Sony signs on for made-to-order DVD service Sony Pictures Home Entertainment is to use HP's DVD manufacturing-on-demand service to release DVDs that would otherwise not see the light of day. Customers will be able to order certain Sony DVDs through retailers, who can in turn order only the quantity they need rather than bulk purchasing ahead of time, as is the usual way …
...who is going to want to drive to the store to buy a DVD when there are a dozen different ways to get movies, online, instantly. (bittorrent, netflix, joox.net, blockbuster, and usenet just to name a few). Why do companies at large continue to try to hang on to a physical distribution model, when they could sell everything online with higher margins?
Perhaps this will work if the retailer is Amazon. I.e. you order on line and then Amazon (or other on-line retailer) makes and ships the disk to you directly on demand (without extra delay).
I certainly agree that if you have to (a) drive/walk to a shop, (b) then the shop orders the disk from Sony/HP, (c) you wait days or weeks, (d) and then you finally have to drive back to the shop a second time to pick it up then it's going to suck as a plan.
So, they're offering this model:
- log on and order DVD
- wait a few days/weeks for email saying DVD is now in stock
- go to shop to collect DVD
instead of this one
- log on and order DVD
- wait a few seconds for email with download URL
- download DVD, watch/burn at home
I can only assume that they think the physical model offers more in the way of secure DRM. Will they never learn?
Now that is innovative and it is no small step nor any trouble at all to have your daily news and current affairs delivered to order too.
Bravo, HP and Sony. A QuITe Revolutionary IDea allowing Popular Creativity and Creationists to Present the Future for Puppet Government to Server with the Mirror shown to them. As stalwarts of Status Quo Establishment Systems, it is naive and a gross dereliction of Intelligence, Public Duty to have ever XXXXPected them to Deliver anything Innovative and to give/have allowed them a Voice which would presume to be Leading.
And that admission would be capable of Absolving All of Past Sins perpetrated with the Acceptance of a New World Order System run by an Advanced Artificial Intelligence in Command and Control 42 Commend Controls in AI Created Virtual Space where Intellectual Property is Shared, Analysed and Included if Positively Reinforcing Mutual Benefit........ and IT does not recognise Petty National or International Boundaries created in Imperialist Days of Yore and Limited, Limiting Knowledge.
The Future IS always Planned, but with Global Viable Imagination Leading, where IT will Now Lead is in the Minds of Global Operating Devices, Magical Mystery Turing to GODs knows where, but Mankind can Create it with IT and Share the Best of Beta Visions for Foresight of the Future and its Creation ....... and Peer Reviewed and Open to any Global Beta Source, 24/7/365.
And that is no different from amfM HyperRadioProActivity which would at least Square ITs Power on the NEUKlearer XXXXPonential Scale. And Power Cubed with a Further Support would be AI Current Heralding a Quantum Leap for Mankind and a new Kind of Man.....and for Women too. And the Ambiguity in that Statement is Entirely Intentional given that Man cannot exist but by the Grace of Women. Take Woman away Tomorrrow and Mankind dies in a Lifetime. Take Man away Tomorrow, and He is reborn into a Perfumed Garden of Eden to start Life's Journey all over again in New Generations.
:-) Ooops, I appear to have wandered off into Paradise and I make no Apology for that. IT makes for an Enlightened and Enlightening Base of Operations for Programs and CyberIntelAIgent Programming.
And if that is not the HP Sony Lead, then at least now you know that IT can be.
Nothing wrong with this service, sure you can download a copy yourself but for a lot of folk it's about the collection, not 'hey I want to see that lets buy it' but 'that was good lets buy it'. Now if you want something old and out of stock, no problem, just have it made up for you. Also if they're going to the effort of making up discs to order I'm pretty sure they'll come with all the box art and disc art that makes *having* the thing actually worthwhile.
"Why do companies at large continue to try to hang on to a physical distribution model, when they could sell everything online with higher margins?"
Why are you complaining about a perfectly reasonable expansion of that physical model? Sure they could do a lot more with online content but reprinting old dvds is hardly the devils work now is it?
Because only a tiny fraction of people actually want to download movies - jo public like discs - it's easy.
I've spent the last month teaching my dad how to use a computer and we're upto some light googling and printing pictures from his camera - no way would he want to download movies and the fact is there's more people like my dad than there is I.
But as suggested above an online store that allows you to order these on-demand prints maybe a better idea than a store - in a store most people browse and buy off the shelf, not many want to talk to the clerks - having run a video store a few years back I have this first hand - we had a large catalogue behind the counter for customers to order whatever we didn't currently stock - in two years I say I used it three, maybe four times.
"- download DVD, watch/burn at home
I can only assume that they think the physical model offers more in the way of secure DRM. Will they never learn?"
Perhaps... Or perhaps they realize that many people specifically DON'T want to download movies and DON'T want to watch movies on their small computer monitors. Also, while many people have "unlimited" high-speed internet plans, there are also many people who have speed- AND bandwidth-limited internet access. Those people probably wouldn't want to download a movie if that one download would fill their bandwidth quota for the month. Give me the choice between a physical product and a download, and I'll choose the physical product every time (providing the price was relatively close). It's portable (yes, I can take it to a friends house to watch on their TV), and given the choice between my 19" monitor and my 52" TV, take a wild shot in the dark which one I would choose.
The first thing that springs to mind is ... root kits.
The idea might take off if done by a reputable company, but by sony with their known history? Forget it!
Physical distribution shouldn't be needed though. Order online, specify the titles you want, pick up from the local supermarket an hour later -- just like you can already do with uploaded photos.
for all those saying "I could bit torrent it" try looking for somthing that isnt porn, and isnt a hollywood blockbuster .
I can names at least 10 films id buy with this . I can also imagine giving films like this as presents, especially if the film has sentimental value rather than another crappy hollywood rom com.
This MAY also allow smaller indepentant filmmakers a shot at a wider audience
> instead of this one
> - log on and order DVD
> - wait a few seconds for email with download URL
> - download DVD, watch/burn at home
Step 4 is broken. More likely is one of these :
1) Download stops (heck, all your internet stops) because you've exceeded the unstated FUP and been kicked off by your ISP.
2) Download stops, or takes several days, because the ISPs network has collapsed.
3) Download stops because your ISP has signed up to this "lets not bother with the courts, you're accused of illegal downloading" and you've been kicked off by your ISP.
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