what a big frickin waste...

i thought uncle steve was committed to going green

still, i will say da pira*ebay is the best solution for next generation high-def content delivering.

I picked this movie up to mostly test out the digital copy option. I was able to add the movie to more than one computer, but under the same iTunes account, so not sure if you are limited to one copy per iTunes account, but I definitely added it to two separate computers with no issue.

I think this is a good idea, but a little odd. Seems like they should just be able to give you the code and let you download it from iTunes for "free", since these will only work with iTunes and Playforsure devices, not including the Zune (sorry Zuners).

i guess they did it this way because not everyone has a broadband internet connection

Well crap, I was hoping the file was on the DVD itself so when I got it from Netflix, I could have a legal digital copy for myself. I guess Fox isn't that stupid.

@snitch29: And yet Apple is releasing a computer that relies only on fast internet connections, go figure.

@yg17: The file is on the disk, but unlocking it without/or a preused code is the challenge. I am sure someone will figure it out.

@kavendano14: And has no disc drive!

@xes: No, the file is on the second disc. As I said in my article. Above.

could this just be the stupidest thing ever sold?

What a bunch of cry babies you are. The Deity himself could descend from Heaven, expel a gold brick from his mouth, and you people would complain that the brick should be platinum.

So how are all those wicked fresh Macbook Air users supposed to access this if their business model is predicated in not needing an optical drive?

I think it's strange that they call it a 'bonus digital copy'. I mean seriously, the WHOLE THING is a digital copy. They're not vinyl records. Every DVD, HD-DVD, blu-ray, etc.. disk made is a digital copy.

well thats just petarded !!!

Wow, I would have thought that the code was just an unlock for an iTunes download, but an entire second disc? This is just silly Fox. If it's piracy you're worried about, I'm pretty sure it's safer to just have an iTunes download instead of having it on a disc where the code will eventually be broken.

@diverguy: My kids just got a copy of a Harry Potter movie with a 'digital copy', and that was my first thought, too.

I plopped it in the drive of the PC, then it wanted to install some sort of software to install said copy. Visions of the Sony back-door came to mind, I said no, then ripped my own 'digital copy' with DVD-Shrink.

@RalphWiggum: So you can spend $99 on their superdrive. Optical drives are not meant to be phased out. I lusted over the eeepc for months before I took a closer look (may have been my hopeful rationality) and saw no optical drive. The discovery was like finding out I was adopted.

@Skeezix404: the gold part was right but it should come from the pooper not the mouth.

Is that a sticker on the cover or part of the actual art? Sucks either way, because either A: if it's a sticker, chances are it won't peel off well at all and leave a bunch of glue on the cover or B: it's part of the art and just plain looks bad, so I'll have to either Photoshop or download a replacement cover.

I think it would be much better if they paired such a thing with an actual DVD copy of the movie instead of making it a stand alone product.

@diverguy: Marketing loves this hollow lingo... it appleals to "hip kids" and their music playing computer thingies. Marketing in general is often out of step with the products they're trying to actually market to consumers - different priorities... like not mentioning the very bonus material that most of us crave.

@yg17: I was thinking that too.

@smitty1123: Smitty, I believe the sticker was on the plastic - it's not on my DVD case of Blue Harvest.

Um, are we intentionally avoiding talking about programs like Handbrake? (Legal "dubiousness?")

The bigger question is why is 'Blue Harvest' the only episode of Family Guy not offered on Itunes? Fox is gouging here and if I cared, I would feel violated.

This is a great first step, but I hope they don't leave it at that. I have seasons 1-3 of Entourage, and I travel a lot, it's a real pain to have to try to rip 20 episodes onto your iPod for something you already own. Yeah, I could take a portable DVD player, but the battery life and bulk isn't worth it. I, for one, hope they continue down this path and perfect this technology. I know I would buy more DVD's if they did! Having a digital copy only is not a good solution for me. I want the DVD and the digital copy.

@JohnOB1: Wow. Not packaging the case in the stupidest way possible is just stunning.

"Weird and wasteful" sums it up. I couldn't believe all the extra effort and expense they put into it when I opened the keepcase. I'd figured they'd just have an iPod track on the main disc.

If they explained iPods to someone living 10 years in the past, this is the sort of half-assed solution they'd come up with.

Then again, most Hollywood execs probably are living 10 years in the past...

well, i got this last night. its nice and saves me the trouble of using handbrake. more like this please!

They'd do better just letting Apple rip the darn thing to iTunes and tying it to your account like it does with downloads. The worse part, of course, is that only Fox is doing this and only on "select" new releases... leaving thousands of library titles inaccessible.

See: [www.iSights.org]

I decided to try this after reading it on Giz, and I had to go through the whole rigmarole of updating iTunes, "downloading" the movie, and authorizing it - which is screwing up because I can't get onto the iTunes store. And people (like me) wonder why Handbrake is more appealing.

@yg17: You do realize that had Netflix included the digital copy and you kept it, you still wouldn't have a "legal copy" right?

Apologies if you were making a joke, but taking that copy would be no more legal than ripping a regular DVD you got from Netflix.

I think this a decent first try that will perhaps inspire other distributors to innovate and come up with an even better model.

I'm willing to cut Fox some slack on this because at least their trying to innovate.

Doing it all over the net puts the burden on Apple's server, costing them money for something they receive no profit from.

So Fox must include the disc with the file on it.

@JeffAndersen: Er, this is part of the DVD. You buy the DVD, and it has an extra disc with an iTunes protected version ready for your portable media player. It's nice because you don't have to rip/encode the DVD for self (work + dubious legality), but its still a bit wonky because this is a brand-new feature.

Wait. You want Fox to sell you a slip of paper in the store that you can go home and plug into iTunes to download the movie instead.

Er.. if you're going to download it, why not just pay for it via iTunes when it's available?

By selling both the DVD and digital version, you can give a box to someone for their birthday/holiday. They can watch it anywhere (any DVD player or their iPod) and you've saved them the trouble of downloading it or of even having broadband (I know, amazing, some people actually don't have/want to pay for broadband!!!) Plus it works in Microsoft world too (you can unlock either from what I understand.)

I don't see what's so strange.

This is a great idea, but they need to offer versions of the video that is playable on other devices (like the PSP).

It may not make much sense to do it this way, but it would make sense later down the road when you have GIGs of video filling up your drive and you are faced with either purchasing another drive or backing everything up and erasing everything to start again. Either way that option is costly and time consuming, versus buying a DVD (video is already in backup form) and just pulling the video file out to view it wherever you want.

It does seem like a waste of a CD, but have you seen the packaging some other products in the market come in? An extra disc is nothing. What about the DVDs that come with the deleted scenes or bonus features? Those are a much bigger waste.

What do you mean "So why the hell was there a disc at all?" It's about bandwidth. It's much faster to copy the movie from the disc to your iPod than it would be to download it from iTunes -- especially for people without slow broadband or no broadband.

And by the way, this isn't "ripping". There is no conversion or extraction going on here; that part has already been done. You're just copying the file to your hard drive. If it was "ripping", it would have only come with the single movie DVD and not a second disc.

@snitch29: Exactly.

I'm stuck with dial-up so downloading is not an option. But just using Handbrake seems better than this.

Also I thought the digital copy would be on the same DVD, not a separate disc. That kind of defeats the purpose of "included".

@donlphi: Those are less of a waste. This is the same thing in a different format.

Plenty of whiners on hand to make noise...

Fox is making a positive first step. The industry is desperately trying to reinforce their DVD business. They are watching the music CD sales spiral down the bowl and are trying to take preemptive steps to extend physical DVD's useful life. While that's a stupid and myopic view (downloads are the future, with much lower overhead), within that view, Fox seems to be innovating (compared to others, who are doing nothing). ITunes is needed to verify against piracy; separate disc is needed to enable NetFlix/Blockbuster to rent movies only, without the unnecessary computer file. Movie studios never cared much about the environmental footprint, so two discs is not much of a concern for them.

Nothing wrong with this, as long as it actually takes off.

@RalphWiggum: As they stated in the keynote, they are including software that allows one to "borrow" an optical drive on another Mac or PC on the network.

Clearly, the presumption is that if you can afford the MacBook Air, you have another computer at home. I'd imagine that that's a fairly safe bet.

As long as its tied to my ACCOUNT, that's cool. The worst part of FairPlay is that they tie the music to your computer, making re-installs or wholesale upgrades a real pain. Hitting "Deauthorize computer" in iTunes isn't something that really stands out on my usual Nuke It checklist.

This faux pas is so upsetting I called a university professor to tell me what phrase to use to describe it.

Maybe the headline should be changed to reflect the fact that this isn't just an iTunes digital file. It could throw off the people that have PlaysForSure devices. I mean, I didn't know it had a WMP-compatible file in it until I saw the slip inside.

I can see a whole ecosystem around these portable ready DVDs. Just think how much easier it would be for everyone if they had an entire season of TV shows DVDs? That would take way too long to download.

Also, the studios might want eliminate the excuse of people ripping their own copies o their movies. Why have no DRM versions running around when you can give leagal owners a copy that's tied to iTunes with DRM? There's no excuse for people to rip their own mini copies without DRM now is there?

this is dumb.

This is why bittorrent was invented...

WTF??? I have an iPod, but what if I want to rip it to my Zune, huh?! I hate being tied to iTunes. It's a terrible piece of software.

I got my version from TPB. The code was written on the inside of my butt.

Eheheheheheheheheheh

The most likely reason for the second disc is due to rentals. Instead of creating a separate version for Netflix, Blockbuster, Hollywood Video, etc, they can just send them the single disc. After all, they wouldn't want someone to get a free copy of the movie for their iPod. Although the codes could probably work to prevent that, they realize that the code could probably be hacked and someone could make a keygen type program.

@sumosamkawasaki:

since when is steve jobs in charge of fox?

Whoever wrote this, Is a Mac fanboy, Maybe you should turn over the pamphlet they give you with Blue harvest from Mac, to PC and see that Not only is it itunes compatable, But its Windows media player, center, and playsforsure compatable. And there is an On-disc EXE for verifying the file and transferring it in the aforementioned formats, So its also compatable with portable media centers and PMP video players.

@sumosamkawasaki: "i thought uncle steve was committed to going green"

i was unaware "uncle steve" and by extension... Apple now owned Fox. thanks for the heads up professor.

- -

@kavendano14: "And yet Apple is releasing a computer that relies only on fast internet connections, go figure."

if only they would wise up and create several other models of laptops to be able to sell to those people. come on Apple! you can't have the only laptop you sell be the MacBook Air!!! how about a few more models with varying features!!!

It easier for me just to rip 'em myself.

I suppose that Fox is doing this to "commit" to the partnership with Apple that they so lovingly displayed at Macworld_ And there's the whole "going against the grain" thing on the environmentally friendly front_

But from the announcement during the Keynote it sounded like I goto the store - buy a dvd - bring it home - load it up and sitting on the Disc was an iPod/iTunes compatible copy of the movie_ There was no mention of having to download it_

Good thing Fox's copy-protected DVD's are not impenetrable by HandBrake, isn't it?

Not the first disk that I've seen with it on, a copy of Live Free or Die Hard in a boxed set I purchased had a "Digital Copy" that you could put on your computer using the same DVD that would play on a standard DVD player (with keycode in box to enter as well)...Maybe they are just testing out different distribution methods (Live Free or Die Hard had no case markings, just had the slip in it).

the point is that you can play it on your iphone or ipod not to replace the dvd in all

Just stumbled across this entry and, coming from a film editing background, there is no mystery to me why Fox included this digital extra on a separate disk. This way