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February 25th, 2006
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Distributing Media on the Internet…User Vicious?

Posted by Midnight on February 25th, 2006

As I load up the Saturday night movie for the OCE (Underworld: Evolution) I am reminded what a chore the entire world of trading media, videos specifically, has become. I speak not only of the underground world of media sharing, but of the fledgling legal distribution systems that have sprung up as of late. Take tonight’s adventure, for example. Our movie has not been released on DVD yet. This creates a little bit of a dilemma. I have paid my money at the theater to see this movie…twice, actually. I would now gladly purchase the movie if it was made available to me, but it is not. However, it is available through P2P networks, which is where a friend procured it for us before we took off. It was burned onto a DVD-R as some type of A/V file. I don’t know exactly what type of file because Windows doesn’t recognize it. I copied this file onto the laptop that will show the movie (attached to the 42″ plasma), and after clicking through a couple security prompts about the unknown file somehow Windows Media Player was still able to open it. However, this effort would have surely been thwarted had I not earlier downloaded and installed a pack of codecs onto said laptop. The quality of the video is also always up in the air in a situation like this. This particular time we lucked out. It looks like it’s a rip from some type of official media, so we get to forego seeing people stand up in the theater as someone films a cheap bootleg from the back. Bottom line: It was a pain in the ass, and if I wasn’t somewhat technically minded it wouldn’t have happened.

Now let’s examine the new iTunes video retailing system. You can purchase popular TV shows by the episode or by the season. All of their offerings are in a centralized location, and you are guaranteed a certain level of quality. Would all of this work have been worth a few dollars, given the guarantee that the video would be high-quality? You bet’cha. Now I realize I am talking movies and network TV here, and that the two are apples and oranges, but I believe the distribution system is the important factor.

iTunes isn’t perfect by any stretch of the imagination. First, you can’t buy video from any network. I know a certain lady that would probably purchase as many seasons of ER as our credit card could hold, but she can’t because NBC programming isn’t available on iTunes. It may be available somewhere else, but that introduces the ass pain of having to go to different places to purchase different programming. It’s not a monumental task, as is witnessed by the fact that I am fine with going to Amazon to purchase books and Tiger Direct to purchase electronics. However, it does add one more layer of friction to this German chocolate cake of confusion.

Now what about file types and codecs? Mpeg4, .avi, .mpg, .wmv, Divx, Xvid. AC3, DD 5.1, DTS, DTS-ES. Who wants to deal with all of this crap? WTF is a codec, and why do I need to download and install one to watch the 1st season of Doogie Howser MD?!? This part infuriates me most of all, if you couldn’t tell. I think it is high time Microsoft partnered with some of these organizations to develop a standard and make WMP fully compatible with it…out of the box.

Right now most good conservatives are saying “You’ve pointed out lots of problems, now what is your plan to fix it?” That plan is simple:
1. Make media available to me over the internet
2. Assure me a high quality of audio/video
3. Centralize the distribution point as much as possible
4. Standardize the file format so I don’t have to reinvent the wheel everytime I watch something
5. Charge me a nominal fee for this luxury

Hey, I’m not in the business of micromanaging. I lay out the mission, you (corporate America) figure out how to do it. That’s how officers work.

The question is not whether I will watch the movies and programming I desire to see. Technology has already given the ability to do that, and given that ability, I will. The question is whether the owners of this media will provide me a legal and convenient avenue to accomplish this and turn a few dollars at the same time. I have my cash waiting.



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Comment:
1
Written by:
Slayer
Posted on:
February 25th, 2006 at 9:40 pm

Very well said. Interesting read.

Comment:
2
Written by:
Mintz
Posted on:
February 26th, 2006 at 2:02 am

If only we lived in a perfect world where someone could eliminate competition and live in a money-less society where everyone was happy… Oh right, that’s not gonna happen anytime soon. Neither will your thing. There’s always going to be someone who cracks the code and distributes it for free, because they believe those people who go to work from 9-5 don’t deserve the money they get for making such a perfect system of media distribution.

Comment:
3
Written by:
Midnight
Posted on:
February 26th, 2006 at 2:32 am

Mintz,
Don’t construe what I am advocating as socialist/communist. It is actually quite contrary to that. In fact, I think someone could have a thriving business and turn quite a profit with the model I explained above.
It is also a fact that some people will always figure out how to get it for free. Heck, I’m one of those people. I am a tried and true pirate (Arr!). Looks at the proxy issue we had a few days ago. I think half of the allure of piracy is the problem-solving gratification it can give. You know…sticking it to the man…unless you are the man…nevermind.
But I think the other half is the failure of the media market to meet the demands of its comsumer base. For many types of media there is not a legal distribution system in place, but anything is possible with the thousands of sharp minds at work in the underground.

Comment:
4
Written by:
rapture
Posted on:
February 26th, 2006 at 3:46 pm

Is the use of pirated media ever justified? Even if we are fighting a war? I believe soldier moral is very important during wartime.

Pirates aren’t necessarily poor. They are lazy.

Comment:
5
Written by:
Taggirl
Posted on:
February 26th, 2006 at 4:46 pm

Lazy and empowered by BitTorrent :)

I think your system would be ideal, Midnight. Some ingenious Bill Gates capitalist needs grab on to that and make it happen.

Comment:
6
Written by:
Midnight
Posted on:
February 27th, 2006 at 2:32 am

Rapture,
In no way did I intend to use morale as an excuse for piracy. I actually didn’t really intend to substaintiate piracy at all; my post merely assumes its presence as an entity that will always compete with legal distribution. However, don’t get the wrong impression. I have certainly pirated my fair share of media.

Comment:
7
Written by:
Sean
Posted on:
February 27th, 2006 at 3:58 am

I usually let the other people do the dirty work and bring along a external hard drive (wait I did a post about that once.) Not that I would pirate anything;-D Nice blog you have here, hopefully we don’t run into each other in the line of duty, stay safe.

Comment:
8
Written by:
Obsydian
Posted on:
February 27th, 2006 at 7:02 pm

Despite you marked lack of enthusiasm for “Socialists” I’d still have to direct you towards the VLC player. If you haven’t picked this up yet, you’ll be amazed. It’s an open source media player. Great thing about it, no codecs necessary. They are built in. It plays almost every damn thing I have thrown at it. They are working on an update right now for WMV’s. it seems as if sometimes the audio doesn’t want to play on the most recently released videos. It’s the only one I’ve noticed has a problem, but it’s not that bad since 98% of all windows machines have a WMP on it.

Check it out though.

http://www.videolan.org/

Comment:
9
Written by:
Slayer
Posted on:
February 27th, 2006 at 9:58 pm

“You know…sticking it to the man…unless you are the man…nevermind.”

“It was all a plan, just to bop da man!” - Homey Da Clown

Comment:
10
Written by:
Midnight
Posted on:
February 28th, 2006 at 2:54 am

Obsydian,
That sounds really innovative! I’m not going to test my patience by trying to navigate to the site using this connection, but if it’s reasonably priced I am definitely in. The only other user friendly option I see is to use a Windows Media Center PC to stream video to your TV, and I’m sure this is less expensive.