Do you remember the first time you had to just sit down and rip all your CDs to MP3s? I know, it was a long and tedious and tiresome task. But it was worth it in the end. I started ripping my CDs when you had to get special software just to do this, nowadays every computer you buy comes with built-in tools.
Anyway, I would love to see a future when your computer will come with DVD-ripping software, but this won't happen because the movie industry is "
Standing in the Way of Technological Innovation". I know that SOPA and PIPA's been in the news a lot lately, so I'll just make this quick: to me, what this whole thing boils down to is that it's censorship and it won't stop piracy. The pirates know how to get around this stuff, it's regular people that it will hurt.
I'm convinced that piracy isn't all that bad, and doesn't really hurt sales. People who love movies or music will continue to support their favorite movies and music.
Neil Gaiman sums it up pretty well in
this video:
Places where I was being pirated, particularly Russia, where people were translating my stuff into Russian and spreading it out into the world. I was selling more and more books. People were discovering me through being pirated. And then they were going out and buying the real books and when a new book would come out in Russia, it would sell more and more copies.
...
What you're actually doing is advertising. You're reaching more people. You're raising awareness. Understanding that gave me a whole new idea of the shape of copyright and what the web is doing.
Because the biggest thing the web is doing is allowing people to hear things. Allowing people to read things, allowing people to see things that they might have never seen. And basically it's an incredibly good thing.
So, Hollywood's answer, up to this point has been no good. Some movies you purchase comes with a digital copy, usually iTunes or a Windows Media, both have "Digital Rights Management" (DRM). What if you don't use iTunes? And let's face it: who uses Windows Media because there is a lack of mobile devices that uses this format. Even their own product, the Xbox won't play it.
ULTRAVIOLET
uvvu.com
So enter UltraViolet, their latest scheme. Movies comes with an online locker, I have about six movies on UV and I can tell you: it sucks. You can't play it ANYWHERE. No PS3 or Xbox support.* The iPad app is actually Flixster, and there is no way of adding movies on Flixster (you need to have a Flash-enable PC to enter in codes). On top of that, you're required to register with both Universal and Flixster if you want to watch the movies you own. Needless to say, it's a massive nightmare.
The biggest problem with these digital version is that there are too many different services. Off the top of my head here are all the movies I've bought that came with digital version: Apple iTunes, Windows Media, Vudu, UltraViolet, Disney Digital, and Best Buy's CinemaNow. If you don't have the DVD or Blu-Ray handy (read: too lazy to get up and find the disc), you have to remember what movies came on what format.
The best and what works for me is Apple. I know, it only works on Apple product, but hey I can move the file around and I do own and iPad that works well. The pro is that the compression looks great and there are closed caption, so you can turn on the subtitles - but not every movie will come with CC.
I also like Vudu because I can access my six or seven movies that I own on a variety of devices: PS3, iPad, and PC. Unfortunately, if you own HD content, you can only see standard def on your iPad. I don't think this is Vudu's fault, it's the movie industry that is preventing them from offering HD to non-TV devices.
The worst? It is Best Buy's CinemaNow. The interface is ugly (this is based on the PS3 interface). I own one movie on this thing, which I have NEVER watched because I refuse to give them my credit card information. I can't even watch movies I own on this service! That's fine, because now I just avoid CinemaNow-content altogether (and you should too).
Since none of these digital files will work with streaming locally to your TV, and we're not talking about the limited solutions of owning an Apple TV or a PS3 (for Vudu). Most Blu-Ray player on the market at the moment is UltraViolet (the future of where digital version is going) compatiable.
What I would like to see is Amazon Prime movies to get on more devices like the PS3 and iPad. I know as a strategy, Amazon won't do this, so I can't really support them in their decision. I'm not going to invest in Amazon digital movies unless I can get access to my content.
DLNA
dlna.org
It's a dumb name, that's a given. It stands for "Digital Living Network Alliance", and I believe it's the future way that people will consume their digital media - if they own a massive movie library.
I have two DLNA-enabled network harddrive: a Verbatim 1TB and Seagate GoFlex 3TB. Both uses open source software, so user interface and understanding how to use DLNA kind of sucks. The main thing you need to know is to you need to click on a folder and click on "Share with Devices". If your receiver is on a local network, it will have permission to view your movies.
While I use my network drives for movies - you can easily just put your music library on sharing and have access to all your music on your personal cloud. Your iPad and iPhone, look for DLNA applications. I have tried them all and I like these two:
8 Player ($5, which I purchased right away after enjoying their "lite" version) and
Woon (free).
Depending on your receiver, you need to rip your movie to their prefered format. Xbox likes WAV movies (which doesn't work on anything else), PS3 likes MP4 (but they support a lot of codecs, unlike Xbox which can't handle complex audio), Apple TV likes .H264.
Personally, I use .H264 because it supports HD resolutions and it works across my devices: PS3, iPad (up to 720p) and Xbox (limited support, won't stream complex audio, but I hate my Xbox so I never use it to watch movies). My standard rips consists of .H264 with 854x480 resolution and 2500 bitrate.
Software I use is
DVD Fab, I recommend just buying a lifetime license, it's worth it in my opinion because their prices goes up every other year. There is a one month free trial, you can download and test it to see if it works with your computer. As for tagging, I use
MetaX to add artwork to my files, but there are a lot free alternative you can use - iTunes, for example, will tag your movie files for free. I also use
Handbrake sometime, to add subtitle captions and chapter breaks, but this takes forever to encode, I don't recommend it.
If you have recommendations on free (or even paid software if it's good), please let me know. I know MKV files offers selectable subtitles and audio tracks, but MKV aren't really supported by any of my TV devices, so I won't be using MKV. Is it possible to have selectable audio/subtitles for MP4 files?
UPDATE 03/20/2013: This article was written a year ago, things have changed since then. The biggest thing is that you
can watch UV movies on your PlayStation 3, but you need to "LINK" your Vudu account to your Flixster or UV account. Note: not all movies available on Flixster is available on Vudu (and vice-versa), so you still might not have access to your UV... but I have to say that the majority of my films are available on both services.
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