UltraViolet Digital Movie Locker is Shutting Down (theverge.com)

UltraViolet, one of the entertainment industry's first attempts at creating a comprehensive digital locker service, is shutting down on July 31st. Users should link their libraries to the service of at least one retailer which can then be used to access their films and TV shows after the shutdown. From a report: UltraViolet's days were numbered ever since Disney, the only major Hollywood studio not to join, launched its expanded Movies Anywhere locker service in 2017. Not only did it offer broad studio support, but it could also be connected to major digital retailers like iTunes, Amazon, and Google Play, unlike UltraViolet. Additional resources: How to safeguard your UltraViolet library.

Comments

How to safeguard

[Alypius]

The best way to safeguard your library is to rip the disc. This is just the latest service to go under or change their TOS.

Re:How to safeguard

[vanyel]

This is exactly why I never do uncrackable drm'd media to start with. If I can't archive my own portable copy, I'm just renting it, not buying it.

Re:How to safeguard

[dgatwood]

I have the discs, my Ultraviolet codes came with the physical disc and just gave me a nice way to access the content while traveling on a business trip if I found myself bored and with some time to kill.

The problem is, IIRC, they charged a premium for the versions with the codes, so a lot of people got suckered out of real money for something that is now useless. I'm betting the class-action lawyers are already salivating.

Re:How to safeguard

[91degrees]

True. Although a lot of people don't have DVD drives any more. And very few people have ever had blu-ray drives.

Also the space taken up by movies, assuming you want no further degradation, is still non-trivial. Especially for blu-rays.

Re:How to safeguard

[thegarbz]

IIRC, they charged a premium for the versions with the codes

Err no they most definitely did not. For the most part UltraViolet were just magically included with premium releases. I.e. you're almost certain any boxed sets, special editions, and in many cases just the plain old Bluray's only release came with them.

Re:How to safeguard

[dgatwood]

Amazon often had two versions of a movie, one with a code, one without, and there was always a price difference between the two, despite being the same movie. Now whether those were precisely the same edition or the non-UV copies were new old stock, I couldn't say, but the effect is the same, either way. And unused codes affected the resale price of discs as well.

Re:How to safeguard

[thegarbz]

Amazon often had two versions of a movie, one with a code, one without

I've never seen one with and one without from the same seller. Can you give an example?

Such is the fate of all DRM

[Anonymous Coward]

Pirates win again!

Re:Such is the fate of all DRM

[rlitman]

Also the eventual fate of any cloud service that is ostensibly free, or paid for up front, relying on future sales, without any recurring subscription charges to support its long term maintenance.

Ulraviolet never had a day

[Austerity Empowers]

Ultraviolet's days were numbered before it was ever released. It was a vaguely mediocre idea, completely ignorant of the reality of the internet that makes the service completely worthless, foisted upon the population by some of the upper echelon in the pantheon of Really Awful People.

Good riddance, and may all their future endeavors end as this did.

Moral of the Story

[Anonymous Coward]

Never trust the cloud.

Sadness

[duke_cheetah2003]

UV was a fantastic idea. It's a shame one studio can cause it's undoing.

This is not going to create any confidence in consumers interested in buying digital goods like music, movies, shows, etc.

If they're gunna keep pulling the rug out from under the consumer, you can bet nothing like this service will ever find success. You can only burn people so many times before they go 'no thanks, been there done that. got nothing to show for it.'

Re:Sadness

[kbonin]

I suspect the real reason for its failure is more than just Disney not playing along, its more likely that most studios are now preparing their own walled gardens and are allowing any contracts that require them to play nice just expire. Studios want physical media to die so they can charge for their own streaming, and most consumers don't mind getting that 5 Mbps stream instead of 24 Mbps for Blue-ray or 25 instead of 128 Mbps for 4k UHD. Not to mention the data cap/NN elephant. As always, consumers lose, and arrgghh for the win!

Re:Sadness

[chill]

It wasn't just Disney. With UV it was pretty much just UV. With Movies Anywhere it links to my Google Play account. MA will link with several, so I don't have to have a bunch of different apps.

I purchase the physical discs, and the digital copies are just a handy convenience feature. It allows anyone in my family group to stream the movie without connecting to the home server thru VPN.

Re:Sadness

[Anonymous Coward]

thats why all my media is on my NAS as home.

Plex for the win!

Re:Sadness

[Yaztromo]

Ultraviolet reinforced the concept that if you bought a license for a show or movie, that license was universal and entitled you to stream it from anywhere

The idea may have been good, but the implementation -- particularly outside the US -- sucked badly. Their software support to actually watch films was terrible, and by relying on third-parties to actually host the content, you were at their whim if they decided to stop making certain pieces of media available for download and/or streaming.

So it wasn't "one studio". UltraViolet had a myriad of issues that made it difficult to watch your content, severely degraded the audio and video of your content (in certain situations), and which made it difficult to watch your content on a variety of devices, and where content my simply disappear at any time.

As a consumer, it always cheesed me off if I bought a BluRay and found it had an UltraViolet code in it, as the experience was uniformly terrible. I've always had a much easier time with iTunes codes -- they work, are well supported, Apple always has the content, I can stream in HD even a year or two after entering the code, and the experience is always uniformly positive.

(Note that as I only get codes for each via physical media purchases, I am able to rip the content myself. At home I typically use the physical media for viewing, but if I want something on the road on my iPad or laptop, while I could transfer a copy I've ripped to the device in question it's always easier to just download or stream it from iTunes. That was never the case with UltraViolet).

Yaz

Re:Sadness

[93 Escort Wagon]

As a consumer, it always cheesed me off if I bought a BluRay and found it had an UltraViolet code in it, as the experience was uniformly terrible. I've always had a much easier time with iTunes codes -- they work, are well supported, Apple always has the content, I can stream in HD even a year or two after entering the code, and the experience is always uniformly positive.

Which was why - at least on Amazon - I found that lots of discs which included UV codes were "accidentally" mis-advertised as including iTunes codes instead. Companies like Funimation repeatedly made this same "mistake" - I'm not sure if they ever corrected it, even after getting called on it.

I don't like DRM; but at least Apple has made it reasonably transparent to the end user.

Re:Sadness

[squiggleslash]

UV also linked Google Play, Amazon, and VUDU. I'm not sure about iTunes or the Microsoft service that nobody uses.

To be honest, I'm seeing no difference whatsoever between MA and UV other than that Disney's also signed up to MA. I'm fine with MA surviving UV, it's not like they needed multiple join-your-accounts services, we needed the studios to do this from the start.

Re: Sadness

[cjplay]

My android chrome won't let me upvote this. Apple did this, not just Disney.

Re: Sadness

[cjplay]

UV had a share feature that MA doesn't have. You share or transfer to another UV user and you could not watch it until the license was returned. But no app existed to make that easy. If FB participated, it could've been great. And a reason for me to join Facebook.

Re:Sadness

[Bengie]

I tried UV a few times over the years by entering in codes from purchased movies. It only gave access to SD streams. Even for SD, it was crappy quality. I was having flashbacks of watching watching pirated full length movies back from the 90s. Realtime called, wanted its compression algorithms back.

Physical Media FTW!

[imperious_rex]

THIS is why I always prefer physical media. When a movie or music album is literally in one's hands, they cannot take it away from you. Plus physical media can be easily loaned and borrowed between friends. When your media library is "in the cloud" on somebody's server, you don't really own the media. It's just available for you to lease or check out, not to own forever or to pass on to somebody else. When that service becomes defunct, so does your media library. Ooops! Physical media isn't without its problems (bit rot over time, physical damage, etc.), but I put more trust in a disc in my hand than in an account that could be shut down at any time.

Re:Physical Media FTW!

[FangVT]

I have physical discs of 3D movies. I can no longer buy a new TV that will show them in 3D. Nothing is safe.

Re:Physical Media FTW!

[Yaztromo]

THIS is why I always prefer physical media.

I suspect most UltraViolet digital locker unlocks were from digital media purchases, as many BluRays have come with UltraViolet codes for digital copies.

I always buy physical as well -- but have several UltraViolet (and a number of iTunes) "copies" that came with the media. And while I've long disliked UltraViolet with a passion, iTunes copies are quite handy to stream or download to an iOS, tvOS, or laptop, and always work the first time without a ton of screwing around.

(As I've noted elsewhere, my experience is based on living in Canada, where media with UltraViolet codes is all over the place, but where UltraViolet support and online vendor availability (myuv.com lists a whopping three -- Flixster, Kaleidescope, and Sony Pictures) has roundly sucked).

Yaz

Re:Physical Media FTW!

[Yaztromo]

FWIW, while you can't really buy a new 3D capable TV, the PlayStation VR can be bought new and can still display 3D movies.

It's a different experience -- but you get a much bigger virtual TV size (the size is selectable, but at the largest size is like being at a movie theatre). Plus it will output the 3D signal to a 3D TV, and can automatically output a 2D image to a 2D TV while the VR headset is in use.

That may or may not be your cup of tea, but it is something you can buy today that will play and display 3D BluRay discs.

Yaz

Do you even know what it did?

[Solandri]

Ultraviolet reinforced the concept that if you bought a license for a show or movie, that license was universal and entitled you to stream it from anywhere So if you bought a movie on Fandango, you could use that license to view it from Vudu, and vice versa. No more having to dig through a half dozen streaming services trying to figure out which one you used to buy a particular movie. If you paid for the license, you could stream it from any of them (who supported Ultraviolet).

IMHO, a service like this should be a legal requirement for anything that's sold as a license instead of a physical product. It reinforces the concept that the digital licenses you buy belong to you, not to the service which happened to sell it to you.

Re:Do you even know what it did?

[trawg]

If you paid for the license, you could stream it from any of them (who supported Ultraviolet).

From a very quick read of the shutdown announcement that sounds it sounds like they're trying to offer some continuitiy like that: "... in the majority of cases, your movies and TV shows will remain accessible at previously-linked retailers."

Of course that doesn't help you if the retailer decides to pull the plug (which seems like the inevitable fate of all such services).

Re:Do you even know what it did?

[Zaelath]

Not that I bothered often w/ it, but I just had a look...

"Transferred" my licenses to Flixter which I'd already created an account on due to another of these services shuttering.

Of the 5 movies that I have listed, only one is "available" on Flixter.

So yay, I have preserved my license to view 4 movies that don't exist.

Re:Do you even know what it did?

[grep -v '.*' *]

It reinforces the concept that the digital licenses you buy belong to you, not to the service which happened to sell it to you

Pfffft. Do you have that signed, in writing, from everyone involved?

Otherwise your license is just as good as the paper it's written on. Oh, it's located on a website? Let me change the terms for you then.

That's a nice concept, but then how do we get paid multiple times for the "it's the same but it's different" content? Yeah, go away then.

Re:Do you even know what it did?

[Yaztromo]

Ultraviolet reinforced the concept that if you bought a license for a show or movie, that license was universal and entitled you to stream it from anywhere

...for values of from anywhere that equal "within the United States".

Very, very, very few services ever worked with UltraViolet outside the US, and many of those who did had limited libraries of content. And even fewer of those ever supported any sort of set-top streaming -- I have yet to find one that works in Canada for a set-top box, for example.

I only buy movies on physical media (usually BluRay/DVD combo packs), and rip the DVDs to my media server for easy streaming. I've had a few UltraViolet codes, but trying to actually watch an UltraViolet movie has always been a major PITA. A number of the ones I have became unavailable for download without any prior notice, and if I didn't already have them downloaded on a specific device, I could only ever get a license to stream them in standard definition.

So screw UltraViolet. Outside the US it had poor support, few providers, few/no apps for streaming devices, took movies you had purchased offline for download leaving only SD quality -- and yet even with all of this terrible support they still pushed it to BluRay/DVD buyers (in Canada at least).

Every BluRay/DVD that came with an iTunes code, on the other hand, has worked just fine and continues to be available for both download and streaming, without any forced quality degradation. Hopefully with UltraViolet closing down more BluRays will come with iTunes codes instead.

Yaz

Re:Do you even know what it did?

[Austerity Empowers]

Ultraviolet reinforced the concept that if you bought a license for a show or movie, that license was universal and entitled you to stream it from anywhere

Empty promises rarely fulfilled. It was always more profitable to sell you the same thing twice, possibly repackaged. What would have made it work is if you could then legally download bootlegged copies from anyone who chooses to host them, with no fear of legal retribution. Obviously that wasn't going to happen.

What does this mean for shared libraries?

[imcdona]

Ultraviolet had a feature where you could share your library with up to 5 people. This allowed me everyone in the family to have a combined collection of movies. I'm currently sitting at over 300 movies. I'd specifically by titles that were ultraviolet compatible so I buy it once and everyone in the family gets a coffee

Re:What does this mean for shared libraries?

[ledow]

Well, I hope you learned the lesson.

I see any digital content as, at best, a long-term lease, and price accordingly.

I spent ages looking for a particular 1970's BBC sitcom online. You could get series 1 and 2 anywhere, series 3 was just non-existent online. But it was last filmed in the 1970's. It's played ENDLESSLY on the free digital TV channels. But you can't buy it.

The only place that I could buy it from came along much later was the BBC Store. Literally, the second someone told me about it I was willing to buy it, and I put it on my wishlist. The next month, that service was terminated, people were refunded, the content was no more.

At that point it was the finally nail for me. I don't mind having stuff online, but I wouldn't buy anything to get the online copy specifically. I don't mind getting things cheap online, knowing that in a few years they may disappear. I won't buy multiple copies of the same movie on different sites just to watch them. And I spread my content over several such services so at least I'll have something to watch if any one of them tanks.

But, when it comes down to it, if I don't have it on DVD or saved from a download, it's just not worth it. Ironically, the best services for that are BBC iPlayer and DVB itself. Just press record on the Kodi instance and you get an H264 file out of it. Maybe it has ads, who cares? It's digital so you just slide the slider past them.

I wouldn't buy any of the movies I have now over again until I was assured there was a "Steam" of movies - a service where I can get almost any movie, no matter how old, buy it once, double-click to download and play it, watch it offline and keep the file around even if it went completely muppet.

There isn't one. There doesn't look likely to be one. Ultraviolet was *never* even in my consideration. If anything, the movie industry has set itself up for failure because its next generation of customers have little interest and just assume that they can watch everything on demand illegally without comeback, and never buy permanent media.

Video stores are dead. Cinema may have growing revenues but only because it's so damn expensive (and the last few times I have gone to the cinema, I did it on coupon and deals and got the movie for basically nothing, bought no extras, and even in opening weeks of new movies I've pretty much been the only person in there). There is no one service that caters for everyone, and people just buy Kodi boxes and stuff or just plain stream it over ever-shifting link sites that remind me of what my generation did for MP3.

I buy all my content legally, and they slowly eked away all the possible ways for me to do that reliably. So rather than consume their content, I just stopped. Now until it's literally in the bargain-basement price-range, and out already for a few years, I don't even bother.

I think I'd rather have a games-night (with or without friends) any day than a movie-night, and not only is the games industry doing better than the movie industry now, but video games aren't the only kind of games you can play together.

Honestly, it's really time to give it up.

dvdupcs + vudu = win

[sixsixtysix]

I've been plundering vudu's disc-to-digital program for a few years now. Get the app and go to dvdupc.com and enjoy $2 HD movie purchases.

Re: dvdupcs + vudu = win

[cjplay]

Yes! I did this to around 40 discs so far.

Keep your own content and files!

[Rick Schumann]

Stop using 'The Cloud', it's stupid.

Re: Keep your own content and files!

[cjplay]

So let's say you store your files locally. You have to maintain the drive every 2-5 years, power it, and organize it. Then ensure you have an easy way to play it from the tablet in the car, or at work, or... See the complexity? I've used Plex and it works well at home. Nowhere else without downloading ahead of time. Discs? Store 1000 discs? I watch waaay too much content for that. Piracy? Great way to cause a degradation in movie quality of big budget films and ruining blue collar jobs everywhere. Some cloud service is necessary and I'm sure you use one today for something. Middle ground? Rent storage somewhere that allows transfer to anywhere. Compute/storage as a utility is the future. It's cheaper and less hassle. Pay $10 a month for compute and storage is cheaper than a $500 machine lasting for 3-4 years (10 if you work real hard).

Re:Keep your own content and files!

[tttonyyy]

But, astonishingly convenient.

Don't give Disney even half the credit here

[cjplay]

1. It wasn't about Disney, it was about access. Movies Anywhere isn't Disney, it's iTunes (read up on Keychest). Now it's Amazon, Google, Walmart, Fandango, AND iTunes in the US. No matter Disney's content foothold in kids and nostalgia land, getting that multi-prong service doesn't happen without a major service provider. 2. "EST" in walled gardens was and is a laughable premise so there had to be a somewhat common garden. AT&Ts attempt at EST will fail without a shared license locker. Especially since the list in #1 began to. 3. Studios benefit from a shared/transferrable product license to lower the power of iTunes in the marketplace. 4. Charging for an EST license when customers buy them and only use them like rentals (ie watch once) is beneficial to the services. However, people chose rentals because of lingering concerns like what's facing UV. So now you know why services will reluctantly support this shared digital locker service so you'll pay 3-8x the rental price. Now the real issue. UV had to ensure something existed to hold the licenses to avoid a massive refund or class action like what iTunes may still face for "kinda" dropping existing Apple-only ESTs (TOS declarations to the contrary). If Vudu or Fandango drop the licenses, then you have abandoned licensing. The only clear choice I see to minimize legal ranglings is to grant MoviesAnywhere licenses for all UVs. Studios have only 1 real choice to support their common desired business model. Finally, I agree that true ownership comes from holding the license in some way. However, ask yourself where your money is right now. The internet is where many of us put our life in one way or another(look at the site you are on). We will be assimilated.

Re: Don't give Disney even half the credit here

[cjplay]

Finishing #2. The list in #1 began to accept Movies Anywhere into their own gardens and shared with Apple.

The Original Digital Codes Were Worse

[HannethCom]

The original codes either got your a iTunes video that only works on Apple devices and for the most part continues to only work on Apple devices, or a Microsoft Play Anywhere video that worked on select devices.
Microsoft Play Anywhere is now gone.
UV at least worked on most devices. Unless you of course flashed a custom Android ROM. *sigh*
Well back to my physical discs and it looks like I have a lot of discs to rip and will need to find copies of my UV movies I don't have discs for to download. Fortunately ripping for personal use and downloading movies you legally have a license to is still legal in Canada.

If you don't have a DRM-free copy

[Casandro]

You might as well have no copy at all. Fortunately DVDs and BluRays are easy to rip. Funny enough lots of people seem to share that opinion if you look at sales figures which go up once simple ways to rip became available.