Digital Download DVDs

[David K]

No mention whether these will be single or double layer discs. They will require special burners.

Novato company hopes DVDs, digital downloads can combine
Monday, October 1, 2007

With all the recent talk about online downloads of movies and television shows, you would think digital distribution and old-fashioned DVDs were incompatible. But there's no reason the two can't work together to give people another way to enjoy their favorite video content.

So says Sonic Solutions of Novato, which announced last week it is releasing software that will allow consumers to legally burn DVDs on demand, giving people the instant access of digital distribution with the tangible benefits of an actual DVD.

The technology, which updates the content scrambling system found on existing DVDs, was approved recently by the DVD Copy Control Association, a collection of movie studios and consumer electronics manufacturers.

The switch to DVDs on demand won't happen until next year. That's when the Sonic software will begin shipping with drives from Pioneer, Toshiba, Dell, Philips and other companies. In addition to a new DVD drive, the service also will require new writable DVDs, which are being developed.

With the new burners, consumers will be able to make copyright-protected DVDs at home in about 10 to 15 minutes that can play on almost any DVD player. Retailers also will be able to set up in-store DVD-burning kiosks that offer huge libraries, larger than any one store could conceivably carry.

MOD Systems of Seattle, which builds music kiosks for retailers like Starbucks, sees an intriguing future for in-store DVD kiosks. Anthony Bay, co-founder and chairman of MOD Systems, said DVD-burning kiosks would give retailers a chance to participate in digital distribution and also allow them to offer a wide selection of titles. It also enables studios to sell older or more niche content that would be nearly impossible to move through retail stores.

"There are 75,000 DVDs in existence, and Wal-Mart carries 1,400 titles," Bay said. "Obviously, when you look for all the programming content available, a lot of it is very hard to find. This moves the manufacturing decision to the point of purchase so we won't make it until someone buys it."

Jim Taylor, senior vice president and general manager of Sonic Solutions' advanced technology group, said legal digital downloading of video probably will become the norm in the future, perhaps 10 years down the line. But there is a sizable market now for DVDs.

"The bulk of the content will have the same quality as a regular DVD," Taylor said. "And it can have packaging and sit on your shelf, so it's something you feel like you own. It's not like music on iTunes, where if your hard drive crashes, you lose your collection."

It's unclear if consumers will get much of a break on pricing for on-demand DVDs. The studios and retailers can stand to save a fair amount by avoiding manufacturing, packaging and distribution costs. But the companies are reluctant to cannibalize retail sales.

Kurt Scherf, principal analyst with Parks Associates, said burning to DVD won't represent a huge revenue stream for studios, which rake in $24 billion annually from sales and rentals. He projected on-demand DVDs could generate $1.3 billion in revenue by 2011, which would be a nice bit of incremental change. Digital downloading, for all its popularity recently, generated less than $30 million last year.

Scherf said that despite all the talk of digital downloading, most people are still slow to embrace it for technical and personal reasons. DVDs, on the other hand, can be stored easily, are safe from hard drive crashes and can work on any television with a DVD player.

"There are a lot of issues with digital downloads to own as opposed to download to burn. This is a happy medium until we get to that point," Scherf said.

Studios like Warner Bros. are enthusiastic about DVD-on-demand. Jim Noonan, senior vice president of strategic communication for Warner Bros. home entertainment, said the studios were holding out for the proper protections to fall into place before they gave their blessing. But now that the specifications have been finalized to their liking, consumers and studios both can win.

"This is just another example of being able to get content in a way consumers choose to get it," Noonan said. "This gives them choice, but does it in a way that protects the content for the studios."

Video-on-demand provider Akimbo of San Mateo, one of the early partners for Sonic Solutions, will make its library of unique movies and television content available for burning to DVD next year.

Edward Lee, vice president of business development at Akimbo, said the service will be useful not only in giving people a choice in how they interact with their media, but also in helping curb illegal downloading of movies and TV shows.

"As long as you give consumers options at their disposal and flexibility to interact with media, you're one step ahead of the game and you lead the consumer to a better opportunity," Lee said.

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/10/01/BUMBSGBFH.DTL

This article appeared on page C - 1 of the San Francisco Chronicle

[yoda313]

Of course you'll still be able to rip it with dvdfab or anydvd once its burned so whats the point?

And who will buy a new burner just for this? Now if this means ALL new dvd burners will have this "authentication" process in place then perhaps. But only if you need to replace a dying or dead burner. I don't see this taking off like crazy. It might have a niche market but not if you need new equipment.

However it does seem a bit intriguing to have the instore burning option. But I still would rather pay shipping to buy it online and have an original copy then a burn.

[bendixG15]

Sounds to me like you are going to buy the new writable DVD disks for a price close to the cost of a commercial DVD.

In essence, instead of buying a commercial DVD, you are going to be able to buy a DVD that you burn yourself.. at a cost of say ..10.00 per DVD, that makes the big boys happy.

Just my speculation of course ............

[dadrab]

In essence, instead of buying a commercial DVD, you are going to be able to buy a DVD that you burn yourself.. at a cost of say ..10.00 per DVD, that makes the big boys happy.

Just my speculation of course ............

Well, that's the exact scenario the music industry has been trying to make us happy with for years now.

Option #1. Go to the CD store and buy the disc with case, art, liner notes and the whole deal - $13.99.

Option #2. Go to your computer, log onto iWhatever music service, purchase the songs in a lossy-ass format for $.99 each (14 tracks on the disc), download the tunes and burn them onto disc. But wait, I didn't get any cover art or liner notes with my download. But wait again, I paid the same thing I could have bought the disc for.

My objections are met with a resounding "tough shit."

The music industry wants me to feel warm and fuzzy about them "giving" me the ability to download music.

Uh-huh.

What would be wrong with a business case that involved putting the discs out there for download in a high quality format complete with a formatted zip file for art and liner notes along with a price of $4.99? The industry doesn't have packaging, labor, distribution or handling charges to roll into their overhead. They'd still make money - in fact, I believe their profit margin wouldn't suffer even one percentage point. What's wrong with that model?

Greed.

This is the video portion of the same industy's idea of doing us a favor.

It ain't no favor.

[Midzuki]

the service also will require new writable DVDs, which are being developed

will such disks be allowed to hold the classical DVD logo?

\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\

[videopoo]

This technology is more geared for point of sale businesses. Kiosks in stores will now be able to burn a "protected" disc from a library of thousands of titles. Might be a good business opportunity for some.

As long as the idiots running the studios are happy then discs can be distributed anywhere. Most people on this board would never buy a special burner or blank discs but many people just might. Cool stuff if your in the money loop.

[Xylob the Destroyer]

reminds me of Circuit City's DIVX movies in a way.
this technology will not last/work.
"i gotta buy a new burner and special discs besides the one's i already have?!"
Pass.

What it the one I download/burn at the kiosk is screwed up? Refund? yeah right...
Pay to try it again pal.

[MikieV]

The technology, which updates the content scrambling system found on existing DVDs, was approved recently by the DVD Copy Control Association, a collection of movie studios and consumer electronics manufacturers.

That's when the Sonic software will begin shipping with drives from Pioneer, Toshiba, Dell, Philips and other companies. In addition to a new DVD drive, the service also will require new writable DVDs, which are being developed.

With the new burners, consumers will be able to make copyright-protected DVDs at home in about 10 to 15 minutes that can play on almost any DVD player.

Seems like something is missing...

"Updated" CSS, which requires new drives to write on new discs... but can playback on "almost any DVD player"???

They seem to be protecting the content right up until it is burned onto a DVD - which can be read by existing players, at which point - as yoda313 mentioned - it should be copyable...

Why do they think this system will work?

Unless they plan on selling the back-catalog at "2-buck Chuck" prices via a kiosk...

[SmokieStover]

This is actually old news that was first announced over a year ago. It didn't happen then and I'm not sure it will happen now either.

I would not be interested unless it's much cheaper than buying a pressed DVD.

[jman98]

Seems like something is missing...

"Updated" CSS, which requires new drives to write on new discs... but can playback on "almost any DVD player"???

They seem to be protecting the content right up until it is burned onto a DVD - which can be read by existing players, at which point - as yoda313 mentioned - it should be copyable...

Why do they think this system will work?

Unless they plan on selling the back-catalog at "2-buck Chuck" prices via a kiosk...

They have to say "almost any DVD player" because anything on burnable DVD media may not play on some piece of crap DVD players, so they are just covering themselves with that statement.

They think it will work because
1) Some people don't know how to rip and burn DVDs at all, so it will provide some protection against people who don't know anything more than how to do a Nero "Disc to Disc" copy.
2) MPAA people don't really understand the technology, so you have to "Keep It Simple, Stupid" for them to come to grips with it. It boils down to "Copy protection = good". And don't forget that Hollywood execs may actually believe that these discs are uncopyable, even though CSS has been broken for years now.

While I am unconvinced that this method will work unless there is a big break on the price, there is a rather large number of consumers who "must have everything now if not sooner" and as stupid as this sounds to a lot of us, this may actually work for them as they have no desire to drive down the road to, say, BestBuy to buy the latest DVD but might be willing to pay to have it made for them at Starbucks if they were going to be hanging out there anyway.

[oldandinthe way]

The probably say almost any player because it won't work with old SONY players and other anal-retentive implementations.

It probably will work with the cheapie players which are just implementations of chipmaker's reference designs because one set of testing will cover dozens of brands.

It will sell after hours in convenience stores and other late night venues. Maybe even in motels.

It will allow the studios to sell titles which have been bounced out of BestBuy, Walmart and Target for selling too slowly. Some people might even find the selection in a kiosk as attractive as the independant video store.

[dadrab]

It will sell after hours in convenience stores and other late night venues. Maybe even in motels.

It will allow the studios to sell titles which have been bounced out of BestBuy, Walmart and Target for selling too slowly. Some people might even find the selection in a kiosk as attractive as the independant video store.

And you will OWN the movie when you walk away.

Oh well...

I still don't think it'll be much of a solution for me.

[RabidDog]

Imagine having a portable booth that does these, reasonably quickly? Stream out of a/the concert.. and then buy the DVd of the same concert, in the foyer.
Niche market, but a good idea. Downloadable to own, in divx is better tho, as long as an escrow copy is logged with the central video repository (AKA google-world-video-library)

[MOVIEGEEK]

This reminds me of the DIVX debacle in the late 90's,a stupid idea that will ultimately flop.