By Chris Scott Barr
Technology is both a wonderful and frustrating thing. On one hand, it is always evolving and bringing us new features in a better, smaller package. Unfortunately as the new comes out, the old becomes obsolete. The easiest example of this would be movies. When the DVD came out it had far superior quality to the older VHS. Now it’s difficult to even find a VCR to play those old tapes. Thankfully Blu-ray players are backwards-compatible, but what about the next leap in technology? Well Disney and Apple think they have a solution.
Eventually we are going to get to a point where media is almost completely distributed digitally. Music is slowly getting there, and movies will begin catching up. But when you start distributing movies digitally, there becomes an issue of licensing and DRM. Apple and Disney have teamed up to create “Keychest.”
Essentially Keychest is a distributed content ownership model that would allow you to play content that you download on a variety of devices without any fuss. Essentially you could download a movie on your PC and be able to play it on your phone, game console, portable media player, etc. You would be able to do this without having to worry about ripping the DVD, you could simply activate a key that comes with your movie.
Yes, this is DRM. However, it sounds like the right kind of DRM (if there really is such a thing). As long as they aren’t going to tie you down to very specific hardware, it could turn out alright. It will be interesting to watch this develop, but I’m still wary of any sort of DRM.
I'm always interested in new developments in digital copyright. But the movie thing is kind of irrelevant for me. When I pay for a movie, it's because I want the DVD. Otherwise, I just borrow it from a friend or get it on Netflix whenever I want to watch it.
I agree, I collect dvd's and even when it comes with a digital copy I never retrieve it. I think it's a good way to handle it, but like most, it will have a work around and people tyring to break it within time.
Remember this term: Cloud Computing
It seems as if it could turn in to some sort of universal sling box or apple tv.. Plus with the rate at which video and computing technology is expanding in a few years you may be able to reliably stream large format high quality video with out any issue in most large cities, and if the jump in the cell phone market from the unreliable slow GSM and CDMA networks to a city or country wide wifi network is made then this would only benefit the development of such digital media.
I fail to see how this is any different than the iTunes Store/Digital Copy system currently in place. It just sounds like a slightly different wording.
What I can't understand is how companies keep lowering the quality of media and yet they increase in popularity. everyone now has an HDTV, yet they buy heavily compressed MP4 movies? I guess that could also explain why all the current HDTV technologies are based on cheap to make, easy to sell LCD and plasma screens. I have a CRT TV from 1988 that has richer color and darker darks than any HDTV I have ever seen. If people really cared about quality they would have done more work on the flat picture tube technology from the 1980s.
As for digital downloads, I don't pay money for vague ideas, I pay for a physical object that I can use anywhere. And I certainly don't pay $10-20 for a movie when I can get a LaserDisc copy (full quality analog video, no compression) for about $3.
this would require every device you want to play it on to be compatable. i'll stick with piracy. it's working out fine.
couldn't they just let the bd live for at least 10 years in the common market before even thinking on new technology?
everyone now has an HDTV, yet they buy heavily compressed MP4 movies
“You would be able to do this without having to worry about ripping the DVD, you could simply activate a key that comes with your movie.”
…ooookay. So let's say I buy a DVD and want to watch it on my iPod. How exactly is it going to get there without ripping it? Elves?
I can't read the whole article, but it seems to me that Apple and Disney are banking on a couple of shady assumptions: that I choose to use their software (which I do for a lot of things, but not for watching movies) and that I have a ridiculously dependable hi-speed internet connection (it's fast, but about as dependable as an alcoholic step-father.)
Want to know what would make me start seriously spending my expendable income on DVD's again? If the DVD's you get from the store include an unencumbered .avi I could throw into a folder on my media computer to watch whenever I want without having to go through the hassle of ripping it myself. Use the iTunes method of embedding your user account in the file so that if it ended up on the file sharing networks, they'd know whose door to knock on.
We don't need new systems of DRM. We need Hollywood to get its head out of its ass and start trusting the majority of their customers who don't want to grab their movies off of the internet but don't want to be bent over their barrel either, and if backed into a corner will just torrent the things because they make it so damn hard to enjoy their movies in their own way.
everyone now has an HDTV, yet they buy heavily compressed MP4 movies
“You would be able to do this without having to worry about ripping the DVD, you could simply activate a key that comes with your movie.”
…ooookay. So let's say I buy a DVD and want to watch it on my iPod. How exactly is it going to get there without ripping it? Elves?
I can't read the whole article, but it seems to me that Apple and Disney are banking on a couple of shady assumptions: that I choose to use their software (which I do for a lot of things, but not for watching movies) and that I have a ridiculously dependable hi-speed internet connection (it's fast, but about as dependable as an alcoholic step-father.)
Want to know what would make me start seriously spending my expendable income on DVD's again? If the DVD's you get from the store include an unencumbered .avi I could throw into a folder on my media computer to watch whenever I want without having to go through the hassle of ripping it myself. Use the iTunes method of embedding your user account in the file so that if it ended up on the file sharing networks, they'd know whose door to knock on.
We don't need new systems of DRM. We need Hollywood to get its head out of its ass and start trusting the majority of their customers who don't want to grab their movies off of the internet but don't want to be bent over their barrel either, and if backed into a corner will just torrent the things because they make it so damn hard to enjoy their movies in their own way.