Downloadable movies, Spider-Man Costumes and Microsoft Oh my!!!
Today on The Audio Edition Doug and I talk about the Microsoft “Single Play DVD” hoax that thankfully ended up being just that… a hoax. We also talk a lot about how studios can move to movie downloading for the public while still maintaining Copyright protection.. .and IF they should have copyright protection at all. Spider-Man 3 and the Venom costume and a couple of things more.
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SHOW NOTES: Running Time: 23:02 File Size: 5.2 megs
– Story about Universal to offer downladable movies
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I think it would be a great idea. As long as it is simple. There are films out there I would want to review for my web site, but don’t actually have the $10 to spend on all of them.
I would pay a buck, or maybe two, to see “Skeleton Key” or “The Interpreter” on opening night in the comfort of my own home in front of my computer. Even if its shit quality. As long as I can see it and hear it, and as long as I only paid 1 or 2 dollars, it would totally be worth it. The studio would be happy cuz I just spent money on a film I would not otherwise have paid anything to see.
Plus, in my case (and yours John) you could actually write the review as your watching it. Cool.
As a semi-knowleagable computer user, the idea of paying, waiting four hours to download, installing a burning program, having to buy blank discs, burning to those discs, hoping it works on your player, getting no extra features, lacklustre video and sound quality and no designer packaging sounds ABSOULUTELY unappealing and ridiculously impractical. This is the future? A five step process to watch a movie you might not even like? And i’m paying for this process? I don’t even want to do that for free!
We all know that the only reason we’re even discussing such ridiculous ideas is so that we can please studios just enough and give them just enough money so that we can still download their shit for free behind their backs, with less possibility of an uproar.
Sean, the webmaster, is right. Doug’s asessement of his Vulcan poetry is dead on. It’s our generation of ‘want it now, want it free’ cyber-geeks that find more joy in the thrill of getting a movie for free before any of their friends (bragging rights), rather then actually sitting down and watching a good film. As I said, i’ll hit up a used dvd store and enjoy the thrill of finding the films i want on dvd for 8 bucks each.
All hail Douglas, Federation member 001
All hail Sean: The Webmaster, Vulcan Council member 393
Like a poet from Vulcan Sean cuts to the bone with razor sharp words.
The thought of moving to a medium-less digital era is a little disconcerting. For instance when we’re dead and long gone, civilizations after us will know absolutely nothing about our culture because all our media will be inaccessible to them. It may cut costs to distribute things over the internet, but it makes their lifespan fleeting and uncertain.
I don’t like the thought that if something isn’t commercially viable, it will simply fall by the wayside, a lost fragment of history. Video games are a good example of this too… some older PC games can’t even be played on today’s computers. Once all the older computers wear out or are replaced and thrown in the junkyard, these games will essentially cease to exist.
But you know, nowadays all anyone cares about is the present… that immediate fix. No one thinks about the future anymore.
Jack,
I was using 1 dollar as an example for a price someone would pay.
I suggested the one dollar for video streming not a download, similar to when you view a trailer from a site.
That being said I admitted in the show that this may not be a successful model to generate revenue.
People should get paid for what they do, however I know full well that when you release a/v media people can and will get it for free in this day and age,(My song christmastimeinbrazil is on a Russian ringtones site, I have no idea how that happened – but I know I didn’t get any Russian money orders for it.) I welcome piracy, people that hear my stuff for free may not have heard me otherwise. In the end I would hope that tape trading will work for me as well as it did for Metallica.
Jay has a good point when he champions the convenience, and total package of the dvd. Dvd art and packaging looks nice, and can often come with nice booklets (i enjoy a good booklet). People like to collect things, and perhaps downloading will never replace in hand product as much as we think it will. All hail Jay
The trick is that I have to be able to take it form my computer, and watch it on my TV easily.
I think that woulod also be the trick for the average consumer that would be willing to buy movies online.
Seems to me people would rather watch it on their TV or big screen, sitting on their couch, listening to their surround sound or whatever then watching it on their computer.
What would be great is if the service provided burning sotware that worked as the download client.
So, you dowload the program, you choose your movie, you pay for it and download, then you burn it with this program that has the anti-piracy techniques built in.
So, once it is said and done, you have your copy of the film that you can not make any more copies of that is going to work on your DVD player.
I think that is a great idea.
Interesting show – formatless media is in the future for sure. How it is all going to pan out is impossible to say at this point.
Well, actually ALx it is workable. Number generators randomly picking numbers could be detected, something fishy. Solution, have your player disabled (remotely) until it can be resolved.
Hi John.
So this password that comes with the movie, will that be like a serialnumber is for software? That doesn’t work all that well. There’s tons of serial numbers and key generators floating around out on the internet.
Just my two cents…
As a dvd and cd collector, the idea of a medium-less future is not appealing to me at all. There’s no way i’m going to pay 9 dollars to wait four hours while a movie downloads on my computer when i can:
1. Pay the same price in the theatre and actually experience the film (minus theatre annoyances)
2. Download the movie for free (which i will never do again based on how much of a pain in the ass it is. I’ll just wait for friends to go through all the trouble)
or 3. Simply wait for it to come out on dvd and pay for it.
I want something tangeable. Something with a cover, an insert, nice packaging, extra features, and most importantly…a good quality transfer of the film with only the best quality sound. I am not a person who can watch a handi-cam taped movie screen. I don’t buy bootlegs by the 20’s in hopes that five of them will actually play on my player and don’t have korean subtitles. I’ll buy Charlies Angels (theoretically, not literally) used for 8 bucks before I pay the same to download it.
As long as there is a way to get all of this stuff for free, downloading will never succeed. Itunes? I have not met one person that has actually purchased a song from Itunes. Sure it’s easier and somewhat cheap, but it’s definitely not the final answer to piracy issues. How is it that thousands of people have the new Broken Social Scene album if it doesn’t come out until this Tuesday? Not because Itunes provides great service. Can you see a fan of that band purchasing the official iTunes files after having downloaded it for free? Never. However, I can see them going out and buying the actual tangeable album if they really liked it.
There will ALWAYS be the option to download for free. The only thing that a pay service can do to justify their price is make the process convenient enough to make it worthwhile. I can take an hour to walk to work for free, or i can take a cab for fifteen dollars. I think i’ll walk for free. But wait, I can take the bus for 2 dollars! Right now, soulseek and bit torrents are giving us the bus ride for free, so why would we ever go back to the cab? Trust me, it makes sense in my mind.
It has to be convenient, and worth their money. And at this point, I think the most convenient and cost efficient thing to do is rent/buy a dvd. If you’re not satisfied, at least you have the option of selling or trading it back for something you might enjoy. What do you do when you’ve paid for a nine dollar file that you’re not satisfied with? Press delete.
I missed that.
Why?
People want the experience, event, of going to the movies. Big ass screen, friggin loud and great quality sound. The feedback from the crowed, cheering and jeering.
You purchase DVDs for more than just the disc, the whole package. I’ve watched bootleged DVDs. All I see is just the movie, not extras whatsoever. It’s the feature and overall apperance that make sales. It’s visual. Take posters for example.
You could have a movie poster showcasing an upcoming flick – just text, no images. And the same poster with pictures highlighting scenes from the film with the same text information. Which do you think will get your attention?
That argument just makes my head shake. People will continue to buy. Free does equal dollars. Look at telethons, the people who donate money get squat from it. But they still do it. Same deal here. If they don’t buy DVDs, they won’t make them anymore. The public will buy. The rentals for example. I rent movies to see if I should buy it. I’ve seen the movie. I can get it pretty much anytime I want for dollar for three days. Why buy? Cause I want the whole deal, not just a plane disc.
Wasn’t the studio complaint that “Soul Plane” didn’t sell well was blamed on piracy? No. It’s a crappy ass movie. People didn’t buy it. Duh.
A lot of independant bands encourage MP3 trading of their music. Free songs. But they’re still making money, people know quality when they see/hear it. It still buy CDs. But nearly all my new CD purchases are independant artists.
And actually you can, but it’s crap. One dollar DVD movies are for sale at Wal-Marts.
Doug, you are right that selling the product should be most important, but studios shouldn’t sell their products go for practically nothing. a 10 gb dvd-quality .avi for 1 buck? are u fucking dreaming, doug? $1 for an entire movie? NO WAY!
Look at dvd prices, theater ticket prices.. if you can buy a $1 copy of a movie that you can share with friends and keep forever, why would anyone go to theaters, or buy dvds?
Studios, you should enforce as much as possible, and protect your intellectual property. Just as you, Doug Nagy, wouldn’t want someone else using your comedy material without your permission or some compensation, the studio doesn’t want their material to be used without compensation either. The internet has created an atmosphere where things such as music and movies can be downloaded for free. This is not the way life should be.
Other films have done that. I remember 28 Days Later did that very thing and that can work. And dRob, being a ‘Browncoat’ myself, I saw that posted earlier tonight..great stuff.
UIP just put the first 9 minutes of Serenity online in full screen. Is this an experiment on how it might work?
http://video.vividas.com/CDN1/3929_Serenity/web/index.html
Is that pretty much what the Screen Actors Guild is doing with their screener copies when they are sent to their members? And that was how Ronald Redding got caught I believe.
Hello!
I think there is a solution for digital media rights, check the way the http://safari.oreilly.com/ works.
You can download the chapters but each chapter is generated with your personal account as a watermark. So, if you distribute your pdf file everyone will see that you distributed it. You can download it everywhere, at anytime you want.
Something like that would be ok I think.
Thanks,
Marco
Oops I meant to say WITHOUT the ping pong balls. But if Venon was going to be CGI, they will still do old style drawings before they go to the computer. And is it too early to have custumes made for Spderman 3? I have no idea when they start filming.
Hey John, maybe the person who reported on the Spiderman costumes just saw some concept drawings of the villians. Heck they could even be motion capture suits (with the ping pong balls) for all I know.