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The One-Use, Self-Destructing DVD Returns
BonrHanzon writes "Looks like DivX (the stupid one, not the codec) has been resurrected in the form of Flexplay. Staples will be selling these movie disks for 5 bucks a pop at the checkout counter. The disks can be played in any DVD player, but a special adhesive will render the disk unplayable 48 hours after the package has been opened. As if our landfills weren't already overflowing with enough crap." The blog post notes that Flexplay has actually been around for 5 years; the Staples distribution deal is what's new.
1. Buy cheaper disposable movie.
2. Rip it to harddrive.
3. Dispose of movie.
4. ???????
5. PROFIT!
"We are the music makers, and we are the dreamers of dreams [...]."
http://flexplay.com/recycling/
You can recycle them. You can return them to the store you bought them at for recycling. You can even get a free mailing label and ship them to flexplay for recycling.
You can also shoot yourself in the face if you're dumb enough to buy this crap.
Why would anyone do this when you can usually rent it for a week cheaper?
Here in Australia they're selling once-mainstream DVDs for $6-$8 all over the place. If shoppers would just exhibit a little patience instead of rushing out to buy the latest shiny, they too would benefit from the eventual lower prices.
I saw the first full page ad for Blu-Ray disks in a supermarket catalogue today. If the shops keep pushing those, DVDs are only going to get cheaper and cheaper.
Hal Spacejock: Science Fiction with Nuts
Yes... After all it didnt stop the oil industry why should it stop the MAFIAA?
09F911029D74E35BD84156C5635688C0
+2 Troll is Slashdot's way of saying groupthink is confused
Well, how's that different from...
1. Rent movie.
2. Rip it to harddrive.
3. Return it.
4. ???????
5. PROFIT!
Effectively, this is just a simpler way of renting movies. In fact, so simple that any regular store can get into that business. They don't need to keep track of who rented what, who's overdue, find and replace scratched movies, etc. It just lets them use their normal logistics, which they have in place and are already in place. And it makes it a lot simpler to "rent" them by mail over the internet too.
It also makes life simpler for people like me, who live half a city away from the nearest movie rental shop. It's more convenient to chuck it into the bin, than have to make a second trip to give it back. In fact, it would save me a lot more trips, since now I'd be able to just go there once and buy a small stack of disposables, and watch them whenever I have time. (The clock starts ticking when you opened it, not when you "rented" it.) No more "omg, I got the whole LOTR trilogy, so it's time to drop everything else and stay awake until 1AM to watch it all. Or just order a small stack of them by mail.
Of course, it has the same caveats as rentals. Including that if someone wants to rip it, they can. It's not a new problem, though. And I'll venture a wild guess that if it wasn't the end of the world or of the movie business before, the new version can't be that much more destructive
A polar bear is a cartesian bear after a coordinate transform.
The dvd's will come standard as part of a kit: the degrading dvd will be bundled with a writable dvd.
Oh, so you want me to pay you $5 for something that will self destruct in two days? Sure I'd be glad to... NOT! Who the hell came up with such a stupid idea? Why on earth would I buy this piece of crap when I can rent a DVD for less than that? This shouldn't even be legal and if it is then humanity is more screwed up than I thought.
I have scoured around TFA but can't find much detail on the actual chemical process. Now, I know it's probably all internal and doesn't involve copious amounts of actual liquid adhesive.
But still, would you want to the first person to discover you have left one of these in your player and it just happens to be a rogue one in the batch that has written off your player.
As someone else has said, renting the film for a week is cheaper and buying them new isn't loads more anyway.
The only place I can see these having any place in the market is for the Mission Impossible box set.
- You have a limitted time in which to view it.
- You have to return it. Not everyone lives near a video rental store.
- you will be charged if the disk gets damaged or lost.
If you buy a self destructing DVD- You can buy it on spec and watch it some other time (these have a shelf life)
- You just throw it out when you're done with it.
- The maximum cost is the cost of a disposable DVD.
The environmental damage isn't as big a problem as people seem to think. Much smaller than takeout, and probably less than the waste from a day's food for most people. That and they're recyclable.The main problem is making people realise that this is a rental and not a purchase. When they own the physical media they think they own it. Prices are also a little high, but they don't need a vast number of customers. Just enough movie fans for stores to justify the shelf space.
"FlexPlay"
No flexibility, and after 48 hours no play!
The Slashdot Paradox: "100% Overrated"
DIVX is the crappy circuit city DVD rental program. DivX is the codec.
Case matters.
The troll with karma.
How is a disposable DVD different than all the water bottles, plastic bags, yogurt pots, polystyrene trays, etc. that are currently being dumped by the trillion?
This is a drop in the ocean compared to that. Heck, the snack foods consumed while watching the movie will probably create more garbage than the DVD.
No sig today...
Given the quality of films today can they make them so they self destruct with bad movies "before" they are played? Could save a lot of pain and suffering especially with Uwe Boll movies.
Ok, so I admit that my Roku box just arrived today, but it's just awesome. $9/month for the unlimited Internet watching. And then don't have to push around a bunch of plastic discs, keep discs in stock in case people want to watch them.
Netflix is positioned to become the next "cable company" without having to lay all this cable. You can pick what you want, when you want it, pause it, skip around, and given 15 seconds or so it will spool up the data and play a perfectly reasonable picture. And with no commercials...
I haven't had cable TV at home for the last decade, because it doesn't provide what I wanted. All I wanted recently was Heroes and Battlestar, but to get those two I had to buy 40 channels of other crap, including commercials.
Or I could just wait for it to come out on DVD. Or lately a bunch of us have been gathering at a friends place for it.
The installed base of DVD players is huge, but Netflix will already bring you the plastic disc, to your home, so it's only missing the ability to have an impulse buy the plastic disc.
For the $100 box, you have the ability to get what you want without having to wait for the disc to arrive, don't have to return it, and can watch all you can stand.
Netflix is poised to eat a lot of other folks lunch.
Sean
...the submitter picks up on the worst one. There's plenty of landfill space. That doesn't mean we have to go and waste it all right now...Microsoft also uses a similar model. Their popular Windows product starts to deteriorate immediately after installation with all of the bloatware and is unusable within 48 hours.
Since you already have rights to the work's initial medium, does this mean than hacks are not violations of DMCA?
They provided technology for the ORIGINAL disk to self-destruct. You are not breaking tech to make copies, you are *preventing breakage*.
My first Journal Entry ever, in 8 years! http://slashdot.org/journal/365947/aphelion-scifi-fantasy-horror-poetry-webzine
I really hope someone sues the company responsible for putting all of these toxic chemicals into landfills.
and yes, discs are made with toxic chemicals.
This is just a horrible waste of resources. Especially when the content could be distributed in harmless electron format.
They're using their grammar skills there.
Obviously, they must be running out of people to sue for downloading movies. This new technology is clearly designed to frustrate even more consumers, and drive them to download so they can keep their profit margin high with lawsuits.
Fortunately (for me), there hasn't been a movie coming out of Hollywood in 20 years that I have the slightest interest in either wasting money on, or risking an infringement lawsuit for downloading.
"Every great cause begins as a movement, becomes a business, and eventually degenerates into a racket." -- Eric Hoffer
So what they're really saying is that they can profitably manufacture, distribute, and sell DVD movies for the low price of $5, even after paying some company to add their technology to the disc which not only doesn't enhance the consumer experience, but seriously degrades it. So why do they charge $20 for the other discs again?