Movie Studios OK Download-to-Burn DVDs 175
fistfullast33l writes "The Associated Press is reporting that today movie studios have approved Sonic Solutions' technology Qflix, which allows people to download movies and burn them to DVDs that include CSS, the method of encryption that protects all pre-recorded DVDs sold today. According to a press release issued by Sonic Solutions, they will be demoing the technology by appointment at the Consumer Electronics Show on January 8th. Apparently the DVDs will also be subject to DRM restrictions placed by download services such as limiting the times a movie can be played back and how many times the movie can be burned. Is this the death of NetFlix as we know it? Interestingly enough, the AP article mentions burning kiosks in the future and the Sonic release mentions Walgreen's as a partner, so maybe DVD burning is coming to a drug store near you. Sonic Solutions is the owner of Roxio, which produces a well-known CD and DVD burning software suite."
DRM=WTF (Score:5, Insightful)
Never ever going to work (Score:5, Insightful)
I want downloadable movies, but not like this. It's still not an excuse for piracy (in case anyone gets funny ideas) but there are so many better solutions to this.
Ha Ha (Score:2, Insightful)
Burning Kiosk? No thanks ... (Score:2, Insightful)
Also, I doubt they'll spring for TY 8x +R media bitset to DVD-ROM
Netflix will live on (Score:5, Insightful)
The end of Netflix my ass (Score:4, Insightful)
There is no way this will beat Netflix. People like my mother use Netflix simply because she doesn't like buying movies. It costs her a few dollars to see a movie through Netflix, where I doubt that these 'download' movies will be less than $12.99USD.
Riddle me this: Do you really think there are more people out there willing/able to download and burn a full-length DVD (including those who know what DRM is) than willing to hop on a website and order movies to their homes? Hell, for as fast as Netflix is in getting movies out, you could likely order one and have it delivered before your download of the same movie would be completed.
Somebody wake me when I can go online or on my TV and order any movie I want on-demand.
Oh, and the DRM scheme of limiting the number of times you can watch the movie on your computer is about the most fucking stupid thing I've heard today. This is another industry trying to ensure that you will NEVER own anything.
But Ballbusters already eliminated late fees... (Score:4, Insightful)
Besides, this kiosk idea is so far removed from the traditional experience of "roaming the racks" that it would leave absolutely nothing to distinguish between downloading a movie and going to the store to rent it, except that you have to leave your comfy couch to do it and, most likely, pay a bit more. Really, only the technophobes are going to be going to rental stores in the near future, so why alienate them? Of course, the shift away from brick and mortar rental stores is definitely coming. Blockbuster et al. are most likely going to find some way to carve themselves a slice of the pie, but one can't help but wonder how long there will be actual Blockbuster corner video stores in operation.
Downsized Differences. (Score:1, Insightful)
"When you're through watching the movie you toss the DVD. No shortages of the top hits, and the customer never needs to come back to return the DVD and pay a late fee."
What's the difference between "tossing it" and buying it, and how do you enforce that difference?
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HDHomeRun-Networked Digital HDTV Tuner [9thtee.com]
Re:they still don't get it... (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Hehe (Score:2, Insightful)
If you're living in America, Home of the Obese as I am, we might find that forcing people to do sit-ups before a movie would improve our declining life expectancy numbers.
Re:they still don't get it... (Score:3, Insightful)
Have you tried downloading a full sized DVD and burning it? Come on, I don't have the time or patience required to do that via bittorrent (which maxes out my connection and prevents me from doing other things online if I want the DVD as fast as possible) and that still takes several hours. How fast would I get the DVD if I'm downloading it from one source? It'd take days if not weeks of downloading in the background. Plus, now I've got a hard drive full of 4/8 gig files which are essentially useless once they've been burnt.
The general populace might see this as an alternative to going to the store and buying a DVD and I can see people simply queuing up DVD's on a wishlist to download at their leisure, but this is no where near the sort of thing that compete with the NetFlix model of business.
Reality check (Score:5, Insightful)
What is interesting about this is that Hollywood is close to giving up on CSS. They are about to permit hardware makers to market a drive capable of writing the CSS blocks and writable media to leave a factory without the CSS blocks preburned to zeros. While I suspect they have a DRM trick up their sleeve we know it won't work in this case, as there really isn't a way to retrofit around the flaws in CSS and remian compatible with the installed base of DVD players.
Ding dong the witch is dead, but of course it has already been dead and the body is pretty smelly, enough that Hollywood couldn't ignore it anymore. I think this is a good idea actually. Not for everything and everybody, but I can imagine cases where I might actually use it.
Scenario 1: Downloads. I could see paying to download and burn vs paying to have physical media shipped. If there was a big enough price gap to make the slightly faster delivery enough better to offset the loss of the professional screen printed artwork and such. Or if it were used for obscure titles that wouldn't rate a production run and the choice is between a DVD-R and nothing.
Or try Scenario 2: Go to a website, pick the titles you want to purchase and pick up the media (which could even be dye sub printed and cased) at your friendly neighborhood retailer (the article mentions a deal in the works with Wallgreens) later the same day. Note that this scenario would even allow Hollywood to tightly control distribution of totally blank burnable media.
Re:they still don't get it... (Score:3, Insightful)
Not everyone shares your opinion. Some people have the patience even to download whole TV series as DVD ISOs (for an hour-long show, that would be about 7 discs per season).
Re:DRM=WTF (Score:2, Insightful)
That's good enough for me.
Re:not a chance (Score:3, Insightful)
But Ballbusters didn't eliminate trash fees... (Score:1, Insightful)
*I say OK with a cavet. It will fill our landfills with lots of oil-derived plastic disks. I already see plenty of the buggers in the gutters and lawns of the city I live in.
DVD lifespan (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Never ever going to work (Score:5, Insightful)
You mean like an iPod?
Re:Voluntarily paying more for "music" CD-Rs. (Score:1, Insightful)
Re:DRM=WTF (Score:3, Insightful)
Which is really nonsensical since the first thing most people are likely to do is burn it to an "unlimited" DVD-R.
Re:Never ever going to work (Score:3, Insightful)
-Eric