If the movie companies would come to their senses and release them without DRM, I would definitely purchase them via download. They also need to work on there pricing for them, I noticed many movies on iTunes are $20 for the 1080 version. I can usually get the Blu-Ray version for cheaper.
At this point it's pretty clear that video DRM and digital purchase pricing exists as they do because they'd rather you didn't buy movies, but rented them when you wanted to watch them, or (preferably) rented the capability to watch them.
Not at all true — done consulting work for some major media companies, and they vastly preferred people to buy (just think: ~$20 vs. $3.99). I think DRM is just programmed into how the industry views the world, unfortunately.
If that were true then why is every DRM play not designed around cutting down piracy, but on limiting the rights of legal purchasers?
Why hasn't there ever been key-transfer features to facilitate sales/trades/loans? Why are there always platform locks and media locks and account locks? Why is there so much effort to stop legal backups, loaning, libraries, etc?
I don't doubt individual good people or divisions exist in major media companies that would just as well sell a movie for $20 and be done with it. But the repeated DRM strategy does not jive with that at all.
Because the media companies are headed by lawyers and politicians, if people were happily purchasing content for reasonable prices then they couldn't make a whole lot of noise and lobby for awful privacy-invading and rights-withholding legislation -- that is their ultimate goal.
While I have no special insight, I genuinely think you're attributing to malice what can more easily be attributed to stupidity. And even really smart people can be very, very stupid.
- rent all movies (mostly via Apple TV and Xbox360)
- if I ever want to see a movie again, push it to a wishlist
- regularly scan for sales and buy only movies on the wishlist, and only if their price is below a given cap.
By that time retail prices have dropped a long way down from the original price, and my flat is not filled with watch-once-and-take-dust frisbees, which I happened to pay less and see much earlier than if I waited for prices to drop. And while it seems I pay for some films twice, in the end I actually pay less for those than if I bought them on the first view.
[0]: Counting theatre for two persons, plus parking/public transport, I could watch five to seven movies for the same price at home, in a more comfortable situation, with a better quality. Around here theatres are a massive social-engineered ripoff.
Eactly.. i'd buy without DRM, for sure!
But this way i will not be able to play the movie on my media center or my (Linux) Laptop. So, great move Disney, but not enough. :(
Pricing and convenience are definitely the two factors that will have the most impact on adoption. Being competitive won't stop all piracy, but as iTunes has proved with music, there's a big potential customer base just waiting to be given what they want.
I'm really happy to see the progress digital downloads have been making, but I'll be buying Blu-Ray versions even when they are more expensive. iTunes bitrates for 1080p video are not very good yet.
