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In Stores Soon: Perishable DVDs
Makarand writes "Technology that renders optical media useless after a short lifespan will soon find its way into stores
in the form of perishable DVDs. Retailers in the Southern United States will soon start giving a sample DVD to buyers of a CD (by Nappy Roots, a hip-hop group). This promotional DVD from Atlantic Records will work for only 8 hours. This promotion is aimed at finding if music fans would be interested in buying a package with both audio and video instead of just plain audio. A special dye sandwiched between the layers of the DVD will interact with air making it opaque and unreadable later. If this media catches on you may not have to return your DVD rentals in the future." We noted this 2.5 years ago.
Pathetic attempt at locking out consumers once again.
If this media catches on you may not have to return your DVD rentals in the future.
Yet another way to contribute to the environment. Let's just dump more trash rather than get off our lazy asses to take the DVD back to the shop... Jesus...
Code, Hardware, stuff like that.
Oh great! More junk to fill up our already overflowing landfills. This is just yet another example of what is wrong with this country.
Just seal it with some translucent airtight coating, and you can use it forevert.
Low tech solution to a high tech problem.
we will buy expensive hard drives that are designed to fail after a short time...
Oh wait... we already do.
I wonder how easy (or hard) will it be to recycle these discs. Otherwise I'll have a lot more coasters to use around the house other than the AOL cd's.
This promotional DVD from Atlantic Records will work for only 8 hours.
...
seems like plenty of time to rip the content
Notice on the disk will read "You have 8 hours to listen to this music"
Geek reads "You have 8 hours to rip this data to your RAID 5 dedicated music storage facility".
hehe.
Can plastic discs like these be recycled? It seems wasteful to line landfills with these things.
Where does the school board find them and why do they keep sending them to ME?
8 hours is plenty of time to rip and make an MP3 out of it.
Concerning using this technique for DVD rentals: Did anyone ever think about the consequences for the environment? CD-Rs and DVD-Rs are already a big problem, since they cannot be recycled, and generate a HUGE amount of rather poisonous waste. When "disposable" DVDs really catch on for rentals, this will make the pile of AOL CDs that end up at the waste deposit every year like a joke.
At least, 8 hours is plenty of time for ripping the contents and storing it onto some more permanent media
yours,
Cheetah
Seriously. The first thing I'd do with any DVD that is going to self-destruct is make a copy of it. This is just a dumb idea all around.
-- Give me ambiguity or give me something else!
folks that you make a backup copy as soon as you buy it.
Hmpth. Don't they know ripping DVDs to hard-drive doesn't take that long ;-)
You buy something that breaks after a few hours, its then just plain trash.
So apart from being bad from an environmental, consumer and most other perspectives this is a good thing because it helps push up the pollution rates even further.
An Eye for an Eye will make the whole world blind - Gandhi
Why is the entertainment industry so hell-bent on NOT giving us entertainment?
You'd think that will the failure of DivX (the Circuit City one), they they would realize that when someone buys something, they expect to keep it...
Even for Video rentals, I wonder if we're SUCH a disposable society that creating this much waste is worth it.
-- You can't idiot-proof anything, because they're always coming out with better idiots.
DIVX! Think about the waste. "If this media catches on you may not have to return your DVD rentals in the future." The rental chains business model is based upon you not returning them on time. So why would they go for this idea? and Where do you think that get there money from?
The whole disposable philosophy that consumers embrace shows how short-sighted and self-centered most people are.
I for one am concerned about my children and their children and will never use one of these if at all possible. Then again I don't own a car (I jog or bike ot take the bus when I have to) and use recycled materials whenever possible.
--Rosie
Stick the DVD in your computer, and you have a few hours to make yourself a good copy (either to your hard disk or to recordable DVD) and you're good to go.
Am I missing something? If I know that a disc will go blank, I'm going to just copy it to something that won't destroy itself (at least in the next few years).
You can accomplish anything you set your mind to. The impossible just takes a little longer.
How many ways can one say 'NO!!!'
When I buy something like music or a DVD, I expect it to last longer than my already too short memory.
I dti'r na ndall is ri' fear na leathshu'ile.
Most new music already degrades after a few plays.
They definitely won't have thought of that. What an ingenious idea.
- Chris
Are these things recyclable? If so, toss them in the bin.
"We're sorry, but the website you're trying to reach has been disconnected."
I'd be somewhat suprised if such a layer didn't affect the read process (by changing the distance between the external surface of the CD and the actual data, or by doing some reflection/refraction on the beam, or whatnot).
like divx did! Actually I think the "disposable" tag has lost its marketability, since more and more people are wondering actually how much landfill space is left.
They`re bastards aren't they! Providing a newspaper for free, online, and having the gall to ask you to register, just once, to read it!
It's like living in Nazi Germany!
lead to a lot of people who only watch movies in the dark!
I'm not an "environmentalist", but this is just plain ridiculous. Sheesh, it's bad enough that AOL sends out gazillions of CD coasters every year.
The ironic thing is that a lot of the people who are producing these are in Hollywoold.
Great now even more crap we get to throw into a landfill.
Too bad I couldn't put the same coating on my dollar bills that would cause them to decompose as soon as the MPAA or RIAA touches them.
Chicago2600.net more than a lifestyle, its a survival trait.
Good. More useless discs. I will be able to build a fortress out of expired DVDs, AOL and MSN discs...
Technology that renders optical media useless... [snip]
This was already tried with DiVX, as introduced by Circuit City. You'd buy a DVD and it would only be good for a few viewings. It failed miserably, just as this will fail miserably - not to mention the ridiculous waste of material.
"If at first you don't succeed, lower your standards."
if the air can't reach the dye in between, I guess the cd stays readable, no ?
a just a thought.
rkoot
I'm not as think as you drunk I am
that should be enough time to make a backup right?
I hope they lose so much money like "New Economy" dotcoms.
Is it hermetically sealed? What is its shelf life if it isnt't opened? I recycle my AOL CDs as Christmas tree ornaments. Tis the season!
In Australia they have been selling perishable products for years. Bread, milk, fish etc, all degrading after a varying amount of time (1-7 days).
The government legislated "fair use" and now they have to warn you. "Best if used within 7 days after opening". "Best before 11/03/03".
You perish after watching US DVD.
While I think the idea of doing this for DVD music/movies is a bit foolish, this might be a great idea for simple audio CD's. When I look through my history of music pirating, my changes in tastes are apparent. Back in the days of yore, I just downloaded the lastest pop songs. Then I started dl'ing rock. Then classic rock. Then IDM/abstract electronica. Then hard house. Then trance. Then house. Now jazz. It is a clear timeline of how the internet has helped to expand my tastes.
These self deficating discs may be a great solution to expose people to music they otherwise would spend $16 on. If they can manage to release these for less than $3, I can see them becoming fairly popular. Not neccessarily the saving grace of the music industry, but you get the idea.
/There are 10 types of people in this world; those who steal sigs and those don't
Why not just put AOL on the front. People wont hold on to them for long then :D
You can possibly keep it in oxygen-less reducing atmosphere (For instance, propane-butane mix from the gas cooker) while you download the CD ripping software.
Ummm, gee, didn't you register to SlashDot?
:-D
What is so darn evil about having to register to read an article at the NY Times? It's not like you can't just register as Bill Gates or something there.
Better yet, register as that Spam Queen from the other article.
--- I wish I could hear the soundtrack to my life. That way I'd know when to duck.
This patent # :)))
6,161,106, was granted to Motorola, in 2000. While this depends on a magnetic method, it is interesting to know that the current referred method depends on interaction with air. How long before "mods" are made to have a drive enclosed in vacuum???
"Do something man. Right now."
...then there goes the sales of used DVDs by the rental stores. I'll bet everyone (stores and customers alike) will be missing that.
All I want is a kind word, a warm bed and unlimited power.
What do you want to bet that giving it a quick spray of clearcoat will render the disk substrate isolated from oxygen yet still useable?
What is to stop me from making a copy that is less unstable, for that matter (the article actual touches upon this at the end) once the price of blanks come down? A right, I might add (and we all know) that is codified in the Fair Use clause of Copyright law.
I'm gonna go out on a limb and say this isn't happening anytime soon.
My
Limekiller
The big problem with Divx was that you needed a proprietary (and more expensive) player, along with privacy-invading dial-in features, in order to use it. The public said "nah-uh", and the format died deservedly.
This sounds like it should work in standard DVD players, and require no phone-home function. The "disposable rental" could work here.
The issue for the video rental business is that it needs to be priced *lower* than a standard DVD rental. Since most people would view the inconvenience of a time-restricted view as greater than the benefit of saving themselves the return trip to the rental store, there must be a cost-saving component for the consumer to accept this. This means that the cost of production and stocking of these one-time useage disks must be substantially less than the cost of re-stocking of returned rental DVDs.
Now that I think about it, maybe the perfect application of this would be the rental-by-mail business: only one-way shipping charges! This doesn't seem to be a market with very large room for growth, however.
Look at the tomato! Isn't it sad? He can't dance! Poor tomato!
Fortunately I live in a Neon/Argon atmosphere, so this shouldn't be much of a problem for me.
[PowerPoint] is a tool for capitalist presentation
The old test of how much you liked a movie was how many times you saw it at the cinema.
Now it is going to be how many useless copies of the DVD you have lying around the house.
Basically they just get too greedy, price it too high, and it never takes off. We see this time and time again. Somebody developes some some really cool new technology but it's propietary and they price it too high so it never hits its sweet spot and never takes off. This business is littered with the corps of such attempts.
Of course the movie was only 2 hours long so I guess we'll just have to take their word for it. :-D
--- I wish I could hear the soundtrack to my life. That way I'd know when to duck.
In that case, I will pay them with a twenty dollar bill that turns black after ten minutes when exposed to oxygen.
This just provides all the more justification for making a permanent backup of the data. Thanks, movie industry morons!
You see? You see? Your stupid minds! Stupid! Stupid!
This DVD will self destruct in 10 seconds
Your mission, should you choose to accept it is to assasinate general kERROR READING DRIVE E. (A)bort (R)etry (I)gnore
Stand back for a minute and look at the big picture. Take a breath, take a minute, and think about it. They encrypt their content and then store it on self destructing disks. HA! It's so pathetic it's funny. If there was ever an example of the dead horse (Rosen?) getting another whack (DMCA?) this is IT. They lost.
Imagine the munks, years ago, using disapearing ink in their scrolls so you didn't have time to read it long enough to place letters on a plate at a printing press! Same shit. Different day. "DISTRIBUTION" is dead. If any 5 year old can publish themselves WORLD WIDE 24/7, then the business of distrobution (of "information") is dead. Ever see a little kid make a homepage on AOL? They do... it ain't XHTML but it's there for the world to see 24/7. Tell me again why I need YOU to publish my info for ungodly sums of money? Tell me again why I should listen to one artist for one hour at a time on obsolete media?
However, since it obviously upsets you just skip my message.
The point I was trying to make is that it is no more difficult to copy it the first time you open it than it would be the 300th time when it is a "non-expiring" dvd. If you have children you know to only let the kids have the copy of snow white or whatever b/c you don't want to pay Disney another 24.95 instead of 1.50 for a dvdr.
Sorry I wasn't clear but I thought it would be clear based on previous discussions. And I don't give a fuck about my karma. Only a pathetic insecure fool would think something as insignificant as being the first to post was important (as you obviously do).
More "disposable" technology to fill our landfills with...
+1 Insightful, -1 Troll. What can I say, I'm an Insightful Troll.
OK, this is great news for those who favor environmental pollution through waste of resources! Now we no longer have to depend on AOL for sending us all those free CDs to fill our thrash cans, but we can also pay for media that we can throw away because they're useless shortly after!
Please correct me if I got my facts wrong.
While I think its cool not to have to return DVDs to rental outlets(I have had some really bad fines before) it just seems like such a waste of materials. Maybe we could use them as frizbees or coasters. But then what do we do with AOL discs?
I guess things are coming full-circle when Slashdot editors are pointing out the retread stories for us !
Lol, I don't buy CD's either but it's because I'm happy with my collection from college. Now my wife buys a ton and I get to choose between what she's bought and my old ones.
I've told her of the evils of the RIAA and she doesn't care. However, she does try to purchase them used first (thrifty and hot!).
Chicken .. .mmmmmmmm
Will these be in freezers next to cartons of milk and we have to check a sell by date?
The mechanism works by letting air in to react with a layer of dye. How does the air get in? I would imagine only the outer edge (maybe the inner edge too). So what happens if you seal the outer edge? No air gets in, and the dye doesn't go opaque. I'm sure there is some form of glue or other sealant widely available that can handle this task.
Yet more waste of resources for very little reason.
If this catches on, someone needs to figure out a use for these useless chunks of plastic. It's the road to riches. Include the junk sent by AOL and Earthlink and now you're really talking money.
If it's not been said already... =P Simply enjoy content on perisible DVD, then return to sender en masse...
Julie Moult is an idiot.
What about if someone rents a 5-day rental from Blockbuster / MyMovieStore and wants to watch it ten times in those five days?
In Mission Impossible voice: "This recording will self destruct in 8 hours"
Hmm, two years ago it was a light-sensitive coating that opacified after multiple playbacks.
Unless there's stunningly tremendous additional content," Mr. McNealy said, "consumers may not warm to it."
Customers will not even like it, let alone "warm" to it. McNealy is obviously an idiot that needs stood up before a wall and shot.Grishley bastard!
Someone should bury the executives and "marketing masterminds" who come up with this drivel under a multi-ton pile of their "perished" DVD's...
Let's add AOL to that pile...
DivX should have been the end of this short-sightedness. Remember that one? Same concept, even worse implementation.
This is actually a trend I've been seeing in large, bloated, over-valued, scared companies. Make the same mistakes and bad business/product decisions over and over and over. Ultimately, make the consumer pay for all your dumb mistakes. Then hunt the consumer down for not playing by your rules.
So how's this for a Fight Club-esque social-hack: find a means of cracking the airtight seal on in-store copies undetected. Of course, then boxcutters and knives will be outlawed in public places... oh wait... already are...
viva le revolucion!,
or something,
Levendis47
--==[ AOL YIM ICQ : Levendis47 : levendis47@yahoo.com ]==--
This technology will never catch on for DVD rental companies. They make WAY too much money off of late fees!
Copy the contents to your HDD. Mind you, they'll probably buy a law that says the contents of HDDs can only last so long...
Can you imagine the number of discs this would create? I mean, I've made a lot of coasters in my time -- nothing I'm too proud of, mind you, but this would great a HUGE glut of coasters that will end up in the land-fill!
:)
The ecological matters are huge, not to mention the implementation here. What if I only handle it in the dark, like one of those "darkboxes" they have at the camera store?
Anyway, I may just have to get one of the Nappy Roots DVD's -- gotta support the home teams
thelocust[dot]org
Michael wrote: "We noted this 2.5 years ago."
It was actually less than a year ago (Feb 8th 2002)...
Trolling using another account since 2005.
Or, your 1st action is to insert the data into a drive and copy it.
Some company comes up with a way to distribute content in such a way that users can actually listen/view/try it in their home BEFORE buying, and /. readers are busy rubbing their hands in glee at the likely truth that will still be able to rip it off.
Where are the kudos for addressing a supposed itch that so many of the P2Pers out there use to justify the existence of unfettered file "sharing" ?
Seems like a disaster waiting to happen. No to mention that it will drive MORE people to rip this video in order to be able to rewatch it - exactly what the RIAA and MPAA do NOT want.
I guess DVD rental prices will however increase...
I'd however appreciate to have such a burner at home, in case I want to send music to some recording label...
Trolling using another account since 2005.
I can't see the point of this. Unless they're sold for 4 dollars maximum per DVD I don't see anyone buying and I'm sure that price will cut heavily into profits. I'm sure environmentalists will complain about the waste they create when everyone throws them away. What if you're watching a movie and have to stop to do something, then whe free time becomes available the disc is useless? Trash, you can't even dialup and purchase more time like on the DIVX discs.
Al Gore invented this technology.
He is both proud and appalled.
Wonderful technology to protect his friends in Hollywood and more pollution.
Okay, let me get this straight. After you break the seal (probably) the DVD wil work for about 8 hours and then it is rendered useless. So, I prepare myself for a quiet evening of watching the DVD, install myself on the couch, rip open the seal and...*RING* hold on, there's someone at the door..
then what?
People talk about impact on environment, but what if technology advancement accomplished the same effect by breaking an amorphous phase of (CD|DVD)-RW instead of a dye? Wouldn't it make perfect "perishable" media for digital content distribution?
Once the original content "perishes", you just go back to the store and ask for re-programming. With on-demand content distribution to the store, this would make a perfect couple. Also, this same approach can be applied to digital publishing and "digital paper" technology.
Hey its thier entertainment, not ours...
[A shady scene in a seedy downtown bar]
Rosen : "And last week we introduced CD's that will hardly play in anything and yet still the sheep buy them"
Valenti : "Heck we released DVD's that self destruct in 8 hours, and they're 'renting' those"
All : guffaw, guffaw
[exunt omnes]
> We noted this 2.5 years ago.
The old article uses the term "degrading". I noticed that not only the DVD-s are becoming degradable, the Slashdot comments are also degrading. The average length of the artikels posted 2.5 years ago is about 10 lines and most of them are quite interesting. When I compare it to the current posts, I see the term "degrading" in action.
This DVD will self destruct in 8 hours...
It's really sad to see this kind of perishable DVD or anything being put out. It amazes me that an industry who's artists are so pro-environment will allow something so trashy to get out.
Some real uses for perishable DVD's:
1> Replace that aging AOL drink coaster.
2> Great for inner office CD fights. Become a disc ninja to your favorit artists and movie themes!
3> Wow your friends with a new and delghtful style of wall paper. Hopefully the change in the CD will keep it at a pleasing color for wallpaper.
4> Stair case banister decorations!
5> Please the wife by decking out the kitchen with a fancy new tile. Renovating has never been easier and cheaper!
6> Been looking for a neat crash guard for the garage? Look no further! Stack a bunch of these babies sideways in the back and next time your teenager pulls the dodge in you'll have a neat show and the kid can clean up afterwards.
7> And finally.. snow shoes getting worn? A little rubber cement and some handy dandy disposable DVD's and your slip-sliding your way in to fame and fortune.
~~ Behold the flying cow with a rail gun! ~~
This promotion is aimed at finding if music fans would be interested in buying a package with both audio and video instead of just plain audio.
Sure we are... why just the other day I bought the new Jurassic 5, Foo Fighters, and Queens of the Stone Age CDs. All came with a bonus DVD, and the album didn't cost any extra... even with the extra disc. In fact, the QotSA album was only $8 the first week it was on sale.
Funny thing is, none of these DVDs will deteriorate. So why would I want this again, oh beloved Record Industry?
I don't? Oh, ok. That's what I thought.
So, will these perishable DVD's start to smell the older they get? Like the old orange juice in my fridge?
Trying is the first step towards failure.
How long does it take a program like SmartRipper to decode and extract the vobs from a disk? Definity less than 8 hours!
Yes Francis, the world has gone crazy.
On your last point -- there's already a product in the market that would do this. I don't remember the name of them, but they're basically a thin layer of plastic that you put on CDs to keep them from being scratched. I saw them at a Blockbuster Music.
Cruising the internet on my TI-99/4A @ a whopping 300 baud!
The problem from the record companies' point of view is already the irrelevance of physical media. This makes the media even more irrelevant, at an accelerated pace. Not one of their best ideas.
Although any technology which renders N*Sync unplayable can't be ALL bad.
Wouldn't Pay-per-view cable or through Internet make this whole idea redundant?
I have a digital cable decoder at home and by using the remote control i can order a movie or music (almost there) and WITHOUT leaving the house. No way I am going to the rental shop and get myself a disposable DVD or CD, i have to dispose it in a special bin somewhere??
And how long before someone finds a way to read the 'opaqued' surface?
I say that this technology is as dead as the old Divx format. Blockbuster is counting on two things for increased revenue: 1) the many late fees that they collect, and 2) your coming back to their store and picking up a new movie when you return the old one.
I don't know what the numbers are, but I know that those two points were significant enough financially for Blockbuster to move against Divx. So, what does this format offer that Divx does not?
If the MPAA is insistent on video stores using this technology, I forsee a lot of video stores closing down.
When I first saw the picture of the DVD cover, I thought the actual length of the DVD content was 8 hours. It says "8 hour DVD" and nothing about expiring. The actual length of the content is 10 minutes.
They had better find a better way to advertise these things to avoid confusion.
I control the time!
I for one would be happy if their CD's stop working.
So get a big tank of nitrogen and play your DVDs in a nitrogen filled player. The trick will be to open the package and get it in the nitrogen filled enviornment with the least air contamination, then refill the player or storage area with nitrogen.
This does wonders for wine storage too!
Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.
So what? I'll just copy it anyway!
I have two comments to make on this. First, what do people do if they do not have the technical experience, equipment, knowledge that such an option exists, etc., etc.? Everyone reading this is an ultra-geek slashdotter who wrote their own more efficient copy of the DivX codec for fun and profit, I know, so you don't have to worry...but what about average joe on the street whohas never heard of DivX? What are they going to do when their paid-for merchandise stops working? Nothing, probably...so nothing will get changed, because everyone who usually worries about this stuff will be copying the discs. Second, why is making a copy in DivX even considered to be an option? I love DivX as much as everyone else, and I use it to make copies of movies (but of course not illegal copies... ^^;;), but for movies that I own the DVDs of, I would never dream of making a DivX copy. DivX is good, but not good enough. This is the reason I still buy DVDs...who wants their only copy of LoTR:FoTR to be an almost-good-but-not-quite-perfect DivX copy? I'm willing to shell out that $20 or so to have a nice pristine clean DVD copy that I can count on to not have artifacts, sound lag, etc. DivX is simply not, nor will likely ever be, an acceptable replacement for DVD.
to dump in the landfills.
So the disk reacts to air and turns opaque, eh? Well not when I load it into my CO2 filled, sealed box DVD player. Load the DVD into the player inside the shrink-wrap, replace the air with CO2 or helium or something that won't react, use the built-in manipluator arm to open the DVD then that baby 'll last forever!
I haven't posted in so long, my sig is out of date.
3.5 minutes for this to be defeated easily with a pimple faced 16 year old sales clerk taking a disc and right after opening it, shrink wrapping it or coating it in a clear shellac sealing the air out. yet allowing it to be played.
it will be defeated easily and without much effort minutes after the first discs reach the public.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
No rental chain will ever use this. They'd have to either a) store hundreds eachs video of these in thier store to rent out. Think how many differnt videos they have. Now, multiply that by every customer they have. Now, I know they could get away with less, but just think how many copies of lotr or Harry Pottery alone they'd need? Their other option would be b) let the clerks in the store burn them them each time for each customer. This means they're still going to need thousands of these blanks sitting around, and they've jsut giving thier $5.65/h employees the ability to make DVDs. There's no way these wouldn't be hacked to make real dvds.
Mod point free since 2001
This DVD rent-by-mail company and pop-up ad regular will end up saving a lot of money on their return mail envelopes. The mail format even negates the burn time. I don't see how they could pass it up. Maybe they could make the media out of a decomposable starch-based fiber - like those flushable packing peanuts ;)
Paranoia means having all the facts. ~William S. Burroughs
All your whine in a single whineskin:
...
1.) These thingies will cause unnecessary extra bulk in our landfills and are therefore evil.
2.) These thingies will never fly because the business model of video stores depends on the repeat visit of the customer, returning non-perishable DVDs.
3.) You should walk to the video store, you American SUV-driving prick!
4.) What do you think we Americans have cars for, if not to drive them when we damned well please?
Let this be a reference point for all you original posters out there. Trust me, these things have been said over and over in the above comments. *rolls the eyes* Kids these days, I swear, don't read a damned thing
More coasters, heat reflectors (for your home), or skeet shooting targets.
Ripping only takes about 15 minutes per disc. 8 hours is plenty of time to make a backup before the disc goes bad.
Is it just me, or do these kooks do everything they can to encourage movie piracy?
Why bother.
this for video rental places if it can be done in an non-environmentally harmful way
right now my g/f has a $300 fine for having 2 videos that are like 6 mos overdue which is completely insane..
if the tapes had just melted after 3 days or wahtever no one would have any problems
(of course here you see the catch 22, because why would Blockbuster pay extra to NOT get their late fee money which I'm sure is a substantial portion of their income)
big sign on cd that says: BURN WITHIN 8 HOURS.
8 hours should be long enough for us to rip the dvd onto some other persistant media :)
On mine, DVDs contain MPEG-2 data. My official cost-too-much-money copy of LoTR definitely has its share of artifacts. DivX ;-)-encoded MPEG-4 might have more, but DVDs are far from pristine. If disposable disks become common, expect to see luser-friendly DivX rippers with much nicer codecs than the current generation plenty quick.
"We noted this 2.5 years ago."
No you "we" didn't, Mike. I've been keeping an eye on you since the guy against whom you have a vendetta stated such in his signature. He's right. You make statements that aren't neccesary, and in fact you often insult submitters, such as now when you imply that this submitter needs to "get with the times," or whatever.
For your information, and to prove that the average joe (me) is a better ed than you, the technology SlashDot noted before was "... a special coating that is activated when hit by the DVD laser."
The new technology is "[a] special dye sandwiched between the layers of the DVD [that] will interact with air making it opaque and unreadable later."
Please Mike, just post the stories and save your comments for a post, so you can be moderated like everybody else. Or are you afraid of what would happen?
I wonder if shellacking would work? Or some kind of Rustoleum all-weather coat? Maybe someone will invent an oil-bath immersible DVD drive.
Those seem like the most obvious solutions to me. Perhaps someone else can come up with something better. Hmm... maybe you could just copy it. No, that encryption system, what's it called, CSS? No, that would prevent copying. Well, vacuum chamber it is, then.
Now I'm imagining black helicopters scanning roofs for DVDs.
'SBEMAIL!' is better than a goat!!
This (and many others) happen when laywers and marketers get their mutts in business they don't understand. I don't see engineers looking over the shoulders of the company laywers telling them what to do!
The whole concept of business is more and more ass-backwards, instead of making a product and service at a price that people want, well... I don't really know what to call stunts like this. Stupidity is not the correct word. Maybe we need a noun/verb for "people who have no touch with REALITY, and are living in their own little fantasy world!"
J.
It's not a problem for me, I'll simply pay for it with perishable money.
Retailers in the Southern United States...
That figures. They's already gots perishable pickup trucks down there. So does this like mean their DVD players is a gonna end up on concrete blocks in the front yard?
Not too long ago we've been seeing these VHS tapes that would only be usable as an empty recordable tape after 2 times viewing. They were a complete failure, since noone was interested in buying them. It's probably where this idea will end up as well: the trashbin.
I'm assuming these discs come in a vac sealed package of some kind. Wouldn't one way to protest this is to go to the store with a needle and poke some holes in the plastic wrap? :) I suppose a little Dremel tool might work well if it's a hardened case that's sealed, but the whirring noise might arouse suspicion by store staff.
Anyway, my 2c on this whole issue is that it stinks -- if it'll break in 8 hours, I don't want to have to put money down for it.
"I'm a leaf on the wind. Watch how I soar."
-Hoban Washburn
What if the entertainment industry did concentrate on making movies and distributing them in a free and copyable way and using open standards...
/. could just pack in and die with all those geeks happily enjoying their favorite movies all the time ;-)
What fun would there be left for the geeks? Nothing to do all day but work(?), watch movies and play music freely... No more "who gets to break the latest copy-protection first".
Going from memory here.
The earlier use of this mentioned in the article used some weird dye that was on the surface of the disc. After the laser hit it, it started a slow process of becoming opaque, and in a few days it was unreadable. Some college students discovered that a product called "soap" mixed with a catalyst "water" removed the dye and made the CD readable again.
This uses a dye in the middle of the disc, between layers. If air can get in, why can't another solvent? Wouldn't the same technique be true of these discs as well as the previous attempt?
While the future of non-returnable DVDs is dead in my mind, I'm glad to see that the RIAA is finally looking into "value added", giving me a reason to buy the CD instead of download it.
There is no reasonable defense against an idiot with an agenda
:wq
For the ever growing Trash Mashine.
buy one of these disks or even rent one (not even if my favorite movies are avaliable on these disks). The RIAA and MPAA will be gone in less than 50 years. When you insult your cutomers by the "we know what's best for you" attitude, they quit buying.
"I bow to no man" - Riddick
now no one will need to buy a copy,
just take the free promotional copy, rip it, chuck it.
don't even need 8 hours,
and they lose 1 sale needed for original rip.
-judging another only defines yourself
You've GOT to be kidding. DVD's that self-destruct after 8 hours then you throw them away!?!? Will the discs be cheaper because of this? I mean why the hell would I pay full price for something that is designed to fail shortly after I watch / listen to it!? Jesus, think about the enviornmental issues associated with this. A substrate that reacts with air. Uh huh. What's the by-product of this reaction?
First BMI is releasing crippled CD's, now the powers that be are thinking about self-destructing discs. What's next? Are we going to have to call someone whenever we view it so they can charge a "usage fee"!?!?!?!?
My good sig is in the laundry
All this stuff about the rental stores is baloney; the real use for this technology is to make "renting" a movie an impulse purchase that can take place anywhere. Think about it:
What if you could pickup a brand new release while you're on your way through the checkout at the grocery store for something like $1? Maybe you're interested in watching the movie but not necessarily interested in owning it or maybe you just want to check it out to see if it's worth a buy; either way you'd pay a dollar to find out right?
I think the real goal as far as the movie studios are concerned is to get people like BlockBuster out of the way. If a really cheap disposable DVD might lead to a more expensive purchase (say a boxed set with extra goodies) then that's even better for the studios.
It's also not necessarily bad for consumers since you're potentially not risking much to check out if a movie is worth a purchase or not.
As far as piracy goes this could be a big winner for the studios also. What's the point of hassling with ripping a DVD that you might only watch one or twice if you can grab one for about the price of a candy bar when you stop for gas?
I worked at Blockbuster (for a short period of time, I admit) and nothing was more painful than making people pay late fees. What people don't understand is that without late fees Blockbuster doesn't make any money. Which means your rental fees would go up.
Second, DO NOT LOSE YOUR MOVIE!!! I cannot stress this enough. Realize that when you lose it you will be expected (forced) to pay well in excess of $100. Why do they do this? This part is no scam, I assure you. It's what Blockbuster actually has to pay to purchase the movies. Remember the FBI warning at the begining of the movie saying how you can't show or distribute the movie for profit? Blockbuster can, and they had to pay for that right.
Seriously folks, it's not that hard to turn in late movies. Just do it. Or squirm out of late fees, but realize you can only do that a couple times before you will have to switch stores (brands actually--Blockbuster will do a check on you to see if you have late fees at other locations).
The only reason to do this is to promo the music, but that is what radio is for.
I guess the reason this is needed now is that nobody listens to radio anymore because it has being bought and perverted by the same people that is pushing this...
ironic
When his defense asked, "Which computer has Jon Johansen trespassed upon?" the answer was: "His own."
The goal will be to make **ALL** media time sensitive, so you cant actually retain anything and must continue to pay for listening/viewing/reading time.
Would be applicable in the software market too, forced upgrades since your original cant be used after the next release is out. ( using estimated time of next releases )
Or in the case of E-books, ' sorry that document is no longer acceptable speech, that isn't available for lease any longer'
---- Booth was a patriot ----
now disposable DVDs will add to the pile of disposable cups, wrappers, boxes... *just what we need*.
I am simply disgusted at this. As if we were not disgusted enough with AOL sending us trash that adds to our landfills. I will never use any of these disposable DVD's when they hit shelves out of my moral objection to this. Why do we never learn. Car companies are spending billions researching fuel alternatives, we are trying to recycle out the ying-yang and something like this comes along and makes it all for not. I'm sure Fry will find these DVD's melting on that giant ball of garbage in space. I'm out...later.
I wonder what tricks people will perform to keep the perishible dye from breaking down. Seems to me that a clear coat of enamel and some car wax would do the trick. Also, don't these "CD repair kits" add a clear layer of some goo anyhow? Would this in essence make the media airtight again?
Damn, have I just violated the DMCA?
all the garbage being generated by this approach?
Anyone know if these things recyclable?
My penguin ate my sig
If the process was reversable, I could see its usefulness. But, just rendering them useless sucks the big one.
We already can't find anything useful to do with the millions of AOL CDs floating about.
Thanks for the heads up. Now any promotional dvd that I bring home will be immediately ripped to the hard drive so I can watch the thing at my leisure.
It's nice that someone would want to toss a freebie at me, but how about tossing me something a little more permanent, like a vcd? I'd not have to worry about the vcd 'expiring' before I got a chance to watch it, and the copyright owner wouldn't have to worry about giving away a 'full feature' dvd.
And the landfill will stay just a little less emptier.
Now how about a real issue: why can we not buy a &^%$ Tivo for use in Canada?!?!
to pay $10 for something that I can only use for a third of a day
Viva la revolución!
Polycarbonate plastic (used in CDs and DVDs) is not biodegradable or recyclable in any sense of the term. So how would the landfills benefit from hundreds of tons of DVDs (and presumably CDs when they figure out they can use the same scheme with audio CDs) with a premature death rate?
Just because you can mod me down, doesn't mean you're right. Shoes for industry!
Hang on a second... everyone here is fighting for the right to time-shift & space-shift things that they own.
Now if i'm vaguely allowed to tivo something off satelite (my satelite company even suppy tivo enabled boxes) then surely i should also be able to time-shift one of these discs.
From the people who brought you DVD Copy Plus
Rip and Burn early, Rip & Burn often.
It is a sample dvd intended to get you to buy a full CD. They probably do not burn the entire product and they probably use copy protection. this means: 1) It will contain CRAP most of the time, so no one will be ripping anything. The whole point is they have to GIVE the junk away because no one is buying it. Take movies: You do not need to give away free samples of Star Wars, you give away free samples of Jackass. 2) The quality of the music probably begins to degrade almost instantly. Yeah, 8 hours is enough to rip it, but unless you rip it right after opening, you are not getting DVD/CD quality stuff. If they do it right, you might get better quality by using a microphone to record the music off the radio, rather than trying to rip a disc 15 minutes after first opening. 3) This is just one form of copy protection, I am sure they will use several others as well. P.S. I think it unlikely that this will encourage more waste CD's. AOL has the garbarge CD market covered, this will not significnatly increase the problem.
excitingthingstodo.blogspot.com
Just because you CAN do something like this doesn't mean that you have to. I'm not some sort of crazed tree hugger, but I don't like things that are disposible if they don't have to be. All the stuff that goes into making CDs and DVDs are terrible enough, and now we want to throw them into the landfills? Instead of shipping 5,000 dvds to Blockbuster every few months, they'd be shipping 50,000 or 500,000. It just seems like a complete and utter waste of resources on every front. I won't even begin to think about what MSFT and other software companies would do with this.. After a year you can't use your Windows XP cd anymore?
Hmmm, when Circuit City introduced DivX, it's major selling point for consumers was that you never had to return the disc you rented. If you wanted to watch it later, you just paid another fee without ever having to go back to the store. If you knew you'd never watch it again, you just threw it away. No hassle, low drag.
If something as convenient as that didn't fly, I don't see how an 8 hour disc will be any more attractive.
* As is generally the case, my opinions do not reflect those of my employer.
but it brings up an interesting idea that I predict someone with too much time will eventually do...
Picture the case-modders and over-clockers of the world suddenly working on a DVD player and CD wallet that is sealed and pumped with some easily-obtained gas (for example, helium). You have a double-door for loading and then openings with heavy rubber gloves (like the beds for premature babies) to open the DVD and load it in the player. So long as the media is never exposed to the air, the dye never fades.
Hell, if Blockbuster would send my rentals in the mail and I could "rent" and preserve any movie for one or two bucks, while keeping the apparatus relatively small, I could almost justify it. The obvious downside is the emotional breakdown when your gigantic DVD colection is lost to a slow leak.
What a suprise The United States of America doesn't bother it's arse singing up to little things like ENVIRONMENTAL controls.
stupid fucks.
My DVD player and library shall be kept in a Nitrogen flooded tank system and operated solely through the use of those nuclear-powerstation-style gloves. My films will last forever - screw you Blockbuster! *wanders off chuckling manically*
I think self-destructing DVDs are a great idea as long as I can pay for them with dollars printed with disappearing ink.
So what the heck are they planning to do with all the worthless DVDs after they are unreadable? I don't know about you but I have enough coasters that I made out of CDs that I don't need another source of crap!
It takes, what, 15 minutes to copy the entire DVD to hard disk to then process at your own leisure?
Then again this is only meant as an experiment to see if customers appreciate a/v packages, so maybe they did not put too much thought into securing it.
A/V bundles are very common in East Asia, btw; in Singapore I could get live video performance VCDs for Japanese artists for the same price as buying their album CDs.. about US$15.
Michel
Fedora Project Contribut
but I personally will be admiring the discs in the store for a good hour a day after each shipment arrives. Expose them to air early, let people buy them and complain that they're already crippled - realize immediately how stupid this is (somehow they hadn't already).
:)
Seems to me unless they put them in those godforsaken plastic melted hard enclosure "things" that portable MD/CD players tend to come in, they won't be able to prevent a little air sneaking in. Maybe the disc will come with a clear plastic cover to protect it from the air, and you can leave it on while using the disc
cyn, free software and *nix operating systems enthusiast.
Ok, I get this perishable DVD, and put it into my old as hell, second generation DVD player (not in my PC). How's the DVD player going to know not to play it? Does it flash some EEPROM in my DVD player or something? If so, I'm sueing, because as I see it "any software that does damage to, or causes a functional system to cease functioning" is a virus. Clearly, if it does this, then it's a virus. If it doesn't, then how can this possibly work as a deterrant, unless it wont work in a normal set-top DVD player, which is totally GAY.
Pick up a can of spray shellac...
- "History shows again and again how nature points out the folly of men" -- Blue Oyster Cult, 'Godzilla'
This is yet another glimps into the minds of the entertainment industry's marketing people. The holy grail is pay-per-use consumer products, which unfortunately is a concept that is fairly new in capitalism, especially in the United States where property laws reflect mostly tangible goods. This helps to explain why companies and consumers are having so many problems with each other.
Anyway, the distribution methods look somethin like this, from most desirable (and most profitable) to least:
Pay-per-Use - Require consumer to pay for each experience (i.e.: theater movies, pay-per-view, arcade games)
Subscription - if pay-per-use isn't possible, require the user to pay a recurring subscription fee for access to the material (i.e.: cable)
Media Ownership - if subscription isn't possible, sell the media in a permanent form to the consumer.
Media ownership is of course the most desired for the consumer. It allows them to experience themusic/movie/etc whenever they want, trade or sell it to friends, etc. Of course it's the least profitable for the industry.
The problem media companies are facing is that, as technology matures, it's allowing consumers to use the media in any way they want. For example, using a Tivo to turn subscription-distributed media into owned permemant media.
What we're seeing now is the entertainment industry scrambling to use laws that were originally enacted to protect companies from each other, and bend them to try and keep consumers from using the media for which it wasn't originally intended.
Here's a hypothetical situation: In 15 years medical science progresses to the point where they fix eyesight with little nano machines. In the process they also give people the ability to record what they watch and play it back (kind of like a Tivo built-in to your head). Thus turning everything you experience into the potential for permenant media. What do you think the entertainment industry will do then? Legislate congress to make all medical nano devices capible of recording motion images be part of a digital rights management royalty payment system, and likely called something along the lines of the Digital Medical Device Copyright Act. That's if the entertainment industry is still alive in the same for it is today, which I doubt.
_______
2B1ASK1
Like many of you I was stunned that this story is receiving covereage without any comment on the potential environmental impact of disposable DVD's.
A quick search of Google turned up the following:
http://enduse.lbl.gov/Info/VideoImpacts.pdf
Flexplay approached a scientist at Lawrence Berkeley National Labs to perform an environmental assessment of the disposable DVD technology.
This report is truly amusing. The scientist acknowledges that he was not given enough time to perform a standard Life Cycle Assessment on disposable DVDs, so instead he calculated the amount of pollution that would be prevented if disposable DVDs were depoloyed as a video rental option. He theorizes that if 10% of all consumers renting DVDs did not have to make a return trip to the video store the envirnmental impact of increased junk being sent to a land fill would be offset by a decrease in pollution.
What a hoot. I guess Flexplay didn't bother to explain their marketing strategy. It appears that these disks are being deployed as promotional items which are handed out for free and are never intended to be returned.
Flexplay is also persuing the Hotel market. Just how much pollution would be prevented if a guest didn't have to walk down to the lobby to return their rental?
If this is the best defense that Flexplay can come up with then we must believe that the potential evironmental impact will be pretty bad.
Are we really willing to trash our planet in the battle against piracy? Hollywood's answer seems to be a resounding YES.
Great idea, but the rental shops would never go for it. They make a fortune off late rentals. Expect to pay a premium for disposable DVDs.
Ok, so since I am devilish and a bastard about anything having to do with MPAA/RIAA, I will for sure be LOOKING for ways to begin the 8 hour countdown on any product I touch on the store (read: break the airtight container)
soooo...how many returns from Mary Jane MathTeacher do you think it will take before they realize this is a lost cause? Serioulsy. 2%? 5%? 10%? 20%?
If I pay for a cd and a dvd comes with it with extra video footage I sure as hell don't want that dvd to expire, afterall I paid for it already. Doesn't make any sense, even as an experiment.
companies should be sued for creating more trash.
i hope those cds are recyclable.
More plastic in our landfills.. Let's see how fast we can destroy this place for a quick buck.
DVDs that only last 8 hours? But then I might miss that bonus blooper reel where Viggo Mortensen picks his nose during a break on the set of Fellowship of the Ring! Horrors!
Seriously, this won't fly because human beings have an infinite capacity for carelessness -- which Blockbuster has exploited to great success, I might ad. There are too many opportunities for something to go wrong here, not only on the part of the consumer, but the factory workers, the shippers, and the handlers at the grocery stores and mall CD chains where these DVDs will be marketed relentlessly. (Watch once and throw away! Only $4.99!) A couple batches of ruined airtight seals will turn retailers away from this idea in a hurry.
This idea is destined to go the way of the caribou. IMHO, that can't happen too quickly.
Visit me on the web at Permanent4.com.
Well, disposable DVDs and CDs could be really interesting for some marketing promos, or to have a DVD burned for you on demand at the local rental store, with a lifespan preset to the number of days you are going to rent the contents, and after that time, disposing it instead of returning to the store sounds thrilling when it comes to a new confort to our lives, but the enviromental issues behind it are also very scary.
How much time would such a DVD take to decompose in nature? I believe without a decomposable media, which would have a lifespan of a few years or decades, or some way to recycle such medias, we would be just giving the next generations another frivolous creation that grew into a devastating problem to the enviroment.
Just my two cents on this issue.
Jessica
``These ones give you 8 hours of useful content''...or 8 hours of crud, or 15 AOL CDs. Imagine the possibilities!
Please correct me if I got my facts wrong.
When I receive such a disk, I will rip it as soon as I can, I repeat; RIP IT AS SOON AS I CAN
Blow me legislators; I'm probably downloading one of your favourite albums as we speak..
A horse can't be sick, you know, even if he wants to.
Just what we need. Not only does cost increase for manufacturing, but so does waste. There should be a government agency setup that looks at all the different ways something could be done, and if the company chooses the most wasteful way to do something, as in packaging, they should get taxed per item that ends up in a landfill.
This is such a rediculous idea. Forget about pollution. Forget about Big Bad Rosen and her firebreath for a moment.
:)
First, a rental store has to have these disks in stock. Think about this for a moment: One disk, one rental. If a store intends on doing any business, they will need a lot of these disks.
They're going to need a lot of storage.
They're going to need to pay an awful lot of shipping.
I don't suppose the rental store can afford to just eat these expenses. An 'auto-fade' DVD is going to be a heck of a lot more expensive to rent than its ever-lasting counterpart.
But wait: There's more!
You can wander into any movie rental store that's been around for any length of time and rent any number of obscure and forgotten titles today. What happens to today's auto-fade DVDs tomorrow? The next day? Five years from now? In the end, doesn't this make it impossible to watch anything that's not a big hit? Where are the fade DVDs going to come from? Who's going to make them? Am I alone in thinking this is a logistical nightmare and the silliest idea in years? Who funds this stuff?
What good is music if you can't get random bits of it stuck in your head, or select a track from your library to lighten your mood after a lousy day? And how can you possibly do that if there is a time limit on a CD? The same argument applies to movies.
I can see how this might be useful for DVD rentals (but still rather wasteful, error-prone, and inflexible), but otherwise there's no way I'd ever spend money on a time-limited disc.
-John
The designers reckoned that after a few years they might develop their own emotional responses. You know, hate, love, fear, envy. So they built in a fail-safe device....
So, er, does this mean Sean Young comes as part of the package? ;)
Sanity is relative. For some of us it's just a distant cousin.
...that breakdown after the weekend, so you don't need to retrun them to where you hired them. They come with a warning that if you can suddenly see the road between your legs, GET OFF THE HIGHWAY NOW!!!
----------------------------------- My Other Sig Is Hilarious -----------------------------------
It would be interesting to know the specifics of the chemical reaction that is responsible for the opacity. Apparently the DVD is sealed and starts becoming opaque upon exposure to air. One wonders if you could watch (or copy) the DVD, seal it in bag with a vacuum sealer, keep it for a couple days and then pass it on to your buddy. Obviously it will eventually quit working but one could get multiple uses out of it instead of one. What about putting it in deep freeze to slow the chemical reaction?
STOP ROCK VIDEO
But artifacting is not neccesarily the fault of MPEG-2. Artifacting occurs in any lossless compression scheme, and usually its more noticable in video becasue the compression is done in cells. If the decompressed cells don't end up very similar at the edges we see the cell boundaries. Artifacting occurs when there is not enough data to give a good enough picture, i.e. the compression has had to work very hard and you've lost more than the ideal. This was terrible in MPEG-1 because it was a fixed, and low data rate. In MPEG-2 the data rate is variable so that sections needing more data to form an acceptable final image can have it, without wasting space on sections that don't. MPEG and DivX schemes are also temporaly compressed, so each frame may not be a full frame, but just changes from the last. Other formats like DV don't do this, but they need more storage. MPEG-2 has the finesse that it can provide data about future frames as well, this allows the data rate to peak above the maximum briefly so things like rapid movement and scene cuts don't artifact. Now another problem of artifacting comes into play - if your codec doesn't have the speed or memory to properly store this partial frames, then it gets really messy - this can happen if the DVD tries to pump in too much data to a cheap DVD player. In all cases good production of the DVD master NON-REALTIME can aliviate much of these problems, by setting key frames and shaping the data rates. This is a highly skilled job, and involves judging acceptable visual quality, what datarates you think consumer DVD players will cope with, and how much space do you leave on the DVD for the 'extra features' people have come to expect. The last is an important point and now some producers are producing editions re-mastered at higher data rates with no extra cruft. Now any ripper codec cannot tune itself any better than its source - you can't easily recognise the keyframes, nor are most rippers capable of effectively creating 'look ahead' frames - rippers tend to go for the quick-and-dirty-one-size-fits-all approach. You can also see this on cheap DVDs that have been bulk transfered, especially a lot of old budget films. In the future I expect that high end formats will drop temporal compression and just use spatial compression within the fram like DV and M-JPEG and BetaCam Digital - once we have a media that can store the data.
Actually, that might even prove bad for those who produce the DVD in the first place. What did they think people with files on their hard drive and a broadband connection will want to do ? (hint: the answer's in the question)
Forget I said that.
environmental waste.... culture of disposability... thrown away with TV dinner scraps... substitute for meaningful interaction... go play cards instead...
Damn... Only 23 and I'm already a crotchety old man.
Why don't we just f$cking nuke the whole damn planet. Jeesh.
I understand some destuction for progress's sake, like all the crap that's used when you make a micropocessor and runs into the water and gives everyone in silicon valley Autism. That's ok because I have an XP2200+ and I have a pathetic PUR water filter from Target(tm) for $19.95.
But this is just f$cking irresponsible. It's as bad as AOL, who also should be sued by environmentalists. We don't have enough space in landfills as it is. These dip shits should be shot.
because I have been enjoined by this Holy Office to abandon the false opinion which maintains that the Sun is the centre
This will eliminate entirely the return-mail aspect of on-line video rentals, making them more popular than ever, eliminating COCKDUSTER VIDEO once and for all!
(insert Star Wars I "Yippie!" here)
**>>BELCH
Don't blame the mayor. I don't want my tax dollars to go to separating trash and just dumping it in another landfill. No one's buying recycled products and direct and indirect subsidies make new ones cheaper.
Though I still think these DVD's are a dumb idea. At least for the rental market. The rental places have no incentive, firstly, they make obscene amounts of money from late fees and secondly those who do return a movie on time, usually get another. I think the marketplace will consign these things to promotional stuff only and possibly things like reviewers copies.
They aren't implimenting this on DVD's they're selling, or even allowing you to rent (yet). Its PROMOTIONAL DVD's packaged with CDs! You aren't paying for them at all, in fact its a kind of 'value-added' scheme, giving you an incitive to buy the CD packaged so you can see the promotional DVD, insteading of just downloading the CD. Rentable versions is an IDEA, not a fact. Other than the unsightly enviromental impact of several thousand of the little coasters after their 8hr life is up, it seems like a decent idea. At least give them a chance before you start shouting.
"You all laugh because I'm different, I laugh because you're all the same."
It's funny that the content they chose to put on the disc is a hip-hop band which might be pre-fabricated and will probably vanish as soon as the discs self-destruct... I do not know them but something tells me it's not even music I'd like to keep in a more permanent form.
It should be relatively easy to prepare a 'potion' so that you can just dip the disk in and freeze the whole process. Once we've reverse engineered what chemical it is.
"Fighting terrorists with millitary might is like killing a mosquitor on your Dad's forehead with a rifle."
I wonder how long it'll be before you'll see DVD condoms to keep your DVDs from being exposed to oxygen. Unfortunately they still wouldn't protect your computer from viruses...
Obviously, the data doesn't *POOF* disappear in one second. I'm guessing the data slowly degrades to the point where the disc is no longer usable.
Does this mean that if I try to watch this DVD 7 hours after I get it, it's going to have far worse quality?? What a f'ing RIP OFF. The whole point of digital technology is to give clear presentation over and over again.
oxygen-less
She may be thrifty and hot, but your wife is less intelligent than you, has poorer taste in music, and doesn't share your ideals. But it's okay, because intelligence, taste, and ideology are traits to look for in men, says the common wisdom. In women, one is to look for a caring, loving person with the know-how to help run your household (e.g. thrift), and the charm and hotness to keep you happy.
You, Sir, are a male chauvinist, with a token wife. I hope you're happy.
Robert.
p.s. course, I could be confusing you with someone else...
These things will fill up landfills faster than the AOL discs currently do. That is, if anyone's stupid enough to buy 'em. No, wait, sorry, I forgot. First the discs will be sold with no self-destruct warnings. Then there'll be a class-action lawsuit or two about it. Then labels will be put on the packages, and then sales will plummet.
Didn't Circuit City try this once already? Why can't the industry learn from it's own mistakes?
WHICH IS EXACTLY THE PROBLEM!!!!!! Shaggy-Boom-Bastic(TM) was discovered because he put himself on Napster. Lucky him that radio stations in Hawayii and Calif not 100% pure on the inside payola system actually played what they wanted to. For many, many, many artists, they can't get ANY exposure unless some fat exec wants to make them a "star". It's Brittney or bust these days. If the RIAA et. al. wasn't so controlling, we would have a much better choice of music.
In regards to "us" vs. "them" it IS that way. "They" want to control your PC (DRM, Palladium, Bill in congress to allow DoS'ing your box), your livingroom (can't copy DVD's you own, fair use out the window, 2006 digital TV will have DRM built into all broadcasts, SuperCD's disable digital out), disolving DVD disks, CD's that crash Macs and don't burn in my PC... is the picture starting to become a little more clear? Anyone who says, after I spend $20 on music, that I MUST BE FORCED to listen to it WHERE THEY SAY (Sony walkman player, or maybe my car, but NOT my computer, NOT my MP3 player, etc) is a criminal in my eyes.
So yes, it is US vs. THEM. I think tech-savvy slashdotters who remember the old days (when a CD was a CD and it didn't crash your computer or insist on installing Media Player) would agree.
.
if they are giving them away for free - to test the market. gladly walk up and ask for as many as they can give you - then throw them on the ground and stomp them to pieces before their very eyes.
Then be sure to thank them - and tell them that you are really happy with the new stress releiving features they are planning on putting into these new CDs. oh? They're not stress releiving features? Copy protection? well - I guess I cant copy the CDs now, huh? Thanks guys!
Now I can't read the full article here at work, but just by reading the blurb it seems to me you are all jumping the gun and missing the point of this technology completely! They are not doing this for "copy protection", they are doing this as a possible marketing solution for various businesses.
Blockbuster might be able to advertise "No More Late Fees!" "Never Return A DVD Again!" to compete with NetFlix better in the future.
Record companies can add these in for free possibly as an incentive to keep you from downloading it all over iMesh.
This won't catch on. Rental companies have a significant revenue stream from people returning stuff late. (Blockbuster - 15-20%) If the stuff is disposable, then they can't charge you for not returning it. They mightn't care about the enviornment, but they do care about their shareholders.
-- We don't understand software, and sometimes we don't understand hardware, but we can *see* the blinking lights
Rentals should be on DVD-RW that you put a credit card hold for the amount of the DVD, say 15 dollars then you rent it (regular rate applies) and return it at will, If video store needs more LOTR TTT they just burn a few more and rent them out; when that demand starts to subside they just burn the latest movie onto those discs, you can hold onto them for as long as you want. Maybe there is a set time before the charge goes through or when you trade in your old movie for a new one, you get the idea
just my 2cent
Wow. Talk about looking for ways to be offended.
You can tell a great deal about the character of a man by observing those who hate him.
Gee, we need yet another disposable item to put in our landfills. How stupid.
...intelligence, taste, and ideology are traits to look for in men...
ROTFLMFAO LOLOLOL
Happy hunting...
"If this media catches on you may not have to return your DVD rentals in the future."
What's up with society and all the waste we create? This is the dumbest idea I've heard all day!
jwhal
jwhal@remove-me.canada.com
Lol, I'm a robert too, so I too am capable of being a complete asshole for no reason.
However, that being said, simply implying all these things by my wife choosing to buy used CD's is a stretch. So in the end piss off.
Oh and why anyone would marry someone they don't find attractive is beyond me. My wife is getting her PhD, and is extremely intelligent. She is hot too. I was very picky in selecting my life long mate and would hope you would be too. Maybe you're just pissed your significant other (assuming you can find one) is fugly. My wife doesn't smoke, isn't religious, loves animals and kids, is extremely intelligent, and for some strange reason chose to date me. So all in all I'm the winner in this situation.
Robert (different Robert btw)
isn't all the air getting in around the outter edge? Soooo then wouldn't you only need to use some acrylic adhesive around the edges to seal it in annnd maybe around the inner ring? And NO, consumers will NOT go for this. We want movies in our homes. The good ones we want to own. We dont want to spend $9.50 for a ticket to a movie so we can sit in a crowded theatre with people who wont shut up, after we get in line an hour early so we can get a good seat. Cellphones, uncomfortable seats, movie theatre employees, $4.00 for a hotdog and $4.00 for 12c worth of soda, or $5.00 for 25c worth of popcorn. THATS why movies aren't making money anymore, THATS why they want to push this rediculous technology, and its the LAWYERS, the RIAA and the MPAA who is telling them to do it. They want to blame it all on piracy so they keep getting paid. This whole thing, the persecution of the consumer, the billions spent to influence congress, allllll are done because the lawyers want to keep getting paid.
the money could be encrypted with the artist's public key. Let the RIAA go after the artist for their cut, instead.
So if I still have the disc after I make a copy is the copy legal to have?
Or does that have a time limit too!
This word already exists: "Corporate America".
But, maybe we can simplify it a bit:
"Corpamer" (CORP-Ah-mer): function verb.
Definition: People who have no touch with REALITY, and are living in their own little fantasy world.
Dumb question -- anyone seen any consumer DVD recorders where the security could be bypassed?
The scientist places the disc into their all-purpose decoder/translator, and suddenly a nearby overlooked sarcophagus opens, and out pop the mummified corpses of media lawyers bearing copies of the DMCA. The scientist shrieks (as only super-intelligent cockroaches can) and tries to run, but its too late...
I tried every decent and legal way I could think of to resolve the issue w/the business before I rented the chicken suit
now we got more crap to throw into our full landfills
Those greedy mofo's trying to sell all those CD's should be FORCED to accept the 'dead' 8+ Hr CD's. Then maybe they'd think a little more about the environment. CD Collection services.. There must be a way to recycle those things. (skim off a layer, slap the new data layer on)
This useless space for sale, inquire at front desk.
anyone who thinks this is a neat idea should get a clue. I find it tragic that the vast majority of consumers are too lazy and stupid to realize that this is yet another disposable product that uses up valuable petroleum resources and ends up as landfill.
Maybe unnecessary "garbage" products like this should be heavily taxed to pay for cleaning up the mess they leave behind.
I won't be buying any of those things. What a waste of material. I'm sure the environment wasn't on their minds when they created them though.
Great, now we can add yet one more thing to populate our already bulging landfills. Sure they say they are recyclable but most people will end up just throwing them away anyway and in some areas recycling is not even available. Add in the excess pollution that comes along with this type of process and now we have a real winner for the environment. Who the heck thinks up these things and why do people fund them.
And at that moment Luke said, "Why are there so many CDs in this trash compactor Han".
Hey, maybe black marker ink would be enough. I hear that it makes your CD's sound better too!
Freedom: "I won't!"
We should all be so lucky.
Some of what I say is fact, some is conjecture, the rest I'm just blowing out my ass...you guess.
You're the kind of alien geek who probably thought "Earth Girls are Easy" was a documentary, right?
Freedom: "I won't!"
This technology, while interesting and may have some uses will never really catch on for rental use. Stores like Blockbuster and Hollywood Video, in particular, depend on their revenue stream of late fees and previously viewed movies too much.
If I remember correctly Blockbuster broke down their earnings a couple of years ago and stated that over 20% of their revenue is from late fees.
They will never employ this technology with those figures.
Loading disks through the airlock is a pain but it looks like all the effort will be worth it soon.
Well, they were looking for a way to do it for years (limited use media). Any code they tried was hacked in a matter of hours. So, use chemistry instead! Breaks down into a layer of jello in eight hours, leaving goo all over the inside of your DVD player. Not a lot of amatuer chemists, hacking against the man.
What I don't understand is why they want to do it. The story says to see if consumers are interested in audio/visual instead of just audio. DVD-A has been around for years, and the bulk of them are audio/visual. Oh, well. Triple redundancy.
"We shall party like the Greeks of old! You know the ones I mean." - HedonismBot
Disposable promotional material should be banned altogether. Even if it were made recyclable, who would bother? Not many. This type of promotional gimmick should be illegal under a 'needless production of garbage' act. So should AOLs distribution of CDs. Now they are putting them in LARGE METAL CONTAINERS that they mail to you. There is no good argument for disposable media.
Sure the content lasts only 8 hours, but where exactly do you (and by you I mean Americans) plan to dispose of all these perishable DVD's?
In an effort to protect their valued content, the big media companies are quite content to offer up the environment in exchange. This kind of stuff really makes me sick.
Is that a real poncho? I mean, is that a Mexican poncho or is that a Sears poncho?
What about the deposit copy for the Library of Congress?
I don't currently own or buy DVDs, but this still OUTRAGES me! They want to make information behave like food, but at least with food you get some energy and such out of it!
Screw 'em, this will be hacked easily - in fact, I will tell you one way how it might be hacked and still work:
The dye interacts with air, right? Well, you have the sandwich of label/dye layer/polycarb disc - thus, the air would have to get to the dye layer either by the edges or through the label, or maybe through the polycarb layer. I am not a chemist, so I don't know how porus the polycarb disc would be, but I don't think it is really that porus. That would leave the label and edge. So, seal the label with some spray shellac (as one poster already mentioned), and the edge with superglue, as soon as you receive it!
Damn, how dumb do these farks think we are? What exactly is this about? EVERYTHING THEY HAVE COME UP WITH HAS BEEN BROKEN, many times BEFORE it comes out, or not too long thereafter.
I tell you, I HATE THESE GREEDY NO-GOOD BASTARD WASTES OF FLESH...!
rant off...
Reason is the Path to God - Anon
How long does it take to dump a .vob to disk?
-Lx?
to dd it to a hard disk.
:)
cheers
-- There are two kind of sysadmins: Paranoids and Losers. (adapted from D. Bach)
First of all, these days the American movie rental industry is dominated by Blockbuster.
If you look around you'll notice that Blockbuster rental stores are often large stores in independant buildings. Yes, occasionally you'll find them in a mall, but usually they are by themselves. When you go to Blockbuster - you drive, and park, just to go to Blockbuster.
Secondly, realize that most people are not good about returning their movies on time. Most people I know leave it to the last minute. You can drop off the movie up to midnight, and the late evening is a very common time to return movies (some people do right after they watch them!). It is also not a time where you are likely to do more shopping. It's also not a time where you are going to be able to walk in most places, and public transportation is frequently closed.
Lastly, I would say that most people rent movies to watch on the weekends - maybe a Friday or Saturday night. When you go return the movie on Sunday afternoon, you aren't going to rent another one because you have work/school coming up the next day.
Frankly, the environment arguement is just silly. Too often people are arguing about tiny little things we throw away without looking at the big picture. I'm sure there are people who don't recycle every plastic bottle they use and each probably contains as much plastic as a DVD. How about candy bar wrappers - who recycles those? Did you know that everytime you get a take-out or delivery pizza those boxes are not recyclable?
Honestly, I'm shocked that nearly a dozen "think about the environment" posters have been modded up while not one has been modded as "redundant"
Damn i'm good!
Then they'd be recyclable in the truest sense.
So who gets to explain to Billy why he can only watch "Lilo and Stitch" 5 times instead of his usual 12?
You are exactly right, this will be a landfill problem even worse than the AOL CD problem.
I don't know where companies get these stupid ideas. I have nothing against "Music DVDs" (whatever the hell that is, a DVD with music + videos maybe?), but this expiring medium stuff is a bunch of crap.
As an American - I ain't buying it. I don't care how cool it gets. I don't care if they give it away for free; I'll have nothing to do with it. They can grind it up and spread it on toast for their own personal consumption. It would be more useful that way.
You know, I get pretty angry about stuff like this. Don't they realize people do not like planned/intended obsolescence?
Please mod this post only if you think others should/n't read this. I have enough ego^H^H^Hkarma. Thanks!
I'm sure it wouldn't take long for someone to figure out how to seal the DVD against exposure to the air. Where do they find the morons that think up this stuff?
This is a short-sighted solution. Given that the direction of the content delivery industry is heading towards on-demand service over an increasingly broader infrastructure, self-destructing DVDs offer no added value or incentives over the current business models and are hard pressed to find a place in the near future.
Of course, the dream of ubiquitous on-demand services is only starting to take off, but then, hey, in 5 years DVDs will probably be supplanted anyhow.
It's become apparent from reading the replies on this thread that the average Slashdot reader is a left-wing socialist weenie.
First, how many people who decry our "already bulging" landfills have ever been to a landfill? How many have ever worked at a landfill?
Second, how many people here who here talk about recycling know anything about the field other than what they read in a magazine or newspaper. Do any of you subscibe to any trade publications like "Waste News." Can anybody here tell me what the economic cost is associated with governmental mandatory recycling? Has mandated recycling really reduced waste streams entering our "already bulging" landfills? What's the market price for crumb rubber this week? If you don't know you shouldn't be spouting off about the issue. Feel-good campaigns are just that.
Third, Taxes. I see a number of people saying we should tax people who sell convenience out of business, again, left-wing liberal hog-wash. First off, taxes are always passed on to the consumer. I seem to recall this country (the US) was founded over what was largely an issuse of a 1.5% tax on tea. People actually were willing to pay more for smuggled tea than they were for taxed tea, based on the principle of the issue. We've become what we once loathed...
Assuming a family of four rents two movies per week, 50 weeks out of the year (which is high) that's 100 DVD's a year. It sounds high, but if you look at your average garbage bag and adding 2 DVD's to it, the actual increas to your weekly waste stream is totally negligible. Based on my observations most people forget to take their movies with them when they run errands and DO make a special trip to return movies on a regular basis. Think of the road miles not driven to return movies, not only is gas saved and less air pollution, but less cars on the road. Also assume risk, everytime you get behind the wheel you risk being in an accident. The majority of all car accidents happen while you're doing simple things close to home, like returning movies. I drove for 12 years without being in an accident. I recently bought a new car and have been hit twice in the last 6 months by negligent drivers - Once on a special trip to the post office... Had I just put that letter in with the outgoing mail rather than deciding to drive to the post office, I never would've been on the road. We need disposable rental DVD's. For the children...
The only new music I get is from the CD's my wife purchases. I have 3 jobs (2 full time and 1 contract labor) and as a simple fact of time I listen to SportsRadio (notice my username) when I'm in the car. I drove a 1964 1/2 mustang from high school through college without a radio so silence isn't bothersome to me, it's relaxing (ignoring the glasspack mufflers of course).
My wife bought me the Cult CD that came out last year and my brothers in law buy me KMFDM / MDFMK cd's for Xmas (Dec) and my birthday (June). I could care less if I ever buy a CD again. I am however fully against theft from the artists (even as it's more from the RIAA, some minute percentage still goes to the artist).
My solution is simple and yet expensive. I could probably bank roll it but I have no expertise in the music industry.
My solution:
Setup a barebones studio, have the bands save and hire their own technicians (with local admins monitoring to help and watch the equipment). Produce their "album" (man i'm old) and setup a website that has the mp3/ogg files for free and cd's available for purchase at around $5.
The problem is it's an unproven model and wasting money isn't my goal. However, if my own company takes off I may do this anyway (allowing the artists to retain rights to their own music! how novel).
Although I'm a liberal/socialist at heart so this republican country wouldn't want anything like that, now would they?
Can you take me higher? Sales are driven by Jesus man. Oh yeah and a healthy dose of Angst. Scott Cornell (sp?) sounds weird as Rage's singer. Kind'a reminds me of 1993 with soundgarden. I've really got to dig up some of my old CD's.
I was a RIAA junkie in college but I've reformed. I listen to sports radio (the animal AM 640/105.7 FM & the fan 1400 AM). I still have around 600 CD's (unless my wife has sold them to the used cd store which is very likely).
I wonder when the first dudes suggest to store
these DVDs in a vacuum chamber (or maybe in an
environment filled with non-oxidant gas, maybe
Helium).
Should be relatively feasible to "case mod" some
of the existing DVD racks. Just make it reasonably
airtight and put it under Helium.
And in case it leaks, you also get a funny voice
and/or suffocate in your sleep. Ah the life.
It might be a bit more tricky to put your DVD
player in a non-oxidant environment, but it may
be worth the effort.
--- Eat my sig.
Exactly how bad is the AOL CD problem?
Have we actually filled up landfills with AOL CDs?
Two men in California are collecting 1 million CDs that they will send back to AOL.
They have done all the math and calculated that that would weigh 17 tons - enough to fit in 17 F-350 pickups or not even 1 semi truck. That really isn't that much when you compare it to the amount of garbage americans produce in a year - no, even compared to a day?
Why do you hate AOL CDs? Its not because of the oh-so-large amount of garbage produced by a little tiny piece of plastic. Its the SPAM factor. Its the fact that people like to get pissed off by the inconvience of throwing away their junk mail. We've learned to ignore the numberous credit cards offers and paper junk we receive every day, but we suddenly can't deal with a little piece of plastic???
Anyway, this is a totally pointless and wasteful exercise in an age when we could just use the internet to transmit the data.
This is ridiculous. Do people not realize that the more disposable things we create the more the landfills will take over our land? Are people that irrisponsible?
/rant
This is plain ridiculous, we have disposable cameras, forks,knives, and everything else, and now dvd's too, fantastic.
()
It's not going to be blockbuster selling these things. They want you coming back, as many have pointed out. It's the grocery stores and convenience stores that are set up to sell things once, but aren't set up for the whole rental thing. They're not undercutting an existing business, just adding a new one.
It'd work great for me. I never go to blockbuster. I watch movies once every couple of months, and only when I feel like sitting on my ass for a couple of hours. If I feel that way, I'm not going to be walking a mile to Blockbuster. I used to use PPV, but I cancelled my digital service because the roommate who actually watched TV moved out. I'd pick up a few movies during a grocery or Walmart expedition and let them collect dust on my shelf until I need two hours of mindless & muscle-less entertainment.
Nope. Get a 10 gallon aquarium (they cost like $10-$20), and a tank of helium (the party-balloon filling small tanks, they cost as high as $40 but half that you get back when you return the tank, and one full tank lasts almost forever).
;-)
Put the wrapped DVD in the aquarium. Take two rubber gloves and some saran-wrap to effectively seal the top of the aquarium (make sure to use enough that putting on the gloves won't break the seal).
Tip the aquarium on its side, and peel away a small hole in one top and the opposite bottom corner.
Light a votive candle and place it in front of the lower hole.
Add helium, via the PVC tube that almost certainly came with the aquarium (if not, pay the $0.15/foot for a few feet), to the upper hole. Add it slowly, and when the candle goes out, keep adding for a few more seconds.
Voila! You now have a home-made, inert-gas, anhydrous glove box! Put your hands in the gloves, unwrap the DVD, and apply the clear nail polish to the edge. Oops, you *did* remember to put the nail polish in the aquarium before sealing it, right?
not for rental, mind you ... I would simply walk around with a nice sharp syringe. poke! poke! poke!
and all the time I'd be thinking:
"fuck you RIAA. you have no rights to the extreme revenues that you are desparately trying to maintain."
This has already been done before. Circuit City tried this lame strategy with Divx. And they failed miserably. I predict this strategy will fail equally miserably. Not to mention the environmental travesty of having billions of useless DVD's clogging landfills (unless they make provisions to recycle DVD's).
'He who has to break a thing to find out what it is, has left the path of wisdom.' -- Gandalf to Saruman
How can they possibly make money off of this? These self-destructing disks must cost _more_ to make than normal disks, right? And the RIAA has been telling us for years that they're losing money while CDs are selling for $14-$18 in stores. So clearly CDs already cost at least $15 to make, and these new-fangled ones will cost $20 or $30 to make, right? No one would be willing to rent something for that price.
This Space Intentionally Left Blank
Just think, all the discarded DVDs can be collected and shipped out to the desert where they become part of an enormous reflecting mosaic. This will increase the Earth's albedo and allow us to cool the planet without worrying about those pesky CO2 emmissions! Couch potatoes will be able to save the world!
An average distance of 10 miles seems excessive.
In a 10 mile radius around my place there must be a couple of dozen video stores.
Does anyone really travel more than 10 miles just to rent a DVD?
If this happens, video rental stores will need to have much much much larger quantities of DVD's on hand than they presently do.
Anyone know on average how many times a DVD gets rented before it is sold or retired?
Rental stores just do not have the retail or storage capabilities for this idea.
$8.95/mo web hosting
Screw renting DVD's. Let's get better bandwidth to the people, then let's rent DVD's via the Internet!
W00t!
Oh, great....now we'll have heaps of these things clogging our landfills along with the piles of fucking AOL CD's.
as long as they accept checks written in disappearing ink.
Dear World,
What, more garbage? Don't we already produce too much garbage now? This will only add to the stuff in my trash can?
The companies and(or) industries should be responsible for footing the cost of recycling this crap if they choose to adopt it.
-Slashdot Junky
.
Landfill Mining Co.
Managing the (Un)natural Resources of Tomorrow
Am I the only one planning on methodically breaking every seal in a store trying to sell these?
I'll stick to Netflix thanks. I can watch the movie as often as I want and return it when I want. Pretty slick. Wish my local Blockbuster would let me just drop the rentals in the mailbox back to them. No little plastic discs in the landfill either and no risk of leaving the disc til tomorrow to watch and finding it dead.
At what price learning? At what cost wisdom? The price is a man's peace of mind, and the cost is his life.
that if there is data that is provided to legitimate users be accessed, then nothing will keep unwanted parties from accessing it. The only way to truely copy protect something is to lock it into a vault. No matter how many cheesy copy-right protection schemes the music or movie industry comes up with, someone will always find a way around it if they are determined enough. I think they should just give up on the whole idea and think of alternative ways to ensuring that people will only buy the CD or DVD. I believe that lowering prices would be one way. CDs more so than DVDs. Fifteen dollars for around 10 songs just doesn't seem logical, especially when you consider that most of the songs are more than likely just filler. To me, music should be lower in price than movies. Also, I haven't purchased a CD in many years while I continue to buy DVDs for one simple reason: the quality that I get from a DVD is much greater than what I could ever hope to download. Plus the fact that my home theater setup is much better than watching video on my PC.
SIGFAULT
Thay should make these DVDs out of some edible stuff (don't ask me what). Wouldn't that be fun and recycling too. Then DVDs could start coming in different falvors.
Isn't this just as insidious as Divix, people have already mentioned the environmnental cost.. And wouldn't these DVDs actually be more expensive to manufacture?
Think about it...
If the media is going to self-destruct and is essentially "disposable" then people will want to copy the content to something more durable (an action which is entirely protected under fair-use laws, until they take those away, too.)
People already copy content to different formats for ease-of-use and convenience reasons (1-2 HD's is more convenient than 1000's of CD's) and this would be the same thing, only practically *enforced* by the nature of the original media.
Just something to think about...
Ken
w00t more money for the music industry at the expense of more non biodegradable crap for our landfills.
Two things:
1) Time-limited DVD type media has been tried before, and has failed (the other Divx).
2) It should be perfectly clear to the music studios that people are willing to purchase special CD/DVD music bundles. Case in point; one of my favourite bands, Disturbed, recently released their second album (Believe). There was a 'special limited edition' release that also contained a DVD with music videos, a few interviews etc. I pre-ordered this thing by over a month, and still missed out. So they're a proven method of distribution.
Im also sure that most people would feel much more comfortable paying $AU40.00 for a CD/DVD bundle than they would the current $AU32.00 for just the CD. I know I sure would buy more albums if that 'value for money' factor was increased.
Of course, they could acheive the same rise in sales by just dropping to a $AU20.00 price point, but we are talking about the music industry here...
Janie took my gun...
I fail to see why this is an issue. The market will correct for this almost instantaneously. DivX didn't fail for technology reasons...it failed because no one in their right mind is going to pay repeatedly to watch a movie that they "own".
There are companies that realize this, and they will be the ones that create non-perishable discs. Perishables might have their place, but it certainly won't be in rental media or for-purchase long-term media like modern DVDs. No one in their right mind would buy them!
Think about it -- why did DVD take off? Because it offered the customer significantly better performance at costs equivelent to VHS. Why did DivX flop? They assumed, incorrectly, that people would pay less money up-front and pay a per-view cost, for something that offers similar performance.
The same thing is going to happen here. No one is going to pay less for a degradable disc. It doesn't offer any additional value, and it doesn't matter how cheaply they price it.
Stop sweating it. The market will correct for this, and it won't be occupying landfills.
blog |
I had a chance to try a DVD video as part of a consumer test. /.'ers will find the last part really interesting. It was called EZ DVD, and, upon contact with air, would begin self destructing until, within 72 hours, it would be unreadable.
My wife came home from the mall with a package of materials for a consumer test EZ DVD. It was a copy of "Kate and Leopold" (they had others but that was the wife's choice-- oh boy!). The questinnaire included what we thought of the quality (poor- no chapter stops, pan and scan), how much we would pay (I put $3.95 but they had up to like $7) etc.
Here is the whack part: I put it in my DVD-ROM. It would not play back correctly nor would DVD-Decryptor rip it. I put it back in the DVD-V player and it worked fine (it was suppsed to last 72 hours before destruction and it had only been about 3 hours). I don't know if this was a test of a new anti-copy device or a side effect of the disc's construction. Mysterious. Has anyone else tested the disc's as well?
Most recycling (except for steel) is almost as bad from an environmental perspective as the original mining/manufacturing effort. Most materials, when recycled, cannot be used again for the original purpose - a lot of goods such as food product containers, CD's, etc require virgin material.
Somethings like copper, steel and glass are readily recycled. Paper is harder to recycle in a form of original quality. Plastic basically gets recycled into pot hole filler or cheap carpet pads - both uses which are basically end points and not much better than discarding.
- Adam
hell naw, y'all done up and done it ...again. Yet another failed attempt to make a self-destroying DVD sell. It's an interesting idea and perhaps useful for the sake of technological advancement, but the idea will never make money. It's much cheaper to stamp out 10 DVDs and rent them each out 100 times than to stamp out 1000 DIVX.. err whatever-you-call-this-divx-clone and have them each sold.
I can't believe somebody posted such shit logged in....
think about all the car trips(hence, gasoline) we'll save driving down to the rental store to return a regular DVD
we will buy expensive hard drives that are designed to fail after a short time...
/rant
Oh wait... we already do.
Hey I just noticed 1 year warranties on all hardrives. It used to be 3 years!!! WTF happened???? I remember when they first moved to 3 year warranties because of quality improvements made them last longer. And now back to 1yr.
Not just 1 company but ALL of them...WTF!!!!
I'll bet you could undo it with Tarn-X...
Supermarket and convenience stores could offer the "popular movies" as impulse items at the checkout. Instead of having to worry about the rental scheme like Blockbuster does, they would just sell them not unlike the phonecards that are at the checkout aisles now. What would happen if Microsoft used this vanishing disk approach to their products. You would have to pay every time you loaded the OS?
OTOH, this could kill the aftermarket for used DVDs completely --- something that the the media companies have long wanted to do. If a working DVD is indistinguishable from one that's degraded, no-one will trust a second-hand store.
This is actually some research into reducing the life of purchased DVDs - so they (like most items in this world) have a reduced life. Then, as good little consumers, we have to go out and buy the DVD again.
Yes, I am aware that they could (and most probably do) design dyes that deteriorate quickly anyway.
Think of the Disney "DVD holder" mechanism. Designed to chip and ruin the inner section of your DVD - and it just so happened that Disney apposed Warner Brothers strongly on DVD....
Good conspiracy theory anyway.
This technology is convenient, cost-effective, and most of all, good for the environment.
It is convenient because it will require stores to continue buying copies of the same movie to rent out.
It is cost-effective because it is certainly cheaper to purchase new copies of the same disc than to purchase a disc once.
It means that more natural resources will be used up in generating the otherwise unnecessary copies, which will fill our landfills with yet more garbage. Both of these are clearly good for the environment.
In short, I believe this technology should be extended to every area of business. For examples, books will henceforth be printed with ink that disappears the instant it has been read, utilizing chemicals that react to eyesight particles; Cars will ship with full gas tanks, and will turn into pumpkins when out of gas; Microwaves will only heat one dish and then explode; Hammers will disintegrate after hammering one nail, etc. (After all, hammer manufacturers have the right to make a profit on each nail that is being hammered.)
With that kind of properties...
One that 'forgets' the written information after some time.
So you can return with your empty media to get it filled again...
As far as the rental idea especally over the net, vendors could put a return address, and postage paid right on the dvd. When the user is done they just drop it in the mail and send it back to the vendor or a recycling company.
Where the hell are they going to put all those freakin DVD's? Think about how many times blockbuster rents Spiderman of other big name videos? They would have to build a huge warehouse onsite just for their older movies. Don't worry geeks...this will go about as fas as buying your food store stuff over the internet.
Wax protects the finish of my car. Will it protect the finish of my self-destructing CD?
You know Ph.D's are like 68% more likely to experiment with anal than the less
educated ?
I don't know about gang-bangs, but I hope the same rule applies. So if she's
really as hot as you say, and she wants to try double-penetration and cum
shots from a variety of cocks -- I'm the man!! I'll doo whatever necessary
to make sure you don't get too jealous also, like pretend I'm totally not
enjoying fucking the SHIT out of her, or whatever man! It'll all be kosher!
You wouldn't need a store as such any more, most of the work in stores is preventing shop lifting and dealing with returns.
With disposables the whole industry could run off vending machines.
Jason
I can see the pros of this venture: no more video rental late fees; no more renting scratched up and dirty DVDs. But the cons are far greater: video store make the most profit off those late fees, so watch stores close; 8 hours is fine if you plan to watch the movie once, but what if you rent a movie that you'd like to watch several times over the course of two nights?; just another absolute waste of plastic, adding yet another non-biodegradeable piece to the jump pile; and frankly, if accepted by the naive majority, it is a dangerous path straight to media companies controlling what and how we what movies and listen to music, hence soaking even more money from our paychecks, forcing us to hack more and buy less, forcing more legal wrangling, and continuing the damn vicious cycle.
You stupid piece of shit. You extoll the virtues of capitalism and objectivism and yet you choose to live in CHINA. Faggot.
Does a good farmer neglect a crop he has planted?
Does a good teacher overlook even the most humble student?
Does a good father allow a single child to starve?
Does a good programmer refuse to maintain his code?
-- Geoffrey James, "The Tao of Programming"
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