DRM on iTunes movies

[CrashCocoB]

Hi,

Since few years, Apple decided to remove the DRM on iTunes music. This was the trigger for me to move from CDs to Digital for the music.

I'm now looking at the video. I've hundreds of DVDs and because of HD and space (in the house) saving, I really think about moving to digitalized movies.

I see that currently Apple has still DRMs on video files (probably imposed by movie industry).

Is there any "rumour" about Apple doing the same as with music so that movies on the iTunes store are DRM free ? If so, I'd gladly move to digital.

DRM free is important for me because I centralize my library on a Synology NAS and all my clients are not Apple devices. For music it's solved, for movies, not yet and I'm wondering if there are any hopes...

Merry X-Mas to all !

 

[M. Gustave]

MakeMKV + Handbrake
My whole dvd collection is now in mp4 format, stored on external HD.

 

[CrashCocoB]

My current workflow is :
- DVDFab
- SubRip to generate tx3g subs
- Handbrake

It works pretty fine. But I want to upgrade from DVD quality. And if possible, I'd like to bypass the "physical" media step.

It'll be a long run decision and thus I don't want e.g. to start buying BlueRays, spend time on encoding them and in one year learn that now all movies from the iTunes store are DRM free.

Hence my question to know if chances are that one day movies will be DRM free on the store. If so, it's a no brainer for me. I'll buy everything directly from the iTunes store. But for now, I'm quite stuck.

 

[M. Gustave]

I don't think anyone can answer that. In the meantime, all my new movie viewing is done via streaming. Personally I'm trying to move away from "owning" stuff, and maintenance of a "collection". It takes mental and physical energy away from more important things, IMO.

 

[CrashCocoB]

Finally, I have decided to stop buying physical medias.
Also to not buy any movie on iTunes until they are DRM freed.
And in the meantime go with Netflix.
I'll never buy anything which is DRM'd.

 

[Julien]

Finally, I have decided to stop buying physical medias.
Also to not buy any movie on iTunes until they are DRM freed.
And in the meantime go with Netflix.
I'll never buy anything which is DRM'd.

Studios are not likely to remove DMR from their content. Unlike the music industry which is primarily controlled by 4 major studios the film and TV industry is 1000"s of content providers/licensers. No way to get them all on the same page. Plus the problems and incentives that the music industry had 15 years ago are not present in the film/TV industry. Also streaming/on demand is out pacing the publics desire for DRM free ownership anyway. Within a decade you will probably be able to access most content anytime and anywhere negating the 'need' or 'want' to purchase content anyway. License ownership (you don't own the content anyway) is a needless and dying industry.

 

[CrashCocoB]

I do think that it's not the USD 11.99 Netflix is charging per month that will make the movie industry rich.

However, buying one movie (license to be precise, as you rightly stated) USD 9.99+ is a different story. I think that to keep the same standards in terms of profit, they will need to still sell license (watherver the format, iTunes, Google Play, DVD, Blueray, Ultraviolet, ...).

And adding the DRM thing to digital versions, for me, cuts some of the advantages of getting digital medias instead of physical ones.

Think mainly about :
- Preserve the media if a company runs out of business --> accessible "forever"
- Interoperability (a DVD or BlueRay will work on any player)

In the end, this is the real and honest guy who pays who is screwed, not the pirates who don't give a f*** that studios apply DRM to iTunes, Play Store, Ultraviolet content.

So it might be less than a drop in all the seven seas of the globe but I'll not give any penny for DRM'd content to the film industry.

Music industry got it right and in the end, all music which is in my iPod has been paid. As you said, there are less people involved but anyway, it is still a nice decision for the honest end user.

 

[Jessica Lares]

They won't do it at this point because consumers understand how to buy and rent movies via the current outlets and the limitations (like not buying from the iTunes Store if you don't have an Apple TV or other Apple hardware, or have a combination of stuff). You're really underestimating how many people actually want to own and maintain a movie collection themselves. There were really successful movie rental places before Netflix and the others took over.

DRM was problematic on music files because it was during the time when people were making mix CDs and you had CD players that would read discs where you just threw files on them. Once you could pay for them, people gladly started to, but the DRM kept them from doing what they were already used to. And because people want single songs opposed to an album, they were just going to go back to pirating if they were forced to use only Apple/etc approved hardware for playback.

 

[CrashCocoB]

For renting, I do agree that DRM is definitely the way to go. That's why I've no issue with the fact that when you download a movie for offline viewing with the Netflix app, the file you get is DRM'd.

In fact I do like to own collections. I've hundreds of DVDs myself.
But I want to move to digital medias because of physical space and because of today's technology - NAS - allowing us to access our digital media anywhere.

With DRMs, from the moment we buy things on a platform, we tie yourselves with a company, with its hardware. Interoperability is (almost) zero.

What if you decide to change platform ?
What if you want to centralize all your media with a NAS and want to access from different platforms ?
...

Only way to free yourself from those limitations would be doing illegal stuff. Namely "circumventing" DRM or remove the DRM protection from the files, which is illegal in most of the countries.

So DRM which is supposed to be a measure to fight piracy in those cases might become an incentive to do illegal stuffs.

If I buy a DVD and play it on my Philips player, it will still play if I decide to move to a Sony player or even a generic one.
It's a pitty the same thing does not apply with digital movies.

I get your point and I also think that in the coming year(s), movies will still be DRM'd.

But for me, the result is not buying physical media anymore because I think it's something from a past age today and not buying digital medias because I don't want to spend a penny for a DRM'd media. In the meantime, I'll enjoy the Netflix subscription I just started.

I know this topic will not solve anything and I've to admit it's a little bit by frustration when I had a look at the different offers and realized that no platform provides DRM'd-free movies - including iTunes - that I opened it to know if by miracle there were rumors about getting DRM free files like for music.