Wal-Mart Pitches DVD Burning Deal to Studios

[verchad]

So, it's not okay for me to make a personal backup of a dvd I own, or make a copy of a dvd for a friend, but it would be okay for walmart, if this actually happened, to make multiple copies of dvd's they don't own and sell them, well, they already do it with their online sales of music files. We'll see but I'm not holding my breath.

[Cornucopia]

@Cornucopia I agree, this probably won't fly because it would force studios out of the current comfortable business model. But actually, by having a retailer burn the disks they get around one of the issues stopping downloadable movies (besides the size :P ). That is forcing DRM of some sort. It would be easy to require a company like WalMart to install specialized equiment and guarantee they were using properly encoded files for burning. What would they make a typical Joe do? Electroniclly sign a EULA promising to add the encoding before he burned the files? (Uh sure............I'll do that )

Fact is the studios want bullet proof DRM before doing anything to change their business model. There isn't any such thing these days and may not ever really be. What they are missing is that this would allow them to make a good profit on stuff they are currently making little or no money on. They prevent piracy by offering a "better" product at a price that makes it not worth the average Joe's time. It will never wipe out the hardcore ripper or the big organized groups (but they are going after current hits anyway). It gives the guy doing the petty thieving (who probably feels bad about it) a way to get what he wants legally at a fair price.

Thing is, they would have to change the DVD-R specs to be physically able to burn with CSS. Currently NO recordable format allows for burning the additional 6 bytes (2048+6=2054) that would be required to include the CSS code in the same place where it currently is on pressed DVD's. Without that, or without creating a new standard & selling new players to support that standard, the only other possibility is to either sell un-encrypted discs (not ever likely) or to give each participating Walmart the capability to actually factory press discs (not economical-the real factories don't want to do more than a 300 disc run to recoup the cost).

Scott

[MrMoody]

They under sell everyone because WalMar sets the price.
The suppliers meet it or go out of business.

H'wood does not have the clout of WalMart

Simple proof this is not true: Wal-Mart does not undersell everyone else on DVDs.

[sammie]

Yes, it would have to be burned and not pressed. It would have to be custom equipment though for sure and obviously that causes the potential for incompatability issues. I have to admit that I have no idea if the extra bits are a true constraint to the format or are just eliminated because they aren't needed or to try and make studios happy? I presume they have done some pilot work though or they wouldn't be bugging studios about it.

You might be right about the custom player though. I have to admit that was a thought that popped into my mind as well. The idea of a proprietary player and DRM scheme gave me the shivers. I had horrible fears of DIVx II and I don't mean a new generation of MPEG4 codecs. That business model failed so miserably though, that I can't imagine anyone reviving it and thiniking it would work.

[iooi]

What a great idea....
And if the studios / distrubitors really thought it through properly it would be a big money saver for them as well... Never mind walmart not having to stock copies, they could clear the shelves as well.....
But of course it will never happen as they didnt think of it...