After writing an earlier post about Tesco offering Movie Downloads in the UK, and then the recent discussions about Home Cinema vs Theater, that perhaps there’s not the demand out there for downloading movies and that the perceived demand is mainly due in answer to the high prices of tickets and DVD’s. Many of the responses to the Home Cinema vs Theater post were negative towards watching movies at home and positive towards the overall experience of watching movies in the Theater as a complete experience.
Okay, so there are a lot of people out there downloading movies right now, I’ve done it, perhaps not for the same reasons that you or your friends have, but these reasons may not all be solely due to high prices, convenience or plain piracy. So what are they?
The first thing to address is why you want to watch movies, and let’s put aside the piracy and downloading issues for now. Where does the enjoyment really lie for you? For me it’s a few reasons, I love the escapism, I like to feel something from a movie, and to carry that out of the cinema with me, to be moved, inspired, or intruiged. I want an immersive experience that affects me after the credits have completed, something to make me think.
That all lies in seeing and hearing the movie as the writer(s) and director(s) wanted me to. A big, clear and colour calibrated screen, with a calibrated surround sound system. That’s definitely not downloading movies, well not on my PC!
So what are the reasons that people download movies from the Internet? I know mine, that’s number 5, and usually just for foreign films that I can’t see locally.
- It’s free and you don’t want to pay for them
- It’s easy and on demand
- Ticket or DVD prices are too high and you can’t afford them or are making a statement
- It’s illegal and fun because it’s illegal
- To check a movie out before buying to own
Those are just the reasons I can think of, there may well be more so please do post them in.
Then the reasons for not downloading and not the Studios reasons, the reasons why someone at home wouldn’t want to download.
- Quality of video is poor compared to a hard digital copy
- Quality of audio is poor compared to a hard digital copy
- Access to extras is either difficult, as they will be in separate downloads, or impossible, as they may not be available or impractical – as in the case of an audio commentary
- It’s illegal
- Length of time to download a movie, and extras if they are available, is still a long time
Now I believe there are those that will download movies because they don’t want to spend any money, they’ll always be there. There’s no way of stopping someone who wants to pirate or copy something, you might capture them after the fact, but there’s no real way to stop them committing the act, they’ll find some way round every protection system.
The rest of that list show people who have more scrupulous reasons for downloading movies, not to say that the act is any better, but their reasoning behind them is based on a more rationale point of view. Are there any more that I might have missed? Do you have other reasons for downloading movies rather than buying, renting or going to the cinema to watch them?
So what are the benefits of a download service? Now these are based on an ideal service, you can read the word possibly in each of these points as it would depend on the service provider.
- Highest quality of audio and video available on the computer
- Multiple plays
- Viewable extras
- Early release
- It’s legal
- Cheaper than DVD purchase or cinema ticket
As I said, these are all possibles. They might be done, they might not. It all depends on the service offered. Okay, so let’s compare that to the benefits of a current DVD rental service. What can you get from that?
- Fixed fee per month, often cheaper than Internet access
- New DVD’s received 2-3 days after dispatching the old, sometimes just as quick as a download
- So many DVD’s to watch per month
- Master DVD’s with all extras, including audio tracks
- Search and recommendation facilities, rather than searching for titles you already know about
- Support for damaged or poor quality DVD’s
Again, if you can think of more for these lists, please do post them. So let’s pull everything together and see where we are.
The element that just want to download movies for free and not pay anything will surely keep doing so. They are the true pirates, and whether they really do make a dent in the profits of the big studios is another debate. These people will always be there, for whatever type of product.
The next group are those that will make the move. They don’t mind the lower audio or video quality compared to a DVD on a home cinema or the theater, they may even have a pretty good computer setup with a high quality monitor and surround sound. They also don’t care too much for extras on DVD’s, and are wholly focussed on the film itself.
Then there are those who do care about the quality and like seeing the entire experience of DVD and all the extras and insights into the movie. They’ll stay with DVD rental or purchase, maybe still downloading the odd one prior to purchase, but they are more likely to rent before buying.
However, let’s not forget the power of the cinema, it runs through all these groups but also stands out on its own. People will always want to go to the cinema regardless of what else is available and how else they want to watch a movie.
So where do you fall? What do the figures look like? Am I in a minority being in the DVD group? Is there a huge rise in the need for downloading movies? Would you use a downloading service and how would you use it. For checking movies before buying, or just pure watching without cost? What would you be willing to pay for such a service? Let’s see what your current habits are and what your requirements for such a service are?
Check out EZTakes at http://www.eztakes.com. They have the first legal DVD movie downloads store. They give away a lot of DVDs for free. The concept is serously cool!
Well said StoicShadow. Grammar and punctuation seem to be a lost art these days and it tends to suggest that those who want free movies are also those who cannot write nor spell.
I’d like free movies too… but I know I’m not likely to find ’em here :P and is it me, or are there only like 4 of us that can use proper grammar?
i want free dvd
I WANT SOME MOVIES FREE
I want some movies free.
what do i want, free movies, when do i want it now.
i just want some movies for free
i just want some movies
does anyone know any dvd websites that are 100% free please tell me if you do
gooood
Yeah I’m suggesting taxing internet connections for illegal downloading. I can see your point about not wanting to tax everybody for something a few people do, but it’s not really THAT small a number of people doing it anymore and it’s only going to get larger and larger. I dunno I’d be fine with a voluntary extra charge too. It’s not about “just wanting to do” something illegal. Like I said, the revolution has pretty much already happened and (thankfully) more people are realizing it all the time. I’m willing to pay an extra fee just so I can take advantage of it and be left alone.
you agree with me that none of the current methods will stop illegal downloading. Yet the only viable alternative to illegallity is DRM-laden download services and suing/jailing (potential or actual) customers? The point is that the rules have changed. They want to control everything about the content they sell you. This is the root of the problem. Something else needs to be figured out and it should probably be something that involves the free and open network that’s already there.
but like I said, that makes too much sense… it’ll never happen.
“..every person who writes for a movie related site seems really unfamiliar with movie downloading..”
Really? Everyone? “(at least that I’ve seen)” Ah, that’s better. How many have you seen downloading movies? Personally I’ve probably downloaded 20-30 in my life with all varying degrees of quality, none of which have stood up to the quality of a cinema screen or a 32″ Widescreen with the full DTS or DD audio playback.
“I don’t believe the purist “it’s not the way it’s meant to be seen” bullshit either because I’m as big a purist as they come and I download movies all the time.” Well obviously not if you’re content watching them on a portion of a 17″-21″ monitor most likely windowed or perhaps sized up to full screen and pumping out stereo sound on small range speakers.
As for your reasons for downloading:
“…they want to want watch a specific movie…” and “…variety…” I’ve discovered both with the DVD rental service. I have a list of over 250 movies to watch, and I can play around with the priorities to watch a huge variety. They even have obscure titles from both the past and abroad, I’m amazed at tha availability.
On the reasons not to:
“Quality is poor compared to hard digital copy – well yeah.. if you’re only downloading telesyncs of movies still in the theater…” Well out of all the ones I’ve tried to download, and I’ve done extensive searching for them using multiple downloading tools, I’ve never managed to get any decent window size on the monitor that’s bigger than 600×400. Yes the picture is good quality on the playback, but the monitor and playback software lack the more precise tools to calibrate a picture effectively, as they do in both cinema and more serious home cinema enthusiasts.
“Access to extras is difficult or impossible- wow… just not true…” I never knew about that feature. I’ve never been able to download a movie with a single audio commentary, never mind multiples. I’ve also never found the extras unless I know what’s on the DVD and I can search for the additional features directly. Sounds like there have been improvements on that side then.
“Length of download is a long time to wait.-Maybe you’re connection is crappy…” Again, with the download tools I’ve tried I’ve never been able to download a movie without leaving my machine running over one, or even multiple, nights to get the US traffic. I’ve never been able to get a full length movie in 20 minutes. Perhaps you are using a lot more than a low contention ratio 512 ADSL.
On methods of charging:
“tax me.” Oh lord no. You’re suggesting taxing all Internet connections for the privilage of downloading movies, if they want to? We have a similar tax in Britain for Televisions. Everyone who has a TV is charged a licence fee for it yearly, and that money goes to the BBC and the cost of policing the licencing system. Not any of the other TV channels, just the BBC. Whether you watch them or not. That’s a very unpopular tax, it’s like my local shop charging everyone in Scotland a fixed fee for their service, there’s a huge chunk of people who just don’t use it but still have to pay.
“None of the supposed new distribution methods are going to stop illegal downloading…” Correct. Exactly as I said. It’s the same with shoplifting or any other crime. Nothing will stop the people who just want to do it.
“In fact going by the recent statistics on both movie grosses and file sharing, it probably helps..” I don’t think it helps as the Cinemas are showing movies which are usually not available on file sharing yet, except for those crappy quality ones you were talking about earlier. It might help DVD sales to a small degree, but if the majority have downloaded the entire DVD and extras, as you say they can, then why would they buy the DVD? There’s definitely a status quo at the moment.
“I don’t want to pay for a separate service that will suck compared to what’s already there (the internet) just so I can be legal.” The download services we were talking about are on the Internet, and the advantages are Offering an easy route to find high quality movies with all the extras in one place, and software to do it that doesn’t install adware and spyware galore.
I think a chargeable service is the only way to go. Charge the people who want to download, and those who don’t can spend their money on other services, such as the movies, DVD purchase and DVD rental.
Just a few comments…
Not to single the writer out but apparently, every person who writes for a movie related site seems really unfamiliar with movie downloading (at least that I’ve seen). I don’t believe this. I want to see someone say that they download all the time and talk about that. Someone (many many someones in fact) is downloading movies all the time… but apparently it’s not anybody who spends their day writing about movies. I don’t believe the purist “it’s not the way it’s meant to be seen” bullshit either because I’m as big a purist as they come and I download movies all the time. Does this mean I don’t go to the theater or buy dvds? Of course not. The star wars thing is good example… It will probably be one of the most downloaded movies ever (even as a crappy workprint) and yet will still makes gobs of money in the theater. I plan to set up a homemade, LAN connected whitebox with my home entertainment center in the near future for the sole purpose of downloading movies and tv shows. I will not feel guilty at all.
THE MAIN REASONS PEOPLE DOWNLOAD MOVIES-
1. they want to want watch a specific movie (or just any movie) right then. It’s really as simple as that. Most people don’t really think about the legality or not wanting to pay for them. People keep talking about some impending digital distribution revolution without realizing that it’s already happened and what has changed can never be undone. “You can’t put the cat back in the bag” blah blah etc. It’s not an act of rebellion. It’s just THERE. Which leads to…
2. variety
Any movie you want. anytime. This is what pay services are offering but once again it’s already there. Is that movie not on dvd yet? Is the tape out of print? has the crazy studio been holding up its release in your country for years (looking at you miramax?)It’s online. The internet is fast becoming the best, cheapest film school/archive in the world.
REASONS NOT TO DOWNLOAD (A REBUTTAL)-
1.Quality is poor compared to hard digital copy – well yeah.. if you’re only downloading telesyncs of movies still in the theater but anybody downloading them already knows this. I mainly download dvds rips that I watch once or twice and then delete. The quality loss of a well encoded divx or xvid rip of a dvd or tape is negligible. Encoders are doing amazing things these days.
2. Access to extras is difficult or impossible- wow… just not true. Any extras can be EASILY added to a torrent as separate files inside the archive. Also, have you ever heard of the AC3 audio codec? I can download a beautifully encoded dvd rip (xvid or divx) of a film with multiple audio tracks that’s around 700 – 800 MB. In other words no bigger than without the extra audio tracks… and STILL audio/video quality loss is virtually unnoticable. Those amazing encoders again… gotta love ’em.
3. Length of download is a long time to wait.-Maybe you’re connection is crappy…I can download a 2 – 3 hour film in anywhere from 20 minutes to an hour. This is nothing. Even when it’s longer… so? It isn’t really a deal breaker so it was a silly thing to list as a con. People are used to downloading these days and broadband is everywhere.
BENEFITS OF A DOWNLOAD SERVICE OVER DOWNLOADING MOVIES-Nothing really except that it’s legal.
CONS OF A DOWNLOAD SERVICE-
1.DRM, DRM, DRM
2.Yet another bill. This one for something I can get for free.
3. variety suffers next to the internet.
SOLUTIONS(THIS IS WHY I SOLVE THE WHOLE ILLEGAL FILESHARING PROBLEM YAY)-
1.Forget DRM… the per-use license model doesn’t work for works of art and all it’s done is make the suits look like idiots again and again. all copy protection can and will be broken.
2. tax me.
None of the supposed new distribution methods are going to stop illegal downloading. I’d be more than willing (in fact I would welcome it) to pay an extra added tax/charge on my internet bill just for the sole right to download whatever movie or tv show I want from where ever I wanted. I don’t want to pay per movie and I don’t want to pay for a separate service that will suck compared to what’s already there (the internet) just so I can be legal. Just tax my internet. File sharing doesn’t hurt ticket sales… in fact going by the recent statistics on both movie grosses and file sharing, it probably helps (wow whoda thunk it?!) so the studios should have done this long ago. This is the only option that really makes sense so it will probably never become a reality.
I don’t download Movies in the theater, or reasonably found on DVD; TV shows on DVD; Movies planned to be on DVD… I may download Foreign films not availible in the US/Region 1, TV shows not on DVD, or not planned for DVD distribution, or High quality Trailers