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DreamWorks Animation CEO: Movie Downloads Will Move To Pay-By-Screen-Size

Rambo Tribble (1273454) writes "Jeffrey Katzenberg, the head of Dreamworks Animation, speaking at the Milken Global Conference in California, opined that the future pricing model for movie downloads will revolve around screen size. In his view, larger screens will incur larger download prices. As he says, 'It will reinvent the enterprise of movies.' Unclear is how physical dimensions, rather than just resolution matrix, will be determined. Will we soon be saying 'hello' to screen spoofing?" Can you fake the physical dimensions reported in the EDID block when the connection is using HDCP? Aside from the implication that this would mean more DRM (and seems pretty unworkable, but with the rise of locked bootloaders on even x86 hardware...), the prices he predicts seem alright: "A movie screen will be $15. A 75-inch TV will be $4. A smartphone will be $1.99."

259 of 347 comments (clear)

  1. Stretch that anus! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    Bend over and take it boys! Hope your anus is been pre-stretched!

    1. Re:Stretch that anus! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Bend over and take it boys! Hope your anus is been pre-stretched!

      RIP the blu-ray. It has everything going for it, plus you don't get fucked by the MPAA's new disfunctional economic model.
      Yeah it's illegal. Oh well we can't have it all now can we ?

    2. Re:Stretch that anus! by NotDrWho · · Score: 5, Funny

      Bend over and take it boys! Hope your anus is been pre-stretched!

      I'm a Comcast customer. I can assure you that my anus is more than capable of taking anything at this point.

      --
      SJW's don't eliminate discrimination. They just expropriate it for themselves.
    3. Re:Stretch that anus! by NotDrWho · · Score: 1

      I'm still mourning HD-DVD. All the goodness of blu-ray but without the region coding.

      --
      SJW's don't eliminate discrimination. They just expropriate it for themselves.
    4. Re:Stretch that anus! by NotDrWho · · Score: 1

      It only had half the capacity (25 GB) because the format didn't last long enough for them to start manufacturing dual-layered versions. And the Xbox 360 could only play HD-DVD movies, not games (all 360 games are on standard DVD's).

      --
      SJW's don't eliminate discrimination. They just expropriate it for themselves.
    5. Re:Stretch that anus! by fuzzyfuzzyfungus · · Score: 1

      The xbox360 had a not-wildly-successful external HD-DVD option at one point; but the internal drive was always a standard DVD drive, and no games or xbox-specific disks were ever released as anything other than DVDs.

      This hardly decreased the space crunch on xbox games, since DVD9s are even smaller than either successor format; but the xbox never really crossed paths with HD-DVD, other than Microsoft's one relatively lukewarm accessory offering.

    6. Re: Stretch that anus! by LionMage · · Score: 1

      Xbox 360 only ever used DVD-ROM for game distribution. HD-DVD required an add-on drive and was strictly for movies.

    7. Re:Stretch that anus! by DarwinSurvivor · · Score: 1

      Even comparing the same number of layers puts bluray (25GB single-layer, 50GB dual-layer) way ahead of HD-DVD (15GB single-layer, 30GB dual-layer). You are correct about the xbox part though, my bad.

    8. Re:Stretch that anus! by newcastlejon · · Score: 3, Funny

      A Comcast customer with a fat pipe?
      Hmm. Something about that just doesn't quite ring true.

      --
      If God forks the Universe every time you roll a die, he'd better have a damned good memory.
    9. Re:Stretch that anus! by davester666 · · Score: 1

      The primary fat pipe is to your wallet. The secondary fat pipe is inserted into your anus.

      --
      Sleep your way to a whiter smile...date a dentist!
    10. Re:Stretch that anus! by Jeremy+Erwin · · Score: 1

      Two DVDs. If you wanted to play an HDDVD disc on the XBox 360, you had to buy the drive.

      But yes, HDDVDs could only store 15 GB per layer, versus 25 GB per layer for Bluray. However, early Blurays were by and large single layer, with LPCM sound and MPEG2 video, because Sony hadn't worked out all the kinks.

    11. Re: Stretch that anus! by Scotland · · Score: 1

      And their strict Two Fat Pipe policy means only skinny pipes left for content delivery.

  2. Projectors? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Will they be able to tell how far away I have my projector from the wall?

    1. Re:Projectors? by Samantha+Wright · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I'm sure that would fall under the most expensive category, just to be "safe."

      --
      Bio questions? Ask me to start a Q&A journal. Computer analogies available for most topics!
    2. Re:Projectors? by AlphaWolf_HK · · Score: 1

      Not only that, but is this pay per view on that screen or would you e.g. buy a blu-ray for $4? I might actually start buying them if that is the case (well, technically I've already started as I bought T2 on blu-ray for $5; no fucking way I'll ever spend $10 or more on a single movie disc though, and no way in hell I'll ever pay more than 50 cents for just one view.)

      --
      Careful with names containing L slashdot.org/~AiphaWolf_HK slashdot.org/~AlphaWoif_HK slashdot.org/~AiphaWoif_HK
    3. Re:Projectors? by Pascoea · · Score: 1

      Doesn't it make more sense to word this more as "Pay per quality"? You want a 480p, which will probably still look pretty good an a smart phone but look like garbage on a projector, its X dollars. 1080? Well, thats 2X. Don't ask what 4K will cost. To me, that makes most sense. It doesn't matter what the display quality of your device of choice is, you pay for your desired level of quality. (Quality, in this case is referring to the number of pixels, compression ratios, etc... let's not bring up the "quality" of the actual content, plot, acting, etc.)

    4. Re:Projectors? by KingOfBLASH · · Score: 1

      The interesting thing is that these sorts of price points encourage more consumption.

      Back when a VHS tape was $20 I had absolutely no desire to buy any movies (it was cheaper to go to the theatre!). I saw maybe 1 - 2 movies a month, and the studios had to split that with the theatre.

      Now I buy quite a few movies a month. Depends on how much free time I have but I'd say maybe I average one a weekend. Studios split it with Apple, but their costs are much lower as well. And whereas before in months where there were no movies I wanted to see I just wouldn't go, I can always find something on the back catalog.

      And, it's useful to have a catalog I can pull up at any time.

    5. Re:Projectors? by jedidiah · · Score: 1

      Sure. But this guy has no idea what he's talking about despite the fact that these kinds of details are the sort of thing that he should be aware of.

      --
      A Pirate and a Puritan look the same on a balance sheet.
    6. Re:Projectors? by CAIMLAS · · Score: 1

      And what if I have an HDMI projector hooked to my phone?

      --
      ~/ssh slashdot.org ssh: connect to host slashdot.org port 22: too many beers
    7. Re:Projectors? by Kjella · · Score: 1

      Well, if monitors will have DRM-signed EDID with physical dimensions, I'm sure we could have DRM-signed lumen ratings for projectors. That would be a quite good proxy. Of course the MPAA will probably just assume that you've invited all your friends and family to watch the movie, but hey... I'm sure they'll generously offer to install IR sensors and charge you by number of viewers instead.

      --
      Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
    8. Re:Projectors? by thewolfkin · · Score: 1

      Doesn't it make more sense to word this more as "Pay per quality"? You want a 480p, which will probably still look pretty good an a smart phone but look like garbage on a projector, its X dollars. 1080? Well, thats 2X. Don't ask what 4K will cost. To me, that makes most sense. It doesn't matter what the display quality of your device of choice is, you pay for your desired level of quality. (Quality, in this case is referring to the number of pixels, compression ratios, etc... let's not bring up the "quality" of the actual content, plot, acting, etc.)

      that would make sense if that was what he was talking about. I got the impression he literally meant pay per screen inch which is so ridiculous it' s insane.

      --
      Just another second banana
    9. Re:Projectors? by Samantha+Wright · · Score: 1

      Then they'll happily charge you extra, even if you don't use it!

      --
      Bio questions? Ask me to start a Q&A journal. Computer analogies available for most topics!
    10. Re:Projectors? by Samantha+Wright · · Score: 1

      To be honest I've been trying to move to SoylentNews, but I can't quite stomach the blast from the past—the comments are few, the SlashCode is yesteryear's, and the stories tend to be a day or so behind. (I am glad, however, to see that Beta is more or less sleeping in R'lyeh.)

      --
      Bio questions? Ask me to start a Q&A journal. Computer analogies available for most topics!
    11. Re:Projectors? by Incadenza · · Score: 1

      As a Dutch cheapskate I will have the movie directly projected into the smallest screen I have: my eyeball.

    12. Re:Projectors? by Hentes · · Score: 1

      You'll just have to wait until a content protection officer arrives in your house and measures the distance. It doesn't take long, and after you've signed the projector viewing form you can start watching whatever you wanted while the officer makes sure that you dont move the projector.

  3. Or.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Or they'll all continue to be free..

    1. Re:Or.. by InsultsByThePound · · Score: 2

      And I don't even pay $15 for a movie screen now. Around $8-11.

      The only tiered pricing will be how it is now. Closer to release date, the more you pay. Movie Ticket > PPV > Rental > Streaming > TV (free, albet with ads).

      Okay, I didn't stick DVD/BR in there which mucks up that neat formula with a higher price and ambiguities.... but the point remains. No one is going with this stupid plan.

    2. Re:Or.. by jellomizer · · Score: 1

      Do you mean the cheesy made at home amateur stuff.
      Or the real stuff you get illegally off the black market.

      --
      If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
    3. Re:Or.. by westlake · · Score: 1

      Or they'll all continue to be free..

      The paying customer has a voice in future productions. Stories. Talents, Budgets. Life is good if you are a fan of "Game of Thrones" or Disney's "Frozen."

    4. Re:Or.. by Joe_Dragon · · Score: 1

      3D movies cost about $14 add $1 for Dolby Atmos

  4. A computer will be $X by kruach+aum · · Score: 1

    and then every other screen will play it for free.

    1. Re:A computer will be $X by postbigbang · · Score: 3, Funny

      Watch the cost of 4K cameras soar as a direct result.

      Oh, excuse me, I'm the flight attendant I've noticed that you're breathing more than the other passengers. We're going to have to charge you for that.

      Oh? No more limit on your credit card? Step outside, please.

      --
      ---- Teach Peace. It's Cheaper Than War.
    2. Re:A computer will be $X by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      My phone will be $x and ill google chromecast it to any other device in the house.

      Guys a knobend, in reality ill just torrent it for free not because im entitled but because i can and its trivial rendering his percieved business model useless. Make it worth my while to buy and ill buy, really i will, dick me about with versions and country codes and having the right player and right cables and you can go fish. The cats out the bag, its trivial to distribute meaning your return on investment just went geologic; your not gonna make much per sale and the timeframes for cost recovery and profit have gone through the roof, into outer space. The cool thing is the industry created the technology themselves because of dickheads like this guy that cant see beyond their noses (you know the ones stuffed with blow). In the old days it was inconveinient for the masses to copy stuff and distribute it even the pro pirates. Today its so easy most people have probably done it without even knowing it; they just installed a program to do one thing and it went and did a whole load of other things via the defaults that were unintended or not even known.

    3. Re:A computer will be $X by KingOfBLASH · · Score: 1
  5. Er..."pricing is alright?" by xxxJonBoyxxx · · Score: 2

    wouldn't they really want to charge on # of viewers? (no one cares about size of screen anymore; my kids watch everything on their tablets)

    also, $2 seems pretty high for a movie in the days of Netflix...

    1. Re:Er..."pricing is alright?" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

      I hope you're not one of those "it's not the size; it's how you use it" guys.

    2. Re:Er..."pricing is alright?" by gstoddart · · Score: 4, Interesting

      wouldn't they really want to charge on # of viewers?

      Long term, they absolutely want that.

      If they could, when you pop in a DVD, you'd submit your credit card to pay for the view, and charge according to the number of people in the room.

      They want all sorts of things where they keep gouging us for the price and keep their revenue stream constant.

      But, they might find people suddenly saying "to hell with that", and go read a book.

      And, of course, the book publishers want the same damned model where you pay to re-read your book, because clearly owning books and not compensating the publisher every time you read it is theft, right?

      And, since they basically pay the lawmakers to give them what they want, I won't be at all surprised if the assholes at the *AA manage to make it law that every time I watch a DVD I bought I have to pay them, and also pay for screen size, and also pay for # of viewers.

      This push to make IP and copyright laws drive everything we do is eroding our concept of property, and turning it into a rent-every-time model. And, I'll stop watching before that happens.

      --
      Lost at C:>. Found at C.
    3. Re:Er..."pricing is alright?" by click2005 · · Score: 2

      I was thinking the Kinect2 would be perfect for charging based on # of viewers. :)

      --
      I am a free slashdotter. I will not be modded, blogged, DRM'd, patented, podcasted or RFID'd. My life is my own.
    4. Re:Er..."pricing is alright?" by gstoddart · · Score: 1

      Well, speaking only for myself, I will never own a Kinect 2, because I refuse to connect my video game console to the interwebs.

      Precisely for crap like this. I'm not installing an always on camera in my living room. Not now, not ever.

      --
      Lost at C:>. Found at C.
    5. Re:Er..."pricing is alright?" by MitchDev · · Score: 2

      Concept of property...

      hehehe, try not paying your property taxes and see how long you still own that "property".

      Property is a fallacy in the modern world of IP and big government.

    6. Re:Er..."pricing is alright?" by Uberbah · · Score: 1

      Ah, the old elitism of "property rights". Unless you're a property rights activist who's demanding that land be returned to whatever Native American tribe it was stolen from, that'd be a first.

    7. Re:Er..."pricing is alright?" by MBGMorden · · Score: 1

      But, they might find people suddenly saying "to hell with that", and go read a book.

      Or more realistically, they'll just pirate it.

      These guys really don't understand that they are dealing with a situation where people can, for the most part, obtain their product for free with little chance of getting caught. They keep wanting to charge more and more - the "pay per" model, whether that per be inches, pixels, views, viewers, or anything else. They need to realize that they need to be thinking about how to get the product cheaper, not more expensive.

      You fight piracy by pricing things low enough and making them convenient enough that piracy is too much of a hassle. For songs that's already the case. I'm not going to bother pirating a song when I can just go buy it for $1. With movies/TV, what has gotten a lot of people to go "legit" is Netflix and Hulu - basically a flat rate "all you can eat" pricing model.

      It's a buyers market right now - they don't have the leverage to pull this stuff.

      --
      "People who think they know everything are very annoying to those of us who do."-Mark Twain
    8. Re:Er..."pricing is alright?" by GrumblyStuff · · Score: 1

      It's the bandwidth! You know, like when the "superbit" version of The Fifth Element came out.

    9. Re:Er..."pricing is alright?" by camperdave · · Score: 1

      I was thinking the Kinect2 would be perfect for charging based on # of viewers. :)

      Beauty! Kinect2 faces wall, sees zero people. Charge for movie=$0.00

      --
      When our name is on the back of your car, we're behind you all the way!
    10. Re:Er..."pricing is alright?" by fahrbot-bot · · Score: 1

      wouldn't they really want to charge on # of viewers?

      I read (somewhere) that the movie houses wanted to force that on the rental companies, like Blockbuster, way, way back. Along with requiring a special device to rewind the tapes so you'd have to bring them in and pay for another viewing. Don't think that worked out too well.

      On the other hand, an XBone w/Kinect can track the people in the room, so...

      --
      It must have been something you assimilated. . . .
    11. Re:Er..."pricing is alright?" by Type44Q · · Score: 1

      But, they might find people suddenly saying "to hell with that", and go read a book.

      They're addressing that...

    12. Re:Er..."pricing is alright?" by MonkeyBoy · · Score: 2

      A company I used to work for held negotiations with music & movie companies over a product we wanted to bring to the market which would let customers listen to music, watch videos, etc. while sitting in a restaurant or similar location. Essentially it took the place of a jukebox but since everything was in digital form it could have additional functionality.

      This was back at the height of the xxAA's anti-P2P "Napster" hysteria, when they had their heads lodged firmly in the sand that everything digital was evil. Before the iTunes Music Store proved they were being completely asinine.

      In any case, the only way they said they would work with us is if we helped them, at our expense, figure out how to charge all movie & music customers, everywhere, for every time they viewed a movie or listened to a song. And they'd own the rights.

      As you can imagine, my employer decided to kill the project. Multi-billion dollar companies expected a small business to foot the bill for their asinine product development plan...

      --

      Moof!

    13. Re:Er..."pricing is alright?" by LookIntoTheFuture · · Score: 1

      But, but, our ecominy will collapse if we don't charge more and more. It's the only way growth can be maintained while we burn our nations muscle!

      --
      Brave Sir Robin ran away. ("No!") Bravely ran away away. ("I didn't!")
    14. Re:Er..."pricing is alright?" by Wraithlyn · · Score: 1

      > no one cares about size of screen anymore; my kids watch everything on their tablets

      Thank you for generalizing the entire planet from your two children. ;P

      I assure you many of us still prefer a big-screen, surround-sound home theatre experience.

      --
      "Mind, as manifested by the capacity to make choices, is to some extent present in every electron." -Freeman Dyson
    15. Re:Er..."pricing is alright?" by MitchDev · · Score: 1

      Elitism nothing, it's common sense

      Story on the news here the other day about an elderly woman who just lost her home after some mistake at the tax bureau left her owing less than 7 dollars on a property bill that she thought had been paid...

    16. Re:Er..."pricing is alright?" by Uberbah · · Score: 1

      Story on the news here the other day about an elderly woman who just lost her home after some mistake at the tax bureau left her owing less than 7 dollars on a property bill that she thought had been paid...

      Sounds more like an elderly woman deprived of due process. "Property rights" is a catch-all justification for rent seeking and a general lack of regard for the society in which one lives.

  6. value scales with screen size by Noah+Haders · · Score: 3, Insightful

    this makes sense based on my own experience. I get a lot more value from a movie in my home theater than I do from watching the same movie on my phone. So if I have to pay $5 to watch it on my big screen tv, I'm not going to pay $5 to watch it on my phone!!! The post implies that katzenberg is making an arbritrary technical distinction. in fact, what he's saying is that customer value scales with screen size, and the price should too.

    1. Re:value scales with screen size by Feyshtey · · Score: 1

      So by your reasoning you should pay $1.00 for a song you will listen to on your home theater, but only $.50 for one you will listen to on your iPod?

      How about paying $30 for a bottle of tequilla if you will drink it by the shot, but $50 if you will drink margaritas?

      Ooo! How about if I only have to pay $25,000 for a Ferari if I promise to only drive it on shitty roads?

      --
      "But we have to pass the bill so that you can find out what is in it,..." - Nancy Pelosi
    2. Re:value scales with screen size by mr_mischief · · Score: 2

      It's just a shame nobody makes a phone with 1920x1080 output on HDMI... oh, never mind. This post was meant for more than a year ago.
      Article listing multiple phones with HDMI output in April, 2013

    3. Re:value scales with screen size by zlives · · Score: 1

      oooo finally i can afford a Ferrari, where do I sign up for this

    4. Re:value scales with screen size by Maxo-Texas · · Score: 1, Interesting

      Actually, your tequila example is pretty close.

      And we do charge for temporal value.

      You pay $15 to watch the movie NOW.

      But $10 in 3 months.

      And $5 in a year.

      And pennies on a cable station two years from now.

      You can save a lot of money by falling back a year on the entertainment curve. And there is more entertainment than you can consume. I've been retired a year... do things like watching 14 episodes of DS9 (in between episodes of "TheNewBoston" android development... which is interesting because I may finally be regaining interest in recreational programming)... uh.. anyway... and more entertainment comes out every day than I can keep up with. I have to prioritize-- and cost is one way i do that.

      This is a challenge of the content industry. There is too much content now. And as income inequality grows- I don't think 10% of the people are going to buy enough content to support the current model.

      --
      She was like chocolate when she drank... semi-sweet at first and then increasingly bitter.
    5. Re:value scales with screen size by gstoddart · · Score: 3, Interesting

      So by your reasoning you should pay $1.00 for a song you will listen to on your home theater, but only $.50 for one you will listen to on your iPod?

      And therein lies the problem.

      I'm willing to pay $15-$20 for a CD I own, can take home and rip to MP3,and play on whatever damned device I so choose.

      Fortunately, I live in a country where that's covered by fair use.

      These guys just want to change the definition to "well, no, you haven't bought anything, you've licensed it, and we will dictate how and when you use it".

      At which point, they'll never get another dime from me.

      --
      Lost at C:>. Found at C.
    6. Re:value scales with screen size by Noah+Haders · · Score: 1, Informative

      look, it goes back to the idea of charging a fair price to see a movie. for me, a fair price to see on a phone will be less than a fair price on a tv will be less than a fair price at a theater. As a consumer, it sucks for me if the price for a movie is equal across all media, because it never fits my percieved value. another example of context. what's the value in reading your comments - none. what's the value in my comments? high. so if dice charged a flat fee then the customer may be disappointed depending on if he read your comment or mine. that is why the slashvertising model works best.

    7. Re:value scales with screen size by Wdomburg · · Score: 1

      By that reasoning, if everyone were smart there would be zero new content to torrent.

    8. Re:value scales with screen size by Noah+Haders · · Score: 1

      they would have to build hardware features into phones so that a movie drm could disable phone functions on the fly, like screen cap or video out. i wonder if you can determine the number of people watching a video based on the feed from the camera? then you could charge accordingly.

    9. Re:value scales with screen size by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      I want to pay more money! I want to pay more money!

    10. Re:value scales with screen size by Jeremy+Erwin · · Score: 2
    11. Re:value scales with screen size by Maxo-Texas · · Score: 2

      In my experience most torrented items are being torrented while they are in the top price bracket. People want to see them "now" but won't (or can't) afford to pay current prices for them now.

      Except for Demonoid. Man I loved that site. It had so much out of print but still in copyright stuff on it. Too worthless to reprint but many items that were part of my childhood. I'm glad it was up as long as it was.

      --
      She was like chocolate when she drank... semi-sweet at first and then increasingly bitter.
    12. Re:value scales with screen size by MitchDev · · Score: 1

      Never stopped Mozart or Beethoven....

    13. Re:value scales with screen size by mr_mischief · · Score: 1

      Let's go ahead and shut down the network connections other than the one to stream the movie. And that pesky SMS. And location services. And SD storage. And voice. And the dialer. And USB. And other apps, since you can't tell which ones do what.

      Who cares if people die because they can't get their reverse 911 calls, or if kidnapped kids aren't seen because the Amber alert never made it to the guy watching Flashdance on his lunch hour? It's all about the extra $3 if someone happens to hook up to a monitor, isn't it?

    14. Re:value scales with screen size by serviscope_minor · · Score: 1

      People want to see them "now" but won't (or can't) afford to pay current prices for them now.

      Or they're not available in that region or the only way to get it is over some crappy streaming service infested with DRM. The thing to remember is that TPB is not just cheaper, it's also better in almost every measurable way that people cre about.

      --
      SJW n. One who posts facts.
    15. Re:value scales with screen size by Bengie · · Score: 1

      I'm not going to pay for than $2 for a movie unless I get to own it and play it on any device.

    16. Re:value scales with screen size by camperdave · · Score: 1

      I have just the opposite point of view. The value is in the watching, not in the device you're watching it on. It doesn't matter if I'm watching it on a TV in bed, or in a corner of the screen while playing freecell, on my tablet while cooking vittles, or on my smartphone while on the bus. It's the same content, so it should be the same price.

      --
      When our name is on the back of your car, we're behind you all the way!
    17. Re:value scales with screen size by Cajun+Hell · · Score: 1

      Ooo! How about if I only have to pay $25,000 for a Ferari if I promise to only drive it on shitty roads?

      Say I'm a car salesman. I just want to sell you a car and get as much profit as I possibly can. I don't care about promises you make about roads (whatever!), but I'm happy to hear you talk about the shittiness or awesomeness of your roads, in the hopes that it reveals information about you to me, so I know how much money you feel like spending.

      Suppose I know that you only have shitty roads to drive on. Would you pay over $25k for a car to drive on them? (Depending on what you mean by "shitty" I might even wonder if you would pay over $2500 for a car.) I would make a relatively cheap car and offer it at a price where I think you might bite. I know that if I offer you a Ferrari for $70k you're going to chuckle and keep walking, to my competitor who makes cars more suitable for your road situation.

      Yet, there are other suckers who spend more money on their roads, so not only might they be willing to buy more expensive cars, they've shown they have more money to burn, by spending so much on those roads. That's who my Ferrari brand name is for. No, they're not walking out of my store, having paid only $25k. I am going to soak those chumps.

      (Now that we're done talking about Market Segmentation 101, can someone help me find where I enter screen size into couchpotato's preferences? And will entering a higher number hit my block accounts harder?)

      --
      "Believe me!" -- Donald Trump
    18. Re:value scales with screen size by Feyshtey · · Score: 1

      The tequilla example is only if the seller provides all the mixers as part of the $50 purchase. Disney sure as fuck isnt going to give you an LCD if you pay $10 per movie as opposed to $5.

      Your "temporal" argument is invalid. Watching the move NOW (once) for $15 includes the services of the theater. Paying $10 in 3 months is the value of the movie at that point in time. $5 is the value of the product in a year. Just like when a 2014 truck is valued today at $50k as opposed to a 2005 truck valued at $25K, goods depreciate in value even if they are unused. The consumer public generally wants what's hot today, and they pay a premium for it. Paying less a year from now is not just aniticipated, it's expected because that product doesnt have the same market value it once had.

      Purchasing an aged product, and the value curve associated with that doesnt address this new billing proposal at all.

      The challenge of the contect industry is to produce a good that has value, and selling it for what the public is willing to pay. That product is worth X. Not X +/- my personal environmental variables. I dont pay more or less for my print edition of The Lord of the Rings depending on whether I read it in a beautiful quiet park in mid-may under a shadey tree, or while riding a greyhound bus cross-country sitting next to a vomit-stained anarchist named Bulldog who has a bowel disorder.

      --
      "But we have to pass the bill so that you can find out what is in it,..." - Nancy Pelosi
    19. Re:value scales with screen size by Feyshtey · · Score: 1

      So all movie producers need are state-funded sponsorship, like Mozart and Beethoven. I can see that going really well in today's political climate.

      --
      "But we have to pass the bill so that you can find out what is in it,..." - Nancy Pelosi
    20. Re:value scales with screen size by Feyshtey · · Score: 1

      I can see your argument so long as you agree to pay the reduced price to view it on your phone... every single time you want to watch it. If you BUY the product, you OWN the product, and you watch it on any damn thing you want to watch it on.

      --
      "But we have to pass the bill so that you can find out what is in it,..." - Nancy Pelosi
    21. Re:value scales with screen size by exomondo · · Score: 1

      So by your reasoning you should pay $1.00 for a song you will listen to on your home theater, but only $.50 for one you will listen to on your iPod?

      Kind of, yes. I don't mind mp3 quality on my iPhone and it's not too bad in the car either but for songs that I really like I might want them in higher bitrate so they sound better on my home system. What's wrong with that?

    22. Re:value scales with screen size by MitchDev · · Score: 1

      Most of the movies and music made today is made strictly with a profit motive in mind and quite frankly sucks ass

    23. Re:value scales with screen size by Feyshtey · · Score: 1

      I agree. And the fact that they continue to make a profit speaks more to the fact that the consumers are idiots than anything. But imagine a core group of political bureaucrats deciding how much of your tax dollars would be allocated to movies or television, and what kinds of things the government thinks you really need to be viewing. What message do you need to recieve?

      And yes, I'm well aware that in many cases Washington is able to utilize Hollywood as a platform for their message. But at least there's a pretense that Hollywood isnt directly associated with this administration.

      --
      "But we have to pass the bill so that you can find out what is in it,..." - Nancy Pelosi
    24. Re:value scales with screen size by Feyshtey · · Score: 1

      Absolutely nothing wrong with that. If you want a higher quality product, you CHOOSE to purchase it. But that's not what this billing model is. It means to choose for you which quality of product you MUST buy according to the device they believe you will enjoy the product on.

      --
      "But we have to pass the bill so that you can find out what is in it,..." - Nancy Pelosi
    25. Re:value scales with screen size by Stuarticus · · Score: 1

      Imagine a core group of producers deciding how your movie watching money will be allocated to certain types of movie, and only seeing what they want you to see. What message would you receive?

      --
      If you think someone isn't free to have a different definition of "freedom" you may be a tyrant.
    26. Re:value scales with screen size by Feyshtey · · Score: 1

      As I said, that's what we have now. The only solace (and a small one at that) is that they are not bureaucrats.

      --
      "But we have to pass the bill so that you can find out what is in it,..." - Nancy Pelosi
    27. Re:value scales with screen size by Maxo-Texas · · Score: 1

      There are a lot of good independent films. Possibly more than you could ever watch at this point.

      They are not focused on profit as much as having something to say or even just a novelty project for those involved.

      I usually find them less entertaining and sometimes even distopic...
      Because they don't have "hollywood" endings.

      A "good" hollywood ending makes you feel good despite yourself. A "bad" hollywood ending can ruin a movie. Too cheesy- so obviously tacked on it feels ridiculous. But a bad ending where the hero loses a leg and her boyfriend just feels bad.

      --
      She was like chocolate when she drank... semi-sweet at first and then increasingly bitter.
    28. Re:value scales with screen size by Wdomburg · · Score: 1

      Completely different model. Classical composers did commissioned works with limited distribution.

  7. EDID spoofers are common... by Kenja · · Score: 4, Informative

    Any video switching equipment for HDMI/DVI will often use a small device such as Gefen's HDMI Detective to store the EDID of the screen and convince the video source that it is always connected. It would be trivial to store a "fake" EDID in such a device that reports a smaller screen.

    --

    "Have you ever thought about just turning off the TV, sitting down with your kids, and hitting them?"
    1. Re:EDID spoofers are common... by asmkm22 · · Score: 1

      I'm not sure this would work though. If you have, say, a 46 inch TV that's spoofing itself as a 4.7 inch cell phone, something tells me they will stream you a lower-quality picture. Or are people actually streaming 1080p and higher content to small screens already? (honest question)

    2. Re:EDID spoofers are common... by Kenja · · Score: 1

      1080p is 1080p, screen size be damed. Frankly, it's not even very high resolution. Some people like to count pixels however so they get the big screens. To answer your question, there are a fair number of 20 inch or smaller 1080p screens out there and I fully expect cell phones to have it as a common resolution soonish with mini-hdmi output ports being more common.

      --

      "Have you ever thought about just turning off the TV, sitting down with your kids, and hitting them?"
    3. Re:EDID spoofers are common... by Charliemopps · · Score: 2

      I think what they'll do is offer streaming services. That'd be a lot easier for them to police because they could create their own client and force you to use it. However, I think they are vastly over-estimating their customers pain threshold. Especially when 3rd parties are starting to produce their own content and could offer a much more pleasant experience as a selling point.

      The problem with all the movie industries attempts to change the dynamics of their sales model has been that they want to both restrict the customers access AND charge the highest rates in the land at the same time.

    4. Re:EDID spoofers are common... by gstoddart · · Score: 1

      Or are people actually streaming 1080p and higher content to small screens already? (honest question)

      My Nexus 7 tablet has full 1080p.

      I have no reason to doubt that people are streaming full HD content to small screens.

      --
      Lost at C:>. Found at C.
    5. Re:EDID spoofers are common... by JohnFen · · Score: 1

      That'd be a lot easier for them to police because they could create their own client and force you to use it.

      Going that route is only slightly better than not offering the stream at all. I know that such an offering wouldn't be of interest to me regardless of the price point, even if the price was $0.

    6. Re:EDID spoofers are common... by Luckyo · · Score: 1

      I think this will not be so much about screen size as about "do you want a cinema quality, TV quality of phone quality?"

      Which will be delivered using different compression algorithms, meaning 1080p on the phone will look good on the phone, but awful on TV screen where you will see all the artefacts that you wouldn't see on the small screen.

    7. Re:EDID spoofers are common... by PIBM · · Score: 1

      I also watch some movies on my nexus 7 at full 1080p, and from the 8 inches I look it from, that`s very nice and movie night like, very well installed in my bed :)

    8. Re:EDID spoofers are common... by tepples · · Score: 1

      Especially when 3rd parties are starting to produce their own content

      Hollywood can interfere with the third parties in two ways.

      Infringement accusations One is accusations that the third party is infringing a Hollywood studio's copyright or trademark by making the plot or character design of its own works too similar to something already published. Disney harassed GoodTimes about this in the 1990s. And when shooting Oz the Great and Powerful, Disney had to have a lawyer on the set at all times to keep MGM from doing that to Disney. Technical lockout of homemade works Another is to restrict what works home devices can view. For example, video game consoles since 1985 have included various measures to ensure that only approved games will play. Blu-ray Disc has two separate formats: BDAV and BDMV. BDAV is intended for homemade BDs, but it can't have menus, and BDMV requires payment of AACS royalties that are prohibitive for low-volume replication.
    9. Re:EDID spoofers are common... by Kjella · · Score: 1

      However, I think they are vastly over-estimating their customers pain threshold. Especially when 3rd parties are starting to produce their own content and could offer a much more pleasant experience as a selling point.

      Wasn't that exactly what people here on /. said about music like 10+ years ago, with the Internet all those independent artists would take over and the bland mainstream crap go away because everyone could so easily find music to their personal taste? I'm quite sure that didn't happen and that if it hasn't happened by now it's not going to happen. YouTube videos aren't a competition, even amateur film makers tends to fall miserably short on one or more aspects unlike music where one or a few talented musicians actually can make kick ass music. As long as they can take away all the other ways to get it (but good luck on that) they've got you over a barrel. People want to see the major blockbusters and they won't swap Lord of the Rings or The Dark Knight or The Avengers for amateur hour.

      --
      Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
    10. Re:EDID spoofers are common... by maccodemonkey · · Score: 1

      Any video switching equipment for HDMI/DVI will often use a small device such as Gefen's HDMI Detective to store the EDID of the screen and convince the video source that it is always connected. It would be trivial to store a "fake" EDID in such a device that reports a smaller screen.

      It would not be trivial to upsample the low resolution content that would be streamed in response, however.

      If you want to watch low res content on a large TV? I doubt anyone is going to care.

    11. Re:EDID spoofers are common... by drinkypoo · · Score: 2

      It would be trivial to store a "fake" EDID in such a device that reports a smaller screen.

      And then you'll get content at a lower resolution. I'd imagine that some services will be happy to sell you the lower-resolution content without spoofing, though I'm sure some won't.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
  8. No it won't by SuperDre · · Score: 1

    He can go F himself if that's gonna happen, I've got a projector with a 100+" screen, and I've also got a phone of 5", both are FullHD, so for one I would be paying $15 and for the other $5 even though they are using exactly the same resolution, therefore bandwidth...
    I have more than 600 bluray's and well over 5000 dvd's, but if they go for such a moronic pricing for digital downloads, then I'll just go and pirate it, there is a limit to what actually makes sense, but paying according to your screensize is well beyond that..

    1. Re:No it won't by jedidiah · · Score: 1

      >> I have more than 600 bluray's and well over 5000 dvd's

      > That sounds like a very serious hoarding problem.

      One big bookshelf from IKEA could handle all of that and be very nice and neat and terribly OCD.

      His hoard is nothing compared to the people they show on cable. They have an entire series on one of the edutainment channels dedicated to that sort of thing.

      --
      A Pirate and a Puritan look the same on a balance sheet.
  9. We already have a unit of measure for billing by thechemic · · Score: 5, Insightful

    We already have a unit of measure for billing which is referred to as "mega bits per second". Now they want to bill us by "screen size per viewing"? Every @#$%'ing time I try to go legit, they force me back to illegal downloads with their senseless bullshit.

    --
    Let's make like a bird... and get the flock outta here.
    1. Re:We already have a unit of measure for billing by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      What about Stadard Definition, 720p HD, 1080p HD, 4K, 8K, etc... and maybe a pricing for a lower rate for small phones where 480 is more than what is necessary? That accounts, roughly, for bandwidth and the amount of data downloaded. Really, revolutionary? It basically already exists. When I rent something from Amazon on Demand, I have a different rate for SD and HD.

    2. Re:We already have a unit of measure for billing by gonnagetya · · Score: 1

      I'm sure you were totally just ready to start spending money for video entertainment.

      It is true that the longer you spend time on illegal downloads, the harder it is to go legit. However, I'd argue that it's not just because of price (or the lack of it), but rather because the illegal downloads will almost always provide a SUPERIOR product compared to the legit version (of media anyway). I can get a high quality, 1080p Blu-ray rip of The Avengers in MKV format which can be played on almost any player these days, and certainly across all platforms, DRM-free and offline since it's an actual file and not a stream. You simply cannot get such an equivalent product from legit sources.

      No-one legally provides Hollywood movies as a DRM-free download in an open format of a very high quality. It's all streaming these days, often with inconsistent buffering of moderate quality, requiring Windows-only players with limited functionality compared to standalone player applications. The Pirate Bay simply provides a better product, nevermind it being free. I'd pay for an equivalent quality product, but no-one is willing to sell it. THAT's why stops be from being completely legit - I don't like paying money for substandard stuff. Too many people don't know any better however.

  10. Good thing I kept my CRT! by sinij · · Score: 2

    Good thing I kept my old CRT with 800x600 resolution. Well, at least that what my system will report and I am sticking with it!

    1. Re:Good thing I kept my CRT! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Good thing I kept my old CRT with 800x600 resolution. Well, at least that what my system will report and I am sticking with it!

      No HDMI on that thing. It won't work at all.

    2. Re:Good thing I kept my CRT! by PIBM · · Score: 2

      Preceding parameters are important:

      (B) communication by an establishment of a transmission or retransmission embodying a performance or display of a nondramatic musical work intended to be received by the general public, originated by a radio or television broadcast station licensed as such by the Federal Communications Commission, or, if an audiovisual transmission, by a cable system or satellite carrier, if—
      (i) in the case of an establishment other than a food service or drinking establishment, either the establishment in which the communication occurs has less than 2,000 gross square feet of space (excluding space used for customer parking and for no other purpose), or the establishment in which the communication occurs has 2,000 or more gross square feet of space (excluding space used for customer parking and for no other purpose) and—

  11. Shoot selves in foot ... by gstoddart · · Score: 1

    These clowns are just more or less determined to destroy the whole business of downloading, as well as killing their own revenue stream.

    They think I'm going to pay more to download a video to my 55" TV than my 27" TV (and correspondingly more than my tablet)? All at the same resolution? How does *that* work? Can we charge him more for being a bigger idiot?

    They're already gouging me to rent it, then my internet company is gouging me for the bandwidth to get it, and *then* they want a premium to play the exact same content on a slightly different device at the same resolution because the physical dimensions of the screen are larger?

    These guys are drunk, rent-seeking assholes who have lost touch with their customers if they think this is going to work.

    It seems like the movie studios are so focused on leveraging their synergies in order to opimitaly maximize revenue that they're going to destroy the very market they're hoping to make money from.

    If Dreamworks and the other movie studios go this route, they're going to drive away customers.

    I already think going to a movie is too damned expensive, and would rather watch movies at home. But it sounds like they're just trying to add more rent seeking/price gouging along the chain here.

    --
    Lost at C:>. Found at C.
  12. Another stupid idea that flops before takeoff by rs1n · · Score: 1

    So just buy it for your mobile phone or tablet and stream to your TV. Most of the smaller have resolutions that are good enough for "typical" TV-sized displays. A better pricing scheme would be for the actual resolution. E.g. $1 for 640x480, $2 for 1024x768, and scale upward.

    1. Re:Another stupid idea that flops before takeoff by Mr+D+from+63 · · Score: 1

      Resolution based pricing, along maybe with audio quality (Stereo- low/hi bitrate - AAC/5.1 - DTS etc), is the only thing that makes sense. Simple rather than complicated.

      If they sold newer movies at 480p stereo sound for $5 each, they eliminate a bunch of pirated downloads and likely not offset any existing sales, IMO.

  13. And projectors? by zarmanto · · Score: 1

    And how do they propose determining the price for a projector, when a single unit can readily have a screen size ranging from 30 inches to 300 inches?

    1. Re:And projectors? by Em+Adespoton · · Score: 1

      And how do they propose determining the price for a projector, when a single unit can readily have a screen size ranging from 30 inches to 300 inches?

      Easy: they charge the maximum the device is capable of (in this case, 300 inches).

    2. Re:And projectors? by zarmanto · · Score: 1

      And how do they propose determining the price for a projector, when a single unit can readily have a screen size ranging from 30 inches to 300 inches?

      Easy: they charge the maximum the device is capable of (in this case, 300 inches).

      Well, I don't know about you, but I didn't buy a projector because it could project a maximum size of 300 inches... I bought it because it was far cheaper than practically every other remotely comparable large-form-factor television, even when projecting at "only" 80 inches, as I am. Thus, when the price of the hardware is factored into the equation, the amount of dough that you can expect to squeeze out of your viewing audience is dramatically impacted.

      Which is to say: if Dreamworks actually goes down this path, then they had better find a way to convince every other studio to follow them... otherwise, I'll just stop watching Dreamworks films entirely in favor of their competition. (Pixar puts out some pretty darned good stuff, after all.)

  14. no concept of digital technology by globaljustin · · Score: 1

    This is another example in the cavalcade of lunacy...

    Media bigwigs simply **do not understand the internet and digital technology**

    Over and over, through things like DRM, their marketing, lawsuits they file, companies they back, the music/film/TV industry shows the faults of their business model.

    Where does it all end? We can already get any "content" free virtually instantly (to watch new TV shows online you have to wait depending on your time zone)...artists are using non-standard channels more than ever...whole genres of music have developed that are entirely outside mainstream media marketing...

    Do these companies just die ridiculously slow deaths?

    --
    Thank you Dave Raggett
    1. Re:no concept of digital technology by sconeu · · Score: 3, Interesting

      No. They *do* understand it. They don't like it. They want to kill it in its current form.

      --
      General Relativity: Space-time tells matter where to go; Matter tells space-time what shape to be.
  15. And yet by future+assassin · · Score: 2

    buying that cheap $2-$4 dvd or $5-10 BR at a pawn shop costs me nothing to watch it anywhere. I got about 1000 dvd's and 700 came from pawnshops/flea markets. You can keep your price per size hopefully it goes all digital and no more physical media so I never had to be bothered to watch anything and go for a walk instead. That movie habbit is hard to break but I'm getting there. Been cable free for over a year now which saved me $100 per month and haven't been to a movie theather since The Road.

    --
    by TheSpoom (715771) Uncaring Linux user here. I have nothing to add to this but please continue. *munches popcorn*
    1. Re:And yet by Maxo-Texas · · Score: 1

      The cable habit is sneaky. $120 a month is $14,400 dollars over 10 years.

      You can get a lot of DVD's free at your local libraries (for now).

      In my case, I have enough money to justify internet (also free at the library) and decent cable is only another $30 dollars. And I drop another $14 for Netflix. And $75 now $95 a year for Amazon Prime (which I use less and which seems difficult to use- it steers me too hard towards paid content and away from free content).

      Movies are much cheaper on matinee- but gasoline prices figure into it more as a single than a family. I pay $2.50 in gasoline and $4.50 for a movie.

      Gasoline has become expensive enough now that I try to route multiple trips together. So I might go to movie, then the gym next door, then to taco cabana, and finally do some shopping at target or walmart before heading home.

      --
      She was like chocolate when she drank... semi-sweet at first and then increasingly bitter.
  16. Perhaps He Meant Resolution by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I think he was really referring to resolution when he was talking about screen size, perhaps he was addressing a non-technical audience. I agree with him for the most part. He's talking about expediting digital distribution to only 18 days after the initial release, as he figured the major cinemas have made about all they're going to make by the first three weekends. He sounds very forward thinking. Pay X3 for 4K, X2 for 1080P, X1 for SD.

    1. Re:Perhaps He Meant Resolution by Racemaniac · · Score: 2

      since a lot of recent phones are surpassing tv's in resolution, i doubt it...

  17. And Google Glass by Ichijo · · Score: 1

    ...will be 25 cents.

    --
    Any sufficiently unpopular but cohesive argument is indistinguishable from trolling.
  18. At least try to understand by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    What he's talking about is more likely that streaming a movie to an iPhone app may be cheaper than to an Apple TV, for example. Or that a lower resolution screen (totally fine for smaller devices) would cost less than the full HD stream. No mention of measuring the actual resolution or dimensions of the display device. He may or may not be correct in his statement, but can we at least show the courtesy to not infer crazy ideas that weren't expressed?

    1. Re:At least try to understand by amoeba1911 · · Score: 1

      Last time i checked all the new iphones have high-definition screens, and some of the newer android devices even exceed HD resolutions. So, a tiny 6" screen has more definition than a giant 600" screen.
      Next, you stand considerably further away from a large screen, so a large screen occupies the same area on your visual field as a small screen which you hold closer to your face. The end result is the same.
      Based on these facts, there is no technical merit nor reason for charging based on screen size. Instead of coming up with useful services to earn revenue, they waste their time trying to find more ways to nickel and dime their customers.

  19. Why stop here? Charge for loudness too! by sinij · · Score: 1

    How about also charging more for loudness? This way a-holes next door will have to pay more for being obnoxious.

    Also what about separate charges for Red, Blue and Green? This way colorblind people can benefit from low, low price of $19.99.

    Last but not least, they should charge extra for Jar Jar Bink-less content. Insert him into all movies, then charge low low price of $1.99 to filter.

    1. Re:Why stop here? Charge for loudness too! by lgw · · Score: 2

      No, no! Never repeat that Jar Jar idea. The fuckers will do it.

      --
      Socialism: a lie told by totalitarians and believed by fools.
    2. Re:Why stop here? Charge for loudness too! by bluefoxlucid · · Score: 1

      What exactly was wrong with Jar-Jar? He was one of the most endearing characters in the series. Pretty much everyone has dead, lifeless acting; Jar-Jar's character was animate and dynamic, rather than stoic and prompted.

    3. Re:Why stop here? Charge for loudness too! by gstoddart · · Score: 1

      What exactly was wrong with Jar-Jar?

      He's annoying. He's really annoying. He's bad comic relief with a fake Jamaican accent and an annoying voice.

      I tried to watch Episode 1 with the wife once, and shortly after he appears on screen, she said "is he in the rest of the movie?" And when I told her, yes, he was, and was in the next two, she said "I can't watch this". She then walked out to leave me to watch it myself.

      Jar-Jar creates a very strong reaction for a lot of people. There's a reason people have re-cut episode 1 without him in it.

      Many people view Jar-Jar as a "jumped the shark" kind of character. And, while I can still watch it, I must confess to not really liking the character.

      --
      Lost at C:>. Found at C.
    4. Re:Why stop here? Charge for loudness too! by bluefoxlucid · · Score: 2

      Watch the film cut of the Rocky Horror Picture Show, with Tim Curry.

      Then watch something like Avengers, SWE1, or the like.

      You'll notice a lot of modern acting involves standing in a pose, focusing on the active dialogue deliverer or other direct action, then delivering a line of dialogue or taking an action. Opera and theater take this to an extreme: people exchange lines and actions in grand maneuver, conveying a story. Modern acting has made this form of simple delivery more fluid; however, it is not lifelike.

      I point out RHPS because the actors appear to live in their roles: they acknowledge the set and the people around them as people in a place of fantasy. When Janet looks to Brad for security, she is Janet looking to Brad for security; she is not an actress executing a practiced motion with a deep inner focus on herself. Tim Curry isn't strutting around singing and acting flamboyant; he is throwing inner urges and rude mannerisms in the face of guests at his castle, largely for his own amusement.

      Jar-Jar is so jarring in part because he doesn't feel like he belongs in Star Wars. He doesn't fit in the movie. There are people trying to act, and there's this jackass who hasn't figured out it's all just a show and is running around like it's real. He may be immature and obnoxious, but he's primarily out-of-place in a bland performance.

    5. Re:Why stop here? Charge for loudness too! by UnknownSoldier · · Score: 1

      You answers are found in the classic Mr. Plinkett reviews Star Wars ...

      * Star Wars: The Phantom Menace Review (Part 1 of 7)
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

    6. Re:Why stop here? Charge for loudness too! by bluefoxlucid · · Score: 1

      I scanned it briefly. It was square, and black; I saw no useful content, and so closed it. One of the most poorly-written reviews I've seen by far.

    7. Re:Why stop here? Charge for loudness too! by jedidiah · · Score: 1

      Jar-Jar is basically Lucas trying to talk down to children. It's a stupid character meant to appeal to an infantile mentality in a crude way rather than giving kids some credit for not being total idiots.

      Somewhere along the line Lucas got it into his head that he has to pander to small children and to pander to a really bad mental model of a child at that.

      The original STAR WARS was much more of a mass market and cross generational success.

      --
      A Pirate and a Puritan look the same on a balance sheet.
    8. Re:Why stop here? Charge for loudness too! by UnknownSoldier · · Score: 1

      The review points out the convoluted plot, the million plot holes, the stupid character design, etc. You scanned it and are wondering why you saw no useful content?? Can't help you if you like bad movies and are unable to comprehend why they are bad.

      Minds are like a parachute. Both work best when open.

    9. Re:Why stop here? Charge for loudness too! by bluefoxlucid · · Score: 1

      It's a video which presents logical information. In conversation, 7% of information is verbal; but in informational writing--reviews, mathematics texts, descriptions of the contents of tea and their pharmacological effects--100% of the information is verbal. Presenting this information as a video is not informational; it's entertainment at best, persuasive at worst.

      Let's emphasize: A primary reason to make a review as a video is to deliver a persuasive speech so that people agree with you.

      I can crunch through hundreds of Amazon reviews for dozens of products in ten minutes. If each were a video, they'd be 1-3 minutes each and it would take me several hours; I usually watch one such review if present, purely to see the operation of a device, and then avoid such slowly-delivered ranting. A common comment on Fark for links to videos with no article is, "Where's the transcript?" The US Government publishes both video and transcript of SOTU and Congressional sessions.

      So when you can get me a source I can ingest at 800wpm and/or skip over the meaningless fluff in, I'll be interested. This is, however, not an interesting form of entertainment for me.

    10. Re:Why stop here? Charge for loudness too! by tepples · · Score: 1

      Just a guess, but I think bluefoxlucid's complaint was a flippant way of saying "I read reviews that are presented as text. I do not watch reviews that are presented as videos without captions."

    11. Re:Why stop here? Charge for loudness too! by camperdave · · Score: 1

      In other words, he's the dandelion in the otherwise well manicured lawn. Colorful and outstanding, but not desired.

      --
      When our name is on the back of your car, we're behind you all the way!
    12. Re:Why stop here? Charge for loudness too! by bluefoxlucid · · Score: 1

      In this case, it's more like someone asked for a flower bed and you gave them sculpted topiary. Everything is cut to precise structure, rather than natural and fluid. Jar-Jar stands out because he is natural and fluid; the cast doesn't react to him well at all; but they react just as flatly to everything else, so their poor acting appears good and Jar-Jar's more dynamic character appears disruptive.

      He stands out too much. I don't think the character's actually bad, just that modern cinematic performance cannot keep up. Like wearing a $400 blazer over some clothes from The Gap.

  20. Much ado about nothing by timeOday · · Score: 4, Insightful

    If you ask me, odds are 70% he was just using "Screen Size" as a proxy for "Resolution" in the first place, either because he doesn't know the difference, or (more likely) was talking down to the audience. In any case, it is one person's speculation about the future, nothing more.

    1. Re:Much ado about nothing by gstoddart · · Score: 1

      If you ask me, odds are 70% he was just using "Screen Size" as a proxy for "Resolution" in the first place, either because he doesn't know the difference, or (more likely) was talking down to the audience.

      Seriously, if the CEO of Dreamworks Animation doesn't know the difference, he's not qualified to hold the position.

      Either way, I think this falls into the category of "just how much more can we screw the customers before they leave".

      --
      Lost at C:>. Found at C.
    2. Re:Much ado about nothing by timeOday · · Score: 1

      Either way, I think this falls into the category of "just how much more can we screw the customers before they leave".

      Some would choose to phrase that "charging what the market will bear," but yeah, same thing.

    3. Re:Much ado about nothing by jandrese · · Score: 1

      The CEO isn't the guy who does the technical work. His job is to find money for the company and provide vague "direction". Pixel counts are totally beneath him. He'll be consulted for big business decisions, and his opinion carries weight, but he's not as likely as a rank and file guy to know the exact technical details of some proposal. He undoubtedly got the "managers version" of the brief himself, and is regurgitating that.

      I also think this is a stupid idea. Has any customer ever looked at a DRM scheme and gone "I like this, but it needs to be more complicated and expensive." The only DRM schemes that people tolerate are the ones that you don't see.

      --

      I read the internet for the articles.
    4. Re:Much ado about nothing by gstoddart · · Score: 1

      The only DRM schemes that people tolerate are the ones that you don't see.

      And those are few and far between.

      For the most part, the content producers are making sure DRM is front and center, complicated, annoying, and extremely limiting in what you can do.

      For instance, Ultraviolet -- first you sign up with Ultraviolet, then you sign up with the movie studio, and then you ask permission before you play the movie again, and if you're offline, you can't watch it because it can't call home to ask permission.

      Sorry, but no. Ultraviolet is garbage, and I will never again try to use it, and if I have the choice of buying the movie with or without the Ultraviolet, I will buy it without -- Ultraviolet provides zero value for me.

      It may be how the studios envision DRM, but for the consumer it's useless and intrusive.

      --
      Lost at C:>. Found at C.
    5. Re:Much ado about nothing by Wattos · · Score: 1

      My phone has the same resolution as my TV (both full HD). How would his idea work then? I think he actually does mean screen size. Still no idea how he could implement that...

    6. Re:Much ado about nothing by jellomizer · · Score: 1

      You can also just put your cell phone on an overhead projector.
      But I think there are other thing as well.
      For example I can see a full TV size digital movie, will have surround sound higher resolution. Vs the cell phone which will probably have mono sound and probably the movie resolution will be 1/4 on what the phone can handle.

      Much like back in them days where you could get the Records, Cassette Tapes, or CDs at different prices for the same stuff. The difference in price isn't about how hard or the cost of the material. It is charged different for different quality.

      --
      If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
    7. Re:Much ado about nothing by tlhIngan · · Score: 1

      If you ask me, odds are 70% he was just using "Screen Size" as a proxy for "Resolution" in the first place, either because he doesn't know the difference, or (more likely) was talking down to the audience. In any case, it is one person's speculation about the future, nothing more.

      Probably as a proxy.

      Because even though mobile screens are having 1080p or 4K displays, chances are you aren't going to be able to see all those pixels - for the vast majority of users, a widescreen SD version would probably be more than adequate. So your "mobile phone" version would be SD and unless you hold it to your nose to watch it, you probably won't notice.

      Then you can get the "tablet" version at 720p for a buck or two more.

      Upgrade to the computer for the 1080p version, and for your living room, you'll get the 1080p or 4K version.

      Because in the end, your phone's 5" screen, despite it having a 4K screen, probably won't need the 4K version.

    8. Re:Much ado about nothing by bill_mcgonigle · · Score: 1

      I also think this is a stupid idea.

      I dunno, the BluRay market is big enough for Redbox and Netflix to be in. I *never* get a BluRay from Redbox. It's not the 80 cents or whatever, but that for the kind of movies I'm renting, the resolution has no value to me, so why pay any more? Maybe mplayer has a good line douobler or the encoders have gotten smarter or something, but even CGI-heavy DVD movies look fine to me on the HD screen.

      But ... I'm obviously not the target market, and such a market must exist or Redbox and Netflix wouldn't have these options. Some people are willing to pay more for the resolution. Since delivery costs are higher and there are willing payers it only makes sense to sell to those people.

      --
      My God, it's Full of Source!
      OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
    9. Re:Much ado about nothing by jandrese · · Score: 1

      They're allowed to charge whatever they want. And I'm allowed to laugh at them when it's an utter failure. Then they're allowed to call me a dirty thief because I didn't buy their product and must therefore be stealing it, and the cycle of media asshole behavior continues.

      --

      I read the internet for the articles.
  21. lol by Charliemopps · · Score: 1

    Once again, the movie industry reveals their complete lack of understanding of their own industry. People have no moral inclination to follow unjust and ridiculous rules/laws. Making your sales model even more ridiculous will just drive more customers into piracy.

    1. Re:lol by geminidomino · · Score: 1

      People have no moral inclination to follow unjust and ridiculous rules/laws

      The many copyright apologists on /. alone suggests that this may not be the case.

    2. Re:lol by MonkeyBob · · Score: 1

      3 years ago we had an earthquake in Christchurch (New Zealand, for those not in the know...). As a result, one of the malls in the outskirts of the city was damaged and closed for a time, including the cinema. When it reopened, the cinema encouraged people to come back with cheaper movie tickets ($10, instead of the $20 normally charged). Wonders upon wonders, they realized pretty quickly that by charging LESS money, they got MORE punters through the doors and considering that they make less money from the movie and more money from the snacks, they make MORE profit. 2 years later, the cinema still charges $10 for a movie, the cinema is always packed and they are making shitloads of profit. Go figure.

      --
      // TODO: Add comments
  22. Modified EDID possible by jones_supa · · Score: 4, Informative

    Can you fake the physical dimensions reported in the EDID block when the connection is using HDCP?

    Yes. The EDID block is not encrypted.

    1. Re:Modified EDID possible by adisakp · · Score: 1

      You can already buy a device that does this: Gefen HDMI Detective Plus

  23. Whoo hoo! by gehrehmee · · Score: 4, Funny

    Whoo hoo! My 51" hdtv's EDID data says it's 7" in size. Everything's coming up Milhouse!

    --
    "You know, Hobbes, some days even my lucky rocketship underpants don't help" -- Calvin
  24. Re:No Thanks by Em+Adespoton · · Score: 1

    A 75-inch TV will be $4. A smartphone will be $1.99.

    So, I hook my smartphone up to my 75 inch TV & save $2? I'll stick with unlimited streaming, thanks. MKV files as a fallback. I haven't yet, and don't intend to ever, purchased a DRM'd video. I buy non-DRM mp3s all the time now.

    Indeed -- and how would this work for something like an AppleTV? It has no screen, so would they charge the max price? In that case, I can see a market for devices with tiny screens that demand high resolution video and just happen to be able to broadcast as well.

  25. Maybe they should just... by TsuruchiBrian · · Score: 1

    Maybe they should just charge based on how much we enjoy the movie. They could install brain sensors in all the audience members, and if it's a really good movie like Spider Man 2 or The Revenge of the Sith we can pay top dollar, and if it's a really terrible movie like Spider Man 3 or The Phantom Menace we can get a discount.

    1. Re:Maybe they should just... by Rob+Riggs · · Score: 1

      Maybe they should just charge based on how much we enjoy the movie.

      C'mon, fess up... do you work in the porn industry?

      --
      the growth in cynicism and rebellion has not been without cause
  26. Explains the state of movies these days by Virtucon · · Score: 1

    This kind of article and thinking by a studio exec shows that nothing has changed in the way of making movies. Of course, content and story have nothing to do with it, it's down to what you're watching it on which completely takes the studios off the hook for producing anything that you'd actually want to pay for. Has anybody really seen a film that Dreamworks has produced in the last 10 years that's worth seeing again and again? Clearly the pay per view model is where this douche is focusing and I'm sure we're all going to want to pay, happily, to see "Dinner For Shmucks", "Cowboys and Aliens" or "Need For Speed" again.

    --
    Harrison's Postulate - "For every action there is an equal and opposite criticism"
  27. Screen size is meaningless by Solandri · · Score: 1

    Dunno how the head of an animation company doesn't know this. What's important is angle of view. A 5" phone held 1 foot away from your eyes has the same angle of view as a 50" TV viewed from 10 feet away, which is the same as a 50 foot theater screen viewed from the back at 120 feet away, or a 0.42" Google Glass-type screen on your eyeglasses just 1" away. The image for all of these occupies exactly the same size on your retina.

  28. Price for Bitrate / Resolution? by adisakp · · Score: 1

    I'd be ok with a price for bitrate or quality.

    You can have a much smaller / lower quality file (SD'ish) for a smartphone than for a 60" TV (where you want at least 720 and probably 1080).

    They already charge a higher rate for HD movies than SD movies on a number of streaming rental sites so it's not even a "future" rental model.

    1. Re:Price for Bitrate / Resolution? by adisakp · · Score: 1

      Although, ideally, you'd just pay for a movie once to own it in the highest resolution available and then you'd be able to watch it in any quality that or less on any device.

    2. Re:Price for Bitrate / Resolution? by srmalloy · · Score: 1

      Although, ideally, you'd just pay for a movie once to own it in the highest resolution available and then you'd be able to watch it in any quality that or less on any device.

      That policy is anathema to the management of the Music And Film Industries Association of America; their goal is to be able to charge you per person and per performance for all of their product.

  29. LETMEWATCHTHIS by Jeremiah+Cornelius · · Score: 1

    Primewire AG is the way of the future.

    --
    "Flyin' in just a sweet place,
    Never been known to fail..."
  30. In other news... by Type44Q · · Score: 1

    Yep, "Pay-per-Pixel." I can see that.

    In other news, DreamWorks executives can afford to smoke shit that the rest of us haven't even heard of... :)

    1. Re:In other news... by Richy_T · · Score: 1

      Can I get a discount if they keep the Jar-Jar Binks pixels?

  31. ceo's by JohnVanVliet · · Score: 1

    --- "i think what we have here is a failure to communicate" ---

    as in the CEO has NO idea about the technology being used

    px resolution is a easy one to do , and would make some sense .

    the SIZE of the screen is just a phallic reference .

         

    --
    "I don't pitch OpenSUSE Linux to my friends, i let Microsoft do it for me
    1. Re:ceo's by sconeu · · Score: 1

      Der JohnVanViet,

      You have used a misquote from "Cool Hand Luke". Please pay Warner Brothers the sum of ONE MILLION DOLLARS for a license.

      Thank you,

      Takeda, Monet, and Runne
      Attorneys at Law

      --
      General Relativity: Space-time tells matter where to go; Matter tells space-time what shape to be.
  32. summary is misleading by Khashishi · · Score: 5, Informative

    Jeffrey Katzenberg might have said "you pay for the size", this does not mean he explicitly meant physical dimensions and not resolution. This suggestion was added in by the article submitter to make him sound more idiotic than he probably is. I'm sure if you were actually talking to Katzenberg and you pressed him on the issue, he would clarify that he used the term size as a proxy for a combination of resolution and compression quality which one would expect for a TV vs a cellphone.

    1. Re:summary is misleading by DirePickle · · Score: 1

      I doubt he's tech-savvy enough to even mean that. He probably is using 'screen size' as a proxy for 'device type,' thinking he can arbitrarily decide whether you are allowed play a video on a TV, computer, phone, or what have you. New phones have the same resolution as an HDTV, anyway.

  33. This guy is an idiot by Yew2 · · Score: 1

    More tech predictions from MBAs. Why is /. repeating this crap?

    --
    will work for dragon quest localization
  34. Pay per pixel? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I think basically, he's proposing pay per pixel. If you have a phone-sized screen, you have lower resolution, and they aren't sending you as many pixels.

    1. Re:Pay per pixel? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      accept when you have a 1080p display. at 5 inches or 40 inches. 1080p is the same number of pixels.

    2. Re:Pay per pixel? by darkshot117 · · Score: 5, Informative

      Except more and more phones are higher resolution then most HDTVs already. A lot of people will have a 55 inch TV at 1080p but a smartphone with 1440p at least in just a few years. So paying per pixel or per size is pointless as neither tells you anything...

    3. Re:Pay per pixel? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Phones (and tablets for that matter) already are using 1920x1080...

    4. Re:Pay per pixel? by MozeeToby · · Score: 2

      He explicitly says "pay for the inches you watch". Furthermore, my current phone is 1080p, same as my TV. There are 4k phones in the works right now (despite the questionable quality gains). There are still movie theaters in my area that are limited to essentially 1080p. Pay per pixel does not produce the market that he is describing.

    5. Re:Pay per pixel? by Luckyo · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Phone version will likely be far more compressed. It's not the "pixels" you're sending nowadays when it comes to video, but key frames and data about changes to the frames (rough simplification of modern video compression algorithms).

      So your movie version will be encoded using highest possible quality, TV size will be medium and phone version will be low. This will result in massive differences in file size.

      This is doable.

    6. Re:Pay per pixel? by Wycliffe · · Score: 1

      Except more and more phones are higher resolution then most HDTVs already. A lot of people will have a 55 inch TV at 1080p but a smartphone with 1440p at least in just a few years. So paying per pixel or per size is pointless as neither tells you anything...

      If you have a bigger screen you are probably going to want a higher pixel count.
      A 128k stream might look ok on a 4 inch screen but would look terrible on a 6ft display.
      Likewise you probably can't tell the difference between 1080p and 720p on a cellphone screen
      so would be unlikely to pay the price difference. The only problem I see is that if you are
      6 feet away from a 6 foot screen you probably want the same resolution as someone
      25 feet away from a 25 foot screen as distance also plays a part as a 25ft screen would look
      grainy if you were up next to it but not if you step back a bit.

    7. Re:Pay per pixel? by Jeremy+Erwin · · Score: 1

      Samsung is planning a 2560*1440 cell phone.

      I'm not sure how large this phone's screen will be, and whether an increase of a few inches could possibly make a difference, but they you have it. Soon, our hand held computers will be akin to cameras, and each release will boast more megapixels.

    8. Re:Pay per pixel? by KingOfBLASH · · Score: 1

      OK but that seems like a choice per image quality not screen size. The iTunes store already supports the choice to buy in HD or SD, and even on a small screen I can tell the difference.

      If you have 4k monitors conceivably you'd want a higher resolution then an old projector that can only do 1080p

    9. Re:Pay per pixel? by fuzzyfuzzyfungus · · Score: 1

      I think basically, he's proposing pay per pixel. If you have a phone-sized screen, you have lower resolution, and they aren't sending you as many pixels.

      Except that, as it happens, phones and tablets frequently have rather more pixels than everything but early-adopter 4k TVs and relatively expensive computers.

    10. Re:Pay per pixel? by KingOfBLASH · · Score: 2

      Go to the apple store. They already do this. Buy a standard def and buy a high def version of the same movie and see which one you prefer, even on a small screen. (Hint: I always buy HD)

    11. Re:Pay per pixel? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      He explicitly says "pay for the inches you watch".

      I guess I'll have to learn to enjoy watching girl-girl action more.

    12. Re:Pay per pixel? by Luckyo · · Score: 1

      You still do not understad. SD and HD are different RESOLUTIONS.

      I'm talking about different COMPRESSION QUALITY.

      It's completely possible to make a video at 1080p that will look far worse than 480p encoded well.

    13. Re:Pay per pixel? by ttucker · · Score: 1

      Expect the prices of streaming video to always go up, for a multitude of lame reasons.

    14. Re:Pay per pixel? by shipofgold · · Score: 4, Interesting

      What he says and what he can do are two different things. I don't doubt that they are trying to work out a scheme where the screen identifies itself accurately, but I think it is much easier (and not unreasonable) to charge for resolution.

      You want to watch 720p on your 15ft screen, have at it...but we have this 4K version that you may be interested in for only a few pennies more!

      I will love it when they start suing for watching the movie on the wrong screen.

    15. Re:Pay per pixel? by Onuma · · Score: 2

      Indeed. YouTube is a great example.

      --
      What else can happen when an unstoppable force collides with an immovable object?
    16. Re:Pay per pixel? by PIBM · · Score: 1

      If I'm unhappy with this pricing scheme, I can still rent my movies at 1$ + tx - 20% rebate when I purchase a card worth 100$ or more at my local automated blu ray distribution center, open 24/24, 7/7. If I bring it back in less than 4 hours, I even get a discount on my next movie for the next 48 hours! :)

    17. Re:Pay per pixel? by Grishnakh · · Score: 2

      Yes, it's definitely doable from a technical perspective, the question is whether these greedy fucks will do it the simple way, or try to use DRM bullshit to determine our actual screen size and charge us accordingly.

      The simple way would be to charge by resolution and image quality. Ultra-high-res with high-quality compression gets the highest price, low-res with excessive compression gets the lowest price. No need to use any DRM (at least for determining what kind of device you're playing it on) because you're charging by the actual quality of what's delivered: if the customer wants to play a crappy, low-res low-bitrate version on their 75" home theater with 4k screen so they can save a few bucks, they can do so, though of course it's going to look like crap on that setup.

    18. Re:Pay per pixel? by Grishnakh · · Score: 2

      You do, but others might prefer to save money and get the crappy-quality version. Obviously, a bunch of people already do, or else Apple wouldn't bother selling that version in their store. This is the way things should be: give people a choice, and let them choose what they're willing to pay for, less $$$ for low-quality, or more $$$ for high-quality. Some people prefer the high-quality version and are willing to pay extra, others are unwilling to pay extra, or have poor vision and think the low-quality version is good enough.

    19. Re:Pay per pixel? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Pay per resolution makes business sense from a cost perspective too - filming, generating and storing higher resolutions is exponentially more expensive.

    20. Re:Pay per pixel? by Luckyo · · Score: 1

      Doesn't need to be low res. Just low bitrate is enough. Relatively small screen size obfuscates many artefacts that become immediately visible on larger ones when watching high res low bitrate video.

    21. Re:Pay per pixel? by DarwinSurvivor · · Score: 1

      Not really. Even if 90% of people buy the standard definition version, you still have to shot, generate and store the HD version for the other 10%. The only thing they actually save is bandwidth, and they'll probably team up with ISP's so they don't have to worry about that either.

    22. Re:Pay per pixel? by drkim · · Score: 1

      I think basically, he's proposing pay per pixel.

      They sort of have this model now (in the disc world.)

      A DVD costs less than a Blu-Ray of the same movie.

    23. Re:Pay per pixel? by leonardluen · · Score: 1

      ISP's seems equally as greedy as the MPAA, do you really doubt they won't find a way to charge them for letting people download the movies?

      did you forget about comcast and verizon charging netflix so they can stream faster to customers?

    24. Re:Pay per pixel? by JackieBrown · · Score: 1

      When downloading, I always get the SD stuff unless it is a scifi show. And hard drive space is cheap.

      I do the same when deciding whether to purchase an bluray movie or dvd.

      I can definently see the difference when contrasting the to, but if I never see the show in HD, I am willfully ignorant of what I am missing.

    25. Re:Pay per pixel? by interkin3tic · · Score: 1
      He actually says in TFA:

      A movie screen will be $15. A 75” TV will be $4.00. A smartphone will be $1.99.

      He gives it 10 years.

      By "movie screen" he might mean 4K or ultra HD, by TV he might mean HD or SD, and by smartphone he might mean "on itunes with DRM to only play on iphones."

      What seems like nonsense to me is the ten year prediction: they already charge more for HD on at least amazon and vudu.

      He goes onto say that movies should be available on home screens at most 3 weeks from initial release, so it's possible he's suggesting that movie tickets at theaters go down to 15$ after three weeks and at that time, you start selling the movie on amazon or whatever and smartphones. He brings up that the vast majority of a movies profits are in those first three weekends, so not getting it to streaming sooner is just wasting time and money.

      Whatever the case, I don't think the summary is accurate, I don't think what he was saying was that crazy.

    26. Re:Pay per pixel? by fahrbot-bot · · Score: 1

      (Hint: I always buy HD)

      Not every movie benefits from HD. Yes, it will probably look and sound better, but that doesn't necessarily make the movie or experience better. For example, one my local TV stations boasts that they broadcast the news in HD - it's the fucking *news*.

      --
      It must have been something you assimilated. . . .
    27. Re:Pay per pixel? by fahrbot-bot · · Score: 2

      He explicitly says "pay for the inches you watch".

      So, streaming porn is going to get a lot more expensive...

      --
      It must have been something you assimilated. . . .
    28. Re:Pay per pixel? by DarwinSurvivor · · Score: 1

      Only because netflix isn't big enough to fight back. I highly doubt a lowly ISP would dare fuck with the *AA.

    29. Re:Pay per pixel? by Cajun+Hell · · Score: 2

      I think basically, he's proposing pay per pixel.

      They sort of have this model now (in the disc world.)

      Oh great, now Terry Pratchett's books are priced by the page? Sheesh, Alzheimer's must be expensive!

      --
      "Believe me!" -- Donald Trump
    30. Re:Pay per pixel? by newcastlejon · · Score: 1

      You're telling me. Some of us have to pay twice as much, you know.

      --
      If God forks the Universe every time you roll a die, he'd better have a damned good memory.
    31. Re:Pay per pixel? by maccodemonkey · · Score: 1

      Except more and more phones are higher resolution then most HDTVs already. A lot of people will have a 55 inch TV at 1080p but a smartphone with 1440p at least in just a few years. So paying per pixel or per size is pointless as neither tells you anything...

      I'm not sure that matters.

      Ideal resolution of video is judged by how big the screen is to your eye. If a tv screen and a phone are viewed at the same relative size, they both have the same ideal resolution. I.E. if I hold my phone at a distance so it seems to my eye to be the same size as my TV (which is further away, but larger), you're still dealing with the same maximum optical resolution.

      So unless you're holding the phone directly up to your face, you are very unlikely to be able to tell the difference (or benefit from) 1440p video on a phone. More than likely, you won't benefit from 720p either.

      On a phone, text is what really benefits from a high resolution display anyway, not video.

      In short, the system still works because you would stream 720p or 1080p to a phone regardless of the pixels, which would look excellent to viewers. If you're a picky user who wants more? Great! Buy the TV stream at the TV price for your phone.

    32. Re:Pay per pixel? by citizenr · · Score: 1

      It's completely possible to make a video at 1080p that will look far worse than 480p encoded well.

      yes, its called YIFY

      --
      Who logs in to gdm? Not I, said the duck.
    33. Re:Pay per pixel? by Miamicanes · · Score: 2

      > Samsung is planning a 2560*1440 cell phone.

      The Oppo Find 7 already *has* one :-)

      http://forum.xda-developers.co...

      For those who've never heard of it, it's the phone everyone at XDA-developers.com has been having wet dreams about for months -- a top-shelf, best-of-breed Android phone that makes no hardware compromises & ships unlocked with Cyanogenmod. There have been officially "open" phones in the past, but they were always last year's hardware or lacked important features like microSD (when you reflash a lot, microSD makes your life several orders of magnitude easier & more convenient) and/or LTE.

      The last time I checked, Oppo's plan for the Find 7 is to make it directly available in the US as a retail product with US warranty by June, but AFAIK if you're dying to get one now, the GSM international model is hardware-identical to what you'll be able to get from stores like Newegg, Amazon, and Tiger Direct. If 1700MHz AWS HSPA+ is important to you (ie, T-mo in a market that hasn't been refarmed yet), you might want to double-check support for AWS.

    34. Re:Pay per pixel? by Jeremy+Erwin · · Score: 1

      32 GB of ROM? That's a bit excessive.

    35. Re:Pay per pixel? by Jeremy+Erwin · · Score: 1

      Combine the sparking picture quality of well photographed HD with "if it bleeds, it leads", and you've got a winner, my friend.

    36. Re:Pay per pixel? by Warbothong · · Score: 1

      Some people prefer the high-quality version and are willing to pay extra, others are unwilling to pay extra, or have poor vision and think the low-quality version is good enough.

      Others think that the quality of a movie cannot be measured in pixels.

    37. Re:Pay per pixel? by AmiMoJo · · Score: 2

      Yeah, but $4 for a single movie on my TV screen? That's half a Netflix subscription. They need to get realistic about pricing. $2/month for unlimited streaming movies, or $0.5 for a full HD download of a recent release falling to $0.05 for older stuff. Must work on my smart TV of course.

      If that sounds low keep in mind that they are competing with free. FTA TV, borrowing from friends/libraries, YouTube, BitTorrent etc. This is all for rentals of course (DRM crippled files), if the downloads are DRM free they could double those prices.

      --
      const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
      SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
    38. Re:Pay per pixel? by AmiMoJo · · Score: 1

      YouTube 1080p is actually better quality than broadcast 1080p in the UK. The BBC HD channel used to be good, but they slashed the bit rate by about 80% a few years ago and now it looks terrible. All the commercial channels are even worse.

      Screw 4k, just getting proper HD would be nice. IIRC the BBC only broadcasts at 1440x1080i anyway, and around 4.5Mb/sec.

      --
      const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
      SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
    39. Re:Pay per pixel? by Grishnakh · · Score: 1

      They're not just competing against free, they're also competing against Netflix as you pointed out. $4 for a single anything is crazy, unless it lets you watch it way before Netflix has access to it, and even then it seems a little steep.

    40. Re:Pay per pixel? by Flentil · · Score: 1

      It's probably because news shows are very competitive, and if I had to choose between one in SD or HD, I'd choose HD. You never know what's going to be shown on the news. You might not care, but lots of people who bought expensive HDTVs do care and will choose accordingly.

    41. Re: Pay per pixel? by jxander · · Score: 1

      Well yeah. And I'm looking forward to a lower price for my 24" computer monitor (1920x1200) than my 55" TV(1080)

      fine by me But lets be honest. This is obviously a rough draft proposal, guessing at how things might pan out. Time will tell.

      --
      This signature is false.
    42. Re:Pay per pixel? by metrix007 · · Score: 1

      Surely the information about the pixels is always less than the pixels?

      Getting frame after frame across is still what takes up bandwidth.

      --
      If you ignore ACs because they are anonymous - you're an idiot.
    43. Re:Pay per pixel? by Luckyo · · Score: 1

      Incorrect. Modern encoding doesn't encode as "each separate frame". Instead it encodes as a "key frame" and then all following frames are data about changes as related to previous frame until the next key frame.

      Less bandwidth is achieved by reducing accuracy of "what change has happened" frames, at the cost of reduced image quality.

    44. Re:Pay per pixel? by sixsixtysix · · Score: 1

      i'd wager that the look and sound is part of the experience.
      as for the news, i think the resolution should match whatever it's being viewed on. if the tv is hd, the broadcast should be.

      --
      ...
    45. Re:Pay per pixel? by Luckyo · · Score: 1

      And the sad part is, that this is indeed HD.

      It's just overcompressed HD.

    46. Re:Pay per pixel? by toddestan · · Score: 1

      Without the ability to reflash, the days of bricking your phone with a firmware update are over! On the downside though, you only have 3GB of ram for your apps, and if your battery goes dead you lose everything :(

  35. Its 4K, HD, or SD explained in a diferent way by jamiefaye · · Score: 1

    ... I doubt they care what your screen size is. If you want to upscale the SD version onto your 4K TV, no problem -- it just won't look as good.

  36. Other factors by ichthus · · Score: 1

    They should also charge according to how close you're sitting to the screen, and how many speakers you have.

    --
    sig: sauer
  37. torrent comments aside... by Torp · · Score: 1

    Let's assume he's talking about resolution instead of screen size, because he's probably the kind that has his secretary print out his emails and has no idea what a pixel is.

    This is the CEO of Dreamworks, known for a lot of CGI movies.
    After getting a retina macbook, i recently tried the 4K version of one of those Blender movies - Sintel to be exact.
    I didn't see any significant difference.
    I guess Dreamworks has the render farms to do a few more hairs than the Blender foundation, but still, for his products more resolution is a bit worthless.

    --
    I apologize for the lack of a signature.
  38. Also, "Newsies" will bring back the musical. by uCallHimDrJ0NES · · Score: 1

    Anyone who looks to Katzenberg for predictions about the future is a fool.

    --
    Cloudiot: A person who does not see offsite storage as a way to lose control over access to his or her own data.
  39. Tiered based on Video dimensions, not screen size by landoltjp · · Score: 2

    Rather than tiered based upon Screen Size, it;'s more likely that Katz meant it would be tiered based on Video dimensions. Many people have pointed out that it's hard for the delivery mechanism to know the target screen size. It's easy for the producer to generate a video at multiple video dimensions. The teirs would relate to standard screen sizes, increasing in cost per tier. For example:

    Tier 1 - 320x240 or 640x360
    Tier 2 - 640x480 or 800x450
    Tier 3 - 800x600 or 960x540
    Tier 4 - 1024x768 or 1024x576
    Tier 5 - 1280x720
    Tier 6 - 1920x1080

    These are 4x3 and 16:9 resolutions. I'm sure they could make other resolutions available.
    The idea is that lower resolution may be just fine for viewing on your phone or watch, but you'd want the Tier 5-6 dimensions for watching on a large TV. Try watching a 320x240 res video on your 40" display and you'll see what I mean.

    Nothing to stop you from doing exactly that; you want to pay $1 and watch 320x240 res video on your 40" display? Sure, go ahead. But I'm betting it won't be as good as watching the 1920x1080 res video.

    Except if it's a download of Twilight.

  40. Could they really just mean resolution? by Maxo-Texas · · Score: 1

    I mean then it's a straight data / cost ratio.

    Say it was 50 cents per gigabyte you download from them.

    So $2 for a DVD. $15 for a Blue ray. 50 cents on your mobile device unless you want to run it at "retina" level resolution in which case you might be paying $4.

    --
    She was like chocolate when she drank... semi-sweet at first and then increasingly bitter.
  41. Rookie security mistakes by radarskiy · · Score: 1

    One of the most popular seems to "trusting remotely entered data".

  42. I doubt it by quietwalker · · Score: 1

    Based on the wording, he's comparing watching it on a given screen equal to watching it in a movie theater. That is, you don't get to keep it. Watch once, that sort of thing. Maybe a netflix model. At $4 bucks, 10 years from now, for a large screen tv, it sounds like it's some sort of rental, like the holy grail of DRM has promised the MPAA folks; they can only watch it _x_ times, or only until date _y_.

    Of course, like all models that revolve around these sorts of limitations, you need to implement increasingly restrictive DRM, enforced by both software and hardware, and it can't have any holes or alternative routes. We all know how well that works. We've seen exactly how well it works. People, by and large, aren't in a big rush to adopt hardware for features that only benefit copyright distributors at the consumer's expense.

    My guess is that in the best case, they'll end up partnering with cable companies and/or netflix to have some sort of ala carte channel model with a monthly subscription fee. Direct digital distribution is unlikely because they won't be able to set a price point that makes sense to the public - their price point will be based around the concept of giving up control completely, because once one person 'hacks' it, it free.

  43. Thank god for smartphones by theguyfromsaturn · · Score: 1

    That's it. I'm only watching movies on my phone from now on.

    --
    I like my dinosaurs feathery, and my pterosaurs hairy (or is it pycnofibery?)
  44. Why should EDID (or screen size) matter by phorm · · Score: 1

    Really, it should come down more to resolution ,or "definition" as the studios often call it. This is somewhat the case already with (e.g. movies on google play) being more for the HD versions, and blu-ray being more than DVD.

    So just have it something like
    $$$$ Ultra-HD/4KHD
    $$$ HD/1080p
    $$ 720p
    $ Low-Def (480p?)

    Even if a tablet/phone supports 4KHD (WHY, WHY do the average 5" smartphone have better res than a 15"+ LCD), you don't really get much benefit from getting an ultra-HD version in terms of viewability. It may even be worse if you're streaming or on a slow device due to lag/bandwidth considerations.

    Similarly, low-def and is going to look crappy on a big LCD TV, and even 1080p may be inferior on the really big ones. Let people get what they pay for, and give them cost/resolution options similar to what's already available.

  45. To keep things in line... by Richy_T · · Score: 1

    There will also be a 75% increase in the price of .torrent files.

  46. CEOs aren't dumb by sjbe · · Score: 1

    The CEO isn't the guy who does the technical work. His job is to find money for the company and provide vague "direction". Pixel counts are totally beneath him.

    CEOs don't start in that role and they don't get that job by being idiots. Katzenberg has worked in the film industry since 1974. I'm pretty sure he's got a clue what a pixel is.

    That said, Katzenberg appears to all evidence I can find to be pretty much a weasel.

  47. upconversion by Scowler · · Score: 1

    I think they are worried about 1080p --> 4K up-conversion on the consumer end. Some AV manufacturers up-convert pretty well, especially for animation, which is Dreamworks bread and butter. Who would pay double for 4K native content if the up-conversion works nearly as well? 2D animation (mostly anime from Japan) is still having trouble getting people to pay out for Blu-Rays, when DVD resolution is often good enough, especially with DVD --> 1080p up-conversion.

    1. Re:upconversion by Anubis+IV · · Score: 1

      Upconversion is not the panacea you make it out to be. It's a nice feature to have when the only other alternative would be having the image fill a small portion of the display and then pillarboxing it, but considering it's essentially just the process of zooming in on a low-res image to make it fill the higher-res display, it still results in all sorts of fuzziness, posterization, and other visual artifacts. A good number of people may not notice 720p->1080p upconversion, but 480p->1080p is painfully obvious, and 1080p->4K is obvious as well (assuming, of course, that your seating is arranged such that you're getting any benefits from upgrading to a 4K display in the first place, since for most people, upgrading to 4K wouldn't make a difference, given that it's already beyond their eye's ability to perceive from where their seats are located).

      Anime is having a hard time because it's a niche market outside of Japan, and no one wants to license the rights to a blu-ray re-release since you'll be selling to a niche of a niche, given that only a subset of the niche will want to upgrade to blu-rays. Most of the new releases are on blu-ray, however, and they seem to be doing just fine.

    2. Re:upconversion by petermgreen · · Score: 1

      For years your choices in video game emulators were blocky (nearest neighbour scaling) or blurry (linear interpolation etc). Then Hqx cam along which looks stunningly good.

      Working on generic video that has already been through lossy compression algorithms that throw away high frequency information is obviously harder than working on 80s video games which used hand-drawn pixel art but I would think the same principle of detecting edges and preserving them through the scaling process could certainly be applied.

      And as you say most people with 4K TVs probablly won't be getting the full benefit anyway, so add in a scaler that makes their 4K TV look marginally better than their old 1080P TV did and they will be happy.

      --
      note: i'm known as plugwash most places but i screwd up registering that here somehow in the past and now can't register
  48. dead wrong by rogoshen1 · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Reality is probably closer to:
    "we'll try ever harsher and dumber DRM and rights constriction in order to stay the eventual decline of our business model."

    Or:
    "Only suckers will pay the premium, everyone else will just pirate to their little hearts content. This change will do nothing but increase the number of people paying 0 dollars."

    1. Re:dead wrong by westlake · · Score: 1

      Reality is probably closer to:
      "we'll try ever harsher and dumber DRM and rights constriction in order to stay the eventual decline of our business model."

      Frozen had a billion dollar theatrical gross. 3.2 million DVD and Blu-Ray sales on its first day of release. The CD deluxe album 12 weeks as No 1 on the Billboard 200 charts, with no end in sight. If the Broadway production is any damned good it could be as long lived as The Lion King.

      Pixar will have nothing in theaters this summer. DreamWorks will have Dragons 2.

    2. Re:dead wrong by rogoshen1 · · Score: 1

      an industry that is becoming increasingly 'winner take all' (IE, the sporadic mega-hit surrounded by a sea of also rans) is not a sign of health. The success of something like "frozen" just goes to prove my point.

    3. Re:dead wrong by Areyoukiddingme · · Score: 1

      Pixar will have nothing in theaters this summer.

      Pixar is Disney. Rest assured, Pixar releases will never again compete against Disney Animation Studios releases. Release dates will be exquisitely chosen to maximize revenue for each.

  49. Should be pay-by-pixel size by rsborg · · Score: 1

    Will they be able to tell how far away I have my projector from the wall?

    So if you want to download the 1080p content for your phone, you get charged the $15 rate. How that competes with Netflix's 1080p free-for-all streaming, I don't grok but at least it's an attempt at a fair pricing scheme (i.e. pay for quality).

    --
    Make sure everyone's vote counts: Verified Voting
  50. Something similar is done with Software.... by ArcadeNut · · Score: 1

    Oracle is the perfect example.

    You pay by the number of processors, by the speed of the processors, etc....

    WTF should a software company be able to charge based on what hardware I own? Yet people pay them all day long.

    Now, it's slightly different in that Oracle helps a company make money, where as a Movie is purely entertainment. I think the Pay per Screen size will be a HUGE flop since it will be very hard to know the size of the device and people will be against it. Some will pay though because they don't care, they just want to watch a movie.

    --
    Visit the Arcade Restoration Workshop @ http://www.arcaderestoration.com
  51. killing it wrong by globaljustin · · Score: 1

    see, here's the thing...I agree with this:

    They want to kill it in its current form.

    but that truth in no way, IMHO, makes this true:

    They *do* understand it.

    they can both misunderstand **and** be trying to kill it...that's my whole point...

    this "charge per screen size" ridiculousness shows that even in their attempts to kill it they fundamentally, still misunderstand digital technology

    the greater point is, if they *truly* understood it, they would actually profit more by fully embracing it!!!

    --
    Thank you Dave Raggett
  52. Okay. Dumbness quotient EXCEEDED! by Chas · · Score: 1

    Why the hell would anyone pay more simply because they have a larger screen?

    The fact is, a screen's physical dimensions and the screen's resolution have almost nothing to do with one another.

    I can see paying more for a higher resolution version based on bandwidth consumption.

    But screen size?

    That has to be the dumbest, most inconsistent metric available.

    I'm wondering if Katzenberg has been smoking the whacky weed.

    The fact is, NOTHING is going to "revolutionize" the distribution of movie/TV content.
    That's ALREADY happened with digital delivery.
    But the market continues to evolve. And it's the content delivery systems, like Google Play, Amazon Instant Video and Netflix that are evolving it.

    If Jeffy thinks that his one little studio is going to somehow drag the rest of the industry away from the people doing the ACTUAL pioneering of the format, he's delusional at best.

    --


    Chas - The one, the only.
    THANK GOD!!!
  53. That's DVD vs. BD by tepples · · Score: 1

    A better pricing scheme would be for the actual resolution. E.g. $1 for 640x480, $2 for 1024x768, and scale upward.

    Redbox does exactly this: $1.20 per night for 480p or slightly higher for 1080p. What the studio wants to do is discriminate between small 1080p screens big enough for one person and large 1080p screens big enough for more than one person.

  54. It's just mental masturbation on his part by JudgeFurious · · Score: 1

    Fantasizing about new ways to charge customers more money for the same crap is just CEO fap material and not much more. If his dream ever does come to pass you can bet one thing. I'll be downloading the biggest, most expensive version from somewhere other than where that bastards cash register is located and so will plenty of other people. On the other hand if he'd figure out the price point necessary to get more people to want to buy it he might see more customers and more dollars.

    --
    Appended to the end of comments you post. 120 chars.
  55. How many retinas at once? by tepples · · Score: 1

    But how many retinas can it occupy at once? A phone is big enough for one person. A living room TV is big enough for a family of five and should cost five times as much, or perhaps less for a family pack discount. This is the same reason why a lot of video game developers have stopped making split-screen multiplayer modes: to make a household pay for more than one copy of a game. Besides, focusing on a target 30 cm away from the eye for the running time of a feature film causes eyestrain; viewers would pay more to avoid eyestrain.

  56. Kinect pay-per-view by BlazingATrail · · Score: 1

    They are working with Microsoft to use the Kinect to detect how many people are watching and calculating their gross weight. The next billing will be pixels-per-pound. Maybe Dominoes might be interested too, $19.99 pizza per thousand pounds of people.

  57. People sharing a TV by tepples · · Score: 1

    the SIZE of the screen is just a phallic reference

    That or how many people are viewing at once. How would you go about comfortably fitting five people around a 17" 1080p laptop monitor?

  58. How to Train Scales by tepples · · Score: 1

    i recently tried the 4K version of one of those Blender movies - Sintel to be exact.

    I wonder if the CEO of DreamWorks wishes he could punish the Blender Foundation for allegedly ripping off the idea of How to Train Your Dragon.

  59. LD, SD, basic HD, full HD, and 4K by tepples · · Score: 1

    The teirs would relate to standard screen sizes, increasing in cost per tier.

    Almost. The widely known tiers are LDTV (240p-288p), hard letterboxed SDTV (360p-432p for film, 360i-432i for sports), SDTV (480p-576p for film, 480i-576i for sports), EDTV (480p-576p for sports, rare), basic HDTV (720p), full HDTV (1080p for film, 1080i for sports), and 4K (2160p). "Standard definition" is tier 2 in 60 Hz markets (USA, Canada, Japan, Korea, and Brazil), and tier 3-4 in 50 Hz markets (much of the rest of the world).

    Try watching a 320x240 res video on your 40" display and you'll see what I mean.

    It'll look like a cut scene from a video game for the original PlayStation. Yet Nintendo's Wii Shop still charges $8 to $10 for Genesis, Neo Geo, and N64 games that run in 320x240.

  60. Re:Fall back how far? by Maxo-Texas · · Score: 1

    You can choose to watch Spartakus and the Sun Beneath the Sea now for 89 bucks for 26 episodes.

    I wouldn't. Seems very pricy to me.

    But since there are literally thousands of other episodes and movies which I do want to see, I'll watch them first.

    It's your choice if you choose to pay a lot of money to legally see one particular show right now.

    I consider something this old (30 to 34 years) to be a good target for torrenting since I consider anything over 28 years to be fair game. I think Disney has corrupted our copyright system. On a related note, I also believe in jury nullification for bad laws too. OTH, I've paid for good quality versions of material that old. I consider about a buck an episode to be fair for content like this.

    I might have torrented a 1950's time travel movie I really liked when I was younger after trying to buy it and getting an unplayable, unreturnable dvd so who am I to judge.

    But you have to realize you are breaking the law if you do so and not whine too much if you get caught and fined. The odds are lower for something like this than for something currently in the theatres. But your number might still come up.

    --
    She was like chocolate when she drank... semi-sweet at first and then increasingly bitter.
  61. Entered by a licensee by tepples · · Score: 1

    If this "remotely entered data" is signed by a licensee of a digital restrictions management system under contract with Hollywood studios, then whoever enters the data would be liable for misuse. At least that's how CSS and AACS were intended to work. This would have to involve a revision of HDCP to end EDID spoofing.

  62. pay for better stories? by dprimary · · Score: 1

    I'd pay more for a better story lines. High resolution versions of a bad movie is still a bad movie. Would kill it James Cameron to spend $50k on a screenplay?

    1. Re:pay for better stories? by 4wdloop · · Score: 1

      I like this idea!

      Perhaps bidding per movie view?
      A movie eBay?

      --
      4wdloop
  63. Windowboxing by tepples · · Score: 1

    and how would this work for something like an AppleTV? It has no screen

    The end user would pay to rent the film on a particular screen size. A revision of the Apple TV that supports such a scheme would read the EDID (possibly including an HDCP-wrapped hash of the EDID info to make sure it isn't spoofed) and windowbox the playback if the screen size exceeds the size specified in the license.

    I can see a market for devices with tiny screens that demand high resolution video and just happen to be able to broadcast as well.

    I imagine there's a rule in HDCP against devices that both display and repeat video.

  64. A CEO announces a potential cheap streaming alt by GodfatherofSoul · · Score: 1

    And the freetards still complain that it's not as good as piracy. He needs to just accept that some people will always pirate then rationalize why they *have* to do so.

    --
    I swear to God...I swear to God! That is NOT how you treat your human!
  65. Screen size vs resolution by peterofoz · · Score: 1
    Just a WAG here - they'll charge based on pixels (screen size) and you'll get what you pay for. If you want to spoof your 80" HDMI TV to a phone size to save on the download, then your video will look terrible (or very small). So you can buy 800px, 1040px, 2400px or 6000px for your viewing experience - its all up to you. Pixels sent basically relate to bandwidth.

    But will the studios cheat and up-scale a 2400px to 6000px so they can charge you more? Time will tell.

  66. Knowing full well by gelfling · · Score: 1

    Disney will of course make most of their titles ONLY available in the largest dimensions.....for artistic integrity of course.

  67. Oh? Maxed out credit card? Step outside, please by grep+-v+'.*'+* · · Score: 1

    No problem, I'll just open a window.

    --
    If the universe is someone's simulation -- does that mean the stars are just stuck pixels?
  68. Price pints that bad? by klingers48 · · Score: 1

    My first instinct is to say this is a bad idea... But here in Australia we pay $20 for a movie ticket already. I'd be quite happy to pay $4 to watch new release movies, in the comfort of my own home, on my own 55 inch TV instead of paying $16 more for the inferior experience of a trip to the cinema.

  69. A nickel is too much by Ralph+Spoilsport · · Score: 1

    for the crap those people purvey. I see no reason why anyone should have to pay for Movie 43. Or, frankly, 99% of the rest of the dreck they put out.

    --
    Shoes for Industry. Shoes for the Dead.
  70. No it won't. by geekoid · · Score: 1

    Try again. Or here, let me help you:
    What the big players need to do is create a common deliver platform. One place people can go to find there shows. Don't compete on the delivery, compete on the show quality/popularity.
    Charge 17.99 a month for deliver, with 5 min commercials every 30 minutes. Most people don't mind commercials becasue they know it pays for the content.
    Allow people to pay not to have commercials. 99 cents for every 30 minutes.
    Have a no commercial subscription tier charge and addition 29.99
    Rent/Sell a small box with an HDMI port on one side, and an ethernet port on the other for people who don't want a 'computer' in the living room.

    Put everything up there. The industry would replace DVRs becasue getting whatever a person wants when they want it is what people want.

    The industry doesn't need the cable companies anymore, everyone has internet. Well, people don't need the TV part of cable companies.

    Use some of the lobbing money to get the intern declares a common carrier. Make it easier and cheaper for people to already have the pipe.

    ACTORS:
    The model is changing, life time royalties must end. In fact, royalties for more then 2 years should end. You are killing television history.

    --
    The Kruger Dunning explains most post on /. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect
  71. Beating piracy by kajong0007 · · Score: 1

    If you want to beat piracy, here's a checklist:
    1. One website on which to sell the movies
    2. Streaming or download at your leisure cross-platform
    3. A price that is reasonable (at least, considered reasonable by some portion of people; don't get snippity with me)

    If you skip any of those, I will still be able to pirate it more easily. I once spent 15 minutes trying to find a legitimate way to watch a movie on my Linux laptop. If you want me to buy stuff, don't make it so difficult.

  72. Is anyone else getting fed up... by Red_Chaos1 · · Score: 1

    ...with how these fucks keep spending too much time finding new and unique ways to fuck the consumer instead of finding new and unique ways to actually create something worth a shit and make it simple for the consumer?

  73. Won't get very far by DMJC · · Score: 1

    I doubt any of this will get too far. I mean if the games, tv and book industries wanted to commit suicide, they'd just end up driving hobbyists to make their own entertainment: Queue the explosive rise of open source gaming. Now I'm not suggesting we're going to see a sudden explosion now. I don't think those industries are quite that stupid. But I think if they actually did decide to go stupid-crazy, the bulk of people would just start hacking their own content and releasing it. People like games and modding, but if push came to shove, they'd make more open source projects if they had to get around restrictive stupid crap.

  74. Problem solved by PPH · · Score: 1

    We already have a workaround for smaller screens.

    --
    Have gnu, will travel.
  75. Forgetting that... by zennling · · Score: 1

    Some mobile phone screen resolutions are very high, a mobile phone has a screen ~5inches long - should it then not be 1/15 the price of the 75inch version of the movie? Instead of $1.99, it should be $1.00

  76. EDID by ico2 · · Score: 1

    > Can you fake the physical dimensions reported in the EDID block when the connection is using HDCP?

    The EDID is unauthenticated and transmitted over i2c. You can simply cut the cable and stick a few cents worth of microcontroller (or i2c eeprom) on the i2c lines.

    So there is no reliable way to determine screen size on a remote display. Could work on devices such as smart-tvs (but security is usually woeful compared to set top boxes).

  77. Or this: by DarthVain · · Score: 1

    Went to the movies recently at the theater on "cheap" night. Went to see the new Captain 'Mercia flick.
    Cheap night means movies are 5.99 rather than the normal 11.99.

    However when I went to get tickets I found this:
    Of the like 12 show times, all were 3D, with the exception of ONE, which was at 3pm on a weekday (meaning that pretty much no one can watch it unless you are on night shift work or retired). The 3D versions of course all have a 3$ surcharge added to them, making "cheap" night 8.99. Add the 25$ popcorn deal, and its still a 50$ night for two (on cheap night).

    So the parallel here of coarse is while they may have a tiered system, who is to say they will all be offered in all instances equally. Maybe the movie you want is only available in the expensive tiers, because they don't want to limit the users experience of course... Anyway if they want to do it to save users their own bandwidth costs, I am fine with that. However if they try the above described bullshit (which they most assuredly will, as it will increase profits), they can go straight to hell.

  78. Re:Fall back how far? by Maxo-Texas · · Score: 1

    Google the name and "DVD" and it's in the top results.

    --
    She was like chocolate when she drank... semi-sweet at first and then increasingly bitter.
  79. Re:Fall back how far? by tepples · · Score: 1

    Google spartakus and the sun beneath the sea dvd english led me to 8thman, and somehow that store doesn't look studio-approved.

  80. Resolution by LMariachi · · Score: 1

    What would it cost me for all Dreamworks Animation pictures to be in 0x0?