--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "shempmcgurk" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > I've always thought that the whole concept of Netflix is neat. > > Soon, Netflix may become obsolete; if I understand this article > correctly, if I want a particular film, I'll just download it via my > computer and high-speed internet. Then, once it's in my computer, > I'll just burn it onto a DVD via my DVD burner, take the disc to my > DVD player in the living room and watch it on my TV. > > Oh, brave new world... > > ----------------------------- > > Apple set to start film download site > By Aline van Duyn in New York > > Published: September 10 2006 20:30 | Last updated: September 10 2006 > 20:30 > > Apple Computer, whose iPod personal music player and iTunes digital > music store dominate the legal music downloads business, is this > week expected to unveil a service for downloading films. > > Although the company is maintaining its usual silence, Apple has > sent out invitations, marked "It's Showtime", for an event in San > Francisco on Tuesday. > > A move by Apple into digital film downloads would be another step > towards a showdown for dominance among big internet's companies in > what is expected to be a huge market one day. > > Last week, Amazon.com joined the rush with the announcement of its > Unbox service, which will allow consumers to download thousands of > television shows and films. Google, Time Warner's AOL, News Corp > divisions, including MySpace, studio-backed ventures such as > MovieLink and smaller internet players such as video-sharing site > Guba all sell or plan to sell films via the web. > > Thomas McInerney, chief executive of Guba, said: "Video is the new > motif for the internet and there are already thousands of video > sites. There is probably only room for a limited number of players > and the dominant ones are likely to be established in the next six > to 12 months." > > The question is whether Apple will be a trigger for wider usage of > digital film services. > > So far, the availability of films for viewing on computers or > portable devices has made little impact when compared with the > market for selling and renting physical DVDs worth more than $20bn > a year in the US alone and dominated by large retailers, > particularly Wal-Mart. > > High-speed broadband internet connections make it easier to download > films although most are illegally copied versions through file- > sharing networks. > > Indeed, an internet search for "movie downloads" brings up a > plethora of websites offering such services. Yet the paucity of > guidance about which ones are legal downloads, which provide illegal > versions of films, as well as confusion about whether sites are > fronts for credit card frauds or other dodgy operations, makes many > people hesitate to use them. > > The high pricing on legitimate digital sites is another issue. > Pricing is generally the same as for physical DVDs, reflecting > concerns among retailers that they are not undercut. Amazon, for > example, offers physical DVDs for less than some of its digital > versions, even though consumers are not able to burn digital films > on to blank DVDs. > > Richard Greenfield, analyst at Pali Research, said: "Restrictions on > use should drive a cheaper price to the consumer, not the same or > higher pricing. The studios need to accelerate the attractiveness of > digital delivery to prevent illegal [networks] from capturing too > much market share." >
I beta tested EZTakes ( www.eztakes.com ) last year. It is the same concept and they have some free DVDs you can download to test it out. My argument with EZTakes is that with more and more DivX, MP4, and WMV enabled DVD players available at a low price that would be a more effective method since the filesize is usually 1/4 to 1/3 the size of the DVD. The DivX DRM works fine and I have used it on a DivX enabled player but Microsoft is way too paranoid and their stuff doesn't work a lot of the time. The real answer is when more bandwidth is available is VOD (Video On Demand). Any filmmaker who wants to distribute his own film would have it listed on his own website and/or on a larger catalog site (or sites) and the film on a VOD server. This can be done cheap plus last week the major set manufacturers announced Internet enabled sets will start shipping soon. To subscribe, send a message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Or go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ and click 'Join This Group!' Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ <*> Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional <*> To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/join (Yahoo! ID required) <*> To change settings via email: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
