PNY and Sony To Release Movies On USB Flash Drives

[Y3k Bug]

Apologies if posted already...I didn't see it.

Article: Here

What it says:

PNY and Sony To Release Movies On USB Flash Drives
1:40 PM - September 4, 2008 by Steve Seguin
Source: Tom's Hardware – Category : Storage Solutions

PNY and Sony have announced they are releasing Ghostbusters the movie on USB flash drive and expect other movies to follow.
PNY has done first what we all knew some company would do eventually: try to sell us Ghostbusters the movie on thumb drives. PNY is teaming up with Sony to re-release this 1984 classic in preemptive celebration for the 25th anniversary of the movie. In traditional Sony style there will be DRM protection present, but as PNY has indicated to Tom’s Hardware, the movie can still be downloaded to a laptop or PC and played as long as the thumb drive is plugged into the PC. It appears the DRM needed to play the movie is present in some way on the thumb drive, turning the thumb drive into an access key of sorts.
The resolution of the movie is unknown, but PNY tells Tom’s Hardware that the format used is proprietary to Sony Pictures, has been specifically designed for distribution of movies via the USB medium and is compatible with standard Windows operating systems. When asked about whether or not future movies were expected to be released in a similar fashion, PNY told Tom’s Hardware there are plans to launch future movies with USB sticks this way. Though the idea of selling or renting movies on thumb drives may not have us ditching our Blu-ray or DVD players just yet for, a similar concept has had some experimental success in the music industry with some artists releasing their music albums on USB flash drives.
Pricing for the thumb drive has been recently listed at Argos.co.uk for £29.99, or roughly $53. That is a pretty steep asking price for an old classic (and a low capacity drive) and currently there is no word on whether this will be an Argos exclusive. Though it is possible this movie on a thumb drive idea is just a gimmick to sell more products, with PNY and Sony having no intention of it actually affecting the movie industry, lower prices wouldn’t hurt.
For those interested in the actual thumb drive itself, it features 2 GB of storage, which PNY advertises as enough for 12 hours of video playback — though clearly this isn’t even half the capacity of a DVD disc let alone a high definition movie. Lets hope the movie provided is of higher quality than the video bit-rate used to achieve that figure. The size of the drive measures 2-cm by 6.3-cm by 0.8-cm, it is USB 2.0 compatible and comes in the fashionable color black. Although it is hard to make out for certain, from photos it looks as if the thumb drive used is a basic PNY Attaché model, which go for about $15 for a 2 GB model.
With 64 GB thumb drives available now on the market and prices for low capacity drives becoming cheaper, distributing movies, music, and software on inexpensive thumb drives could become an increasingly popular option.

Doesn't appear to be a threat to Blu-ray (yet anyway). Just thought it was interesting.

[stockstar1138]

i honestly see this as the succeedor to blu-ray. next-gen optical disc formats will play a laserdisc type role in the market.

i bet by 2020 you are able to pick up a 128GB USB thubmdrive for under 20 bucks easily. Put a movie on the thumb drive have a HDTV that can decode the audio and video codecs in the USB drive, you won't even need a player, it just goes straight into the HDTV. It will exceed blu-ray quality, be more portable and cheap.

[Luis_A51]

except that USB sticks will always be more expensive than optical media....so whats the point? Also, these sticks come pre-loaded. THeres nothing about being able to add the movies you want onto a USB stick.

And having a BD player inside a tv by 2020 is hardly out of the question either. look at tvs with dvd players.

Im just saying your scenario doesnt seem to provide any real benefits over optical media.

[atomik kinder]

I've seen memory sticks with movies already on them for the PSP, but I can't really see this as anything major. Will they only be playable on computers or say can you use it with a PS3?

[WriteSimply]

Clearly OFF TOPIC as it is not even BD related.


fuad

[ps3andlovinit]

Originally Posted by Luis_A51

And having a BD player inside a tv by 2020 is hardly out of the question either. look at tvs with dvd players.
.

Much sooner than 2020...

http://loader.gadgetzone.com.au/News...d-Vaio-PC.aspx

[Y3k Bug]

Originally Posted by WriteSimply

Clearly OFF TOPIC as it is not even BD related.


fuad

It's about a movie that's being released soon to Blu-ray. By a Blu-ray backing company on what may some day be a competing format to Blu-ray....yeah, nothing BD related there.

[Forrestandjen07]

Originally Posted by WriteSimply

Clearly OFF TOPIC as it is not even BD related.


fuad

Its a good thing that its in the off topic section then hu

[jkwest]

Originally Posted by Forrestandjen07

Its a good thing that its in the off topic section then hu

I think it was moved....smartass...

[Forrestandjen07]

Originally Posted by jkwest

I think it was moved....smartass...

i no

[joeorc]

Once again this type of Media transfer has been put out to the market and it has a chance a small one at that to make it. because you always pay a premium added to that thumb drive compared to just buying the storage by itself. now thats even with Optical disc's, but unlike Optical Disc's "that the consumer adoption of optical disc's has had in one shape or for have been used for MEDIA for over 20 years" Flash storage has not been used -for media distribution by the consumer with the same amount of Media Distribution use.

the big problem is you can collect Optical disc's with Media content "Like LP's have been for years" and people view the disc is worth more even after the production stops of that release.

but with flash drives:
that would not apply, yes you can collect the flash drives..but people would view the content as temp. the file is the content.."not the flash drive"

thats INMO why Physical media will never go away...

collectors..which quite a few people collect something..hell just about everyone collects something.

[jadedeath]

Originally Posted by joeorc

Once again this type of Media transfer has been put out to the market and it has a chance a small one at that to make it. because you always pay a premium added to that thumb drive compared to just buying the storage by itself. now thats even with Optical disc's, but unlike Optical Disc's "that the consumer adoption of optical disc's has had in one shape or for have been used for MEDIA for over 20 years" Flash storage has not been used -for media distribution by the consumer with the same amount of Media Distribution use.

the big problem is you can collect Optical disc's with Media content "Like LP's have been for years" and people view the disc is worth more even after the production stops of that release.

but with flash drives:
that would not apply, yes you can collect the flash drives..but people would view the content as temp. the file is the content.."not the flash drive"

thats INMO why Physical media will never go away...

collectors..which quite a few people collect something..hell just about everyone collects something.

I totally agree with you here.

I mean which looks better to you {it's all about asthetics as well} would you rather have a shelf of stacked or filed Blu-Rays, or a big key-chain full of usb drives on a fabric necklace hanging off the back of your chair?

Logan

[Forrestandjen07]

Originally Posted by jadedeath

I totally agree with you here.

I mean which looks better to you {it's all about asthetics as well} would you rather have a shelf of stacked or filed Blu-Rays, or a big key-chain full of usb drives on a fabric necklace hanging off the back of your chair?

Logan

well the flash drives to take up less space than blu ray cases


i couldnt really care about cases

its the movie i am for

[Deadset]

PNY has a pretty good track record, but something to consider is the reliability of USB drives, if this bleeds over to other companies. All USB drives are not created equally, sure they are solid state, but there are many articles on this topic.

The idea is probably to make movies a commodity, something that is disposable or if it breaks you have to buy it again. This may be avoided if you could back up the movie, but then you have to figure in the cost and reliability of the backup storage.

I'm all for optical.

[Blu Kreme]

One magnet pass and your entire movie collection is wiped out - literally. Yes, that is an excellent choice for content distribution!

[Forrestandjen07]

uh, thats why you take care of your stuff

[jadedeath]

Originally Posted by Forrestandjen07

uh, thats why you take care of your stuff

Taking care of your stuff isn't in dispute.

For example, I had this friend a couple jobs back, who had a girlfriend who got drunk one night with a friend of hers who was basically feeding her lies.

My friend gets home and is confronted with a very angry girlfriend, she then proceeds to rip up his final project for college worth a vast majority of his mark, the day before it is due.

So, as you can tell from my cautionary tale my friends, it's not a matter of if YOU take care of your stuff, shitty things can happen outside of you taking care of your things.

Logan

[Blu Kreme]

Originally Posted by jadedeath

Taking care of your stuff isn't in dispute.

For example, I had this friend a couple jobs back, who had a girlfriend who got drunk one night with a friend of hers who was basically feeding her lies.

My friend gets home and is confronted with a very angry girlfriend, she then proceeds to rip up his final project for college worth a vast majority of his mark, the day before it is due.

So, as you can tell from my cautionary tale my friends, it's not a matter of if YOU take care of your stuff, shitty things can happen outside of you taking care of your things.

Logan

Correct.

You can take care of those things all day long. All its going to take is one electric shock to jump from you to your usb drive and wham - gone.

[Forrestandjen07]

Keep things in a safe place, away from others, its not that hard to do


i have pissed my gf off many times through out the last 3 years, Not once has she ever tried to destroy any of my stuff

Lay down some ground rules

Muck with my stuff, you gone!
only i am allowed to brake my things

ahahaha

[Forrestandjen07]

Originally Posted by Blu Kreme

Correct.

You can take care of those things all day long. All its going to take is one electric shock to jump from you to your usb drive and wham - gone.

same for your computer



Same for your electronics, one wrong lightning strike and zap gone

... So.. Either enjoy stuff while you got it, or just not get anything at all