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The deception of “buying” digital movies

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Re: The deception of “buying” digital movies

#161

Post by KingFelix »

stewx wrote: post #7

One under-appreciated limitation on digital movies is geographic restrictions. You buy a bunch of iTunes movies in Canada, then move to the USA, and you no longer have the right to watch them anymore due to licensing. Another significant issue with digital movies and games is the inability to resell the content once you're done with it. You can sell your DVDs at a yard sale or on eBay but not your iTunes movies. IMO,…

Final space was also interesting. Another show that got the chopping block for tax purposes. They were removed from AMazon, even if you purchased the seasons!

Piracy returns?

Re: The deception of “buying” digital movies

#163

Post by scarface74 »

JohnTHaller wrote: post #78
CharlesW wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes. A bunch of non-Apple devices have an Apple TV app now¹, and you can also play movies to any device that supports AirPlay 2¹. ¹ https://www.apple.com/apple-tv-app/devices/

That's still Apple hardware/software. If you can't play it outside of the locked down Apple ecosystem which is checking your license, then you don't own it.

If your movie is from any of the five participating studios you buy the movie once and it works across all of the major video platforms if you use Movies Anywhere

https://help.moviesanywhere.com/hc/en-us/articles/1150045768...

Blu ray players are also locked down and the embedded keys are subject to revocation

Re: The deception of “buying” digital movies

#164

Post by andy_ppp »

I often wonder how much money the movie industry would make if they just charged $2 for HD movies and $3 for a 4k download, no DRM because it's pointless and clearly looking at pirate bay doesn't work. I think most people would just pay and probably quite a lot. I'd probably be spending $30 per month there and it would feel great to be doing things honestly but getting a file I could keep forever.

The people intent on pirating would still pirate and the people who wanted to pay a reasonable cost would get as good if not better experience than the pirates. $10+ to "own" a movie on a streaming service with DRM and lock in is far too much.

Re: The deception of “buying” digital movies

#165

Post by rthomas6 »

stackedinserter wrote: post #111
rthomas6 wrote: post #47

I have started a modest Blu-Ray/4k Blu-Ray collection. For me, it is by far the best movie experience I've had with any format. It takes maybe 90 vs 20 seconds to get the movie playing, but in return I get noticeably better quality. 4k Blu-Rays' bitrates are around 128 Mb/s. For comparison, Netflix tops out around 17 Mb/s. It really does look and sound noticeably better if you have the TV and surround setup to take a…

Do you have to watch these non-skippable FBI warnings?

Yeah.

Re: The deception of “buying” digital movies

#167

Post by mattl »

happymellon wrote: post #132
gjsman-1000 wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The same could be said though of DVD. Remember that DVD is completely proprietary - we've just done a fantastic job reverse-engineering it. Blu-ray, ironically, is still proprietary, but the specification on how the DRM is implemented is actually public information and you can just download that online. You won't get the required encryption key for your new device without a contract though for it to work, but if you…

Steam is the only online games store that has given me any levels of comfort that I'll still be able to get access to my games after 10 years. Even then, I'm still not 100% confident that I'll be able to access everything in 25 years time. I have no reason the believe that Sony and Microsoft won't shut them down like they already have done with the PS3 store.

Do you think eventually Windows will drop 32-bit support like Mac OS X did? What will that mean for a lot of those games?

Re: The deception of “buying” digital movies

#168

Post by scarface74 »

drstewart wrote: post #27

How big of a problem even is this? Serious question: who buys digital movies? I don't really know anyone who even buys movies at all anymore, but if they do it's likely they prefer a physical copy anyway. There's just so much content out there that the number of people that even care to rewatch a movie they've seen feels like it's really low.

Is this the new “who watches TV? I haven’t owned a TV in 20 years?” Obviously someone is buying them or do you think six or seven platforms are selling movies just for grins and giggles?

Re: The deception of “buying” digital movies

#169

Post by makeitdouble »

drstewart wrote: post #27

How big of a problem even is this? Serious question: who buys digital movies? I don't really know anyone who even buys movies at all anymore, but if they do it's likely they prefer a physical copy anyway. There's just so much content out there that the number of people that even care to rewatch a movie they've seen feels like it's really low.

Many new movies don't have a "streaming" license for a while and your only option is "buying" them.

It's also cheaper if you have a family and don't intend to watch it together at once, or even in a single day. It's also more flexible regarding which device can play the movie (iTunes rentals were bound to the device clicking the play button lady time I tried)

It's way more niche than a few decades ago, but there's a bunch of cases where buying is a better choice.

Re: The deception of “buying” digital movies

#170

Post by vel0city »

happymellon wrote: post #132
gjsman-1000 wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The same could be said though of DVD. Remember that DVD is completely proprietary - we've just done a fantastic job reverse-engineering it. Blu-ray, ironically, is still proprietary, but the specification on how the DRM is implemented is actually public information and you can just download that online. You won't get the required encryption key for your new device without a contract though for it to work, but if you…

Steam is the only online games store that has given me any levels of comfort that I'll still be able to get access to my games after 10 years. Even then, I'm still not 100% confident that I'll be able to access everything in 25 years time. I have no reason the believe that Sony and Microsoft won't shut them down like they already have done with the PS3 store.

Microsoft already shut down a lot of games when they killed Games for Windows Live.
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