[Macworld]

Post your comments for The video industry just doesn?t get it here

[spim]

I don't see what the problem is.
The pricing seems quite simple to understand ... at least to me.
The Industry (Fox, ABC, etc.) expects to make a certain amount (such as 2 million dollars) for the digital versions of a product (Tropic Thunder, 24, etc.).
so, that price needs to be divided by the consumers paying for the product to make the expected income from the product.
what that means, of course, is that you can eventually be expected to pay about $200,000 per episode when purchased legally ... as the number of legal purchasers will fall to about six.

[leicaman]

If your TiVO is HD, there is an alternative, no? Buy a Blu-ray burner, transfer the HD content from your TiVO to your Mac using Toast with the Blu-ray plug-in and then watch it on disc.

That's $99 (or $69 for the upgrade), plus the cost of the burner which is about $199 for the LG unit, and all your TV shows are burnable.

(Psssst. Don't tell the studios!)
Message was edited by: leicaman

[Speed_Racer]

What the heck is this? I just went to the Fox website to see how good the quality is and it tells me I need to download their new player? No way. I've been forgetting about 24 when it's broadcast but catching up on it via Hulu, which doesn't need a dedicated player, and the 480p version looks great in fullscreen.

[dnouls]

And one extra thing you did not mention: Movies are only available in a small part of the world.

In Belgium we have nothing to buy. So this makes Apple TV completely useless to us... is apple still wondering why nobody buys it over here ?

[AAdams]

I agree. The manufacturers, studios, and Hollywood in general, don't get it.
1. Ethics - They purvey the worst moral values, in their actions and media content. Their ravenous greed and fiscal conservatism is clearly evident in the transition to digital media - in stark contrast to the media's liberal messages. The content is bad not only morally, but in an aesthetic sense as well. It's not enough to pay to go into a theater, but then you have to submit to uninvited commercials before seeing the main attraction. Yet, the broadcasters and theater owners have strongly resisted the transition to digital (HDTV or projectors). They've clearly reallocated funds for creating new content to new equipment, and more surreptitiously, to line executives' pockets. What happens to the billions of dollars that advertisers, investors, and subscribers pay? Where's the ROI? It's been misappropriated. The strikes in Hollywood are evidence of that misappropriation.
2. Video - SMPTE, Sony, and the studios refuse to improve video in all its technical manifestations. H.264, Blu-ray, cable are just some of the ways and means they're milking a cash cow. Improvements are coming very slowly in spite of high prices. H.264 as delivered is a step backwards in quality from MPEG-2. AVCHD is also a step backwards from digital video (DV). The compression is higher to fit more pixels on the same tape as DV, but here's been no improvement in color depth, and no transition to embedded color management (as in the photo, printing, or chemical industries). 16-bit audio on digital video is too narrow a range for real world recording - on camera, in the field. Professional digital audio now commonly uses 24-bit sampling. We need that on camera, and it costs nothing. Rather than deliver archival high capacity storage media, two commercial adversaries (the HD-DVD and Blu-ray camps) decided to have a ridiculous war over 2nd generation technology that nobody wants and that nobody can afford. All this when 4th generation DVD products (3D holographic disks) are being delivered to industry. Sony needs to fail as business - they're too powerful and too backwards. Sony overcharges for products, while not advancing standards. SMPTE needs to adapt modern video standards that deliver accurate color throughout the broadcast chain and full-resolution (24-bit) audio. This is more fundamental than 3D stereo movies - a gimmick.
In summary, the manufacturers, studios, and content providers need to get back to basics. They need to focus on quality content delivery. Vote with your pocketbook - don't pay for retrograde TV and movies. Boycott the media to affect change.

[vfx2k4]

Also this is just the legal angle. Bittorrenting will never go away, the barn doors are wide open. Either Hollywood embraces that fact and starts to profit from it or they continue to see market share slide in this segment.

[kill953]

One more thing you haven't mentioned - rentals don't become available until several weeks (or is it months) after the physical versions, thus putting you off bothering with (both) them as well.
However, one reason you didn't mention for all these shenanigans from the film and TV industries - they don't want Apple to become to them what they became to the music industry (i.e. too powerful and too influential). They want Apple to remain a minority player.

[context]

Audible.com's audiobooks have the worst DRM; you are tethered to the company -- now owned by Amazon -- forever. Years after a "purchase" you will find you cannot play the audiobook without the password you lost long ago, and it is necessary to call Audible to obtain it. Amazon's music file approach is fine, but its audiobook strategy -- driven mostly by publishers -- stinks. If audiobook DRM must exist, at least it could emulate Apple's iTunes DRM.

[dsebring]

A proactive step to stem the misappropriation of programs that could produce positive results in the future is the creation of reasonable educational materials for schools to introduce younger users to the legitimacy of copy restriction. If children recognize that paying for shows that are of interest to them helps to keep the shows in production, there may be better acceptance of reasonably priced and managed copy protection.

[JamesKatt]

The MOVIE Industry GETS IT.
Every movie has had DRM of some sort. And the Studios want to KEEP IT THAT WAY. PERIOD.
It is as simple as that.
Sure, TIVO exists as a thorn on their side. But outside of this, there is no other legitimate way got get non-DRM'd copies. And the Studios want to KEEP IT THAT WAY. PERIOD.
And their DRM'd business is clearly supported by the law. Just look at all the warnings you get prior to the DVD player playing the movie.
Clearly, the Studios realize that once they go down the very slippery slope of going the no-DRM route, their product is going to be more frequently pirated.
Currently, piracy of video at the full high definition (4-9 GB per movie and up to 50 GB for BluRay) is VERY VERY infrequent compared to piracy of music.
AND for many people, it is just NOT WORTH the time to rip a DVD or BluRay Disk to store on a hard drive.
The VIDEO INDUSTRY has three models: Pay with ads, Pay for DRM'd media, or Pay per View. PERIOD.
There is no movie Pay for no-DRM model. It just doesn't make money like the other models do.
The Video Industry GET IT.

[kirkmc]

Audible's DRM works almost exactly the same way as iTunes' (soon to be defunct, except for older purchases) DRM.

[folklore]

We won't see a move away from DRM on video files for a long time. The music industry didn't wake up to the perils of DRM until it literally had no other choice - they just weren't making money anymore and were willing to try just about anything.
The movie studios are still making money, and lots of it. They've also always had control over where and when films and television will be distributed. Old habits die hard, especially when they've worked for so long and continue to generate revenue.

[barskey]

leicaman said:

If your TiVO is HD, there is an alternative, no? Buy a Blu-ray burner, transfer the HD content from your TiVO to your Mac using Toast with the Blu-ray plug-in and then watch it on disc.

That's $99 (or $69 for the upgrade), plus the cost of the burner which is about $199 for the LG unit, and all your TV shows are burnable.

(Psssst. Don't tell the studios!)

What they don't tell you is that TiVo limits the resolution that you are able to export the video. You can copy the HD version to your Mac using Toast, but when you try to convert it to something playable on your appleTV, for example, it will limit the converted resolution to something a bit worse than standard definition - resulting in video that looks terrible.

Yet another example of being limited by the industry.