Video digital lockers
Nov. 30th, 2014 02:47 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
swehA "thing", these days, is having a digital copy of your movie available in a "locker". When you buy the physical disk (BluRay/DVD) you might get a code with it. Enter the code into the right site and you get the rights to stream a digital copy of the movie. My guess this is an attempt by the studios to reduce people ripping their own media and then "sharing it"; if the media is easily available online then why rip it? And, of course, there's DRM online...
Of course these lockers also let you buy or rent digital copies of movies, which is (I guess) the primary revenue stream. They also allow you to insert a real DVD into your machine and buy a digital copy for $2 or $3 using their software (inserting the disk is "proof of ownership").
One common digital locker is UltraViolet (UVVU). Many of the big studios have signed up with this, which makes it convenient. Now it seems as if UVVU is just a locker; you need another service to actually stream them. My TiVo supports Vudo, so I signed up for a UVVU account and a Vudu account and linked them.
(This wasn't as easy as it sounds; the sites are heavily javashite and cross-site cookie dependent; didn't work with my firefox setup and failed to work with MSIE8. Eventually succeeded).
Once I had my TiVo talking to Vudu I looked at my BD collection. It seems maybe 16 of them had UVVU codes. They're awful to type and enter, but now 16 of my disks are available. Also "free bonus content" for Lego Movie (an awful lego-ninja series).
Annoyingly, many of my disks have "digital content" but the Fox disks provide that on a seperate disk in the pack and an unlock code that works with iTunes or Microsoft Media Player. It's not a streaming solution and of no use to me.
Disney are one of the studios that don't do Ultraviolet, although (apparently) they do make some content available. It seems Tron Legacy isn't one of them. However I also signed up for a Disney Movies account and cross-linked it with Vudu (many more problems with javashite, cookies, failure modes). This eventually gave me a freebie movie "Wreck-It Ralph".
So last night I watched that via Vudu. Streaming quality was pretty good.
As per Amazon Live stream, I don't think I'll use this to replace buying physical disks. But maybe I'll use it to watch stuff when I'm away from home, on my tablet. I wonder if it'll work when I'm in England...
Of course these lockers also let you buy or rent digital copies of movies, which is (I guess) the primary revenue stream. They also allow you to insert a real DVD into your machine and buy a digital copy for $2 or $3 using their software (inserting the disk is "proof of ownership").
One common digital locker is UltraViolet (UVVU). Many of the big studios have signed up with this, which makes it convenient. Now it seems as if UVVU is just a locker; you need another service to actually stream them. My TiVo supports Vudo, so I signed up for a UVVU account and a Vudu account and linked them.
(This wasn't as easy as it sounds; the sites are heavily javashite and cross-site cookie dependent; didn't work with my firefox setup and failed to work with MSIE8. Eventually succeeded).
Once I had my TiVo talking to Vudu I looked at my BD collection. It seems maybe 16 of them had UVVU codes. They're awful to type and enter, but now 16 of my disks are available. Also "free bonus content" for Lego Movie (an awful lego-ninja series).
Annoyingly, many of my disks have "digital content" but the Fox disks provide that on a seperate disk in the pack and an unlock code that works with iTunes or Microsoft Media Player. It's not a streaming solution and of no use to me.
Disney are one of the studios that don't do Ultraviolet, although (apparently) they do make some content available. It seems Tron Legacy isn't one of them. However I also signed up for a Disney Movies account and cross-linked it with Vudu (many more problems with javashite, cookies, failure modes). This eventually gave me a freebie movie "Wreck-It Ralph".
So last night I watched that via Vudu. Streaming quality was pretty good.
As per Amazon Live stream, I don't think I'll use this to replace buying physical disks. But maybe I'll use it to watch stuff when I'm away from home, on my tablet. I wonder if it'll work when I'm in England...
