The One-Use, Self-Destructing DVD Returns 561
BonrHanzon writes "Looks like DivX (the stupid one, not the codec) has been resurrected in the form of Flexplay. Staples will be selling these movie disks for 5 bucks a pop at the checkout counter. The disks can be played in any DVD player, but a special adhesive will render the disk unplayable 48 hours after the package has been opened. As if our landfills weren't already overflowing with enough crap." The blog post notes that Flexplay has actually been around for 5 years; the Staples distribution deal is what's new.
Heh, pirates ahoy! (Score:5, Insightful)
2. Rip it to harddrive.
3. Dispose of movie.
4. ???????
5. PROFIT!
Re:Heh, pirates ahoy! (Score:5, Funny)
2. Discover a cheap 'hack' work around (boil in water, spray with hairspray etc)
3. Keep the disposable movie
4. ????????
5. Profit?
Re:Heh, pirates ahoy! (Score:5, Insightful)
2. Keep movie forever
3. There is no step three.
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not if you do it repeatedly.
Re:Heh, pirates ahoy! (Score:5, Insightful)
It may be a while before the average person has that setup [...]
I'd be inclined to say the average person will never have that setup, if for no other reason than the space constraints - most people don't live in houses big enough to dedicate a whole room just to watching movies (to say nothing of those living in apartments).
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Certainly, many people will never have or want a room where the primary purpose is to display a large screen and 6 channel surround sound. But, as history has shown, designers adapt to the wishes of home buyers by tailoring room designs to contemporary needs. By and large, homes built in the last five to ten years now have
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The heat load isn't probably as bad as you imagine. We have a firebox (cast iron metal box with ceramic window for burning logs of wood). The firebox itself gets extremely hot, but the wooden fireplace around and above it remains at room temperature.
Re:Heh, pirates ahoy! (Score:4, Informative)
they fail fast because the current trend is to not have a mantle so now you have the heat rolling directly to the set.
It's the price you have to pay for being rich and trendy.
Re:Heh, pirates ahoy! (Score:4, Funny)
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Might try something like that for your mirror effect. I doubt they make any that do that by default since one-way mirroring diffuses the light so much.
Re:Heh, pirates ahoy! (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Heh, pirates ahoy! (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Heh, pirates ahoy! (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Heh, pirates ahoy! (Score:4, Insightful)
Last Friday I sat in 95+ heat and 90%+ humidity to watch the Florida State Seminoles in their first game of the College Baseball Regionals.
Sure, it would have been much better to watch it on TV with a cold beer in my hand, but there is just something to be said of going out to the actual event and seeing it live.
I dunno, call me crazy, but life is meant to be lived, not watched on TV.
Just my 2cents.
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Re:Heh, pirates ahoy! (Score:4, Insightful)
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Re:Heh, pirates ahoy! (Score:5, Funny)
But do they have two robots who sit next to them and talk back to the movie? That's what really matters.
Re:Heh, pirates ahoy! (Score:5, Funny)
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Anyone ever notice how a movie going experience is a lot like a plane ride?
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7.1 Surround sound system - $5,000
Theater style seating - $10,000
Making 5-10 of your closest friends chip in on a four dollar dvd rental....Priceless!
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Then again, I LIKE going out with my wife, so different strokes I suppose...
Re:Heh, pirates ahoy! (Score:5, Interesting)
I'm not too good at math, so help me out: How many times does this have to happen before your home theater (including original purchase, time/money for installation and periodic setup, wear and tear, preventative maintenance, taxes, loss of use of part of your house, and popcorn) begins to pay for itself?
I know this is the popular rhetoric around these parts but I still don't comprehend it. Here we have a self proclaimed geek forum; a hangout for people who routinely spend weeks' and months' pay cheques on new computer and other electronic equipment but who can't see the beauty of a home theatre setup?
A few points to clarify why I wanted a home theatre for myself;
There are definitely some cost savings benefits to the home theatre, but that's not the only benefit.
As to the costs associated; I choose what to buy (component wise) and when to buy it. Usually I'll find a piece or set of equipment I want then wait for a sale. I also make what I believe to be rational purchases; for example, I want a PlayStation 3 which will double as a high definition Blu Ray player, it'll play regular DVDs as well as take over as the home network media centre.
If done correctly you don't have to pay an arm and a leg to get a very good theatre setup and with 0% finance options at the big box stores you can leave your money in the bank earning interest while you pay small instalments. When you factor the cost of an evening's entertainment even for as few as t
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Re:Cheap Hack Workaround (Score:5, Interesting)
Since you already have rights to the work's initial medium, does this mean than hacks are not violations of DMCA?
They provided technology for the ORIGINAL disk to self-destruct. You are not breaking tech to make copies, you are *preventing breakage*.
Re:Heh, pirates ahoy! (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Heh, pirates ahoy! (Score:5, Funny)
And the joy of making him 5$ richer? Umm, wait. Gotta think about it a bit more. Brb, torrenting.
Re:Heh, pirates ahoy! (Score:5, Funny)
My deep rooted concerns for our environment, the glaciers, the ozone layer, my grandchildren, his grandchildren, and even your grandchildren prevent me from paying for movies, since it will add more worthless junk to our overflowing landfills.
Downloading movies produces significantly less waste; therefor, pirating all my media is the only way any responsible, eco-friendly person can be entertained, and still be able to sleep at night.
does that sound good to everyone else?
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so, now can I make the claim that I can not on good conscience rent or purchase a movie due to pollution?
My deep rooted concerns for our environment, the glaciers, the ozone layer, my grandchildren, his grandchildren, and even your grandchildren prevent me from paying for movies, since it will add more worthless junk to our overflowing landfills.
Downloading movies produces significantly less waste; therefor, pirating all my media is the only way any responsible, eco-friendly person can be entertained, and still be able to sleep at night.
does that sound good to everyone else?
Yep.
One more thing... pirating movies is good for the environment in another way.
It takes money out of the pockets of directors, producers, and actors. You know. Those guys who live in mansions, fly private jets, and own dozens of sport cars while getting up on their high horses about the environment and how we all have to "pitch in" and "do our part."
Pirate enough movies and they won't be able to afford those mansions, private jets, and sports cars. Their energy consumption will go down, their carbon f
Re:Heh, pirates ahoy! (Score:5, Funny)
Back in the day, no one asked this question. It was pretty well accepted that AOL would decide how many coasters you needed.
Re:Heh, pirates ahoy! (Score:5, Insightful)
you fail at English.
The English language has no central authority to decide what is and is not correct, all it takes is for me to tell enough students one thing, and it will catch on and become part of the language!
HA!
Re:Heh, pirates ahoy! (Score:5, Funny)
I think you have overlooked the fatal flaw in your plan: that it hinges on students paying attention in English class.
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While this may do for watching it on a computer, it is usually not enough for a proper viewing experience using a media center system especially if you have it hooked up to a HD screen.
So given a choice of ripping it and storing it native (and/or recoding it to _MY_ settings) and Internet I would actually chose the rip.
Re:Heh, pirates ahoy! (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Heh, pirates ahoy! (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Heh, pirates ahoy! (Score:4, Insightful)
Don't forget that they also advertise it as a sale. "Own it now on DVD" are their words; I didn't put it in their mouths.
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Their request for a summary judgment was dismissed, which means the suit will be fully heard in court.
Granted, the reasoning behind the dismissal does throw a pall on their chances for victory, but it doesn't mean it's a done deal.
Re:Heh, pirates ahoy! (Score:5, Interesting)
Are any of the many lawyers that read Slashdot able to shed a light on this?
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As for your question, any lawyer on slashdot is probably smart enough to know not to dispense legal advice on slashdot. Any non-lawyer on slashdot who dispenses legal advice is probably an idiot who doesn't know what (s)he's talking about and should be ignored
Re:Heh, pirates ahoy! (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Heh, pirates ahoy! (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Heh, pirates ahoy! (Score:4, Interesting)
What? If it's good for our politicians who are working for the country, it's good for me who isn't.
How's that different from... (Score:5, Interesting)
Well, how's that different from...
1. Rent movie.
2. Rip it to harddrive.
3. Return it.
4. ???????
5. PROFIT!
Effectively, this is just a simpler way of renting movies. In fact, so simple that any regular store can get into that business. They don't need to keep track of who rented what, who's overdue, find and replace scratched movies, etc. It just lets them use their normal logistics, which they have in place and are already in place. And it makes it a lot simpler to "rent" them by mail over the internet too.
It also makes life simpler for people like me, who live half a city away from the nearest movie rental shop. It's more convenient to chuck it into the bin, than have to make a second trip to give it back. In fact, it would save me a lot more trips, since now I'd be able to just go there once and buy a small stack of disposables, and watch them whenever I have time. (The clock starts ticking when you opened it, not when you "rented" it.) No more "omg, I got the whole LOTR trilogy, so it's time to drop everything else and stay awake until 1AM to watch it all. Or just order a small stack of them by mail.
Of course, it has the same caveats as rentals. Including that if someone wants to rip it, they can. It's not a new problem, though. And I'll venture a wild guess that if it wasn't the end of the world or of the movie business before, the new version can't be that much more destructive
Re:How's that different from... (Score:5, Insightful)
1. Rent movie.
2. Rip it to harddrive.
3. Return it.
4. ???????
5. PROFIT!
Rental $2.50
Longbox $.50
Photo paper $.25
Ink - $.75
To copy a rental could easily cost you $4. For an extra $1 I presume you get the case and cover. That's not so bad.
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Not necessarily. These things look like they arrive in some kind of vacuum sealed pouch which is probably held inside one of those tamper proof plastic shells that you have to cut open.
A bigger concern for these things is what you get for your money compared to a rental disk. Is it some crappy panned and scanned version of the movie? Does it have any features? Is the disc single layer or ev
Re:How's that different from... (Score:5, Funny)
A zero layer disk. I'd like to see that
Re:How's that different from... (Score:5, Funny)
Old news... They put TWO in every spindle of CD-R/DVD-Rs... One on the top, one on the bottom.
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Re:Heh, pirates ahoy! (Score:5, Interesting)
The only place I've ever seen one of the self destruct discs has been in a truck stop. These have not been sold to geeks to rip. They are sold to convience those on the road without alternative diversions such as high speed internet and blockbuster. No returns on the road is the selling point. How they intend to sell the overpriced product in Staples is a mystery to me. They don't compete with the $5 bin at Wal*Mart.
Netflix? (Score:3, Informative)
Why not just use Netflix then? Unless they are hoping for purely impulse buys, which would be better suited for buying DVDs then simply renting them.
They Are Recyclable (Score:5, Informative)
You can recycle them. You can return them to the store you bought them at for recycling. You can even get a free mailing label and ship them to flexplay for recycling.
You can also shoot yourself in the face if you're dumb enough to buy this crap.
Re:They Are Recyclable (Score:5, Insightful)
Read: technically, we could recycle them, but this has not been important enough for use to develop. We have not come beyond some pilot programs that could have been tested by consumers if we bothered to actually implement them. We will keep telling you the discs are recyclable till people notice we're not actually recycling them.
Re:They Are Recyclable (Score:5, Insightful)
To add to your point, just because something is recyclable does not mean there are no energy costs to recycle.
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Along the same lines, there are plastics that are manufactured from otherwise-unused byproducts of petroleum production, so often you have to create more pollution to recycle than you would to just make new ones. Maybe burying them would be a better option? At least you are then taking at least some carbon out of the loop.
I think someone has put forward the case that it is more environmentally sound to bury paper in the
Re:They Are Recyclable (Score:5, Insightful)
I don't understand all the eco-fuss... (Score:4, Insightful)
This is a drop in the ocean compared to that. Heck, the snack foods consumed while watching the movie will probably create more garbage than the DVD.
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E.g. plastic cups can be more eco friendly compared to traditional ceramic cups due to the large amounts of energy needed to create the ceramics and the energy and chemicals needed to clean the cup. It all depends on the number of times the cera
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Is there a free shipping label for that, too?
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Tyres... house bricks... siblings...
Why? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Why? (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Why? (Score:5, Interesting)
If you long haul truck, in a week, you may be over 800 miles from the rental store. The only place I have ever seen a Flexplay disc is at a truck stop. Staples is a new one... I wonder who their target demographic is.
Staples and those far from home doesn't make sense except for business travelers, then I would expect them in airports instead of Staples office supply stores.
The same reason I pay $20/mo to rent 4-6 movies (Score:3, Interesting)
It means I never have to worry about forgetting to go back to the video store (I let two months worth of rental time rot because I just got busy and forgot about movies for a while -- the rental *store* would have charged me boku bucks a
$5 disks? (Score:5, Insightful)
I saw the first full page ad for Blu-Ray disks in a supermarket catalogue today. If the shops keep pushing those, DVDs are only going to get cheaper and cheaper.
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A diskful of masochistic goodness (Score:3, Insightful)
Forbidden by law (Score:3)
And someone should really explain those i**ots that this way they'll give the pirates a simple cheap way to get DVD quality copies, without assles and a few pennies.
This is going to work... (Score:5, Insightful)
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Re:This is going to work... (Score:5, Insightful)
So you're saying that having a less-than-brilliant business model should be illegal? As in, Congress or state legislature should pass a law banning bad business ideas? If so you're just as screwed up as this FlexPlay crap.
Why risk your player? (Score:4, Interesting)
But still, would you want to the first person to discover you have left one of these in your player and it just happens to be a rogue one in the batch that has written off your player.
As someone else has said, renting the film for a week is cheaper and buying them new isn't loads more anyway.
The only place I can see these having any place in the market is for the Mission Impossible box set.
Seriously... (Score:2, Funny)
Advantages over rental (Score:5, Informative)
- You have a limitted time in which to view it.
- You have to return it. Not everyone lives near a video rental store.
- you will be charged if the disk gets damaged or lost.
If you buy a self destructing DVD- You can buy it on spec and watch it some other time (these have a shelf life)
- You just throw it out when you're done with it.
- The maximum cost is the cost of a disposable DVD.
The environmental damage isn't as big a problem as people seem to think. Much smaller than takeout, and probably less than the waste from a day's food for most people. That and they're recyclable.The main problem is making people realise that this is a rental and not a purchase. When they own the physical media they think they own it. Prices are also a little high, but they don't need a vast number of customers. Just enough movie fans for stores to justify the shelf space.
Re:Advantages over rental (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Advantages over rental (Score:5, Insightful)
You know this is going to happen (Score:2)
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Ah, good old NewSpeak (Score:5, Insightful)
No flexibility, and after 48 hours no play!
It won't be a problem for true geeks (Score:2)
DIVX vs DivX (Score:5, Informative)
Case matters.
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Of course if capitalization mattered when registering domains, it opens up a lot of possibilities:
The industry is out of touch... (Score:2, Interesting)
At the same time I think the TV industry is m
Get it right! (Score:2, Informative)
There might be a use.... (Score:3, Funny)
Too late, Netflix has already cleaned their clock. (Score:5, Interesting)
Netflix is positioned to become the next "cable company" without having to lay all this cable. You can pick what you want, when you want it, pause it, skip around, and given 15 seconds or so it will spool up the data and play a perfectly reasonable picture. And with no commercials...
I haven't had cable TV at home for the last decade, because it doesn't provide what I wanted. All I wanted recently was Heroes and Battlestar, but to get those two I had to buy 40 channels of other crap, including commercials.
Or I could just wait for it to come out on DVD. Or lately a bunch of us have been gathering at a friends place for it.
The installed base of DVD players is huge, but Netflix will already bring you the plastic disc, to your home, so it's only missing the ability to have an impulse buy the plastic disc.
For the $100 box, you have the ability to get what you want without having to wait for the disc to arrive, don't have to return it, and can watch all you can stand.
Netflix is poised to eat a lot of other folks lunch.
Sean
It's not the dumbest thing I've ever heard... (Score:2)
At least they got it right this time.
Could work, might even make money if they have decent movies available.
I can see these being sold at airports etc where returns aren't practical.
wackypedia info for flexplay (Score:3, Informative)
- no DVD logo (may or may not play on real DVD players).
- disc contains a dye which reacts with oxygen to discolour it (either to red or black).
This is in the resin bonding layer between the two layers of a DVD-9. For DVD-5 it's in the surface coating.
48 hours is the "alleged" time the disc will last before being unplayable. Since this is a chemical reaction expect that time to plummet dramatically in hot environments. So, how are they going to deal with the howls of indignation from customers who open the thing, decide they don't have time to play it today, and find they can't even play it once (assuming their DVD player doesn't bork on it)?
Staples will back out of this one real fast...
Andy
Windows uses same model (Score:5, Funny)
$5 for a movie that last only 48 hours (Score:3, Insightful)
what a tremendous waste of hazardous materials! (Score:4, Insightful)
and yes, discs are made with toxic chemicals.
This is just a horrible waste of resources. Especially when the content could be distributed in harmless electron format.
It's a calculated plot..... (Score:5, Funny)
Obviously, they must be running out of people to sue for downloading movies. This new technology is clearly designed to frustrate even more consumers, and drive them to download so they can keep their profit margin high with lawsuits.
Fortunately (for me), there hasn't been a movie coming out of Hollywood in 20 years that I have the slightest interest in either wasting money on, or risking an infringement lawsuit for downloading.
$5 (Score:5, Insightful)
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Re:Landfill fodder (Score:4, Insightful)
Nonsense (Score:4, Funny)
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The only thing new is Staples is getting into the act. Visit your local truck stop. They have been out for more than 48 hours.
Re:Of all the reasons this is dumb... (Score:4, Insightful)