March 16, 2011 A Clever End Run Around the Movie-Streaming Gremlins By DAVID POGUE NY Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/17/technology/personaltech/17pogue.html?ref=technology&pagewanted=print Fellow movie fans, we find ourselves in a time of great transition. We have one foot in the world of recorded movies — a time of fantastic selection, but also a time of tapes and discs. Our descendants will laugh their little holographic heads off when they hear about our ridiculous trips driving back and forth to the video store. Yet we have another foot in the glorious future — movies that stream from the Internet, on demand, to our televisions, laptops and phones. That’s convenient, but missing so much of the DVD experience. We can’t turn on subtitles that help in times of mumbled dialogue, viewer deafness or sleepers in the next room. We can’t choose a different language for the dialogue. We miss out on the director’s commentary. Furthermore, the lawyers have viciously clipped the wings of the streaming-movie era. You have to start watching a movie within 30 days of renting it and finish it within 24 hours. Not all movies are available for streaming, and once they’ve appeared in the catalog, they may disappear for six to nine months during the HBO window, as the moguls call it. Above all, fellow cinephiles, we can’t have both $1 movies (like those you rent at Redbox kiosks) and instant access to the newest releases. You can pay $4 to Apple or Vudu the day the DVD comes out, or you can get it for $1 from a Redbox machine a couple of months later. And let’s not even mention Netflix’s streaming-movie collection, most of which seems to date back to the Carter administration. But what if I told you that there’s a new streaming-movie service, Zediva.com, that eliminates every single one of those drawbacks? It lets you listen to the director’s commentary, turn on subtitles and change languages. It lets you enjoy your movie for two weeks instead of 24 hours, starting and stopping at will. It offers the 100 biggest movies for streaming on the very same day the DVD comes out. It sidesteps any meddling by the movie companies, HBO contracts and studio lawyers. And here’s the best news of all — are you sitting down on your favorite movie couch? The price is only $2 for one movie or $1 if you buy a 10-pack. There’s no signup fee, no monthly fee, no hardware to buy. Zediva’s secret is so outrageous, you may think it’s an early April Fool’s prank. But it’s no joke. At its California data center, Zediva has set up hundreds of DVD players. They’re automated, jukebox-style. You’re not just renting a movie; you’re actually taking control of the player that contains the movie you want. The DVD is simply sending you the audio and video signals, as if it were connected to your home with a really, really long cable. It’s kind of hilarious to think that this arrangement is the solution to the future of online movies: data centers stacked to the ceiling with DVD players. (And you think it’s hard for you to find the right remote on the coffee table?) This sneaky setup neatly explains how you get those languages, subtitles and director’s commentaries. It also explains why Zediva isn’t subject to the availability windows and restrictions that hobble the cheap movie services like Redbox and Netflix. Zediva is just buying dozens of copies of each popular movie on the day it comes out, and presto, it’s yours to rent by long distance. Now, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist (or a studio lawyer) to see the potential pitfalls of this arrangement. First of all, how does a tiny outfit like Zediva expect to escape the scrutiny of the movie studios and their lawsuit-slapping trade group, the Motion Picture Association of America? Those availability windows, 24-hour limits and other obnoxious restrictions were established for some profit-protecting reason. The M.P.A.A. told me “no comment,” but I can’t imagine it’s thrilled. Yet Zediva points out that Netflix buys hundreds of copies of popular movies and mails them to you. As long as Zediva is similarly buying copies, what’s the big difference? Furthermore, gadgets like the Slingbox have been available and legal for years — machines that let you watch your home-entertainment boxes (TiVo, cable box, DVD player) on your phone or laptop when you’re away from home. How is this any different? You’re renting a DVD player for a dollar and viewing its signal from across the Internet. “We’re confident that the law allows you to watch a DVD that you’ve rented,” said a company representative. The other potential problem, of course, is scale. Zediva won’t divulge how many DVD players it has, how many copies of each movie or how many customers it can handle. It will say only that it can handle thousands of customers (not watching simultaneously) and plans to expand to handle millions. When this column appears, I’m guessing that this little company is going to be swamped. Even during the yearlong test period, you’d run up against a relic of the old Blockbuster store days: the movie you want may be rented out. (That can happen even on a movie that you started, and then stopped, watching within the two-week window. If so, the company will extend your rental if you let them know.) But all right, suppose the company successfully scales its operation over the coming months. How well does it work? The Web site looks like one somebody cobbled together in a weekend — a redesign is coming soon — but it’s clear enough: it shows the box covers of the 100 most popular DVD movies (currently “127 Hours,” “Megamind,” “Due Date” and so on). The offerings will eventually include classics like “Star Wars,” but its emphasis will always be on the 100 hottest, newest movies. Which makes perfect sense, because those are the ones that are unavailable for rental for the first few months from the other services. You click the movie you want. You’re asked if you want to watch the previews or just skip to the beginning of the actual movie (sweet!). At that point, you see the jagged-font Play legend on your screen. And then, hilariously, lest there be any doubt that you’re actually watching a real DVD somewhere, the F.B.I. antipiracy warning appears. And now you’re watching a movie. When you move the mouse, a control bar appears, offering navigation controls, an instant-replay button, a Wi-Fi signal-strength indicator, a Subtitles button and a Languages button. These last two are extremely slow to respond — 10 frustrating seconds or more. Furthermore, you have no idea what you’re switching to; they just cycle through the options. If you have guests from Paris, for example, you may have to click through the Spanish soundtrack, German, Swahili and the director’s commentary before you finally arrive at the French soundtrack. Even more disappointing, you can’t access the DVD’s menu. Therefore, you can’t play the video extras like deleted scenes, bloopers and alternate endings. The company says that fixing that omission is extremely high on its to-do list, but won’t say when that will be accomplished. Finally, Zediva requires a Web browser that plays Flash video. That means you can’t watch your movies on an iPad, iPod Touch or iPhone. (The company says that it’s working on an app that will solve this problem.) Otherwise, Zediva’s crazy, old-school/new-school system really works, really delivers a lot more DVD goodness than its rivals and really streams you the 100 biggest, brand-name movies the day they are released on DVD. Yes, America may swamp Zediva’s big rack of DVD players, and yes, the M.P.A.A. may squash it as it has squashed hundreds of movie-downloading college students. Until then, fellow movie buffs, let us celebrate a brave step forward into the new age of compromise-free streaming movies. _______________________________________________ Medianews mailing list [email protected] http://lists.etskywarn.net/mailman/listinfo/medianews
