One of the biggest drawbacks to the whole “legally download movies” trend has been the fact that for the most part you could only watch them on your computer or perhaps iPod (other obvious problems still exist such as price point and special features… but that’s for another time) and haven’t been allowed to burn your LEGALLY purchased movie onto a dvd so you can watch it on that nice new 50′ plasma you got yourself. Well… looks like things are already starting to change.
The good folks overt at Cinematical give us this:
Sonic Solutions Inc. has introduced their Qflix system, which adds a digital lock to the DVDs. This copy-protection lock isn’t much different from the locks used on store-bought DVDs, though because it is for burned discs, it will require customers to buy a new kind of blank DVD and a new kind of DVD burner.
Go on over to read the full story.
The basics seem to be that the studios are realizing this “no burn to dvd” policy is as stupid as Paris Hilton in grad school, and are looking for way to deal with it. It’s a good sign… but not yet perfect… and not yet enough. The drawbacks are that you’ll need SPECIAL blank dvd that are now being developed for the new system, and a new kind of DVD burner (although it says some existing dvd burners can be modified to do the job). I hate the idea of proprietary hardware and disks, and I think a lot of other people will too.
Is this the step that will really push movie downloading? No, I don’t think so… however, it is another sign that things are headed in the right direction. The studios right now are just trying to see how much they can get away with, and you can’t really blame them for that as long as they keep adjusting till they get to the point where consumers are happy and willing to pay for the service they’re offering.
