

The future of movie downloads is ultraviolet - av500
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100720/ap_on_hi_te/us_tec_ultraviolet_movies

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cmurphycode
It sounds like UltraViolet is nothing more than a unified standard for video
on demand. In this case, multiple providers (e.g. Comcast to your TV, Verizon
to your phone) all know about your purchase and can deliver your movie in a
variety of formats. This is a win only if UltraViolet is accepted: not only by
the movie studios (the typical challenge), but by all of the content providers
as well.

Personally, I'd rather see the TV deprecated completely and handle all of my
media through the Internet. If this has to happen via many different content
providers, that's fine, and it may be better in terms of competition, but I'm
not convinced it's all that necessary. It seems to me that the actual delivery
of the video is nothing something that matters a whole lot to the average
consumer, as long as they are getting their video now. Thus, it's more
important to focus efforts on getting all of the content creators (movie and
tv studios) to cooperate. Once you have the content, it's a simple matter to
create different streams for different purposes and provide the movie on
demand to any device. If all of the streams are essentially coming over the
Internet, this is easy to do through one channel.

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wcoenen
FTA: "a system that will let you watch the movies you buy wherever you are,
regardless of formats and other technical hurdles"

The track record for things like this isn't encouraging. Case in point:
Microsoft didn't even bother to make their own Zune media player compatible
with "plays4sure" certified content. Plays for sure, indeed.

I predict a massive fail.

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epochwolf
> The track record for things like this isn't encouraging.

I hope to be extremely surprised but I'm not counting on it. I won't predict
massive fail though. I simply predict it won't get passed the vaporware stage.

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roadnottaken
It's about time. Purchasing content should be totally disconnected from the
physical medium. Eventually there should be a big database of all content
(movies, books, music) and a listing of which ones you've ever paid for. Then,
by providing your account details you can access those media from anywhere to
download or stream. I've long suspected that this sort of system is unpopular
among media companies because they can currently rely on customers re-
purchasing all their favorites every ~10-15 years when CDs replace tapes, or
MP3s replace CDs, or whatever.

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roc
> _" Purchasing content should be totally disconnected from the physical
> medium."_

And that is where I disagree. Something like UltraViolet for rentals, or all-
you-can-eat plans, sounds perfectly fine.

But for _purchased_ content? No. A thousand times: NO.

If I'm renting it, it's reasonable to have restrictions on it. If I'm _buying_
it, I'll take just the bits, thank you.

No burden. No cruft. No phone-home or provider-based device support decisions.
No fine print that the service may disappear one day, taking my library with
it. No fine print that _any_ terms may change post-sale. Because it's a
_sale_. Not a _license_.

Just the bits, thanks; in a standard format.

~~~
dlytle
Part of the problem is that the movie industry has proven time and time again
that they can't be trusted in this area. You'd have to be an incredible
optimist or on the industry's dime to really believe their claims.

Steam is an example of a service that has done this exact thing incredibly
well, and it would absolutely not have worked without Valve building up a
reputation for integrity and professionalism.

If Valve came out with UltraViolet, I'd be chomping at the bit for it because
I trust them to honor their agreements and plan accordingly to do so into the
distant future.

I wouldn't trust the movie industry at all, let alone enough to sign onto a
service like this. They may never be able to regain the potential for consumer
trust, and it's their own damn fault.

~~~
jcl
Heh... Somewhere there's a movie exec reading this article and thinking, "Hey,
with this new system, we can update the ads that we force them to watch at the
beginning of DVDs!"

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Rickasaurus
What a horrible name choice. I think they likely picked it to be sure it's
difficult to search for.

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OpieCunningham
> One hurdle facing the digital locker concept is that the retailer collecting
> money on the sale may not be the one that bears the cost of delivering the
> movie over set-top boxes or the Internet. > So far, the necessary web of
> deals allowing for that complex transaction has not been set up.

That's the major problem with the whole system. If I buy all my content via,
say, Amazon, why would Comcast want to deliver it to me for free? Ubiquitous
connected DRM has never truly been a technical hurdle. It has always been a
business hurdle. Without addressing the rev share issues, UltraViolet appears
to be dead in the water.

Not to mention the lack of Apple and their massive installed base of content
playback devices.

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bitwize
That Kurt Wimmer movie sucked. And Milla Jovovich looked like a skank in it.
She's fallen a long way since _The Fifth Element_...

