new movies on the net

[Susan]

Exerpt:

>>>WASHINGTON - Americans could be watching newly released movies via the Internet as soon as mid-2005 as the industry speeds development of a secure delivery system, Hollywood's chief lobbyist said Wednesday.
"I really do believe that we will be able to have some — maybe by this time next year — we'll be able to have the beginnings of some really sturdy, protective clothing to put about these movies," Motion Pictures Association of America chief executive Jack Valenti said in an interview with The Associated Press. Valenti said he would like to see movies go straight from the big screen to the Internet, where customers could download or view them on demand well before DVDs and videos reach the store shelves. "We want to use the Internet," he said. <<<

[Ash]

I'd be down for that so long as the price was right and I had a cable to run from my p.c. to my TV.  (which I don't)
I hate setting at my p.c. desk and watching movies.  It's uncomfortable.
Not only that but I have to take the small hassle of resetting my screensaver so it doesn't come on while the movie's playing.



Post Edited (11-19-03 23:16)

[raj]

I've got digital cable, so I could bypass the computer entirely.  In fact, right now I can order certain movies -- the ones the cable co. chooses to make available on PPV.  No reason they can't expand the offerings to 1000s of titles (heck, just put Burgomaster's collection up.)  The only drawback is is there enough bandwidth available, oh and for the movie companies, making the movies unrecordable.

[JohnL]

I don't doubt that the technology will be there, but a large percentage of people don't even have computers let alone the $50 a month for broadband internet access. Broadband needs to come way down in price, especially when you consider that they'll be charging for each viewing of these movies. The "protective clothing" isn't so much to stop piracy, since that's going to happen anyway, but to stop the majority of users from paying for a movie once and then watching it multiple times. That's the whole point of these DRM (Digital Right Mangling) schemes; to put limits on not only what you can do with the files, but how many times you can watch them without paying more. New releases will almost certainly be either time limited, or you'll only be able to watch them a set number of times before you have to fork over another few bucks to renew your viewing "license". Even if you pay whatever fee they're asking for unlimited viewing (if that's even an option), you won't be able to move the files to a different computer or they'll stop working. Hopefully, someone will come out with a way to crack this protection a week after it's released.

It will be interesting to see how this business does especially as many broadband providers are putting download limits on their users because they claim the people are using up too much bandwidth. Different ones have either put download limits in place, or banned the use of file sharing programs. Gee, if people are using up too much bandwidth now, what do they think is going to happen when Hollywood starts letting people download entire movies? Even people who have no idea what newsgroups or file sharing is will be able to use this service and bandwidth usage is going to skyrocket. Of course this could pave the way for the holy grail of the ISP's; charging users on a per megabyte basis.

[Brother Ragnarok]

Hopefully someone will crack the code a week after it's released?  Dude, this thing'll be toast in a couple of hours tops.  Now that they've announced it, all the crazy hackers will be learning the coding if they don't know it already and have it all set to be smashed more or less instantly after it goes online.
Two more things.  1.  No one is going to pay for these things when they can download bootlegs of equal or only slightly lesser quality for free from Kazaa and kin.  They'll have to shut down pirate sites entirely or no one will pay any attention to all this pay site business.  2.  If people do pay attention to it, they'll need some b***hin' servers to handle the traffic or it'll get pretty clogged pretty fast.

Brother R

[JohnL]

The new issue of TV Guide (large cable edition at least) has a one page article on movie download services, and it reveals that they're just as restrictive as the stupid music services. You either pay a $2-5 fee for each movie or $30 a month for unlimited 'rentals', and once you've downloaded a movie, you only have 24-48 hours to watch it before the video stops working. You need to use special software and be connected to the net either when it first starts playing or all the way through. One service only lets you stream the movies. To top it off, the quality is said to be only VHS or less. The article doesn't say exactly what format they're using, but it does mention Media Player and Real Player, so probably WMV & RM.

[Chopper]

I'd have to agree with Ash. Where's the fun in watching a movie on your computer? I've always thought that was the point in the theatre-going experience, to actually get out and be part of society while watching a movie also.