Ask questions to The Digital Bits team (Bill Hunt, Jeff Kleist et.al.)

[MerrickG]

Originally Posted by Jeff Kleist

Those lucky individuals living in the LA area should run, not walk to buy tickets to one of the greatest rock bands on Earth. Given that they typically sell out 75,000 seat stadiums in seconds, this is a fantastic chance to see them in a comparably intimate venue. There's SanFran and Vancouver dates planned, but no New York yet

http://www.ticketmaster.com/event/2C...1&minorcatid=1

Greatest rock band on earth would involve me getting a time machine going back to 1987 and seeing Metallica and Exodus in their prime.

[Jeff Kleist]

ONE OF

Valve praises the PS3 now because Sony backed a dump truck of money up to them to shut him up. Whether that dump truck takes the form of an actual check or the fact that they let him put Steam on the system doesn't really matter. He liked 360 because of the ease of porting Windows code to it, and now he likes PS3 because he sees all these opportunities to snag micropayments. While the possibility of using DLC across platforms is attractive, EA already has such a system in place (register your Gamertag to your EA account and it unlocks on all platforms), and I'm sure Ubisoft will do the same.

Honestly it's probably an acknowledgement by Sony of the terrible buyrates on PSN compared to Live, and they're probably hoping to bring over PC gamers with it. Not a bad idea, I just wouldn't turn the keys to my store over to any entity like Steam.

The future of DRM is a central, nonpartisan DRM locker controlled by the industry (like the BDA works), and many retailers feeding into it. Valve, Apple, whoever should be welcomed with open arms into such a community, and the good parts of their tech integrated and royalties paid, but no more tech dictators please.

[SpaceDog]

Originally Posted by Anthony P

for me the issue with the original post was that it looked unreasonable. What I mean is that for a large collector, like I said before, 50TB or 100TB might be needed, let's even say 20TB or 10TB to be more reasonable. WE are very far from a solution like that being available and reasonably price Last year Foremay EC188 M-series model-V came out at 2TB SSD and it is more expensive then most peoples "HT's"

I think we agree more than our dialog reveals. Understanding that the 50TB or 100TB users are outliers and not average consumers, local data storage costs are not significatly prohibitive for an average collection. I have yet to see a trend other than data storage become more compact and more inexpensive.
Even if a home data server could store my collection and serve it at the quality I expect, I would still want to initiate with optical and convert if necessary. Even with the promise of the ability to re-download content if I have a catastrophic data loss - I still feel much more comfortable having the optical media on the shelf.
That said, I'm a bit of a dinosaur in that regard. There are plenty of "kids" coming up today that do not have this hangup.

[Jeff Kleist]

There are plenty of "kids" coming up today that do not have this hangup.

The real problem is how many of these kids also don't have a hangup about paying for their media

[Musashi]

Originally Posted by Jeff Kleist

Its also bad for the consumer when they refuse to provide basic service like phone support, and there are countless stories of them locking accounts which then make your games useless. My friend was stupid and used his paypal on his brothers account to buy a $5 game. Even after pp contacted Steam, it has been 6mo and they still refuse to unlock it. How is that right? Why should one lose the ability to play ones games over a billing error? Why should I have to spend 2 weeks fighting with their slow ass email support to play a game I paid for?

Wasn't there a catch like that in the infamous DIVX Customer Agreement?

[Steedeel]

Originally Posted by Jeff Kleist

The real problem is how many of these kids also don't have a hangup about paying for their media

Good point. Serious collectors will obviously always wan't to buy their films. Another reason why Bluray should prevail!

[MerrickG]

Originally Posted by Jeff Kleist

ONE OF

Valve praises the PS3 now because Sony backed a dump truck of money up to them to shut him up. Whether that dump truck takes the form of an actual check or the fact that they let him put Steam on the system doesn't really matter. He liked 360 because of the ease of porting Windows code to it, and now he likes PS3 because he sees all these opportunities to snag micropayments. While the possibility of using DLC across platforms is attractive, EA already has such a system in place (register your Gamertag to your EA account and it unlocks on all platforms), and I'm sure Ubisoft will do the same.

Im sorry Jeff, but this is not true. I have several games over all 3 major platforms (PC, 360, and PS3) and all of them require me to buy the DLC for each separately. On Mass Effect 2, in order to play the DLC on PC I had to buy it for PC and on 360, I had to buy the DLC on Live. ALL of that DLC was registered at EA. Same with Assassins Creed 2 between the 360 and PS3. Im not saying I DID buy all the DLC on all 3 systems, Im just saying that I would have had to pay if I did. If I did something wrong PLEASE tell me.

In case anyone asks as to why I would buy a game on multiple platforms its because if its a game I loved, the opportunity to earn trophies or achievements is great incentive to replay the game AND I like the idea of having a PC copy on my desktop or laptop for portability purposes. I always get the 2nd copy of the game when it goes on a mega sale (Ex. Mass Effect 2 on the 360 cost me $30 and the PC version and PS3 version cost me $10 each) I also own Fallout 3 and Fallout New Vegas on all 3 systems. I only have the DLC on the 360 though since I didnt really like it and didnt want to pay again for DLC I didn't like.

Originally Posted by Jeff Kleist

Honestly it's probably an acknowledgement by Sony of the terrible buyrates on PSN compared to Live, and they're probably hoping to bring over PC gamers with it. Not a bad idea, I just wouldn't turn the keys to my store over to any entity like Steam.

Well the PSN is free, so you cant expect it to have the quality of Xbox Live. Taking out the cost factor there is no better online experience than Xbox Live.

Originally Posted by Jeff Kleist

The future of DRM is a central, nonpartisan DRM locker controlled by the industry (like the BDA works), and many retailers feeding into it. Valve, Apple, whoever should be welcomed with open arms into such a community, and the good parts of their tech integrated and royalties paid, but no more tech dictators please.

Apple, will never DO anything for the benefit of the community. Lets not kid ourselves or even joke about it.

Btw, since we are talking about Steam it appears that MS has also gotten in bed with it. Fable 3 on PC will use Steam and Games for Windows Live. <--Jeff

http://www.joystiq.com/2011/04/21/fable-3-steam/

[Doctorossi]

Originally Posted by merrick97

Apple, will never DO anything for the benefit of the community. Lets not kid ourselves or even joke about it.

Indeed. And that's why it's no wonder that the only product they offer is 'Punch In the Face: $500'. The only question is why everyone lines up for it.

Seriously, Merrick, name me a for-profit company that will ever "DO anything for the benefit of the community".

[MerrickG]

Originally Posted by Doctorossi

Indeed. And that's why it's no wonder that the only product they offer is 'Punch In the Face: $500'. The only question is why everyone lines up for it.

Seriously, Merrick, name me a for-profit company that will ever "DO anything for the benefit of the community".

Well Bill Gates while in charge of MS gave billions of dollars to various charitable foundations around the world. Thats one example. What sort of charitable foundations does Steve Jobs have set up? Answer: NONE

http://www.wired.com/gadgets/mac/com.../2006/01/70072

Here are some corporations that HAVE done charitable contributions:
http://www.forbes.com/2008/10/16/mos...hisSpeed=25000

http://www.forbes.com/2008/10/16/mos...e_slide_2.html

Apple isnt on either of those lists. Microsoft is.

Apple doesn't need to do charity work when they have people like YOU to defend their every move.

[Max_Genus]

Originally Posted by Jeff Kleist

ONE OF
...
The future of DRM is a central, nonpartisan DRM locker controlled by the industry (like the BDA works), and many retailers feeding into it. Valve, Apple, whoever should be welcomed with open arms into such a community, and the good parts of their tech integrated and royalties paid, but no more tech dictators please.

Would this be something like Ultraviolet, for gamers?

BTW, what's the opinion here regarding Ultraviolet.

Among other things they're claiming that:

• BD owners will be able to "protect" their collections by registering their titles with the service
• Ability to play those titles & more via stream (server based copies provided by alliance members, I presume) to multiple devices.
• Household accounts (up to 6 people), etc.

"Your ultra-accessible portal to all your UltraViolet content also safeguards it for future use and allows you to easily share with family or household members, wherever they are!"

I too prefer to have my media in physical form, but I admit this online locker concept is intriguing given the options and promise of protection... Of course, no rates are provided as yet.

[Steedeel]

My Blurays are already protected on my nice new shelf thanks very much!

Also how can blurays be streamed, wouldn't that take huge bandwidth? Or am i misunderstanding things?)

[JediFonger]

they're talking about the digital online stream version of the same title Blu-Ray you own. for example if you have 'The Incredibles' on BD. you can still watch in on BD. but registering it w/ultraviolet enables you to watch it from your phone if you're away on vacation & not @home or have a phone that has HDMI hook it up to a 60" HDTV and watch it that way, etc. quality isn't the same, but it's more about access.

but in the future... it is quite possible to stream Blu-Ray quality, BD's bandwidth is 30 to 50megabits per second. if you have 1gigabit internet connection you can certainly stream blu-rays over the web!

far, far into the future though.

Originally Posted by Steedeel

My Blurays are already protected on my nice new shelf thanks very much!

Also how can blurays be streamed, wouldn't that take huge bandwidth? Or am i misunderstanding things?)

[Max_Genus]

Originally Posted by JediFonger

they're talking about the digital online stream version of the same title Blu-Ray you own. for example if you have 'The Incredibles' on BD. you can still watch in on BD. but registering it w/ultraviolet enables you to watch it from your phone if you're away on vacation & not @home or have a phone that has HDMI hook it up to a 60&quot; HDTV and watch it that way, etc. quality isn't the same, but it's more about access.

but in the future... it is quite possible to stream Blu-Ray quality, BD's bandwidth is 30 to 50megabits per second. if you have 1gigabit internet connection you can certainly stream blu-rays over the web!

far, far into the future though.

That's my understanding of the concept as well.. However, I've heard Disney is one of the few studios who has not agreed to join the project (since they've been offering their own similar service). So, if you want to watch Incredibles specifically you'll have to pay Disney rather than Ultraviolet.

[Jeff Kleist]

I believe Disney will get onto the Ultraviolet train eventually. It's not like Apple where it'll take the potential death of iTunes due to lack of content or an antitrust suit

[Steedeel]

Originally Posted by JediFonger

they're talking about the digital online stream version of the same title Blu-Ray you own. for example if you have 'The Incredibles' on BD. you can still watch in on BD. but registering it w/ultraviolet enables you to watch it from your phone if you're away on vacation & not @home or have a phone that has HDMI hook it up to a 60" HDTV and watch it that way, etc. quality isn't the same, but it's more about access.

but in the future... it is quite possible to stream Blu-Ray quality, BD's bandwidth is 30 to 50megabits per second. if you have 1gigabit internet connection you can certainly stream blu-rays over the web!

far, far into the future though.

Sorry, still not getting it! Why register a bluray when you already own it and then not get the same quality when you transfer to portable devices and display with HDMI. Seems a bit pointless. The whole point is picture quality. I couldn't care less about access from phones and all that rubbish. I just want the picture quality!!!!

I think it will be a long time before 1gigabit broadband also.
No, all things considered i will stick with my regular physical Blurays.

[Steedeel]

I think we should see this Ultraviolet as the enemy. I think they see it as a replacement for Bluray eventually. In other words, replace Hd with standard def.

[PeterTHX]

Originally Posted by Steedeel

I think we should see this Ultraviolet as the enemy. I think they see it as a replacement for Bluray eventually. In other words, replace Hd with standard def.

You want to say it to Ultraviolet's face?

[Jeff Kleist]

Thank you so much for reminding me of that crapfest

I think we should see this Ultraviolet as the enemy. I think they see it as a replacement for Bluray eventually. In other words, replace Hd with standard def.

It's simply a way to make sure that all digital media works with all devices. Standardization. Digital media isn't going anywhere just because there isn't 8 different DRMs

[jaaguir]

Jeff, is there any chance Snyder's Superman movie will bring Bruce Timm's Superman animated series to blu-ray? It was shot on film so the resolution is there.

(Anyway, how come they released the Superman boxset now instead of waiting for the new movie too?)

Thanks,

[Jeff Kleist]

The only old WB animation likely to go Blu is Batman

The second q, to remind people of the franchise as the hype machine starts, along with a few other reasons