I would get on board with movies on flash drives in the following scenario.
Steps 1. Buy your own flash drive of your choosing 2. Go to a kiosk similar to Redbox 3. Select movie(s) to rent that will fit on said flashdrive (bigger drives hold more movies) 4. Take home movies to watch on PC or DVD with a USB port
I would be perfectly OK if the movies are DRMed and expire after a few days or a week or so in this scenario. A scenario like this could make for a feasible local rental model that if affordable enough might be faster and more convenient than torrent, and have a wider selection of new releases than streaming services. It would also offer a potential solution to bandwidth caps.
There is no way I am going to purchase an over-priced DRM locked down thumb drive that can only ever be used to store a single movie. I'd rather buy the full higher quality movie on an optical disc at a lower price.
one downside of having a digital copy of a movie is, you don't get all the special features that comes with a DVD/BD. such as behind the scenes, commentaries and maybe alternate endings. of course, we can get those on another digital file, if possible - but i haven't been able to find/download any extra features of any movies yet.
I've been promoting this for nearly ten years, mostly for music and video stores. Makes sense for the tens of millions of US citizens with no broadband or who simply prefer a physical buying experience (still a very large minority from what I've seen). Media kiosks in music and video stores would be linked to on-site servers containing every new release and most of the older stuff. When a new title was added to company's selection it would only need to be downloaded once to each store's server. Older titles would take much less space thanks to their lower resolutions and simpler sound, so every store could have the majority of content available. This makes a lot more sense than devoting precious shelf space to classics and twenty copies of this week's new release. You would browse the inventory via touchscreens, loading tunes/films right onto your media player by attaching it to a port on the kiosk. Naturally your hardware would have to support whatever DRM scheme the renter came up with, but hey, PlaysForSure and Rhapsody were widely adopted..why should this be any different? You know the industry would be all for it. (You'd even have a clerk on hand to assist with technical issues - something you can't say for iTunes and its ilk.) If you wanted to watch the film on a big screen you'd either need video-out capability on your device or the same DRM system on whatever HMPC you transfer the file to. Again, it would have to be either an industry standard or just a de facto one. The bottom line is that its a way to get your media without tying up a computer or internet connection and for retail stores to stay in the media game. Call me weird but I really don't want to see FYE or the Wal-Mart media section go the way of the horse and carriage. Even if they finally get broadband to the 25% of America that currently lacks service, some people aren't gong to jive with having to mess with a computer for their music and movies. Not only that, but the more we tie up the cable and DSL pipes with high-def video the more likely they are to start throttling bandwidth..and that raises the dark specter of "net neutrality". Until we get fiber to every home, I say the local neighborhood media hub makes a heck of a lot of sense for all concerned.
As for distribution via flash drive, that should be reserved for *collections* of albums or films, not individual titles. That makes far more sense than making me buy another drive to watch a single movie. Give me a huge time and space saver like an 8gb drive stuffed with every video, album and special feature from a particular band, for example - then we're talking. I wouldn't have to devote bandwidth or storage space to it - physical or digital - and it would be preserved in the safest form you could hope for. You could go a step further, allowing me to use the internet to update my flash archives with director's cuts or new music singles (as long as there was room, of course). iTunes and similar software would be ideal for this.
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I would get on board with movies on flash drives in the following scenario.
Steps
1. Buy your own flash drive of your choosing
2. Go to a kiosk similar to Redbox
3. Select movie(s) to rent that will fit on said flashdrive (bigger drives hold more movies)
4. Take home movies to watch on PC or DVD with a USB port
I would be perfectly OK if the movies are DRMed and expire after a few days or a week or so in this scenario. A scenario like this could make for a feasible local rental model that if affordable enough might be faster and more convenient than torrent, and have a wider selection of new releases than streaming services. It would also offer a potential solution to bandwidth caps.
There is no way I am going to purchase an over-priced DRM locked down thumb drive that can only ever be used to store a single movie. I'd rather buy the full higher quality movie on an optical disc at a lower price.
i like your idea.
one downside of having a digital copy of a movie is, you don't get all the special features that comes with a DVD/BD. such as behind the scenes, commentaries and maybe alternate endings. of course, we can get those on another digital file, if possible - but i haven't been able to find/download any extra features of any movies yet.
I've been promoting this for nearly ten years, mostly for music and video stores. Makes sense for the tens of millions of US citizens with no broadband or who simply prefer a physical buying experience (still a very large minority from what I've seen). Media kiosks in music and video stores would be linked to on-site servers containing every new release and most of the older stuff. When a new title was added to company's selection it would only need to be downloaded once to each store's server. Older titles would take much less space thanks to their lower resolutions and simpler sound, so every store could have the majority of content available. This makes a lot more sense than devoting precious shelf space to classics and twenty copies of this week's new release. You would browse the inventory via touchscreens, loading tunes/films right onto your media player by attaching it to a port on the kiosk. Naturally your hardware would have to support whatever DRM scheme the renter came up with, but hey, PlaysForSure and Rhapsody were widely adopted..why should this be any different? You know the industry would be all for it. (You'd even have a clerk on hand to assist with technical issues - something you can't say for iTunes and its ilk.) If you wanted to watch the film on a big screen you'd either need video-out capability on your device or the same DRM system on whatever HMPC you transfer the file to. Again, it would have to be either an industry standard or just a de facto one. The bottom line is that its a way to get your media without tying up a computer or internet connection and for retail stores to stay in the media game. Call me weird but I really don't want to see FYE or the Wal-Mart media section go the way of the horse and carriage. Even if they finally get broadband to the 25% of America that currently lacks service, some people aren't gong to jive with having to mess with a computer for their music and movies. Not only that, but the more we tie up the cable and DSL pipes with high-def video the more likely they are to start throttling bandwidth..and that raises the dark specter of "net neutrality". Until we get fiber to every home, I say the local neighborhood media hub makes a heck of a lot of sense for all concerned.
As for distribution via flash drive, that should be reserved for *collections* of albums or films, not individual titles. That makes far more sense than making me buy another drive to watch a single movie. Give me a huge time and space saver like an 8gb drive stuffed with every video, album and special feature from a particular band, for example - then we're talking. I wouldn't have to devote bandwidth or storage space to it - physical or digital - and it would be preserved in the safest form you could hope for. You could go a step further, allowing me to use the internet to update my flash archives with director's cuts or new music singles (as long as there was room, of course). iTunes and similar software would be ideal for this.
You've been promoting it for over 10 years? 10 years ago I was just discovering CD-R's