Anime downloads (the org friendly version)

BurningLeaves · Post by **BurningLeaves** » Thu Sep 18, 2008 3:42 am

This might be old news, but blockbuster online has jumped on the bandwagon and begun to offer direct downloads of movie titles including <a href="http://www.blockbuster.com/catalog/movi ... ">Anime</a>.

The price is $9.99 but they don't really get too descriptive on what it is your downloading. The file size is listed as 890 mb so your not downloading an entire rip. Format is listed as 'Windows media player' which is a player not a format the last I checked.

Has any one ever paid and downloaded one of these before to check out quality, formats etc?

Personally I think if the quality is good, or comparable to a direct rip it'd be worth it for people in this hobby to look into. I don't think downloading a movie onto your hd could really ever take the place of owning the dvd to put on your nerd shelf *leers at nerd shelf* but theres been more then one occasion where I wanted, or needed something I had no interest in just to use in a vid, so at half the price of a dvd I think it could be worth it.

Also, I think in a way that though they blame the internet for killing the movie and music industry this just shows its not killing it its revolutionizing it. If this takes off in a similar way that itunes did the entire way we look at movies and anime will change, and if they do it right, with high quality decent releases at cut prices I think itll be a decent change, especially for us, thoughts?

YouTube · Post by **Kionon** » Thu Sep 18, 2008 3:49 am

Until the internet takes Japanese Yen.... as in, you know, actual cash, I am pretty much uninterested.

Bauzi · Post by **Bauzi** » Thu Sep 18, 2008 4:51 am

I think if this has higher or equal quality to illegal download than this has a future. I think something like a small preview clip of the quality of the file would give customers much more trust. I won´t pay for such a movie, if I didn´t saw it first.

Hey this could be a nice gift for contest winners

Scott Green · Post by **Scott Green** » Thu Sep 18, 2008 5:21 am

even when I would like to pay and download something there....i couldn't....

Thank you for your interest in downloading movies. Unfortunately, this service is not available
outside the United States.

As we all know the world starts in L.A. and ends in New York

kthxbai

Emotive · Post by **Emotive** » Thu Sep 18, 2008 7:15 am

Scott Green wrote: As we all know the world starts in L.A. and ends in New York

Wise words..

dokidoki · Post by **dokidoki** » Thu Sep 18, 2008 7:21 am

A review of the download rental process:
http://www.gearbits.com/archives/2008/0 ... r_tes.html

Sukunai · Post by **Sukunai** » Thu Sep 18, 2008 8:59 am

Copy pasted from the link above.

quote
Apparently, you will also need a special player app (a remnant of the Movielink service Blockbuster acquired last year), as this helpful note indicated on the download page:

YOU NEED THE BLOCKBUSTER MOVIELINK PLAYER The BLOCKBUSTER Movielink player is a free program that allows you to download and watch movies. Click on the button below to start installing the player.

The MovieLink player looks to be using Microsoft WMV DRM and it requires the massively bloated .NET Framework 3.0 to be installed as well. Gee...thanks.

So, DRM-laden, non-portable (other than on a laptop), time-limited, doesn't work with Firefox, and can only be played on Windows PCs...I'm having a hard time figuring out why someone would subscribe to this download service instead of just getting DVDs via mail (something Blockbuster already does quite well).
unquote

Laughter ensues.
I am sooooo not surprised. Oh well at least they tried.
Of course their offer sucks donkey balls.
Even if offered for the exact same price as a physical rental (which is not a 24 hour rental I might add), it would still count as worthless.

Even if I didn't mind their sucks ass DRM garbage they utterly fail with the 24 hour crap. Hey you can make it a week just as easily eh, and it's not like anyone is waiting to use my digital file, it's not like I need to return it. So what's with the worthless 24 hour duration?

If I'm going to get service via my computer, I think I will stick with Zip.ca, at least they ship the physical dvd, it's an actual retail copy dvd, and I can watch it as fast as I want, on any machine that plays a dvd.
That and they rent for a great deal less that Blockbuster.

I haven't seen the inside of a Blockbuster outlet in years now actually.
Doesn't appear they will be seeing me on their site in the future either.

Subtle Sorrow · Post by **Subtle Sorrow** » Thu Sep 18, 2008 2:30 pm

I buy Anime to support the company's, but also because of the artwork on the boxes and the disks etc. So I'm not interested in legal downloading.

Sukunai · Post by **Sukunai** » Thu Sep 18, 2008 6:56 pm

It would appear that anything I say is so powerful it immediately becomes important enough to repeat if through my flunkies here at the org

"I buy Anime to support the company's, but also because of the artwork on the boxes and the disks etc. So I'm not interested in legal downloading."

Any decent printer can copy nearly anything almost up to currency. Product artwork is absolutly no challenge.

I only buy physical retail media because I'm worth it.

Vivaldi · Post by **Vivaldi** » Thu Sep 18, 2008 8:17 pm

Sukunai wrote:It would appear that anything I say is so powerful it immediately becomes important enough to repeat if through my flunkies here at the org

Any decent printer can copy nearly anything almost up to currency. Product artwork is absolutly no challenge.

After a point, the effort required to make a box with the correct dimensions and artwork printed on it, and burning your anime to DVDs with the correct artwork labels on them, is worth more time and money than it would take to just go out and buy the darn things.