BitTorrent Video Download Store Falls Flat 195
seriously writes "We've all heard about BitTorrent going legit this week with legal movie and TV show downloads. Ars Technica took a look at the service to see how usable it was and ran into a few snags, including not being able to download or even open the video files on some computers. However, the ones that they did manage to open varied a lot in quality. Overall, they blame DRM: 'Without knowing whether browser compatibility and dysfunctional video files are a rare occurrence or not, it's hard to say whether BitTorrent's service is a good one overall. Our initial experiences have been disappointing and frustrating, and guess what the culprit is once again? DRM. Why the DRM failed to work on 50% of our purchases is not clear, but whatever the cause, it's simply unacceptable.'"
Tried it.. worked ok (Score:5, Informative)
I would have been up in arms as well - but I noticed the yellow banner which told me to enable scripts.
The movie I tried (Broken Arrow) worked and the quality was fine. I consider it about the same as a movie ticket - but I do wish they'd allow more than 1 day to watch the movie after you start watching it(yes, I know you have 30 days to begin watching it - but I wanted to check to make sure it worked first). If I were buying the video I would have been much more annoyed with the DRM - but since it was a rental I wasn't too irked.
Download time was 1 hour (255 KBytes/second average download)
Re:DRM to be considered harmful (Score:2, Informative)
Either way, they can always check the torrent site for MPEG-2 versions of movies they want. Or anything they have codecs to play.
DHCP vs HDCP (Score:2, Informative)
HDCP [wikipedia.org] - High-bandwidth Digital Content Protection, a form of Digital Rights Management (DRM) to control digital audio and video content
Why sell over Bittorent (Score:2, Informative)
Bittorrent is by definition a "Peer-to-Peer" protocol.
--- There are no peers ---
There are only the clients and the source.
Hence it would be infinitely simpler to just use a perfectly ordinary HTTP (or whatever), download service from the source to the client, client--server.
Bittorent is perfect for downloading the latest ultra-popular freshly pirated movie, or downloading all six Slackware 11 isos at high speed (as there were so many peers after it was released), but using Bittorent to download a file from a point source, when there are probably negligble other seed/leech sources is simply counterintuitive, and ultimately a suboptimal use of the protocol.
Its no surprise that download speeds may be rubbish, that's a quirk of the protocol (and a function of its probable non-popularity).
As for the DRM, any half-baked excuse for an almost sentient attempt at a life form with more than working brain cell and with its head not buried in the sand (or in its wallet), could tell that DRM simply doesn't work, and merely annoys the user. This has been discussed to death over the last few years in great detail, and if even enormous companies like Apple can twig and get the hint by making their legally obligatory DRM as unobtrusive and transparent as possible (they partially succeded), then these "five movie studios" can do so too...
Overall I judge this as a method of "testing the waters", rather than a serious attempt at making money, or providing a service. Ultimately the conclusion is inevitably negative.
Re:Mmmm, okay, lets see (Score:2, Informative)
It is the same here.
I have money, I'm willing to spend it. But I want value for money.
I buy CD's but only for 10 Euro or less. I had an exception to that rule in the past year and it was for an indie band "Sikth".
The problem is DRM doesn't deliver value.
I download music from eMusic and it is easy. Download + add to my library (iTunes), done!
But if I can't find an artist on eMusic, the new CD is still 20 Euro's. I'll download it and wait a half year then by the CD
If they would have made it availale online with no DRM they could have my money already
I download TV shows via bittorrent, a day after US release I can watch it.
I would be happy to pay for it but I have my conditions.
No DRM! Respect me and I respect you.
Make it available in Europe!
Make it cheaper! You deliver a low/reduced quality product. You have less distribution costs.