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Self-Destructing DVD's Coming Soon
BrianH writes "Looks like a close cousin of everybody's favorite self-destructing video format is making a comeback. Four years after Circuit City and its Hollywood backers pulled the plug on the self-expiring DVD concept, FlexPlay Technologies has introduced the EZ-D...a 48-hour self-expiring DVD disk. The difference? This time around you don't need a special player, and "time extensions" are no longer an option. It looks like Buena Vista has already signed on to the format, so Disney, Mirimax, and all of their other companies should be using this soon. As if that wasn't bad enough, it looks like this works for music and software disks too!" Here's an older story on these technologies.
Is this really a problem for people who have access to DeCSS and a DVD burner?
The solution is scavenger robots, that search for used-up dvds =)
"Hey give that back! I was using that as a coaster! GNggghhhh!!"
Somebody tell me again how this reduces the impulse to bootleg? They might as well just sell the nicely-printed cover art, and let people get the bits from their friends, or wherever. (Maybe they can get AOL to send them out.)
Exactly! Now those who would rip the DVDs will just have to do it very quickly.
Meanwhile the rest of us will have a problem paying $15 for a movie we can get a "2 day pass" on.
So:
1. Rippers not foiled
2. Home buyers irritated they pay good money and don't "get" the movie.
Sounds like a piss poor excursion for the record industry.
"Has [being a kidnapped teenage girl, raped repeatedly for months] changed you?" - Katie Couric to Elizabeth Smart
Obviously, nobody is going to pay full price for a DVD that self destructs. This is meant as a rental replacement. However, something like this could put rental places out of business.
Why? Rental places typically buy a certian number of new copies and rent them out repeatedly, after a few rentals the disc is paid for and it is pure profit on the disc after that, especially when you factor in the real money maker, late fees. When the movie is no longer a hot rental, they'll then just sell off their excess copies as pre-owned DVDs.
With the self destructing DVD, rental places will continuously have to replace their stock. They will not be able to charge late fees, nor will they be able to sell excess copies they've already made money off of. Ultimately, the rental place will no longer even be necessary since you'll likely be able to buy the destructable disc at any retail outlet or direct from the company for $2 a pop.
"You spoony bard!" -Tellah
Capitalism at its best means that we consumers have the ability to reject this stupid idea and cause it to fail....
Taking guns away from the 99% gives the 1% 100% of the power.
What happens under different atmospheric or weather conditions? Will it, in some places, never work when opened, or in another, they will never destruct? Are you sure it's caused by reacting gasses or some maybe some kind of timer?
Gotta love it.
"The first thing I will do is make an illegal copy, then I will return it and ask for my money back by lying and saying that it never worked."
I'm no angel, but what ever happened to ethics? Are we now so numb to piracy that stealing and lying are considered the "first thing" one would do?
Am I the only one who thinks there is something just a little cracked in the general conscience?
-sk
This is just a cheap excuse to avoid digital distribution. Downloading the movies would be cooler, and more enviro.
It seems the polution comments are not getting modded up. Why? How many billions of these things are going to be produced? Where does plastic come from for the most part (hint - we just had a war over this stuff)? And recycling? Just how easy is it separate the thin metal film from the plastic? Besides that, if these things are reactive to air - the article mentions that they begin to expire as soon as their opened - that would suggest some sort of strong plastic/foil packaging.
Scrap the crap - just put it up for download.
What changed under Obama? Nothing Good
Duh...I want DVD...two dollah at checkout register...works once...what a bargain!
More disposable crap to fill up the landfills with. I'm sure glad our kids are going to have to solve the problem of a throwaway society.
I guess it'd be too much to ask them to make the discs out of something degradeable or to include a mailer for recycling - but instead, they place the burden on the consumer to recycle the discs by asking us to mail the discs in off our own volition. Something I'm sure we all have time to do.
In other words, these discs will NEVER get recycled.
Seriously, as the alpha-geek crowd, we should do our part to dissuade everyone we know from even thinking of buying these.
I would do a refund thing: charge 8 bucks for the disc, and give 5 bucks for the emptied disc. This would more than encourage recycling, yet keeping the low cost.
This is my digital signature. 10011011001
How long is it going to take for companies like this to realize it? turn-around traffic is way too important to rental stores for disposable media to work. IIRC, Blockbuster claimed that a full 1/3 of their rental business comes from turn-arounds.
For those unfamiliar with the term, it refers to a customer returning one video and renting another, usually on impulse, in the same visit to the store. Obviously, if there's no returns, there's fewer opportunities to visit the store. Thus, fewer rentals, impulse or planned. Needless to say, that's a Bad Thing when rentals are your business. And how much of an impact is a constant flow of disposal DVDs going to have on inventory management?
It was a loser with Circuit City DIVX. Earlier generations of self-destructing media were losers. No matter how much they improve the materials, it won't stop being a loser until they can make up for the lost traffic at Blockbuster and Hollywood.
This sig intentionally left blank.
Speaking as someone more than 30 miles from the nearest "good" rental shop, I really hope this catches on.
Nope, I'm baffled by how acceptable theft has become. I know the big media companies are bad and want to restrict our rights, but that does not justify consuming their product and not paying for it.
The attitude of "if I can get away with it then I should do it" seems to be everywhere.
[Set Cain on fire and steal his lute.]
Glad I don't own a rental store, this could be the end of the business.
Hey.. if they want to blow another $100 million to try it again, go ahead. I personally would have figured it out the first time, but that's just me.
-Restil
Play with my webcams and lights here
Submerge the disc in an oxygen-poor environment. Someone already noted nitrogen. Possibly water (I guess it depends on the chemical reaction), oxygen gas is O-O, water is H-O-H, depending on the chemical they use it may not react with the oxygen in the water. Watch DVD, submerge in tupperware DVD holder until next viewing cycle :)
h arpie.
:)
CD/DVD layer cleaners. Those Dr. Fixit things that clean scratched CD's. The chemical has to be exposed to oxygen, why can't you just scratch off the opaqueness? Kind of a reverse write-over-the-copy-protection-on-the-CD-with-a-s
Least cost-effective: Open the DVD in a vacuum and put it in it's player, in a vacuum.
Seriously though, unless these are recycleable, I hope they fail miserably. What a huge waste of resources. More crap to throw away. What irresponsibility. What happened to ethics? Corporate responsibility? I guess you save some gas not having to return them tho. It better be cheaper than renting, cuz I live a quarter mile from a blockbuster. I don't mind renting and returning every once in a while.
More chemistry to think about: Is it the oxygen that bonds to the disc that makes the disc opaque? Or does it bind and pull whatever off the disc causing it to be unreadable, kind of like an oxygen wash? Would another chemical binding cause the disc to not be opaque and never fail? I'm no chemist, I only have a rudimentary understanding of the underlying forces. Your thoughts?
-- Having a Creationist Museum is like having an Atheist place of worship
Go Go Gadget DVD ripper..
hehehe As soon as I read the article I thought of that.
The thing that really pisses me off with this is it's yet another disposable consumable. AKA more waste for the friggin' landfills. I mean what, exactly, is wrong with the current DVD format? I can understand the use of these for, say, screeners for video stores, and awards consideration etc... but again, this is yet another ridiculous idea to rank next to the disposable cellphone.
Resources on this planet are not unlimited, and we're always being told to conserve and the like, and then a company comes along with a disposable format of a product that a lot of people already have.
Question: What happens if you're watching the disk at the moment 48 hours is up? Does it slowly corrode? Just die? Can the process be stopped with, for example, freezing? Or being vacuum sealed in a bag?
Another question: If this moronic idea is being adopted, how long before a "mistake" is made at the pressing plant, and the $40 boxed set you just shelled out on dies two days after you open it?
You just have to hold your breath a REAL long time...
I think this says a lot about how ripped off we are with regular DVD's. I mean this seems to be targetted at the rental market. It appears to be an additional process in the manufacturing (at least from skimming the article I got that impression), which will increase expense, and yet it appears these will be sold at rental prices...
I dont see Blockbuster or any rental places carrying this, in fact they might be against it.
Most of their income comes from late fee's.
If there's no incentive to bring the movie back, they have no recourse to charge a late fee, bye bye extra income
moo.
Can't speak for the 799 others, but I'd like this. If I could pick up a 48-hour DVD for a few bucks, that'd be a good deal to me. I don't have pay-per-view, I hate making two trips to Blockbuster for a single movie, and Netflix is a bad deal unless you rent at least four or five movies a month. There just aren't that many movies I'd like to see. Plus, since you don't need to have a rental system in place, they could stick these things anywhere: 7-11, grocery stores, Wal-Mart...all places I usually go anyway. I'd love to be able to pick up an occasional movie "rental" when I stop for gas or groceries, without having to worry about returning it by such-and-such a date. It's like DivX without the expensive equipment, the invasive privacy issues, or the hassle. Pretty cool stuff, actually.
And what's with all the yelling about DRM? I hate overly-restrictive DRM as much as anyone, but how is an essentially normal DVD that just stops playing after 48 hours any worse than a normal DVD that you have to give back to Blockbuster tomorrow? DivX, with all its nonstandard technology, "activation" crap, etc. was ugly. But this EZ-D thing you can play in any DVD player, there's no one tracking what you're doing with it...what's the big deal? It's not like these are going to replace real DVDs in the market. This technology is made to target renters, not buyers...
DennyK
This could be a great rental-fee saver for my friends and I.
If I unseal the movie and watch it in 3 hours, it still has 45 hours of life left. I can then pass it on to someone else to watch because, unlike regular rentals, I don't have to trust them to return it.
I have a feeling video stores are not going to like this. Or do they get the majority of their money from people without friends?
- mib
I'm wondering if they, instead of relying on the air to break it down, fill the DVD package with an inhibitor which is released when the package is opened. That way, the only way to preserve the disc would be to find out what the inhibitor is and make a chamber filled with it.
A solution to the problem with music today
It worked with DivX. The reason that failed
was that MOST people avoided it. If you ever
see a product you want that is only available
in this new EZ-D format, contact the company
and tell them that you are not only not buying
it, but that you will not buy any of their
other products either, until they stop using
that system. When enough of us do that, they
will have a simple choice; stop using the
system and have out money, or continue to use
that system and NOT have our money. I believe
that like DivX, they will choose our money...
Yup, as others have posted, here is a list of things that this would be useful for.
Seems like a good idea to me. Just make sure they don't degrade until you open the package and it's OK with me.
This won't kill the regular DVD's that are for sale.
Not so great for video games as you generally want more time then 48 hours. But I don't rent games to play to win. I rent to try it out before I buy it. If it sucks, I don't buy a copy. If I find I really like the game I buy it. There's a whole lot of crappola PS2 titles out there so I've been burned before and I don't have time to read all the reviews and keep up on the latest one hit wonder game title. I also don't have 48 hours to play the game non-stop, I have a job and girlfriend so that's out.