The lack of Xbox support is what it is... the SD video & stereo audio is a real deal-breaker though. This is a step in the right direction, but unfortunately they tripped and fell back 8 years when the music industry also put DRM on their content.
What we want: high quality drm free content at a fair price... that simple.
The DRM's a deal breaker for me, though the lack of surround sound is also something that would make me feel twice before forking out that much. $3-4 for this might make sense as a "version of the movie to play on the laptop", but they're charging DVD level prices which would be ridiculous to pay just for a portable version of a movie.
This isn't a competitor to iTunes. It's a competitor to UMD. And there's a reason why UMD was a monumental failure, even amongst PSP owners. (No, not just because it was made by Sony...)
"What we want: high quality drm free content at a fair price...that simple."
I could not agree more, TechGuyNate!
It's just that our idea of a "fair price" is MUCH lower than the Studios' idea of a "fair price".
We're the realists, saying that, in the current world, or calculation of the price is basically:
Free bittorrent + cost of internet access + cost of hard drive space + cost of hassle (searching for file, waiting for download, possibly converting file format, manual organizing) + a buck or two for the honest cost of making content = the price we think is fair.
So that comes out to about $4-$5 for DVD quality and maybe $7-$9 for Blu-ray quality.
I can tell you this - if I could be sure that I could go to any physical store and all of the DVDs would be priced at $4-$5 and all of the Blu-rays priced at $7-$9, I'd feel extremely little incentive to rent or download! I'd probably still rent Blu-rays that I knew I wouldn't want to keep forever, but other than that - if those were the standard prices? I'd be buying all the time!
And same goes for legitimate downloads. Those downloads would have to have completely equal video AND audio quality and they would have to be DRM-free, but at $4-$5 SD and $7-$9 HD, I'd be more than happy to pay the studios.
But the Studios still live in a dream world of $20 DVDs and $30-$40 Blu-rays. The cost savings of rip/rent/return or bittorrents are just too large to ignore! The Studios think they can sue the world back to their dreamland prices. But the cat's out of the bag and she ain't going back in!
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The lack of Xbox support is what it is... the SD video & stereo audio is a real deal-breaker though. This is a step in the right direction, but unfortunately they tripped and fell back 8 years when the music industry also put DRM on their content.
What we want: high quality drm free content at a fair price... that simple.
The DRM's a deal breaker for me, though the lack of surround sound is also something that would make me feel twice before forking out that much. $3-4 for this might make sense as a "version of the movie to play on the laptop", but they're charging DVD level prices which would be ridiculous to pay just for a portable version of a movie.
This isn't a competitor to iTunes. It's a competitor to UMD. And there's a reason why UMD was a monumental failure, even amongst PSP owners. (No, not just because it was made by Sony...)
"What we want: high quality drm free content at a fair price...that simple."
I could not agree more, TechGuyNate!
It's just that our idea of a "fair price" is MUCH lower than the Studios' idea of a "fair price".
We're the realists, saying that, in the current world, or calculation of the price is basically:
Free bittorrent + cost of internet access + cost of hard drive space + cost of hassle (searching for file, waiting for download, possibly converting file format, manual organizing) + a buck or two for the honest cost of making content = the price we think is fair.
So that comes out to about $4-$5 for DVD quality and maybe $7-$9 for Blu-ray quality.
I can tell you this - if I could be sure that I could go to any physical store and all of the DVDs would be priced at $4-$5 and all of the Blu-rays priced at $7-$9, I'd feel extremely little incentive to rent or download! I'd probably still rent Blu-rays that I knew I wouldn't want to keep forever, but other than that - if those were the standard prices? I'd be buying all the time!
And same goes for legitimate downloads. Those downloads would have to have completely equal video AND audio quality and they would have to be DRM-free, but at $4-$5 SD and $7-$9 HD, I'd be more than happy to pay the studios.
But the Studios still live in a dream world of $20 DVDs and $30-$40 Blu-rays. The cost savings of rip/rent/return or bittorrents are just too large to ignore! The Studios think they can sue the world back to their dreamland prices. But the cat's out of the bag and she ain't going back in!