GOG Introduces DRM-Free Movie Store 126
Via Engadget comes news that GOG, the DRM-free game store platform, has launched a DRM-free movie store. The initial set of movies are gamer oriented, and you won't find major studio releases (yet, and not for a lack of trying on the part of GOG). From GOG: Our goal is to offer you cinema classics as well as some all-time favorite TV series with no DRM whatsoever, for you to download and keep on your hard drive or stream online whenever you feel like it. We talked to most of the big players in the movie industry and we often got a similar answer: "We love your ideas, but we do not want to be the first ones. We will gladly follow, but until somebody else does it first, we do not want to take the risk". DRM-Free distribution is not a concept their lawyers would accept without hesitation.
We kind of felt that would be the case and that it's gonna take patience and time to do it, to do it, to do it right. That's quite a journey ahead of us, but every gamer knows very well that great adventures start with one small step. So why not start with something that feels very familiar? We offer you a number of gaming and Internet culture documentaries - all of them DRM-Free, very reasonably priced, and presenting some fascinating insight into topics close to a gamer's heart. Videos are mostly 1080p (~8GB for a 90 minute film) and can be acquired for about $6. They're using h.264/mp4 and not VP9/Matroska, but you can't have everything ;). If you don't want to download that much data, it looks like all of the videos are also available in 720p and 576p.
We kind of felt that would be the case and that it's gonna take patience and time to do it, to do it, to do it right. That's quite a journey ahead of us, but every gamer knows very well that great adventures start with one small step. So why not start with something that feels very familiar? We offer you a number of gaming and Internet culture documentaries - all of them DRM-Free, very reasonably priced, and presenting some fascinating insight into topics close to a gamer's heart. Videos are mostly 1080p (~8GB for a 90 minute film) and can be acquired for about $6. They're using h.264/mp4 and not VP9/Matroska, but you can't have everything ;). If you don't want to download that much data, it looks like all of the videos are also available in 720p and 576p.
Gaming and internet culture documentaries (Score:3)
Gaming and culture documentaries. So, hackers, right?
Off to hack the gibson. BRB.
Re:Gaming and internet culture documentaries (Score:5, Insightful)
$6 for a 90-minute YouTube video? Going to have to pass for now.
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$6 for a 90-minute YouTube video?
Cut 'em so slack; $5 of that goes to Verizon. :p
CODEC (Score:5, Informative)
And I'm glad they do, because that's what people use in the real world.
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Yea, this...
The thing is, a few years ago I encoded a bunch of stuff in mkv format, only to discover that everyone and their dog supports mp4.
My new truck will play files directly off a USB drive or a SD card, but only in MP4 format.
I'm now having to reencode everything, grr...
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Will Handbrake take a MKV and turn it into a MP4 without recompressing the video?
I just loaded one in and I can't find an option for that to save my life, but I'm open to suggestions.
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No. IIRC, the CLI tool MP4Box will mux into .m4v, but you'll probably need to use mkvextract (another CLI tool) to demux your .mkv source file to separate video/audio/subtitle streams first.
Size (Score:1)
90 minutes of 1080p @ 8G with h.264? That seems large for streaming/distribution. Even my high-motion archives are 4G with pass-thru audio; the stuff I want to stream gets crunched down to 2G with zero discernible loss of audio/video fidelity.
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8 gigs? Eh, it downloads while I go and make a cup of tea and a sandwich
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About 22 minutes from what I usually get from gog.com.
Sure, it's not instant-on, and you will have to, you know, plan a bit.
But you can keep the movie, to view when you like.
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Between 12 and 14 minutes for me, based on what I usually get
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Considering that half of the world's population has to live on a mere few dollars per day, you're right most people can't afford the bandwidth.
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Then you should not be on Comcast / Time-Warner.
Re:Size (Score:5, Funny)
On Comcast it takes 2 hours to download the first half, then 8 days to download the rest after they throttle you. ;-)
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They're allowed to throttle customers!!! US is getting really bad
throttling [ientry.com]
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This is the U.S., where corporations are allowed to do ANYTHING.
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8G in 90 minutes boils 12mbps. If you can afford to pay $6 and have a screen large enough to actually profit from 1080p you should be able to afford an internet connection faster than 12mbit. Where I live you can't get anything below 20 mbit. Of course you might not be able to reach that speed but for most it shouldn't be a problem.
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Did you not read the summary? 720p and 576p also offered.
Re:Size (Score:5, Informative)
For Example:
TPB AFK: The Pirate Bay Away from Keyboard (1080p) 8.2 GB
TPB AFK: The Pirate Bay Away from Keyboard (720p) 4.1 GB
TPB AFK: The Pirate Bay Away from Keyboard (576p) 781 MB
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That's funny since YIFY are fucking morons. Quality so bad I swear they are trolling people just to see how dumb the masses really are.
YIFY = whY Is Film Yucky? (Score:2)
well, YIFY means: whY Is Film Yucky? Remember that.
Also remember that if you want great quality 720p, go 3gb+, 1080p 4gb+ (if you go stereo, better audio makes those files bigger).
While DVD movies can fit onto a CD and still look great, HD movies can NOT.
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Looking on there site, they appear to have actually released a decent selection of qualities and sizes.
For Example:
TPB AFK: The Pirate Bay Away from Keyboard (1080p) 8.2 GB
TPB AFK: The Pirate Bay Away from Keyboard (720p) 4.1 GB
TPB AFK: The Pirate Bay Away from Keyboard (576p) 781 MB
Why is 720p over 5 times the size of the 576p version? Encoding using same number of bits per pixel, it should only be about 1.6 times the size, i.e. about 1.3GB.
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8gb is pretty respectable for 1080p actually. Good 1080p rips sometimes weigh as much as 15gb depending on running time.
Raw bluray rips are upwards of 40gb so it's funny when people complain about size vs. quality. Like all the idiot YIFY fanboys that seem to like their 1080p rips in bad VHS quality with crushed stereo sound. God I hate them....
indep record store (Score:3)
my DRM-free movie store is my local indie record store...they have a nice DVD section...
library works too...but not technically a store
indep record store (Score:4, Insightful)
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head of 'DVD john'? (Score:2)
hey, jnik, judging by your UID# & the text of your comment you've been away from the internet since about 1996...
there are many free/shareware DVD rippers that circumvent that DRM
fair use - UID revoked (Score:2)
haha i'm invoking the Stallman rule and hereby claim your 4 digit UID as my pwn...** jnik (1733) claimed**...i will now add it to my collection that I wear as charms on my necklace
ripping a DVD you either purchased legally (new or used) OR you legally borrowed from a library is LEGAL
it's fair use under the DMCA
now, if you put the DVD rip file on a filesharing network, maybe that's unethical, and if you charged money for it somehow that's illegal
ripping a DVD is fair use...selling or mass distributing is ill
...to do it, to do it, to do it right. (Score:3)
"it's gonna take patience and time to do it, to do it, to do it right." That's kind of catchy... pretty sure I'll write a song with that as the chorus :-)
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Why not MP4? (Score:4, Insightful)
Why wouldn't they choose h.264/mp4? It's playable just about anywhere these days.
Re: Why not MP4? (Score:3, Interesting)
Patents
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Re:Why not MP4? (Score:5, Insightful)
Because there's a good chance that anyone who cares about it being DRM-free also cares about it being patent-free. I certainly do, although this is still "a good start."
Re:Why not MP4? (Score:5, Insightful)
Because there's a good chance that anyone who cares about it being DRM-free also cares about it being patent-free.
And such people can go fuck themselves. I prefer quality. VP9 is NOT quality, despite the claims to the contrary.
Re:Why not MP4? (Score:5, Insightful)
Perhaps not so good a chance as it seems.
Sure, most of us Slashdotters are in the middle of that particular Venn diagram, but my wife, for example, lies far off to the "hatred of DRM only" side. She doesn't care about patent licensing, but just wants to watch a movie easily. For us, that means no physical media occupying our limited shelving space.
It should be easy. Many movies are now offered with a digital copy, available on various services. Last time she wanted to watch a movie right now, we tried that, buying Frozen from iTunes. Unfortunately, iTunes apparently won't play such things to a VGA-connected device, because it can't verify the device supports HDCP. Naturally, there's no warning about this until you actually try to do it. I think the next thing we tried was Plex, streaming to our Roku device. That didn't work, either.
We ended up getting a refund from Apple, and bought a physical copy from Amazon. Once the physical disk arrived, it included a code to get a digital copy. We had to choose carefully how to use the code, judging by current compatibility charts what devices would be able to play the copy. Still hoping for convenience, we tried Amazon's streaming service, but that wouldn't play at all on our TV-connected laptop, and the Roku didn't feel like connecting to Amazon to even attempt playback. We finally just gave up and played the physical copy, several days after the initial attempt.
My wife is fine with respecting copyright and paying for entertainment. She just expects that entertainment should not be the reward for solving a puzzle of compatibility.
I've praised GOG before, and I'll do it again. Their primary concern seems to be that entertainment should be easy, and I'll support that, even if it means throwing a bit of support behind patents.
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She doesn't care about patent licensing, but just wants to watch a movie easily. ...
My wife is fine with respecting copyright and paying for entertainment. She just expects that entertainment should not be the reward for solving a puzzle of compatibility.
OK, so seriously: since you ordered it from Amazon (but it wasn't in your physical possession yet), why not download it and watch from TPB in the meantime?
Or if that offends your sensibilities (since you didn't actually have the physical media and thus you haven't yet legally executed any shrink-wrap agreements), then put that copy up on the shelf and let someone else rip and encode it for you. THEY might not have a license to use or distribute, but YOU have a license to watch -- literally. Your wife w
I read the title as... (Score:5, Funny)
GCC Introduces DRM-Free Movie Store
Something else for Linus Torvalds to complain about after GCC 4.9.0 [slashdot.org]. :/
Slashdotted (Score:2)
It's been a while since we had a proper Slashdotting, especially of a professionally run website, but right now GOG is down, overwhelmed by the attention. They deserve the attention. Let's hope they sell a lot and get the message across to the movie industry.
Price point is way too high (Score:2)
99 cents might sway me, but as it is none of these are worth the price
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Eh, $6 is cheaper than most movie tickets and non-bargain blurays these days and I can watch the movie whenever, however, and wherever I want so it's more than a rental. The selection is underwhelming but if they ever get something I wanted to see in HD I'd probably do it.
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GOG runs weekly sales on their games, and seasonal mega-sales against a large portion of their catalog. I don't see why this wouldn't be the case for video, so just wait and you'll likely see something you want for a price you're willing to pay. Ah, the joys of a free and open market ...
Where is ... (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Where is ... (Score:5, Informative)
Why not some really old movies (Score:2)
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Because there just aren't that many movies made before 1923 with extant prints?
Re:Why not some really old movies (Score:5, Insightful)
There are more recent films that also lapsed into the public domain, due to a failure to register the copyright, "Night of the Living Dead" being perhaps the most well-known example.
The real reason why GOG doesn't include these films is three-fold:
1) There are already sites doing this (for free), e.g. the Internet Archive [archive.org].
2) The quality of the original prints is often poor, restoring old movies requires great skill and is very expensive, and existing restorations are not public domain.
3) Most importantly, it's besides the point. GOG is trying to get the film industry to recognize the value of selling DRM-free movies, like the music industry did before them. Selling public domain movies would be plain counter-productive.
Here's hoping they'll succeed where others have failed before them.
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Blah!
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Archive.org is your friend
Beyond movies, you can also find old TV shows and music that are no longer under copyright
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you can also find old TV shows and music that are no longer under copyright
How is that possible? Practical TV broadcasts didn't begin until years after the January 1, 1923, cutoff for the Copyright Term Extension Act. And U.S. copyright law allows state copyright in sound recordings to continue until 2067.
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I guess I should have worded that differently, what I meant was Public Domain
Here's a handy dandy list:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L... [wikipedia.org]
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The moment of truth (Score:5, Insightful)
Well, boys and girls, doesn't this finally solve all your complaints regarding movies being peppered with DRM by the request of MAFIAA? ;)
As GOG's collection grows, and if you find content that you actually are interested in, would you prefer this movie service over pirating?
Re:The moment of truth (Score:5, Insightful)
Yes, I definitely would.
I use Steam, Humble Bundle and GOG for games.
I use http://bandcamp.com/ [bandcamp.com] for music
If I can find a DRM free source for Movies and Television, I'd never need to "acquire" anything again. GOG's prices are a little high ($6 would be the most I'd pay for most movies) but provided they do sales where they slash prices 50% or more, I'd buy movies through them.
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But currently renting a movie on Vu is $6.00. Would $6.00 be very reasonable for owning unless I'm miss understanding the DRM Free concept.
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But currently renting a movie on Vu is $6.00. Would $6.00 be very reasonable for owning unless I'm miss understanding the DRM Free concept.
$6 is very high for renting a movie. I can rent a physical copy locally for $3-$5, depending on how new the title is, or I could get a netflix subscription for less than $10 per month (as I watch about 5-10 movies per month, this works out at $1-$2 each).
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There are no local places left that rent movies in my area. I would have to drive 15 minutes minimum to get one and the selection is slim to say the least. As for Netflix Subscriptions, you get what they want you to see. You don't get to sift through a list of owned movies like you do with your music.
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If NetFlix doesn't serve your country, fine. I am not talking to you. If, however, you're getting House of Cards on isohunt or whatever the kids do these days, you can't claim it as "no legal way" anymore. Admit that you just don't want to pay $8 a month to be entertained.
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That's also assuming that they're using one of the Netflix "Blessed" OSes and/or devices.
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Netflix imposes onerous DRM and just doesn't work on GNU/Linux. The way they backdoored DRM into HTML5 is pretty disguisting too.
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http://www.webupd8.org/2013/08... [webupd8.org] It should read use Netflix in your Linux browser, because who uses Silverlight for anything but Netflix?
It works. It just doesn't work officially.
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what if i subscribe to netflix and download?
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You're not supposed to download from Netflix, you're supposed to STREAM. Big difference. If Netflix were a movie PURCHASING service, yeah, I could see you're point. If it were all-you-can-download, it would cost a shitload lot more than $8/month.
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I don't download that stuff, but as a netflix user who also has DVD rips and DVR recordings that I manage under XBMC, I can easily understand the appeal of having the content locally and in a form that can be integrated with media from other sources.
Netflix outages are frustrating. When it is up, sometimes I can't stream the best quality in real time. Sometimes the client has to be kicked in the head for no apparent reason to make it stream at all or stream the best reasonable quality. Any seeking takes
I'll be eying it eagerly... (Score:2)
I had pretty much given up all hopes of DRM-free video via legitimate channels, even as music is pretty much DRM-free exclusively.
I'm not getting my hopes too much, but like DRM-free music before it, I'll be very eager to give them my money instead of buying DVDs with it.
I'm however fully expecting like eBooks, the DRM-free selection will remain sad and pathetic.
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Watermarks? (Score:3)
While they have been true to their word about no DRM, I've always wondered if GOG games (and now movies) have some sort of digital watermark embedded in them so they can track any piracy of their sales back to the source. While this wouldn't be a foolproof method, it probably would catch the more common sort of file-sharing. It doesn't really seem to have any drawbacks for the customer either. If such a watermark does exist, it might make the major studios more willing to consider GOG as a distribution partner.
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I can think of a $12 experiment that would answer that question
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I always have mod points the day before I want to use them.
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You called? (Score:2)
I'm everywhere
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Watermarks are pointless in this context. Watermarks are used to annoy pirates and nail leaky insiders, thats about it. Its an extremely limited tactic.
Exactly. Watermarks are useless against general piracy, since the burden of proof is simply too high to take the case against John Q. Public.
For instance, most people don't know that when you buy music on iTunes, Apple puts your e-mail-address in a metadata comment field in the file. But now that you do know, feel free to take a look at The Pirate Bay and start collecting e-mail addresses from AAC files.
Note that it's not a watermark - it's not in the audio data, it's plainly visible in the file and it's tr
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Isn't that a kind of DRM, though?
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As long as the watermark does not interfere with the quality, I am 100% for watermarks. I fully and emphatically support the right of a creator to be acknowledged throughout all of time to be the creator and to possibly profit off of the piece that was created. The profit part implies some sort of copyright laws but it should be noted that I strongly and emphatically despise current copyright law.
In short, anything that does not affect the use by the person paying for the copyrighted work is fair game.
No DRM on Steam's movies either (Score:2)
To Steam's credit, they too provide Indie Game: The Movie without DRM. You can just pull out the file after it's downloaded.
That will go nicely with the new 8TB drive (Score:2)
I was planning on filling that 8TB drive with documentaries on the female body but I guess DRM-free 1080p will work too.
GOG meet Netflix (Score:1)
Wish Lists (Score:2)
I'd love to see if they can acquire a ton of the 60s/70s Italian Cinema (eurocrime, spaghetti westerns, horror).
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Oh, and Kung Fu movies. Nothing like reliving my youthful saturday afternoons.