arstechnica.com — Commercial video download sites like CinemaNow and the iTunes Store will soon have the option of allowing customers to burn copies of downloaded movies to DVDs that will playback in standard DVD players, thanks to an amendment recently approved by the DVD Copy Control Association.
Jul 2, 2007 View in Crawl 4
cindylauperJul 2, 2007
when are they gonna allow rentals?
Closed AccountJul 2, 2007
who the f**king cares about apple.
ibeetleJul 2, 2007
Damn! New burners and another f**king blank media format to support CSS. Let me guess the new disc will cost 50 bucks, or twice the cost from a DVD you could have bought instead of legally downloaded. DVD+R, DVD-R, DVD-RW, DVD+/-R, Blu-ray-R, Blu-ray-RW, HD DVD-R, HD DVD-RW. And now DVD-R-CSS. Oh.. crap! I forgot Dual Layer... so we have to add; DVD+R DL, DVD-R DL... We have spam and eggs, spam and toast, spam eggs and toast, spam bacon eggs and toast, but we are out of spam eggs toast and bacon...Spam, spam, spam, spam; lovely spam, wonderful spam
oepapelJul 2, 2007
Size alone is not the only determination of quality. A 4.7 GB file compressed in MPEG2 (the DVD codec) can be represented in less bits with a better codec (H.264 for Quicktime). Now, H.264 is not 5X more efficient but it is considered to be (by most authorities) at least 2 -> 3X more efficient. So, a 1.6GB H.264 fie CAN be as good as a 4.7GB MPEG2 file.And it will look just as good on that 50" screen. Sure, there are tradeoffs (more horsepower is needed) but modern computers (Intel core duo) can handle this as long as you have a decent video card to help you with the on-the-fly transcoding while burning the DVD.Before accusing others of not understanding DVD standards, maybe you should learn a little more about video standards yourself...
oepapelJul 2, 2007
No, it's not safe to assume that! The point of downloadable video is that they aren't limited by the MPEG2 codec used by DVD's. Now, that's not to say that a year from now, they won't offer "better than dvd HD 720p/1080p video" but that's another issue completely...
jull1234Jul 2, 2007
this seems to me to be the largest shortcoming of DRM schemes. It doesn't make sense to nerf a lower quality format and expect people to buy. What the DRM folks need to do is create a superior format for which people will be willing to deal with the DRM.