HDTV Almanac - Where Are the DVDs?

[alfredpoor]

So you think DVDs are doing just fine, and that Blu-ray is getting poised to be the high definition replacement for them in due time. Well, here are some news items that might cause you to think again.
Best Buy and Sonic Solutions announced last week that they are forming a partnership to promote the Roxio [...]

[url=http://www.hdtvmagazine.com/columns/2009/11/hdtv_almanac_where_are_the_dvds.php]Read Column[/url]

[Roger Halstead]

It's my understanding that BluRay never did take off as expected. OTOH If I really wanted to view a movie I'd be happy to pay a "few" dollars to purchase and download one that I could play on any of my computers or burn it to disk and play on the TV set. However I have never even bothered to to watch a movie "on demand" from the satellite provider. Actually I believe the prices for "on demand" run from about right to the "way too high" for purchasing a movie, let alone viewing once or twice. Otherwise I'll wait until they are on HBO, Sho Time, or which ever as part of my subscription.


As a personal opinion, the prices are "in general", far too high to rent or purchase movies. Had Sony dropped the price as soon as they became the dominant HD player, I believe that they and the movie industry would have prospered handsomely.

[eliwhitney]

Morning Roger . . .

Although you & many of us do understand about NOT being able to ".. burn it onto a disc .."- - - there might still be some that aren't aware of "Digital Rights Management" prohibiting this?

These embedded DRM software bytes essentially prohibit the direct hard copying of HD Movies from HBO, On-Demand, and all other Premium services / channels. {obviously, many "work around" possibilities - most of which are illegal}

Have a good one!

eli

[Roger Halstead]

Yup! Every day I have more sympathy for the kids and their P2P networks. On top of that there is a push to eliminate "fair use" (what little is left), require ISPs to monitor the users and go with the 3 strikes and out. Then there is the "must be removed" for uploaded material when any complaint is received which would pretty well cripple a couple of the social networks.

[akirby]

[quote="Roger Halstead"]
As a personal opinion, the prices are "in general", far too high to rent or purchase movies. Had Sony dropped the price as soon as they became the dominant HD player, I believe that they and the movie industry would have prospered handsomely.[/quote]

Let's see. About 7 years ago I bought a nice Denon DVD player for $249. Blu-Ray players are $199 today (and dropping). Nost new release DVDs were $20-$25. BD discs are $20-$30.

You can rent a HD movie for $6, but you don't get all of the extras.

Not counting concessions it costs around $40 for a family of 4 to watch a movie at the theater.

As with anything else, the longer you can wait the cheaper the product will be. If you have to see it at the theater it's $40. If you have to see it as soon as it hits BD, it's $30 (but you get a lot of extras and unlimited viewing). If you can wait for PPV it's $6 and if you can wait until it hits HBO/Cinemax/Showtime then it's even less (assuming you watch multiple movies per month).

I don't see the problem. As for Sony selling cheap BD players to grab market penetration - how did that work out for Toshiba? BD and HD movies in general only benefit folks with HDTVs, and even then it's only an incremental upgrade over standard DVDs. Many folks are just fine with upconverting DVDs.

I say you get what you pay for.

[alfredpoor]

[quote="akirby"]Many folks are just fine with upconverting DVDs.[/quote]

Good points, akirby, especially the last one. Keep in mind that a large portion of HDTV owners -- maybe even half -- still think that they're watching HD when they watch a DVD. Even in side-by-side comparisons, some people have a hard time seeing the difference. (And remember that if your HDTV is too small for your viewing distance, nobody will be able to tell the difference.)

As for Blu-ray, it is priced similarly to what DVD products cost when they came out, since DVD is "good enough" for most people, the price difference between $30 and $200 is just too much of a spread for most. As other technologies have discovered (think SED flat panels), it's not enough to be better at the old price; you have to compete with the new price to have a chance.

Alfred

[dadden]

The problem I have with all of this DRM and no hard copies of an movies is simple.
One of these days we are going to wake up and discover that some program or movie that the we had was removed by the original distributor.

It is doable right now. I mean suppose that Rupert Murdock suddenly decided that a news program that was unsympathetic to a cause that he espouses he could just send a code and have it removed from everyone's networked hard drive. Since we don't have rights under DRM only the content providers do, it would be trivial to do this. Especially since there seems to be a subtle movement to make all streamed content unaccessible unless it is played back on the original device it was downloaded to and only with network verification. This means that every time we watch our shiny new media formats the original provider could be given notice of our view habits as well. Oh, wait, this is what/why the Google row with Murdock is happening.

I don't know about the rest of you but I am already feeling the weight of all of the surveillance cameras that have sprouted up around the world like cancer polyps. I am not comfortable with the idea that people could just monitor and even remove content without me having any say in the matter.

Pretty soon we will have video eyes on all of our media devices that can send images back to show who is watching and what they are doing. All this could happen without us even knowing about it. Oh, wait, it is already happening. The frightening thing is most modern laptop computers have cameras mounted on them. It isn't that hard to get key logging software on our computers. How hard would it be to get video logging software on our computers? How hard would it be to take the next step and let the government view these streams? Of course, only in the name of protecting us citizens and preventing terrorism.

I am stunned and a little bit frightened about how prescient George Orwell was with his "Fiction" "1984".

Sorry to sound like a conspiracy nut but if you understand the technology it is a very short jump from aggressive DRM management of streamed files to controlling the flow of information the other direction.

Thanks for listening/reading and
Good Luck,
Brian.

[eliwhitney]

dadden

Brian - -

Thanks for your very timely ... "Thoughts!"

Any time that one might consider that you are being somewhat "over-the-top" or paranoid, etc., - - - all that one needs to "do" to have a wee sampling of this new post 9/11 life in which we live would be to simply "google" a few names - including their OWN!

Every now & then, just for 'nostalgia' - I glance at my original SS card, issued in Blue / Red printing upon a Canary Card stock back in '53 - - printed clearly for all to see is ... "not to be used for identification " ...

... any "Individual Privacy" IS over / long-gone!!

I agree w/ your concerns.

eli

[regman]

Very well stated Brian. I don't think that you are a "conspiracy nut" at all. This is all a natural (and unholy) side effect of the IT revolution. Yes, we all wanted search engines, Google, streaming video, online this or that and instant access but there is a price to pay for this, that many of us didn't or couldn't imagine. We are going into a new age of close examination of everyone. The government will know all of your medical and banking secrets, what you drive, purchase and gory details of your finances. The video content you watch is the least of your problems. George Orwells "1984" will pale by comparison to the new IT world order. ..

[Roger Halstead]

Computers are, or have been my profession and degreed field so I do have a bit of background on this subject.
In case any were not aware, it is (or was) perfectly legal for MS as an example to log into our computers...maybe I should have said access our computers to check the validity of any copies of their software. I believe Sony took that approach with their root kit their music CDs placed on our computers which could have allowed them to follow our computer use although it was just supposed to keep track of the music. The "broadcast flag" has the capability of turning off the record capability, while the retention time (or number of plays) can be set for downloaded, or movies recorded on our DVRs. We've already seen that Amazon was able to erase downloaded books from users readers. Sports blackouts for given areas? It's only a transmitted code that prevents you from watching that on satellite so the code already exists to disable any specific reception. Keep your music collection on a computer? If Amazon could erase books from readers then the music industry can certainly erase your music files if they so chose.

Satellite TV connected to the phone line? They could track our viewing/surfing habits if they choose.

Every time we make a search on what ever search engine it's likely that data is recorded ostensibly for the purpose of targeted adds so it doesn't take long at all for a tremendous database to built up tied to your IP and eventually cross referenced to your actual name. Hit a wrong key and some search engines make assumptions and you could end up on a porn site which is now cross referenced to you. Court cases because some one had porn on their computer? Almost any computer tied to the internet will have some on it some where that the owner has no idea it exists. I could never convict some one based on what was found on their computer as they are just too easy to manipulate by hackers who are smart enough to access government computers. Only a few years ago, spam was filled with the stuff. Click on the attachment to see what's there and you've suddenly volunteered your computer to send the stuff out as spam.

Protect you SS#? Like others, mine says in bold print right across the front "Not to be Used for Identification", but it's the same as a tax payer ID (TPID) so any and all transactions involving money are tied to it or the TPID and these are one of the least secure pieces of ID you own. I have "legal" CDs here that have hundreds of thousands of SS#s on them because the government used the SS# for some particular IDs and those were readily available from the government. They've since given the individuals the ability "to request" an ID different than their SS#, but there are literally thousands of those old CDs floating around. IOW it's up to the individual to remove the SS# and request a new ID.

The post 9/11 people appear to be willing to sacrifice most anything for a "perceived" safety. Me? I'd be happy to settle for a bit more risk to get my privacy back.