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12/10/09
12/10/09
This is a feature offered for people who want to buy the physical media but don't want to wait for it to arrive.
As for what you suggest, you want to pay less for the content, cost them more whenever you decide to watch the movie, and expect that this is a business model that they'll be eager to jump on? The reason downloads are less expensive than physical media is that you can sell the same copy to everyone, you don't have to manufacture that one copy, you can store a bunch of downloadable "items" in a tiny little space, you can strip the thing down to the bare bones, and piping it through the internet is considerably cheaper than shipping the physical copies to everyone. That does not mean that serving up a streaming copy is a cost-free process, and in the case of movies it could easily end up becoming a business model that's not unlike storing nuclear waste. You could end up at a point where your ability to sell new services is outstripped by your expenses from dealing with the stuff you're stuck having to deal with for years to come. With a physical copy, your expenses are generally done the instant that disc walks out the front door.
12/10/09
They also provided a "portable" version of the movie (as an additional free download), but unfortunately it has "PlaysForSure" restrictions, meaning it won't play on my G1 (at any given time I have two or three movies, or several TV episodes to watch on my G1 during flights). If they can fix that, or better yet, offer an Amazon Unbox app for Android, like the Amazon Store and MP3 apps, I'd be ecstatic.
12/10/09
12/10/09
I don't know if these "bonus" digital versions will be added to Unbox (or Roku) but it would be great if they were. I'd definitely start buying all my DVDs via Amazon if that is the case.
12/10/09
12/10/09
12/10/09
Or they may (shockingly) take the loss that some (but not all) folks will game system and accept the rest of their income because implementing counter-consumer measures would harm legitimate customers in the process and that's just bad PR.
.....Yeah, ain't-a gonna happen.
12/10/09
12/10/09
I'd been wondering something similar (but not enough to actually check on it), and I have to say that this actually makes sense. I mean, if you look at it from the other side, it's effectively a means by which you can rent a movie with the option to upgrade to physical media. If you watch the download and like it, you get billed for the DVD (which then ships). If you hate it, cancel the order and all you've done is rented it to watch once.
12/10/09
12/10/09
2.wait for DVD of Twilight to arrive.
3. Upon arrival, publicly throw unopened DVD in the trash as if making a point.
4. ????
5. Break even.
12/10/09
I will likely end up owning it (because that mess is hilarious). The never-ending struggle of explaining to people why it's in my DVD collection might just be worth it.
12/10/09
So if I buy a Blu-ray on good old Amazon that includes a digital copy, would this mean I could watch that movie on my TV, iPod AND computer without having to convert, hack, chop, or Handbrake anything?
The dawn of one-price-for-media is upon us.
(NOTE: I'm gleefully ignoring the inherent limitations of DRM, US-only, and other lockdowns for this brief moment of cinegasm.)
(POST-NOTE: I'm copyrighting "cinegasm" as of now, and yes, I understand the irony of copyrighting on the same post where I lament the state of consumer media ownership rights. Here's to irony.)
12/10/09
12/10/09
12/10/09
Disc+ On Demand includes the Amazon Video On Demand standard definition version. The video quality we deliver will depend on your internet connection. We'll automatically detect your connection speed and send you the highest quality stream your connection can support. The steam quality will be displayed on the video player."
Looks like no, unfortunately. :(
12/10/09
12/10/09
Most HD downloads can't even match the bitrate of a standard DVD. So no, nowhere close to the resolution offered by physical HD media.
12/10/09
12/10/09
12/08/09
12/07/09
12/08/09
I use Plex for nearly everything my television does, and after making the adjustment to RSS feeds the program has allowed me to drop my satellite subscription.
I only have two gripes with Plex:
1) Online content via apps can take incredibly long to load. Sometimes upwards of 10-15 minutes (I let it just run a couple of times to see if it was an infinite stall or just slow; turns out it was the latter.)
2) Content is disparate. Some episodes of your favorite show are in Netflix. Some episodes are on Hulu. Some are on the network's own site. Some episodes you may store locally. While Plex makes all of these episodes available via their apps, Boxee will compile all of these sources under the name of the show, putting the horse before the cart. If this works as well as it sounds, then I may be sold.
Of course, Plex is open source and has a strong support community which also offers new skins you can use to change the user interface and quick fixes to bugs when there are software updates (for instance, like when Snow Leopard came out). It also has it's official 1.0 build coming out soon (possibly by mid-2010) and will no doubt be influenced by Boxee's slick new UI.
I personally didn't care for Boxee Alpha, but the Beta build shows great strides and if it all works as well as it sounds then it has no reason not being on my television screen.
11/25/09
11/25/09
Blame the people who grab the licenses to rebroadcast the shows in your country for not having a similar site (or working a deal with Hulu).
And I'm not even going to begin discussing the value of viewers to advertisers being less if they're distributed internationally, since you can't focus your ad campaign nearly as tightly...
11/25/09
11/25/09
11/24/09
11/24/09
It could be that ultimately NetFlix may have their own "current television" subscription program to watch your favorite TV programs shortly after they air. But, that seems like a concept down the road, at best. And with the latest news from Hulu, it looks like we are heading in the wrong direction. Frankly, we had not even solved issues such as watching live sports in HD on the Net, so this experiment still has a ways to go even if Hulu survives in the current form.
It is all very sad. I need some alone time.
11/24/09
11/24/09
11/24/09
I think the hold up with Hulu is they have not found a way to give the users what they want (full power on the media center pc, even with third parties) because of the content providers lack of knowledge of acceptance that people do not want to sit at a computer and watch TV. Users and content providers opinions seem to vary wildly in what "internet tv" is.
11/24/09
11/24/09
11/24/09
@valkilmerisawful:
11/24/09
11/24/09
11/24/09
11/24/09
11/24/09
Thanks for the links!
11/24/09
11/24/09