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Hollywood Backs Swedish Movie Streaming Site
paulraps writes "Forget Spotify and Skype: the latest strangely-named-but-hey-it's-free service from Sweden offers users streamed on-demand movies free of charge, has deals with two major Hollywood studios, and is called Voddler. Since its launch two weeks ago, the service has signed up a quarter of a million users and has almost the same number queuing for an invitation. After signing deals with Disney and Paramount, the company provides access to thousands of films, which are shown uninterrupted after a barrage of ads. The target is the file-sharing generation: 'Our customers can be sure that Voddler is totally legal, secure, and that there are no risks of computer viruses infecting their machines from downloaded files,' says executive vice president Zoran Slavic."
Here's what happens when you access their site.
First you are presented with a very sparse page with a couple areas you can put your name and email address to "register".
Next, if you are so inclined, you enter your email address and name.
Then it says "Thanks for your interest in Voddler!"
Then you receive an email informing you that actually you didn't actually register since the site isn't actually open yet.
I suppose it was a good idea to use a throwaway account for this.
The "free" movies from Comcast on-demand suck and I would imagine those costs are somehow worked into your Comcast bill. I can't imagine free movies would be that great if they are only ad supported. Hollywood wouldn't give the rights to any movie actually worth seeing unless you pay the expensive royalties.
I have been using voddler as a beta tester for a few weeks now and it works quite ok after the last client upgrade. The first mac client was crap, nothing happened when I tried to login and it went fullscreen mode when started plus the program froze so I had to shut down the computer with forced shut down. After the latest client version I was logged in when I started the program, Voddler client is built on XBMC Media Center and you can only use the keyboard to navigate which can be quite annoying when navigating.
Browsing the few movies they have at the moment is fairly easy (only about 500 movies or so). First I get a commercial and then the movie plays nicely on just 10-12Mbit adsl line. I have heard that there was commercial breaks in the movies, but I haven't seen any commercial in a movie so far, just the commercial just before the movie starts which can be 10 minutes long or so.
For a beta I think it's a nice product which works quite well for me. Especially since the last update on the client which allows you to go into windowed mode which I forgot to mention further up in my text.
I believe that Voddler can be great once the new movies pop in and the beta goes into full product. The client has only crashed on me once and when I started it up again and found my movie I was looking at I could start where it ended.
There is a story further down the page: http://www.thelocal.se/23202/20091111/
A Swede was caught and fined for speeding on the autobahn.
As Americans, we sometimes willfully ignore facts, as most Americans believe the Autobahn to be this magical road where speed limits don't exist and every can drive as fast as they want.
Our perspective is very narrow and insular, and that is one of our greatest weaknesses. Our willingness to quickly grab ahold of any negative story about China, Iran, or other "enemy" of ours is precisely the result of this lack of perspective.
So when we see a new site that is offering up movies for free, we are quick to cheer. We are quick to glom on to any sort of thing that we find even somewhat pleasing without fully understanding all the consequences. How will the movie companies make money from this type of site? Who is actually paying for the movies you see?
Yes, the commercials are played before the movie now, but as that becomes unprofitable where are they going to start putting them? What are we going to lose down the road?
We all want free access to premium content. Is the price worth it?
HTF is that phishing? Wikipedia sez:
And no analogy in your comment. Perhaps consider renaming yourself to inane first post guy?
My pics.
uninterrupted barrage of ads
Why, oh why do they insist on this selling point of "no risks of computer viruses".
I'm always concerned that "legitimate" sources will contain a dodgy driver or a rootkit. No such concerns with the latest aXXo rip.
I find the movie selection on Voddler quite disappointing.
When the fine article said "Swedish movie site", I was expecting something entirely different. As any movie buff knows, a true Swedish movie always ends with the single word "SLUT" and you all know there is a good reason for it.
At the very least I was expecting previosly unreleased footage of the Swedish Bikini team, and I was hoping for quite a few sluts.
xenu.net
No news here. It's just the RIAA / MPAA getting a free slashvertisement for their buddy, bill.
If you want video, go to the video bay. If you want the net locked down in proprietary, DRM'd formats, go to viddler, vaudler, or whatever it was called. If you want to send a big F-U to European and American business, then go to viddler, vaudler, or whatever it was called. If you want to give a boost to European and American business, then go video bay or any other site specializing in open technology.
Beta is broken and the link to classic doesn't work. Stop wasting our time or there won't be anybody left here.
One of the reasons I stopped going to theaters to watch movies was that after I paid to get in, I was sitting through commercials (not just trailers, but commercials). I decided that I might as well stay home and wait for the movies on non-premium cable.
but without DRM and in common formats. streaming wastes bandwidth each time you want to watch the movie. there is probably a way to rip but with the MPAA involved you can be guaranteed 'the man' is putting in some sort of DRM to try and stop that
"Our customers can be sure that Voddler is totally legal, secure, and that there are no risks of computer viruses infecting their machines from downloaded files"
Finally! The amount of times I've had viruses from video-files have been... Erm... Ohwait.
What video files containing viruses -are- they talking about?,br>
With software they might at least have a point, but I've never seen a video file with a virus.
When you shoot a mime, do you use a silencer?
I actually like having a few minutes of "quality time" with my girlfriend during the ads. We call it our pre-movie buffet.
The ads are usually just long enough to allow me to get down between her legs and pull her panties down, slide my hand up the inside of her thighs and feel her moist with anticipation. Then I get right down and start licking her asshole. She'll stifle a moan and that's when I start massaging her balls and stroking her dick.
I work on a 5 minute per released week system:
First week: 20 minutes late
Second week: 15 minutes late
Third week: 10 minutes late
If it's been out longer than 3 weeks, I can wait for the DVD ( which I can skip the You wouldn't steal a policeman's helmet! adverts and trailers through VLC )
Finally had enough. Come see us over at https://soylentnews.org/
They probably have the look alikes and the wannabee movies. Like a Swedish Steven Seagal that kicks arse and gets all the Swedish chicks...and he runs outta chicks...
WARNING: Smartphones have side effects--most of them undocumented.
I still think one of the reasons Blu Ray won in the end is because HD required the movie start when you loaded the DvD. My Disney produced Blu Ray discs are loaded with nearly a dozen ads and such before the movie selection screen pops.
Its a constant pushing of "Next Chapter" after loading many Blu Ray titles. If they going to stream them over the net for free after a barrage of ads the least they could do is reduce the price of Blu Ray discs. Fortunately I haven't had a problem with skipping the ads, but I do have to press "Next Chapter" as each loads. One day someone might wise up and figure a way to go directly to the movie again.
* Winners compare their achievements to their goals, losers compare theirs to that of others.
I was very excited about Voddler (I'm a Spotify premium subscriber, and a big movie buff, so it was just what I'd been waiting for), until I read about how the mac client works.
When installed it takes root access (in beta? how can that be safe?), and the server part never shuts down. That's right, when you're not watching a movie, you're still uploading. When you're out and about with your laptop and on a 3G tether, just checking your email and paying for data transfer, you're still uploading. When you have some real uploading to do (for work or whatever), the only way to turn off the Voddler sharing is to uninstall the server part, and then the client and player stops working.
No thanks.
I believe that [Command-Option-Esc] will get you a "kill task" dialog most of the time, even when a program has taken the Mac hostage in full-screen.
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Hey, maybe Hollywood is finally starting to get it? We'll see how badly they try to screw the customers in the long term, but this is at least a step in the right direction.
"Growing old is inevitable; growing up is optional."
That is correct, but in my case it did not work. I don't know if it was because it was trying to connect at the same time as it froze that made it so [Command-Option-Esc] didn't work. I could be completely wrong, but I have noticed that programs which connect to the net and freeze up while doing so on a Mac can be hard to kill at times. Firefox with lots of plugins does this from time to time so that a kill -p pid in terminal wont work. Could just be my imagination though. And it has only happened once so far and that was on the first Mac client.
It's a beta so I should have seen it coming.
This guy's account needs to be banned
Humor from a Genetically Molested Mind
I like the option to get all my ads up front and then watch a show uninterrupted. Hulu has this feature with some of its teevee offerings. I generally mute the stupid thing for the couple minutes that the ads are running, run to the kitchen grab something to eat, or switch windows and do work there, then when the time's over, I'll watch my show. Essentially the whole thing is ad free at that point. Of course advertisers probably hate me for suggesting we all ignore them.
http://www.beanleafpress.com
Between pirating and DRMed adware delivery. How about these digital content guys try to sell their stuff at some low price that reflects the reality that making digital copies is incredibly cheap, that we have had bona fide tech advances that make this possible, rather than sticking to now ancient history "per unit" pricing models? Instead of a buck for a song, how about a buck for a download movie and five cents for a song? Something like that. Figure out what bandwith costs them, double that, and offer their stuff legitimately at that price.
People really started pirating about the same time it became apparent to just about everyone that any legitimate way to get content was blatant price gouging. People looked at plastic disks and went "hey, how come I can make a copy with my home equipment for 25 cents, yet these big places with even better equipment, who can do it cheaper at wholesale rates, want 25 bucks for a copy"? And when it comes to pure downloads, it was worse than that.
What these big content guys kept trying was "digital prohibition", if I can use this analogy, just like the government tried with booze and failed at, and that is just never going to work. The black market moonshiner rates and "home brewed" and "bath tub gin" methods just routed around obvious market inefficiencies and stupid laws.
The ad method won't work for them in the long run, people will figure out how to skip the ads, or just ignore them. Just offer the product way cheap with at least some profit in there (that's why I like a clean "double the bandwith costs and no more" method, easy to figure out and still a cheap price), and try volume sales instead. There are potentially six BILLION customers out there who ARE willing to buy things if the price is right and not blatant price gouging.
At least you can hit Next Chapter and skip the ads. When I load a Sesame Street DVD in for my kids to watch, I'm forced to see the same "supporting Sesame Street supports kids around the world" commercial read by Whoppi Goldberg. Next Chapter is locked so you can't skip it (though I think some of the newer DVDs might have fixed this). So my kids (unaccustomed to ads thanks to DVRs) want to know why they can't just get right to the movie.
My sci-fi novel, Ghost Thief, is now available from Amazon.com.
Having a firewall with a default deny policy is a good way to promote safety.
If you use Voddler, you need to open each and every TCP and UDP port from 1025 and up. (Or have some D-Linkish "router" with UPnP.)
Okay, this may not be such a big deal for most home users. But it makes it impossible to use in a work or school setting.
This is a great service for documentaries and educational videos that can never be.
Why can't they do like Skype, Spotify or... well most anything else, like the web?
That's an interesting point, the one about network connections taking their toll; one sure way to make my Mac unresponsive is to pull the plug while I'm trying to browse a network share!
Is it a Swedish site that streams movies, or a site that streams Swedish movies?
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
Hulu or any of the other free online TV/movie streaming sites?
I read that as "Bollywood Hacks Swedish Movie Streaming Site". Had this image of some programmer replacing documentaries about meatballs with clips of Aishwarya Rai dacing on a hilltop.
This guy's account needs to be banned
Naw, probably won't even use it again and would just sign up again with a different id if they did want to.
What they need is a DDoS on the website they're plugging & for that website to be informed that it was a direct result of the spam comments. Someone should turn one of the botnets against them.
Ever heard of the main menu button on your remote, works like a charm goes right to the movies menu and skips the adds
Uggs and Ed Hardy clothing. Somebody nuke it from orbit.
Don't blame me, I voted for Cthulhu.
Well forget it then.
If Google really cared they would fix Android Chrome to reflow text, instead of discriminating
Hi there movie industry,
When launching a new movie streaming service, don't bother unless you start with..say..100,000 movies. 500 movies is laughable, risible, ridiculous.
Just saying, Technology has advanced, no reason why all movies in existence can't be hosted in HD in h.264 format on the cloud by the studios, and provided to partners such as vodswede.
That's assuming you actually want to compete with unauthorized copies. Maybe this is just to tell judges there are legal alternatives or something. It just seems too pathetic to mean anything else.
Good luck to you, MPAA.
...that argument works, because your customers can't tell data formats (like MKV or AVI) from executable files.
Unfortunately, I say FUCK streaming! I'm not falling for that "you actually don't own shit" strategy!
Either I own the unencrypted file on my hard drive, of you can just right GTFO.
Any sufficiently advanced intelligence is indistinguishable from stupidity.
Can any beta tester verify whether around 1.8Mbps will be enough? I mean, if I can't stream real time, can I at least pause and then resume after it buffers (like youtube)? Also, apologies if it's been asked before, but is this service gonna work for all countries? What about the ads then.. don't they need to be region specific?
The target is the file-sharing generation
Okay, I'm listening.
'Our customers can be sure that Voddler is totally legal, secure ...
Sounds good.
... and that there are no risks of computer viruses infecting their machines from downloaded files,'
Say, what? If your target is "file-sharing generation", then don't spout bullshit that is obvious to the majority of it!
My DVD player obeys the requests of many DVDs not to allow skipping to the menu during previews. Often I have to fast-forward play through them, as it won't even let me chapter-skip past them.
What exactly does Skype have to do with Sweden?
NB: The message above might reflect my opinion right now, but not necessarily tomorrow or next year.
My DVD player has a "fast play" button which works in those cases. You still have to watch the advertisement but it zips by twice as fast.
"I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." - historian Evelyn Beatrice Hall
I've tried that button on my DVD player but I can't fast forward or next chapter past the Sesame Street ad.
My sci-fi novel, Ghost Thief, is now available from Amazon.com.
does anyone know if this streaming service will be "throttled" like p2p traffic is?
sure would be one sided to block my p2p traffic while giving me a full 600kb/sec download for these movies.
www.disolvethecrtc.com :P
There is a reason why this came in Sweden and not elsewhere. Don't expect to see something like this here.
Sweden giving more power to their people than to foreign companies, those companies were faced with the choice of staying with their old way of doing business (making no virtually no money) or changing the model to do less. At least, less means more than nothing. The fact that this tactic of suing customers failed forced the big players to change. Sweden people along side with their government forced an industry to innovate. And this wouldn't have been possible without piracy. It was the mean through which people expressed their discontent with an industry's current way of doing things. Piracy was like a boycott and it worked.
Now let see how this goes. Could this open the way for other countries? Don't expect it in countries where governments are more concerned by profit making business than their people.
Maybe a premium movie theater like the "VIP" cinemas we have in México would help bring people to the movie theaters.
Here's a picture. http://dealante.com/upload/nodos/2008/8/28/doc-151693.jpg
Admission costs the equivalent of 9.50 USD (twice what the regular theater costs) and there's waiters bringing you food and alcohol to your seat, huge reclining seats and you choose your seat while buying the admission. I've never seen anything like that in the US, maybe they'd have to cost over twice as much the regular admission since the staff would be so much more expensive but there's been great success with that business model over here.
These are still corporations that are members of organizations such as the RIAA, MPAA, etc. and have themselves participated in many large-scale abuses that have been documented over the years, correct? Should I suddenly support and fund them now that they've launched a heavily ad-supported streaming video website?
Don't get me wrong, ads bombarding you before a movie instead of every 15 minutes during is better, I guess (And I doubt will last long.) But you'd have to have a sort of battered wife syndrome to champion them for this.