.
How to stop irresponsible "environmentally unfriendly" crap like this: Make the polluter pay the full costs of disposal/cleanup.
Re:We buy disposable cars, why not DVDs? (Score:1, Interesting)
Well, imported cars do. The domestics are still pretty much used up by 50,000 miles, at least in terms of powertrain (I worked in an autoparts shop for the last two summers, so this isn't just ass-talkin). Good thing they've been pumping countless millions into all that marketing. Sigh. Back to the topic...
Re:Here we go again... (Score:5, Interesting)
And I'll go ahead and be redundant here too. This is just ANOTHER case of MS taking someone else's idea, slapping the word "innovation" on it, and thrusting it out the door, and a few people think it'll fly THIS time because MS is behind it.
Re:Here we go again... (Score:3, Interesting)
If it can be seen once, it can be copied...
When I get movies from the rental shop, it is half of the price if you bring it back the same day.
So what do I do? I rip the nice DVD to my hard drive (thanks vobcopy) in mirror mode, bring the nice DVD back and come home, to enjoy the movie.
Never mind copying it to another DVD. I just wanted to watch it as the original DVD was.
Can I just put this freak creation on the reader and start my ripping program? Of course I can. Where is the protection?
They will NEVER learn. Play nice to people, people will play nice to you.
won't play in my DVD player? It's no good... (Score:3, Interesting)
Dang, you missed *the* main reason why Divx didn't succeed. It *didn't* play on "any 'old' DVD player"... and neither would these ( if they were really going to be made, which apparently they aren't ).
It's too late for something like this, and it might have never worked, since we don't really want it. Way too late now anyway- DVD penetration is already too great, and guess what? DVD players don't go belly up often enough for replacements to get a lot of these out there quickly. I'm certainly not about to run out and buy a more-expensive-than-average DVD player just to 'buy rentals'... they'll have to figure out a way to make NetFlix go away first.
Re:Here we go again... (Score:3, Interesting)
They won't work with current readers. You will need a new, compatible reader.
And, chances are that reader will only work on Windows (if on any computer at all)... and be heavily DRM'd.
Re:Here we go again... (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Here we go again... (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Here we go again... (Score:1, Interesting)
Re:Here we go again... (Score:2, Interesting)
And with this system, they can sell DVD's in vending machines. I will definately pick up a few DVD's while waiting to catch the train home if this is widely available. The only mistake they could really make is charging too much for it.
Re:They did die well, though. (Score:2, Interesting)
Even with the limited audience that DivX got, enough counsumers would have attacked Circuit City in court and otherwise (as well as the shysters that they partnered with) to ground the company into paste, if they had not taken the "unlock all" step.
To this day I will not set foot inside a Circuit City purely on principle. If they could have gotten away with orpaning all those players, they damned sure would have.
I wouldn't have given you $10 for the average life expectancy of a Circuit City store manager in that scenario, but I'll betcha the VPs and up would have all kinds of bodyguards...
Re:Here we go again... (Score:3, Interesting)
This will flop. badly.
really, really wasteful. (Score:2, Interesting)
More technologies like this which by their very design add:
A.) to quickening consumption of fossil fuels (to make more and more just to throw away) and
B.) to the landfills (when you're done with 'em)
DO NOT MAKE SENSE. Period. Paragraph. Final. End of story.