Digital Movie Locker `UltraViolet' Nears Launch

H

HardOCP News

[H] News
Joined
Dec 31, 1969
Messages
0
This is a really good idea…almost too good. Seriously, when is the last time you heard of a technology that allowed you to do what you want with a legally purchased movie or CD that wasn’t opposed by the entertainment industry?

A group of media and electronics companies will soon start testing a system that will let you watch the movies you buy wherever you are, regardless of formats and other technical hurdles. Like ATMs, your account would follow you, no matter what brand of machine you use. The group has also come up with a name for the open standard it is creating, which it was unveiling Tuesday: UltraViolet.
Click to expand...
 
How is this different than any other centralized DRM? You watch your stuff at their whim.
 
I have a feeling video and audio quality will be lacking. I also bet you will only get basic dolby digital 5.1 and no extras.
 
Not a good sign that they name it after my #2 worst movie of all time (#1 is Ecks vs. Sever ... horrible, horrible).
 
It doesn't say what becomes of movies one may have already purchased. If they are left out in the cold, then I could care less about this new tech.

Also, there was one sentence that worried me. "Ultraviolet Compatible". That tells me that movie sharks could decide what media would and would not be eligible, and would even indicate that one could be removed at some point.
 
TechLarry said:
It doesn't say what becomes of movies one may have already purchased. If they are left out in the cold, then I could care less about this new tech.

Also, there was one sentence that worried me. "Ultraviolet Compatible". That tells me that movie sharks could decide what media would and would not be eligible, and would even indicate that one could be removed at some point.
Click to expand...

Very good points, however looking at the overall principle behind it, it shows that despite their best efforts to prove otherwise, there are *some* intelligent people working in the industry. The fact that this type of "free-access" to content you have purchased across a broad spectrum is a good thing.
 
This actually sounds like a pretty good idea and I look forward to seeing how it's implemented. At least some people out there realize that giving people more freedom actually encourages them to buy more. I would even consider using this if the quality is decent considering it can take me 4 hours to rip a Blu Ray movie and then convert it down to a more mobile format and size.

Now what they really need to apply this to is ebooks. With so many competing formats and DRM schemes out there, anyone who buys now is going to be trapped into only using one manufacturer's device or find themselves royally screwed later. Not to mention that even though the books are tired to an account like this proposed idea, you can only download them a certain number of times (just google Amazon DRM nightmares).
 
ShadowStriker said:
Ha, irony. Anyone seen the movie Ultraviolet?
Click to expand...

Yeah, it is pretty ironic. I doubt the founders of the group have. I would've picked something that doesn't involve civil war, disease, and holocausts. Maybe they are trying to tell us something? :p
 
Netrat33 said:
Steam for movies.

If you like Steam, you can't argue this idea.
Click to expand...

Actually you can. Steam provides several advantages for giving up your rights. With steam you get automatic patches, cross game friends lists, in game web browser, cheaper prices on many games, 1 click match making with friends, and all kinds of other benfits. Several of those are in addition to what you can do with a normal copy, such as friends lists and match making.

With this you simply get to view something you already own anywhere. That's something you could do with a normal dvd, and lets face it there are very few places you can watch a digital movie without having access to a dvd player.

Furthermore the used DVD market is a lot larger than the used game market. Most people I know trade/lend/borrow a lot more DVDs than they do video games, so the unable to share aspect is a bit larger than it is on steam.

I'm not saying this is out and out bad idea, I'm just not saying I can find lots of reasons to argue against this and still find steam acceptable.
 
I bet "wherever you are" doesn't mean wherever you are. Like how I've never gotten to download movies off of the Xbox 360 or PS3, cause "wherever you are" isn't where they want you to be.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top