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All posts tagged "ultraviolet"


Tuesday, March 13, 2012

Walmart And Partners Offering Cloud Access To Video

Posted by Brad Wasson in "Digital Home Talk" @ 06:00 PM

http://blog.streamingmedia.com/the_...olet-cloud.html

"Tomorrow at 1pm ET, Walmart along with UltraViolet partners Universal, Paramount, Warner Brothers, Sony Pictures and Fox will announce Walmart's UltraViolet offering. Studio execs I have spoken with say that consumers will be able to bring their DVDs into Walmart, which will then charge the consumer between $2-$4 per DVD to give the consumer access to that movie in the UltraViolet cloud locker system. DVDs will then be stamped at the store, so they can't be used by multiple people and I'm told pricing for converting the DVD to digital will vary based on either SD or HD quality."

UltraViolet is a digital rights authentication and cloud-based licensing system that allows consumers of digital home entertainment content to stream and download purchased content to multiple platforms and devices. One of its selling points is that it allows a consumer to store movie or TV titles in a free, online personal library. UltraViolet is deployed by the 70-plus members of the Digital Entertainment Content Ecosystem consortium, which includes film studios, retailers, consumer electronics manufacturers, cable companies, ISPs, network hosting vendors, and other Internet systems and security vendors. Walmart's service offering is intended to help facilitate consumers using the cloud-based system.

Dan Rayburn over at the Streaming Media Blog has some very interesting analysis of the potential success of the UltraViolet system. In short, he doesn't think it will work. Among the issues he sees as prevailing are the fact that consumers have to pay twice for the same piece of content, it is not easy to use, it requires multiple accounts with multiple websites, there is very little device support, and you need an Internet connection to watch your cloud-based movie. His analysis is well-worth reading if you are thinking of using the Walmart or a similar service, or if you just need to get up to speed with some of the issues in this domain.


Wednesday, July 21, 2010

Your Movies Are About to go Ultraviolet

Posted by Hooch Tan in "Digital Home News" @ 10:00 AM

http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/news...-sans-apple.ars

"The Digital Entertainment Content Ecosystem (DECE) is moving forward with a brand name and a beta test for its cloud-based "digital locker" system. The name for the technology will be UltraViolet and the beta test will begin this fall, while the specs and licensing details are expected to be ready by the end of 2010."

It seems as if there will be a perpetual effort to implement DRM in almost any content. The video industry has made many attempts at doing this before, but this time, it looks as if a larger group of them have gotten together for something close to a single solution. DRM has never been easy. Before the usual rants going off about how DRM is bad, DRM is there to protect the content creator. Much like copyright, it allows a creator to have some degree of control over what they make and what is done with it. Yes, the movie industry has taken it to the next step as a way of maximizing profit as well. The problem is that it is a balance. How do you prevent your content from being distributed in a fashion you do not want (and presumably, without any profit) while allowing legitimate customers access with a minimum of fuss? Almost everyone I know of wants control over their things. That is why they have a lock on their door. It keeps those they do not want out, but lets them in fairly easily. Previously, this was much easier as the barrier for theft or copying was either high or at least a little inconvenient. As CD burners and computing technology advanced, this barrier got lower and lower. Now it seems all that is left is some sort of software or network based solution. From the sounds of it, this DRM may be a step forward, in that it is, hopefully, a single solution for all movie publishers (almost) but the need for a persistent, or even an intermittent Internet connection sounds like a potential hassle. Depending on the actual implementation, I probably will find myself spending my entertainment dollars elsewhere. What about you?


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