Warner, Sony commit to UltraViolet in UK
Buy a disc, stream it for free
Warner Home Entertainment has revealed that all its future Blu-ray Discs will tap into Hollywood's UltraViolet cloud-based movie locker to provide punters with downloadable copies of films they buy.
Warner said it will make UV the standard for double- and triple-play BDs that offer a digital copy.
Sony said it will offer digital streams and downloads through UV too, but not until later in the year.
Both firms were speaking at PEVE Entertainment, a conference run this week by market watcher IHS ScreenDigest.
Warner has dipped its toe into UltraViolet over here before, releasing Final Destination 5 late last year with a UV link.
Buying a movie on a UV-enabled disc gives you free access to the film for streaming and downloading, once you've created a UV account. The system encompasses a host of DRM mechanisms to ensure that any given gadget - net-connected TVs, media players and such - can access the movies you've bought and play them.
Apple's DRM technology, FairPlay, isn't one of them, but you'll be able to access UV content on iDevices through UV partners' apps, such as Warner's Flixster and Viewster, or Tesco's Blinkbox. UV titles bought from one vendor will play on another supplier's app. ®
COMMENTS
Re: Ho hum
Personally, I won't buy blurays until I can legitimately get software to play them or back them up on my choice of device.
So I guess that will be never.
Hollywood loves the DRM, but they haven't grokked that giving users the discs, the players and the keys will result in DRM getting cracked.
This means that DRM does not prevent unscrupulous people from ripping and pirating blurays, but it does stop consumers. Well done.
"You wouldn't steal a car. You wouldn't steal a handbag. We'll happily steal 5 minutes of your time watching these shitty trailers"
"Buying a movie on a UV-enabled disc gives you free access to the film for streaming and downloading, once you've created a UV account."
Free streaming rights are for one year only, after that they may be charged for, it's up to the streaming provider the retailer is using at the time. From uvvu.com
"UltraViolet rights include streaming from the selling UltraViolet retailer, at no extra charge above the original purchase price, for at least one year after purchase. This no-extra-charge streaming will be offered to specific apps/devices, and via streaming means, to be determined by the selling UltraViolet retailer. Streaming of a given title from the selling UltraViolet retailer more than a year after its purchase, or at any time via streaming services other than the selling UltraViolet retailer, may incur fees and if so any such fees would be presented to the consumer in advance of streaming titles"
The downloads may well be crippled as well, so don't automatically assume you'll get a 1080p image to view on your telly if you cannot, or choose not to, stream when you wish to watch it (480p seemed to be used on early WB titles). From http://www.uvvu.com/uv-offer-details.php again
"UltraViolet titles will soon be available from all UltraViolet participating retailers in a standard downloadable file format that will work on all UltraViolet-compatible media players apps and devices, and which can be copied from one UltraViolet-compatible app/device to another."
Re: Bait and Switch
RE:Sidenote - because the idiots producing those adverts for those DVDs were trying very hard to present downloading films as being 100% equivalent to stealing a physical object (mistake 1), that they directly funded terrorist organisations (mistake 2, particularly since most film downloads don't involve money changing hands in the first place) and that the quality of downloads is always inferior to that on original media (mistake 3, because it made people realise the advert writers were talking bollocks).
Eventually they realised, possibly when the IT Crowd satirised their adverts, that they'd gotten it massively wrong and managed to come across as a bunch of entitled pricks along the way. They're better now than they were before, but there's still a lot of bellendery present in DVD mastering - whether it's deliberate insertion of corrupt menu segments ("To hamper pirates" - and substantially inconvenience anyone trying to watch a legit DVD using VLC or on Linux, you %^&^s!) or unskippable trailers/adverts (again I say, you $%^&s!), some folks seem to think that "We used to do that in the old days and people put up with it" is a good enough reason to keep doing something. %^&* those people, quite frankly. They are the reason I buy DVDs and rip them to a media centre.
Reminds me of DIVX, which Sony and Disney both backed, and sold by Circuit City. I'm glad Circuit City went under....
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DIVX
I can't watch DRM videos with MythTV, and I can't watch them with mplayer on my Nokia N900.... how are my needs suddenly illegal?
@Tom38 Re: Ho hum
"Personally, I won't buy blurays until I can legitimately get software to play them or back them up on my choice of device."
Same here.
Plus, to my amazement, even relatively technically literate people rarely realise that BD discs and players, which they think they have bought, are not theirs at all. Any new disc they insert into the player can disable it or any of your existing discs at the whim of AACSLA. The same thing can happen any time the player connects to the net, and it's all perfectly legal for them to do.
