Archive for the 'Media' Category

Digital Copy Blu’s

Published
by
Ryan Petty
on 18-November-2008
in Apple, DRM and Microsoft
. Comments

Today we (my family) received a 3-disc special edition of Disney’s Wall*E, which includes two Blu-ray discs and a DVD with a digital copy of the movie in iTunes and Windows Media formats.  I was particularly excited to have the digital copy which can be transferred to a personal computer or iPhone for playback.  I popped the DVD in my MacBook Pro and was immediately greeted by a Disney application called Wall*E, which “activates” the digital copy before transferring to ITunes or Windows Media.  Oh no, DRM rears its ugly head.

In the Blu-ray case, Disney includes a leaflet with an activation code.  As I read the information contained on this leaflet, I was drawn to the fine print at the bottom.  Reading carefully, I learned the activation code expires one year from the date of release of the Blu-ray, so you must transfer your digital copy to a computer withing one year of release of the Blu-ray movie or you are out of luck. I wonder how many people will take the time to read the fine print?  I imagine there will be some very disappointed consumers who neglect to activate their digital copies in time.  What about the people that buy Wall*E after November 18, 2009?

My next thought was whether the activation code was single-use or multiple-use.  I thought, I better do some more research and understand all of the DRM rules before I transfer this movie to my laptop.  Fortunately, Disney includes links to online help which help explain the DRM rules which apply to the digital copy.  After, ignoring the Flash based demos of how to transfer the movie to my computer, I found a link with more information, including this FAQ.

Turns out, this is a one-time activation code.  This means, you can transfer the file to one and only one computer–EVER!  I don’t think my family, with multiple computers is out of the norm, so which one?   My laptop?  My wife’s? The kids iMac?  If I transfer it to my laptop, I can watch it when I travel, transfer it to my iPhone and iPod, but what about my kids?  What about their iPods?  They won’t be able to enjoy this movie without sync’ing to my iTunes library and erasing their content and playlists.  So, I could install it on the family iMac, but then I won’t have a copy when I travel.  So far, neither options seems like a good solution.

And herein lies two of the major problems with DRM.  First, confusing usage rights and second, incoveniencing the very customers who purchase legitimate copies of content.  I will include a portion of the Disney FAQ.

Can I use my code more than once?

No, you are permitted to use your unique code only once.

How many times can I transfer my DisneyFile Digital Copy?

For the Windows Media version you can only transfer your DisneyFile Digital Copy to your computer once. After you transfer the movie to your computer, you can then transfer the movie to your compatible portable device. For the iTunes version, standard iTunes usage rules apply.

What types of portable devices will my DisneyFile Digital Copy be compatible with?

For the Windows Media format, portable devices must be Windows Media PlaysForSure compatible or Certified for Windows Vista compatible. For the iTunes format, portable devices must be an iTunes video-enabled iPod, iPhone or Apple TV.

What happens if I delete my DisneyFile Digital Copy from my portable device? Is it possible to transfer it again?

For the Windows Media format: Yes, as long as you did not delete the Windows Media file from your computer.

For the iTunes format: Standard iTunes usage rules apply.

I followed the on-screen instructions and the movie did not transfer. What do I do?

Please call 1-800-723-4763 (US)/1-888-877-2843 (Canada) for technical assistance and/or customer service.

I live outside the United States and Canada. Can I transfer the DisneyFile Digital Copy?

No, at this time, the DisneyFile Digital Copy is accessible only in the United States and Canada (excluding Quebec).

Does the unique code for the DisneyFile Digital Copy expire?

Yes, the unique code expires 12 months from the initial release of the DVD or Blu-ray disc. The unique code for The Nightmare Before Christmas will expire on August 26th, 2009.

Can I give my DisneyFile Digital Copy to someone else?

No, your movie is non-transferable and is tied directly to your computer and will not play if transferred to other computers.

How much space does the DisneyFile Digital Copy use on my hard drive?

DisneyFile Digital Copies take up to approximately 2 Gigabytes of free hard drive space. This number can vary and it is best to check the minimum requirements on the packaging.

If I delete my DisneyFile Digital Copy from my computer, can I transfer it again later?

For the Windows Media format: No. When you transfer your DisneyFile Digital Copy, to your computer you use your unique code. Codes can only be used once. Therefore if you delete your movie from your computer and attempt a second transfer, the unique code will not work. Disney strongly recommends backing up files to avoid losing your DisneyFile Digital Copy.

For the iTunes format: Standard iTunes usage rules apply.

If I cannot connect to the internet, can I still transfer my DisneyFile Digital Copy to my computer?

No, in order for the DisneyFile Digital Copy code to be verified, you must be connected to the internet. However, you only need to be connected when you first transfer the movie to your computer, not each time you watch your DisneyFile Digital Copy.

Do I need the DisneyFile Digital Copy disc every time I want to watch the movie?

No, once the transfer is complete you no longer need your DisneyFile Digital Copy disc and can enjoy your movie whenever you like.

How many times can I watch my DisneyFile Digital Copy?

You may watch your movie as much as you like, there is no limit to the number of plays.

How many computers/portable devices can I transfer my movie to?

If you select Windows Media format, you can transfer your movie to one computer and one Windows Media compatible portable device as set forth in the end user license agreement (Terms & Conditions). If you select iTunes format, standard iTunes usage rules apply.

Part of this dilemma could be resolved with a home media server with lots of storage, but I still wouldn’t be able to transfer the movie to my laptop or iPhone for playback when I am on the road.  But it does not alleviate the fact that DRM is restricting the legitimate use of content I purchased.

Two simple ideas to allow fair use

Two simple ideas to alleviate the DRM restrictions and allow fair use.  First, link the activation code to an iTunes account and allow multiple uses by that account.  Second, allow families to “aggregate” iTunes accounts under a master account.

Link activation code to iTunes account

By linking the activation code to an iTunes account, content owners could be assured that the same consumer is using the activation code and it is not being passed around the Internet.  Because Apple requires a legitimate address and each iTunes user must provide a credit card, the risk of fraud is greatly reduced.  If the content owner becomes aware of fraud, they could appeal to Apple to investigate and if fraud has occurred, the iTunes account could be deactivated–rendering the content disabled.

iTunes master account

Aggregation of iTunes accounts under a master account structure (think .Mac and MobileMe Family plans), is an idea that makes sense for a number of reasons including alleviating the restrictions of DRM.  By aggregating accounts, content I purchase on iTunes could be synchronized by family members under the same account.  This includes the digital copy of Wall*E and other Blu-ray digital copies.  Account aggregation allows us to use the digital copy in the exact same way we use the physical copy (Blu-ray disc).

This post started as yet another rant against DRM. However, since most content owners haven’t seen a DRM scheme they don’t like, I don’t believe DRM is going away anytime soon.  So, what do you think?  Would my two proposals make DRM more palatable?

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Gin, Television and Social Surplus

Published
by
Ryan Petty
on 29-April-2008
in Innovation and Media
. Comments

Clay Shirky, author of Here Comes Everybody: The Power of Organizing Without Organizations, has posted on what he calls the “social surplus” or the time we gain by participating in the culture versus just sitting back and watching it pass by pursuing activities like watching TV.

Clay specifically cites TV, and singles outs sitcoms, as a sort of glue holding society together as we transitioned from the Industrial Revolution to post WWII society with higher GDP per capita, better life expectancy and more free time. Now imagine if all that time spent watching TV could be put to use and benefit of society–the social surplus.

Shirkey’s back of the napkin stats are compelling

So how big is that surplus? So if you take Wikipedia as a kind of unit, all of Wikipedia, the whole project–every page, every edit, every talk page, every line of code, in every language that Wikipedia exists in–that represents something like the cumulation of 100 million hours of human thought. I worked this out with Martin Wattenberg at IBM; it’s a back-of-the-envelope calculation, but it’s the right order of magnitude, about 100 million hours of thought.
And television watching? Two hundred billion hours, in the U.S. alone, every year. Put another way, now that we have a unit, that’s 2,000 Wikipedia projects a year spent watching television. Or put still another way, in the U.S., we spend 100 million hours every weekend, just watching the ads. This is a pretty big surplus.

That is huge. Think of it another way,

this is the other thing about the size of the cognitive surplus we’re talking about. It’s so large that even a small change could have huge ramifications. Let’s say that everything stays 99 percent the same, that people watch 99 percent as much television as they used to, but 1 percent of that is carved out for producing and for sharing. The Internet-connected population watches roughly a trillion hours of TV a year. That’s about five times the size of the annual U.S. consumption. One per cent of that is 100 Wikipedia projects per year worth of participation.

Time to turn off the TV and start participating…

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DRM, Digital Content, and the Consumer Experience: Lessons Learned From The Music Industry

Published
by
Ryan Petty
on 26-March-2008
in Apple, Content, DRM and Innovation
. Comments

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Blu-Ray vs. Apple TV HD vs. HD Cable vs. DVD

Published
by
Ryan Petty
on 21-February-2008
in Apple and Content
. Comments

Image ComparisonOver at iLounge they recently tested the picture quality of Blu-Ray, Apple TV 2.0 against DVD and HD Cable.  Although not a scientific test, they paused the pictures and used a Nikon camera to capture the images, it does show the vast differences between the formats and the effects of compression.

Apple recently upgraded my AppleTV to version 2.0 and I rented an HD movie.  The startup time was very quick, less than 2 minutes, although you have to navigate a couple of menus while it buffers–very un-Apple like.  Once the download buffered sufficiently, playback was smooth.  Overall the video quality was excellent, not Blu-ray quality but sufficient to warrant the difference in price for the HD rental–an extra dollar.  The movie appeared a bit dark.  I immediately thought Apple might be covering some compression artifacts.

Overall, AppleTV is great for the impulse rental satisfying a need that Netflix (via mail) cannot satisfy (Netflix download service doesn’t work with Mac and I don’t want to watch on my computer anyway).

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The Most Anti-Tech Organizations in America

Published
by
Ryan Petty
on 3-December-2007
in Communications, Content, DRM, Innovation and Media
. Comments

Excellent article @ PCWorld written by Mark Sullivan on the 5 most anti-tech organizations in America. History is replete with examples of products, companies, and industries that fail to adapt and adopt to new technology. These 5 will be next.

From PCWorld by Mark Sullivan

Their names keep coming up over and over again in courtrooms and corridors of power across the country–those groups whose interests always seem to run counter to those of technology companies and consumers. They come in many forms: associations, think tanks, money-raising organizations, PACs, and even other tech-oriented industries like telecommunications.

The tech issues that they’re concerned with are what you might expect: digital rights management and fair use, patent law, broadband speed and reach, wireless spectrum and network neutrality. I talked to a good number of tech and media policy insiders in Washington, D.C.–mostly off the record–to find out who these groups are, how they operate, and who pays their bills. We’ll start with the biggest offenders first and work our way down.

1. The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA)

Issue: Copyright and Fair Use

The Internet economy should be a boon for digital media companies and for those of us that like to buy our music and video online. It’s also a very powerful way to connect with people of like mind with a view toward learning about new things to watch and listen to. Unfortunately, the content owners in the record and movie industries have mainly seen the Web as a platform for piracy, and have mainly failed to adapt their businesses to the realities of online, as one lonely industry executive recently admitted. Continue reading ‘The Most Anti-Tech Organizations in America’

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Intel to Unveil Chips for Improving Video Quality on the Web

Published
by
Ryan Petty
on 11-November-2007
in Content and Innovation
. Comments

From the NYT:  Intel plans to announce a family of microprocessor chips on Monday that it says will speed the availability of high-definition video via the Internet.

As consumers clamor for more Internet video, a huge computing burden is placed on companies like Google, Microsoft and providers of digital video, who must compress the video files so they can be streamed to desktop and portable computers.

Intel’s new family, made up of 16 processors, would first be used in servers and high-end desktops that compress the video. They are the first chips based on a new manufacturing process that Intel says will give it a significant competitive advantage by increasing computing performance while reducing power consumption.

To get better video compression, Intel has added a set of 46 instructions it calls SSE4 to the new microprocessors.

The leading designer of the new processor, Steve Fischer, said the new instructions would make possible a new generation of servers that enhance the compression of digital video. “Video is becoming ubiquitous on the Web,” he said.

“This is a step in the right direction,” said Richard Doherty, president of Envisioneering, “and it’s probably the best use for this 45-nanometer technology over the next couple of years.”

read more | digg story

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I Want My iTV

Published
by
Ryan Petty
on 9-November-2007
in Content, Innovation and Media
. Comments

Cliff Sullivan from BusinessWeek writes,

But I won’t be getting it soon. While the technology is mostly in place, the players—from cable companies to film studios—can’t agree on how to make it happen.

I want to listen to music, have a box pop up on my screen telling me who’s phoning my home, or watch a vacation-themed slide show before forwarding it on to bore my friends on Facebook—all while sitting in front of the set in my living room. No one has yet put this wish list together in one nice, easy-to-use package.

They sure haven’t. As the author correctly points out, the reason is not the technology, but protection of existing business models. No one is addressing the gap between online content and the television.

While new technologies like IPTV bring digital content over IP to a STB connected to a TV, they do nothing to bridge the gap between online media and the TV.

So read the article at the BusinessWeek site and weigh in. What do you think? Is anyone addressing this gap? Do you want to watch online media on your TV? What features would you like to see in an iTV offering?

read more | digg story

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SanDisk’s Video Salvo

Published
by
Ryan Petty
on 22-October-2007
in Apple and Content
. Comments

If your home is like mine, then you have a multi-megabit broadband connection, one or more HD capable TV sets, a wired or wireless home network and one or more PCs (ok mine aren’t all PCs–6 of them are Macs, and one PC running FreeBSD).

While having 7 computers, takes my home out of the norm (is it the number of computers or the fact that 6 of them are Macs?), my home suffers the same dilemma as the average consumer’s home. There is a gaping digital chasm between the personal computer and the television set.

There are several ways to watch downloaded programs and movies on the living room TV. Methods typically involve the transfer of video files over a home network from a computer to some gadget (I have an Apple TV, does that count as another computer?) connected to the TV. But few of them are easy, trust me I have tried them all.

The maker of the Sansa, a distant No. 2 to the iPod, has a new way to view downloaded content on a TV. It could turn up the heat on Apple.

SanDisk CEO Eli Harari says launching Fanfare has less to do with attacking Apple in a potentially tender spot than about establishing a toehold in an incipient market. “The video market right now is just embryonic,” he says. “Media companies have spent a great deal of money creating their content and they don’t want anyone to tell them how to sell it. And we agree with them.”

For David Poltrack, president of CBS Vision, the TV broadcaster’s research division, it’s a matter of getting the networks’ programming in places that consumers will use it. “When we tested the SanDisk product it clearly resonated with consumers,” Poltrack says. “There are other ways to do this with more sophisticated products, but because of cost and complexity they’re not as attractive. This is going to be selling at Wal-Mart (WMT).”

Combining the TakeTV device with the Fanfare service creates the means of tracking ads, he says. “When you plug in that device to the computer and sign in to the service it knows who you are,” he says. “Having people say these are the categories of ads they’re interested in—that opens up a lot of ways for advertisers to use this medium creatively.”

Taking a low-tech approach on PC-to-TV transfers could make a big difference to consumers weary of technical complexity, says Jupiter Research analyst Michael Gartenberg. “We know consumers want to watch downloaded video on their TVs. But the biggest weakness is the complexity of the home network,” he says. “This takes the maddening complexity of the home network out of the equation.”

Sounds like a hit to me.

read more | digg story

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Imagine PS3 as a digital media center

Published
by
Ryan Petty
on 22-October-2007
in Content and Microsoft
. Comments

As Brier Dudley from the Seattle Times points out in his latest article,

A lot of people who bought fancy TVs over the past year or two have been looking for ways to get more digital content on their screens. They’ve been waiting for high-def player prices to fall, and for a resolution to the format war between the Sony-backed Blu-ray and the Microsoft-backed HD-DVD.

I have been thinking about this a lot lately. My repsonse: You bet they do, but not just from Blu-ray or HD-DVD discs, more and more they want to get content online. Blu-ray is great and I enjoy watching HD movies on my PS3. But more and more, I would really like to be able to access online content.

Dudley continues,

That’s where Sony is releasing an add-on TV tuner that turns the PS3 into a TiVo-like video recorder. It’s also where Sony is talking up plans for an online video and music store, similar to the ones operated here by Microsoft and Amazon.

Cool, I can watch and record TV and even download videos and music directly from Sony. Sounds great, doesn’t it? What about my iTunes library, YouTube, Flickr and all the other content available online? Will I be able listen/view that content? What about online content like Hulu? Will Sony make all that available and stream it to my PS3? Well, it’s too early to say for sure, to my knowledge Sony hasn’t been specific about online content for its PS3 platform, but based on the past behavior let’s say–I doubt it.

Dudley asks the pivotal question,

Will we keep using PCs to download and store this stuff, or will some computerish consumer-electronics gadget emerge as the new home-entertainment hub?

With game consoles in over 40% of US households and with most of the consoles in broadband connected households, the PS3, XBox 360 and Nintendo Wii, could play a pivotal roles as an entertainment hubs. The problem is each of these companies has a vested interest in building an ecosystem around their platform and only their platform. Call it an “insular ecosystem”. So when Sony builds their online content service, it will serve PS3s and only PS3s. Microsoft will counter with an expanded 360 content platform serving only 360s. And lest one forget, the PS3 (and the 360) as game platforms first and foremost. While both Sony and Microsoft have become more comfortable with the “give away the razor, sell the blades” economics of game consoles (I am sure they would both vehemently state their hardware businesses are profitable–sure they are, because they can dump much of the costs into another category on the P&L), content and services will be rolled almost exclusively as a platform differentiator. In other words, they will view online content and services as a marketing expense to sell more hardware to sell more games.

As long as Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo create insular ecosystems, the game console as a digital hub will never take off.

For now, it is great to see the online connectivity options enhanced on the PS3. I am certain there will be more to this story.

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Class Action Suit Hopes To Sue “A La Carte Cable” Into Existence

Published
by
Ryan Petty
on 21-September-2007
in Content and Politics
. Comments

A new class action lawsuit accuses the cable and satellite industries of acting illegally by only selling channels in bundles in order to milk customers. If Congress won’t do it, this lawsuit might.

read more | digg story

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