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Legal DVD Burnable Downloads Launched
rogabean writes to tell us that Hollywood studios have taken a large step into the future by launching their new program with CinemaNow which allows users to legally download and burn DVDs. While the current of offerings seems to be just the dregs, studio execs hope to expand the list quickly and offer a new way to find niche or older films that are difficult to locate.
"The first part of the burning process is Converting the file into a format that can be burned. This can take anywhere from 2-5 hours and happens as you download the file."
5 hrs during/after the download... think I'll pass. O, that and I'm a Linux user : P
noobcake or noobmuffin? It is the same price...
Just looking around their site, you can't do anything of substance (even find out how much the movies are) without IE 6.0 (or greater - yippie). Well, that isn't working too well for me. Be gentle, though - they seem excited about their new and shiny business model.
- Tash
Yippie - hybrids!
Until the telcos deliver on their 6+ year old promise that I was supposed to have a 45+M/bit sync fiber connection by now; I think I'll pass and just drive to the store and buy the movie instead (it would be quicker). It would be nice however to be able to download some old movies like 'Quatermas and The Pit'. But if Hollywood still insists on crippling it with DRM/CSS I'll just go somewhere else.
"I bow to no man" - Riddick
Just to pick an example from the article, Walmart's web site offers "Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle" for $5.50. Others will cost more obviously, but downloading this one yourself will be $9 minimum, plus the cost of the DVD.
Have you read my blog lately?
Folks need to realize the compression on some of these movies is going to be horrific.
Most users out there burn DVD +-R dvds, no dual layers. One of the first things I do when I backup my copies is to remove all the crap like menus, FBI/Interpol warnings, Featurettes I couldn't give a rat's ass about. Then I have a movie that needs little to no compression.
Also, I concur with the Walmart bin comments. Downloading and burning DVD's is a mid to upper level computer task. Gram and gramps at home aren't doing these things. Do they assume that people with this level of computer knowledge will not be smart enough to shop around and compare prices on these crap movies?
You can use any DVD +-R discs in your own burner.
Well.. maybe. Or Maybe not. But Definitely not sort of.
So you've made the consession that you'll pay their distribution costs.
No, I haven't. I still expect them to provide the bulk of the bandwidth, but I don't see any reason at all not to use a little of mine to help make sure the downloads are as fast as possible. I also don't mind paying shipping costs when I order DVDs from on-line retailers, and I don't mind buying a car, fuel, etc. to drive to the store.
Now why shouldn't they try to get you to agree to serial copy management.
They can try, but what makes you think that I'd be willing to accept that? I insist on the freedom to do what I like with the movies that I buy, within the bounds of copyright law (and I reserve the right to ignore egregious and imbalanced copyright laws the media industry may buy).
Or maybe watermarking.
I don't care about watermarking as long as it's completely invisible/inaudible. If it degrades the quality in any way, I won't pay for it. If it's completely unnoticeable, doesn't affect durability, etc., why would I care?
Or a proprietary codec that plays an ad each time you load the driver?
I won't accept ads, which is one reason I play DVDs with open source DVD players, which allow me to skip whatever I want to skip. And proprietary codecs are unwelcome, and not only because they're unlikely to work on my machines.
And it'll just get worse from there...
Bah. I know what I care about and what I don't care about. What I care about is my Fair Use rights, quality, convenience and price. As long as they offer me convenient access, decent quality at a reasonable price and don't limit what I can do with the media I buy, I'll buy it. To the degree they fail in any of those categories, my interest decreases. Especially with fair use limitations, assuming I can't easily work around them.
BTW, you do know that the "slippery slope" is generally categorized as a logical fallacy, don't you? Invoking it weakens, not strengthens, your argument.
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