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  1. Disney to Begin Renting 'Self-Destructing' DVDs



    LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - This disc will self-destruct in 48 hours. That is the warning The Walt Disney Co. (NYSEIS - news) will issue this August when it begins to "rent" DVDs that after two days become unplayable and do not have to be returned.

    Disney home video unit Buena Vista Home Entertainment will launch a pilot movie "rental" program in August that uses the self-destruction technology, the company said on Friday.


    The discs stop working when a process similar to rusting makes them unreadable. The discs start off red, but when they are taken out of the package, exposure to oxygen turns the coating black and makes it impenetrable by a DVD laser.


    Buena Vista hopes the technology will let it crack a wider rental market, since it can sell the DVDs in stores or almost anywhere without setting up a system to get the discs back.


    The discs work perfectly for the two-day viewing window, said Flexplay Technologies, Inc., the private company which developed the technology using material from General Electric Co.(NYSE:GE - news)


    The technology cannot be hacked by programmers who would want to view the disc longer because the mechanism which closes the viewing window is chemical and has nothing to do with computer technology.


    However, the disc can be copied within 48 hours, since it works like any other DVD during that window.


    Buena Vista did not disclose pricing plans but said the discs, dubbed EZ-D, would be available in August in select markets with recent releases including "The Recruit," "The Hot Chick," and "Signs."
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  2. Member The village idiot's Avatar
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    I wonder if The DVD docter (disk doctor) can scuff away the blackened coating and make the disk work again?
    Hope is the trap the world sets for you every night when you go to sleep and the only reason you have to get up in the morning is the hope that this day, things will get better... But they never do, do they?
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  3. Член BJ_M's Avatar
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    so you just use them in a non oxygen area -- be good for use on the moon..

    i could see a backlash to disney about recycle and waste and using up resources ... i mean it cant really cost that much to return the darn things ..
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  4. Every few weeks another "Media" giant tries some "unique" way to try and make a tiny fraction of a margin from a "dyeing" technology. DVD burning will be so common by the end of this summer that this "marketing" ploy seems laughable. Is Disney trying to protect it's intellectual property, or just trying to make it easier to watch Babi and make me take out the trash more often, we are such a throw away society now, geez, stop the madness? They should include Lion King in a box of cereal, but make the disk out of sugar, so it can disolve right into the bowl after use. Are these media giants just plain stupid!

    Bring on the Blue Laser!
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  5. I wonder if these discs are single or dual layered?

    If they are single-layered, they are just begging from people to copy them so that they can watch it longer than 2 days...

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  6. Member tim_k's Avatar
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    So you have 48 hours in which to copy it. What have they gained in the process?
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  7. Member
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    Originally Posted by BJ_M
    i could see a backlash to disney about recycle and waste and using up resources ... i mean it cant really cost that much to return the darn things ..
    I think AOL has already reached the maximum on waste, I get about 2 of their disks in the mail a month.

    -D
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  8. I wonder if there will be a backlash from video rental stores. Since they can only use each disc once, they will need to have a fairly large inventory for their customers. And of course there goes the resale market for "preowned" DVDs from Blockbuster and Hollywood Video.
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  9. 2 a week here.


    Disney should only be so lucky.
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    Blockbuster video has a two-day rental already on new releases, which is mostly just rent day, full day, then return before noon. Anybody that rents and copies now won't notice much difference.

    Walt Disney is rolling over in his grave. He wanted to provide entertainment, not try to own it with a death grip. Disney is a joke in this business, as Mickey Mouse is now just a bully. I personally boycott them. I only watch the old toons from the 30s-60s, back before dollars meant more than entertainment.
    I'm not online anymore. Ask BALDRICK, LORDSMURF or SATSTORM for help. PM's are ignored.
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  11. Renter won't notice a difference, but Blockbuster sure will since they will no longer be able to re-rent discs and will have to carry larger inventories.
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  12. Wasn't this called DIVX back in 1998?
    We all know how that went over.
    http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,20259,00.html
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  13. Actually I was a fan of the original Divx. That being said I suffered through the entire planet flaming me. Not on this site but every other site known to mankind.

    This concept has advantages over the original Circuit City Divx format becuase it does not require a special player. I'm assuming it will play on any dvd player.

    The rental world may have to wake up. It is actually a convience not having to return the disk. If the 48 hour period is enough for most then it just may work.

    It has to be priced as a rental. I'm guessing $3.50 - $4.00 for the 48 hour period.

    edit here -

    Advantages here are that the 48 hour period will not begin until you play the disk. Meaning you can purchase and have an inventory of films on your shelf at home. The 48 hours begins when you play the dvd. For example it could begin 6 months after the purchase - when you choose to play it. It works on snowy nights in the right climate when you do not feel like going to your rental place.
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  14. >>Disney to Begin Renting 'Self-Destructing' DVDs


    And they'll be coming out on Princo's, naturally
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  15. touche - lol

    actually proncos did not past the test because they only last 44 hours
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  16. actually proncos did not past the test because they only last 44 hours


    ZenZen Posted: May 16, 2003 19:20

    --------------------------------------------------------------------------------

    >>Disney to Begin Renting 'Self-Destructing' DVDs


    And they'll be coming out on Princo's, naturally
    Aww.. c'mon guys, be fair... at least half of my princos lastest about a week.
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  17. In some respects it makes sense if its "cheep" enough but these guys will proably charge 9.95 for a two day rent.

    The power have always wanted a no deposit no return media stretches as far back as the orginal video player that Sears sold before Beta and VHS was really out. There was also a company harking 1 or two play tapes with a carboard body and some type of demag in it a few years back.

    But in a world where AOL has taken over our land fills { wont the future scitenist go nuts figuring out why so many! } and mailboxes it may be a idea past its time.

    I heard of a chemical treatment when the laser hits it x times would fog the disk a few years back. If its a air item wonder if a nitrogen over presure box with a multi disk player would work. Or for those super systems a Kripton filled box. Any inert gas would do.

    Dident Disney have cut down version of there read a long DVD in some serial a month or so back? Be intersting by a box of X serial get a "free" copy of "Treasure Planet" the movie. It dies before the serial does.

    ADDED: Oops. Yes its the changing chemical one I hear about. Hope Mr Gates DOES NOT gets his hands on this!
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  18. It won't be $9.95. If it is it will not work.

    My guess is that it will be priced as a rental. If it is it could represent a huge shift. No Disney bricks and mortar rental stores required in this model as in Blockbuster.

    Distribution outlets could be as simple as Sears. And many others. Not to mention e-tailing. Something as simple as one way US mail without the return ala Netflix.

    And the 48 hours does not begin until you play the disk. You can purchace the disk and then play the disk 10 months after purchase for example and begin the 48 hour time limit.
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  19. Wonder if the rest of Hollywood would just start cranking 48Hour disk and skip non-destruct disk? Stranger things have happen.
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  20. It'd be retarded if you had to pay 9.95 for it. You could get almost any movie on dvd for $15
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  21. My concern is encryption. Perhaps something new?

    Disney has always been extremely careful. Second to only LucasFilms.
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  22. Member painkiller's Avatar
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    This is one of the funniest, soon-to-be-famous urban legends of all time.


    Does anyone really think such a business model will ever work? (Again?)

    Right next to one of the shortest "team" sponsors, for a Micheal Moore-Disney collaborative effort, in history also.


    Really, folks.

    Disney can't afford to tick off their bread-and-butter.
    Whatever doesn't kill me, merely ticks me off. (Never again a Sony consumer.)
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  23. [quote="Disney can't afford to tick off their bread-and-butter.[/quote]

    Unless the press release did not come from Disney. A hoax?

    Don't think so. There is usually serious money committed before a press release is issued.
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  24. But who says Tech44 is quoted a real release?

    Source? Where's the URL? How credible is it (IOW, is it slash/dot balderdash or some respectable joint)?

    But I'm with the others -- this sounds pretty wacky and so non-intuitive I think it will die a death faster than Divx, the most pernicious scheme ever encocted. Note the smart public stayed away from *that* in droves. Same will happen here.

    Obviously anyone who thinks someone would buy one of these "to watch one snowy night" never had kids -- if you rent a Disney film it not only has to be seen immediately (if you have a VCR in your SUV you play it for them on the way home -- I speak from experience) but repeatedly over and over again for the next week.

    And I know of *lots* of people who start watching a movie and then finish three or four days later. Hell, BB makes a living out of charging late fees for these folks. One blackened disk will be all it takes to scare these people from ever trying this again.

    I don't see this as pernicious (once again, not like Divx) although I do agree with an earlier poster about Uncle Walt -- least we forget, he made his living ripping off things which had gone into the public domain and then the moguls protecting the bank have switched the rules so there can *never* be another Disney. It's just misguided and one of those other small bumps on the road to video-on-demand that will, one day, make *all* of this obsolete.
    "Like a knife, he cuts through life, like every day's his last" -- Mr. Kiss Kiss Bang Bang
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  25. Well google found this...

    http://www.flexplay.com/press_ez-d.html

    Looks like a Mission Impossible or it go poof. Hum dident the remake tv series have a small disk that went poof?

    From there home page looks like you pop it out of the shinkwrap and the clock starts ticking.

    From there video the length before it go black and how long up to a year to use sounds more like a carton of milk!
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  26. Lets see.

    (1) One year shelf life.
    (2) Variable time before the plastic darkens to unusablity.
    (3) They like recycling and have a place to mail the disk to.
    (4) Exposing it to air starts the process not X plays.

    I thought the dot bomb companes went belly up last century?

    Oh my stars! They have just effected a way to do the 7 year bit they love! IE The old concept is to pull a title after a run and not release it for 7 years. This forces you to "buy again" and go hungry untill it returns!
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  27. Member
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    Well maybe its cause I'm a newbie, but dont you think it wont be long till someone comes out with an anti-oxidation spray coating, like a wd-40 for disks? Hell, maybe I should come up with it and make lots of $$$ on Ebay. Just a thought...
    "Good people do not need laws to tell them to act responsibly, while bad people will find a way around the laws." - Plato (427-347 B.C.)
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  28. Be intersting to try this in a inert gass or liquid. Proabbly not liquid cant spin in thta stuff. So an inert gass like neon, kripton, argon or nitrogen.

    There are alot in regular air not just o2 and Nitrogen which make up the bulk of it.

    I hope Disney doe not "enhanse there reguar purchased title with this!

    And I though it was going to be a borning weekend!
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  29. This is the silliest asinine thing a major studio has come up with in a long time. I am going to rent and copy every one and lend them out to my friends... even if I don't like the film. Geez what corporate moron came up with this idea. If someone can get me the name of this "genius" I would appreciate it. Hah!
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  30. Wait a minute! I think Uncle Walt *is* in liquid nitrogen. Or maybe it's just his head.

    This is all starting to come together now...
    "Like a knife, he cuts through life, like every day's his last" -- Mr. Kiss Kiss Bang Bang
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