Qflix brings CSS to download-to-burn DVDs: a new day has dawned

It's been a long time coming, but the major Hollywood studios have finally agreed to amend the CSS (content scrambling system, found on store-bought DVDs) licensing restrictions to include support for both commercial and private download-to-burn options. First mentioned last summer, this new agreement uses technology from Sonic Solutions called Qflix (initially adopted by Movielink) to slap that good ol' digital lock on discs that consumers burn either on their PCs or at in-store kiosks like the ones Wal-Mart and other big box retailers have been planning for some time now. Of course you can already burn downloaded flicks to DVD through CinemaNow's aptly-titled "Burn to DVD" service, but compatibility issues have relegated this option to merely a stopgap solution. While Qflix burns should be readable by any old player that supports CSS, the downside is that new media and -- in some cases -- new drives will be required to perform this neat little trick (some current burners can apparently be made Qflix-compatible through firmware upgrades). Besides the studios, other companies that are down with Qflix include disc manufacturer Verbatim, video-on-demand provider Akimbo, your friendly neighborhood Walgreens, and of course, Movielink. It's not clear when consumers will start seeing this these new devices and kiosks in the wild, but rest assured that you'll soon have a way to spend those 10 to 15 minutes waiting for your prescription that doesn't involve sitting next to a bunch of sick people in a germ-ridden pleather chair.

[Evan @ Jan 4th 2007 1:57PM]

hallelujah thank da lord!

[Jeff @ Jan 4th 2007 2:06PM]

So wait...

The answer to why people weren't downloading enough movies is because there wasn't enough copy protection?

What problem does this actually solve?

[Shonuff66 @ Jan 4th 2007 2:19PM]

Yay, studios can now reduce their distribution costs and put more burden on to consumers to wait 15 minutes for a their content to burn. yay.

Wonder if you download this content, can you mount it on a virtual drive (via Alcohol software, or something similar) and have it work without burning a DVD?

[I, Robot @ Jan 6th 2007 1:49AM]

@Jeff

I agree. This doesn’t solve the problem at all. This is more like, just throwing customers a bone - a half chewed bone, with no meat left on it.

I guess the studios think that people are so stupid; we won’t see through this half-hearted attempt at a compromise – which is really a smoke screen for locking down any and all DVD drives on PC’s with this “Qflix” software "Upgrade".

They're NOT fooling anyone.

[Infurnus @ Jan 4th 2007 2:22PM]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but this appears to only discourage sharing DVDs with friends until everyone has DVD drives/players that support CSS.

[Earl @ Jan 4th 2007 2:34PM]

This is dumb!

People can just buy a movie, have a good hard copy, then just copy to PC. Why pay the same price (we know the movies will cost about the same), when you can have a hard copy? This is just another scheme for the movie industry to cut manufacturing costs and increase profits.

[Johnson @ Jan 4th 2007 3:03PM]

What kind of a retard consumer is going to go out of their way to buy a new DVD player and media to play these movies?

They have got to be kidding!!! They must think we are dogs.

[Mojo_Yugen @ Jan 4th 2007 3:07PM]

Way to close that barn door after the horse has run off!

[Wonderboy @ Jan 4th 2007 4:29PM]

I think it's a good idea for the consumer... ever walk into Wal-Mart hoping to pick up the latest blockbuster and find it's out of stock? Well, walk over to the DVD kiosk and it'll make one right there for you.

This gives the capability for an unlimited library... though I wonder how storage will work. I kinda doubt they'll store the movie data in the kiosk, so will they be downloaded after a request is made?

[bgdc @ Jan 4th 2007 4:32PM]

Uh, so people are going to stop getting DVDs from netflix and ripping them?

[dasmenneke @ Jan 4th 2007 6:55PM]

CSS is the original protection scheme for DVD so it will play on ALL dvd players however as the article says it might not be Burnable by all DVD writers without a fw update

[Virtuous @ Jan 4th 2007 11:12PM]

Movie kiosks will fail if consumers have to wait for the machine to download files from a remote server.

[David @ Jan 5th 2007 2:17AM]

HD movies too? or is this just in time to be obsolete? :-p

[24 @ Jan 5th 2007 2:27PM]

let's bet how much time it takes before Hackers Crack this one, although CSS has already been cracked, but i'd wonder if old methods will work here.

[I, Robot @ Jan 6th 2007 1:50AM]

This is a stupid idea. Why would anyone wait 15-20 minutes at Walgreen’s or Wal-Mart just to make a back-up copy of a DVD(s). Plus, having to download some special software; just to make sure it might/will play in my PC – whatever. This all sounds like WAY too much a hassle, and needlessly complicated.

I can do the same thing at home, in 10 minutes. And I KNOW it will work in all my players without worry. Good job Hollywood! Keep-up with the brilliant ideas guys, one of them have gotta’ work – eventually.

[Stigkl @ Jan 6th 2007 10:20AM]

We recently seen the first DVD kiosks deployed in Europe, when we tried the service supplied by www.Kioskterminals.eu we felt that although the kiosk took approx 5 to 7 mins. to burn a movie an hour and half long, we had to problems playing it in both ours and a friends DVD player. We typically have purchased a movie in the weekend from our local store, and with this service we know have a far bigger option available. I understand that this provider actually stores the movies on site digitally and not via a net download. I would give it the thumbs up, and I saved about five percent on the price I would normally pay for a boxed DVD.

[Stigkl @ Jan 6th 2007 12:54PM]

We recently seen the first DVD kiosks deployed in Europe, when we tried the service supplied by KT Technology http://www.kioskterminals.eu we felt that although the kiosk took approx 5 to 7 mins. to burn a movie an hour and half long, we had to problems playing it in both ours and a friends DVD player. We typically have purchased a movie in the weekend from our local store, and with this service we now have a far bigger option available. I understand that this provider actually stores the movies on site digitally and not via a net download. I would give it the thumbs up, and I saved about five percent on the price I would normally pay for a boxed DVD.

[whiskey @ Jan 6th 2007 4:25PM]

This is so dumb...

1. Burn
2. Copy using SEVERAL methods to DeCSS
3. ReBurn