Download the Latest Harry Potter Movie: Legally!

[dvd3500]

Seem like Warner's might be catching on...
http://www.videobusiness.com/article/CA6488490.html

[AlanHK]

Misleading. It's not "downloading" as most people understand it. It's copying FROM A DVD to a media player. Something we can easily do already, though perhaps not legally. It's just a slight loosening of DRM.

[dvd3500]

Misleading

Well they claim it has to be downloaded to teh the device, from where and to where is still unclear.

Loosening of DRM is a great step if you ask me.

[videopoo]

The believe you need to use THEIR media player. This was news more than a year ago.

[Midzuki]

Another adventure of Harry Sucker? No, thanks.
[ yawns ]

+++++

[Nilfennasion]

Amen. Even the worst Robert Heinlein adaptation is preferable to Rowling on the most inspired day of her miserable life. I would not make copies of films based on her work to any device if Warners paid me to do it.

[manono]

Hehe, harsh. I can proudly say I haven't read any of her books or seen any of the movies, but I think we're in the minority, Nilfennasion.

[gll99]

Hehe, harsh. I can proudly say I haven't read any of her books or seen any of the movies, but I think we're in the minority, Nilfennasion.

You can add me to the minority column.

[AlanHK]

Amen. Even the worst Robert Heinlein adaptation is preferable to Rowling on the most inspired day of her miserable life.

You haven't seen Starship Troopers 2: Hero of the Federation or The Brain Eaters have you?

[dvd3500]

The believe you need to use THEIR media player. This was news more than a year ago

I thoguht Superman Returns was the first film to have multiple playback options.[/list]

[Nilfennasion]

As a matter of fact, I have seen Hero Of The Federation (but not The Brain Eaters). Contrary to what a lot of people seem to want to think, I believe Heinlein would have appreciated that the makers of the StarShip Troopers films came to their own conclusion regarding his work. A constant and very pervasive theme in Heinlein's writing was encouraging the reader, by proxy of the hero, to think for themselves. And having both read and viewed The Puppet Masters, I believe I know what I am getting into when I say the worst adaptations.

By comparison, Rowling's work is nothing more than Play School in printed form. It is not as bad as Eragon, per se, but Eragon has the virtue of aiming for an adult audience and failing. Just passing by televisions that were showing adverts for the latest Harry Potty film, the soundtracks gave me such a treacle overdose that with my diabetes and sensory issues, I would have had about six minutes to live if not for modern synthetic insulins.

That said, I am honestly sick of all this pushing of legal downloading as a new market model. For legal downloads to work, you would need to have affordable high-speed Internet everywhere in the market world (ask anyone in places like Italy or Australia how likely this is). You would likely need people all using the one operating system, because spyware will doubtless be part of the package. And more importantly, you would need people to be willing to give up their shiny little discs. I happen to like my shiny little discs. Sure, I would prefer if they were encased in a plastic chassis like the MiniDisc (that's a hint for the next format, manufactuers :P ), but compared to the chronic hardware problems downloading would entail, the static standards of optical media are much better options.

Has anyone bought a legal music download where the music was not lossily compressed at a 12:1 ratio, by the way? I seriously would rather stick a carving fork in my ear than listen to all my music in MP3 exclusively. I fear I would have similar feelings regarding the quality of legal video downloads.

[DereX888]

Misleading. It's not "downloading" as most people understand it. It's copying FROM A DVD to a media player. Something we can easily do already, though perhaps not legally. It's just a slight loosening of DRM.

yes we can do this already for years, and we can do it legally in slightly more than half of the countries iof the world IIRC.


since this is international forum, it is wrong to apply one country's laws (designed to protect local media cartels at the expense of its citizens) to other countries.

As a matter of fact, I have seen Hero Of The Federation (but not The Brain Eaters). Contrary to what a lot of people seem to want to think, I believe Heinlein would have appreciated that the makers of the StarShip Troopers films came to their own conclusion regarding his work. A constant and very pervasive theme in Heinlein's writing was encouraging the reader, by proxy of the hero, to think for themselves. And having both read and viewed The Puppet Masters, I believe I know what I am getting into when I say the worst adaptations.

By comparison, Rowling's work is nothing more than Play School in printed form. It is not as bad as Eragon, per se, but Eragon has the virtue of aiming for an adult audience and failing. Just passing by televisions that were showing adverts for the latest Harry Potty film, the soundtracks gave me such a treacle overdose that with my diabetes and sensory issues, I would have had about six minutes to live if not for modern synthetic insulins.

That said, I am honestly sick of all this pushing of legal downloading as a new market model. For legal downloads to work, you would need to have affordable high-speed Internet everywhere in the market world (ask anyone in places like Italy or Australia how likely this is). You would likely need people all using the one operating system, because spyware will doubtless be part of the package. And more importantly, you would need people to be willing to give up their shiny little discs. I happen to like my shiny little discs. Sure, I would prefer if they were encased in a plastic chassis like the MiniDisc (that's a hint for the next format, manufactuers :P ), but compared to the chronic hardware problems downloading would entail, the static standards of optical media are much better options.

Has anyone bought a legal music download where the music was not lossily compressed at a 12:1 ratio, by the way? I seriously would rather stick a carving fork in my ear than listen to all my music in MP3 exclusively. I fear I would have similar feelings regarding the quality of legal video downloads.

Heinlein's works are from good old school when writers wrote for readers using their brains, not just few braincells.
"Starship Troopers" (the book) is like another "1984" showing us (and indirectly warning us) the society to which we seem to slowly gravitate to. Comparing "Starship Troopers" to any of the Harry Potter books is comparing apples to oranges. Rowlings' wizard series is just kids/teens modern books that are complete fiction and the stories told in them will never happen even remotely (kinda Winnie The Pooh tales for older kids), while Starship Troopers is a 50's sophisticated sociological and psychosociological tale of what can go wrong - served in an entertaining form of a novel (just substitute book's bugs for the perpetual enemy of a day - i.e. "terrorists" of today, or "commies" of yesterday).
BTW the movie Starship Troopers is IMHO disgrace to the old book (but entertaining nevertheless).

* *

MP3 shit... well, Im waiting for any store to start selling music in a lossless format (or even pure WAVes) too, but I doubt it will ever happen before the final death of DRMs in next 10-15 years.
Face it, average kid buying music don't care much about quality - 196kbps MP3 is "good enough" for them. Companies know the music collectors like me (or you, presumably) are in very rare minority, thus it won't change.
The only chance for it to happen is proliferation of cheap and high quality music players.
If kids can hear themselves the difference between castrated sound (say 320kbps MP3) and a lossless compression sound (say SHN), the market will adjust itself at that moment.
But as of now there aren't too many good and cheap players on the market (kids on average can't afford expensive home stereo systems - so if parents didn't have them, the kids at best will use portable crap like gaypods - and thats at best LOL).

* *

"Legal downloads" are the future, whether you like or not.
Internet access will become as ubiquitus as phone lines of yesterday.
Places like Italy or Australia as you've mention (and many more parts of the world, I don't think I have to even name any african country) perhaps lack in high speed access as of now, but it will change probaly sooner than later.
To eliminate the peddlers (the middlemen, aka "labels" in music or studio cartels in movie business) the downloadable distribution model is ATM the only plausible way to do it. Its either "legal downloads" en masse, or we will always under the slavery of the RIAAs/MPAAs of the world (and its not only us the consumers who are their slaves, but it regards the artists and performers even more).
Current model of distributing the "media products" (books, music and movies) is obsolete.
Buyers are not happy with it, makers are not happy with it, and it only serves the "middlemen" to get richer living off of distribution of these goods like parasites. You may read about Rowlings becoming millionaire, some bands becoming millionares, but you never hear that the publishing house (or a label) gets even more than J.K. Rowlings got for *her* work. It can't and I hope it won't last too long the way it is now.

10 years ago in 1997 average internet access was 28.8 kilobits dialup (aka ~4kbps). Today the average is probably at least 100x more, and basically no one use dialup in western countries anymore. Who knows what speeds we will have available at homes and on the go in next 10 years...

[AlanHK]

Misleading. It's not "downloading" as most people understand it. It's copying FROM A DVD to a media player. Something we can easily do already, though perhaps not legally. It's just a slight loosening of DRM.

yes we can do this already for years, and we can do it legally in slightly more than half of the countries iof the world IIRC.

since this is international forum, it is wrong to apply one country's laws (designed to protect local media cartels at the expense of its citizens) to other countries.

Which is why I used the word "perhaps". I didn't think it necessary to go into a country-by-country survey.

[45tripp]

It is not as bad as Eragon, per se, but Eragon has the virtue of aiming for an adult audience and failing.

Aimed for what now?


Azkaban is very good.
Cuaron is gold.
Not even Rowling tripe can cripple such vision.

[RabidDog]

Well I have to say I have a pretty reasonable ho-fi and I find it difficult/impossible to tell the difference between a well encoded 320k mp3 and the original? Plus, as you say most consumers fo music are playing it back on non-ideal (ipod+dock?) systems in a non-ideal listening room (car, bus, Toilet?) 320k is good enough, for ? 97% 98% of people? HP is worth it just for the cameo by Putin, shirly?