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Android Scans DVD Bar Codes, Downloads Movies

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on from the unifying-theory-of-gadgetry dept.

cars writes "Remember how you can scan any bar code with an android phone and it will tell you where to find that product for cheaper? A new Android application called BarTor (formerly ScanTorrent) can scan any DVD bar code and then signals either uTorrent or Vuze on your PC to download the movie from BitTorrent. How long do you think this will last?" Other features include purchase opportunities on barcode lookup, Google base product lookup, and site-level filtering.

5 of 181 comments (clear)

  1. Charging 2.99 by geekoid · · Score: 5, Insightful

    to people who don't want to pay for a movie? GLWT.

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    1. Re:Charging 2.99 by eln · · Score: 5, Insightful

      If $30 for a movie is unreasonable to you, there are plenty of other ways to see the movie without violating the law. You could go rent it at Blockbuster. Or you could get a Netflix account and get it there. There's no particular reason you need a permanent copy of the movie to call your own, especially if it "probably sucks".

      There are a lot of excuses as to why people download movies rather than renting them, but they're all pretty suspect.

    2. Re:Charging 2.99 by CannonballHead · · Score: 4, Insightful

      People spend $30 at Starbucks in a week pretty easily, spend probably half an hour or so in line (presuming 10 visits to Starbucks at $3 each visit, 5 minutes in the store). Many still think that $30 (or even $15) for 1.5 to 3 hours of entertainment, no matter how bad it is, is too much.

      And Starbucks, IMO, isn't even all that great coffee.

      There are a lot of excuses as to why people download movies rather than renting them, but they're all pretty suspect.

      IMO, very true. Seems one of the more common ones is "Well if I like it, I'll buy it." Apparently, we only have to pay for what we use if we like it. Try doing that at a restaurant, hehe.

    3. Re:Charging 2.99 by snowraver1 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I have a home.

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  2. Re:nice by cdrguru · · Score: 4, Insightful

    The biggest IMHO is "crowd sourcing" grocery lists. So you go to the store and scan in what you're going to buy, punch in the price and it gets added to a database. Use the GPS to determine the store.

    Get a few hundred people checking prices and you'll have a fairly accurate database of prices. Then you go home, made a grocery list and have it calculate where the cheapest place to shop is.

    The problem with this is this pushes grocery stores to complete solely on price. Selection no longer matters, customer service doesn't matter, just price.

    Personally, I see enough of that already. The Internet certainly has the power to transform all purchases into a simple decision based on price while taking all other factors out of it. Then, we will all be shopping at WalMart. Forget about anybody else, they can't compete as effectively on price.

    Is that what you really want? Because that is exactly what we are in danger of getting.