Disney Close To Unveiling New "DVD Killer" 498
Uncle Rummy writes "The Wall Street Journal reports that Disney is close to releasing a new system that will sell permanent, multi-device access to digital media. The system, dubbed Keychest, is being positioned as an answer to consumer concerns about purchasing digital media that are locked to a small number of devices, and thus as a way to finally shift media sales from an ownership model to an access model. They claim that such a service would reduce the risk of losing access to content as a result of a single vendor going out of business, as purchased content would remain available from other vendors. However, they do not seem to have addressed the question of what happens to customers' access to purchased content if the Keychest service itself is discontinued."
Tyranny by another name... (Score:2, Informative)
Watermark (Score:5, Informative)
Watermarked content can be played on unlimited number of devices, but can not be posted to thepiratebay. Pirates can attempt conversion, but by the time you are sure you stripped all possible watermarking techniques, the video is so blurry people will buy a legit version anyway. This currently works for Apple/Amazon audio with zero issues. It's too sad that Disney wants both legal and technical special treatment to keep protecting Mickey Mouse.
Re:Disney sells product that solves Disney's probl (Score:3, Informative)
Some consumers do... (Score:3, Informative)
Because I'm pretty sure "consumers" don't do any of that with DVDs.
Some consumers do. For example I have to remember that when I buy a DVD in the UK I cannot play it in my Canadian DVD player wen I get home....at least not without ripping it and rewriting it first.
Dead DRM remote-authorization services. (Score:5, Informative)
If you bought into any of these, you're a sucker. They don't work any more.
Next, Disney.
Re:And what happens when the copyright ends? (Score:3, Informative)
They did not think of that because they have no intention of letting any currently held copyright expire, ever. They will just continue to extend the term to "Another 50 years" every 50 years.
The article even says so (Score:3, Informative)
And Keychest would allow movie studios to dictate how many devices, connected to which distribution networks, a given title can be played on.
So it is permanent for as long as they say it is permanent.
Re:Can I avoid this simply by avoiding Disney? (Score:4, Informative)
You can try. But remember that Disney is very, very, very big. The silly parks and cheesy cartoons make up a tiny fraction of their overall empire.
See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_assets_owned_by_Disney [wikipedia.org] as a reference. Big.
Free The DVD (Score:3, Informative)
the simplest solution to this self identified dvd portability "problem" is to stop preventing consumers from ripping their purchased films to hard drives. once that occurs they can stream movies either in house or globally via the net, to all or any device they prefer. take my run of the mill my $65 1TB hard drive. it holds nearly 250 single-layer films as uncompressed isos. that's over 300% more movies than the average american household owns now. next year that 65 bucks will buy me two gigs and storage for almost 500 films, or nearly 3000 with the proper compression. i live in conn but sometimes watch my movies in mass either by net or by drive. it's simple and free of technical issues. in other words it works.
this disney maneuver can't be as much about solving practical problems consumers have with player compatibility (legal ripping software will take care of that) as it is about solving perceptual issues consumers have towards content cartels and their draconian efforts at digitally restricting media.
free the dvd/blu-ray. they may sell more too. or not, but the problem vanishes.
- js.
Re:Disney sells product that solves Disney's probl (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Disney sells product that solves Disney's probl (Score:3, Informative)
When was the last time you saw a good Disney movie (Pixar doesn't count)?
I'm guessing what you actually mean is what was the last good Disney traditional animation film, in which case you'd have to go back to the first half of the decade, before Eisner dissolved their cel-animation studios.
Now that they've restarted their efforts things seem promising, and the upcoming animations "the princess and the frog" and "rapunzel" are highly anticipated, with names like Ron Clements, John Musker or Alan Menken who were crucial to some of their successes in the 90s.
Re:Does anyone else find it disturbing that... (Score:3, Informative)
It's actually Hannah Montana and the movie sequels which are most widely available and affordable. They're crap anfd they know it, which is why in stores you'll see every animated sequel and direct-to-video movie they released in the last ten years, but at most two movies from their "classic" collection, costing at least $20.
Re:Some consumers do... (Score:3, Informative)
Region coding [wikipedia.org]. The PAL vs. NTSC is determined by the player, which will output for the local standard - it's not coded in the DVD.
Re:Does anyone else find it disturbing that... (Score:2, Informative)
...a company that was renowned for giving us stuff to watch is now going to start telling us how we can watch it?
In all fairness, their new Blu Ray releases include the DVD disc also. And some "digital copy" (whatever that is, Ipod format maybe?). I guess the goal is to allow a 5-year-old to open the package and play the movie no matter what digital player they own/choose.
Want Blu Ray & amazing 1080p clarity? Check.
Only have a DVD player? You're covered.
Want to see a low-res version on your Ipod? No problem, here's the best encode we've made for it.
Ideally, it would simplify things for kids and grandparents. Not everyone understands the differences or how to convert digital formats.
But I'm just trying to play devil's advocate here. The new blu ray+dvd combo packs are around $20-$25 and is cheaper than the original $40 dvd releases they had 10 years ago. Not to mention early dvds (not just Disney) sometimes had poor transfers, compression artifacts, rainbows/hue problems/shimmers, etc.
We live in an interesting time where having a VHS player, a DVD player, & a Blu Ray player isn't too far-fetched.
Anime/rare movie fans might own laser disc players also. >_>
Re:Can I avoid this simply by avoiding Disney? (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Can I avoid this simply by avoiding Disney? (Score:2, Informative)