2013 September DVDGuy’s Blog @ Digital Digest

Archive for September, 2013

Weekly News Roundup (29 September 2013)

Sunday, September 29th, 2013

Welcome to another edition of the WNR. I’m still well immersed in the world of GTA V and Los Santos this week, and haven’t been so enamored with a game since the early days of Skyrim (before killing giants got boring). To those that criticize people like me for not embracing reality, and instead choosing to hide in the fantastic world of GTA V – well, if I could steal a blimp, skydive from it as I watch it crash and burn into a well populated area in the real world without danger or a lengthy prison sentence, then I would have done it already. GTA V is not about reality. It’s about hijacking someone’s car, running over them, and then getting out of the car to steal the money they just dropped.

Oh yes, the boring reality of “real” news. Oh well, let’s get started.

Copyright Google must have been feeling generous this week when it removed the term “BitTorrent” from the list of blacklisted auto-complete keywords. Or maybe BitTorrent Inc’s recent PR campaign has had the intended effect in illustrating the fact that BitTorrent is in fact the legal name of a company that does completely legitimate business. Even Google, with its slew of lawyers, might have had a hard time arguing why the name of a well known company was being blacklisted, on purpose, in court.

BitTorrent is no longer a dirty piracy word, according to Google

Of course, how most people use the term is very different to how BitTorrent Inc want people to use it, and allowing BitTorrent to grace the selection choices of auto-complete opens the door slightly again to piracy related search phrases. Type “Homeland bit” into Google, and you can see for yourself just what kind of suggested search terms Google is once again providing (most of these terms lead to pirated content, it has to be said).

The MPAA and their ilk will probably paint this as Google brazenly encouraging piracy. But I feel it is a bit of a stretch to suggest that people searching for “Homeland bit” would have otherwise not finished typing the “torrent” part of the search term had it not been for Google’s auto-complete suggestion. Or that not offering the suggestion somehow leads to less piracy.

High Definition

Should HBO offer an online-only subscription plan à la Netflix? Ask almost anyone on the Internet, and they will say yes. Ask anyone with a bit of authority at HBO, and they’ll tell you they’re not interested. At a Goldman Sachs conference this week, it was potential HBO competitor Netflix that made the suggestion again that HBO should look towards online if it wants to grow its customer base.

If HBO were to take Netflix’s suggestion on board, then viewers would be the obvious winners. It means many will no longer need to keep an expensive cable subscription just to watch Game of Thrones, and it will also have a hugely positive effect on piracy by offering people the opportunity to view HBO’s hit shows in the medium of their choice, possibly at a lower cost.

A standalone HBO Go subscription plan might bring in more customers for HBO, says Netflix

The obvious losers would be the cable networks, who are increasingly dependent on premium networks like HBO to keep them in business. And this is perhaps why Netflix wants HBO to compete in the same space as themselves, which at first doesn’t seem to be in Netflix’s own interests. If it happens, Netflix can then become the new basic cable to HBO’s premium online offerings, and both companies, while operating on the same medium, would not then be natural competitors.

In further Netflix news, the company announced this week that all US subscribers will now have access to Super HD and 3D content. Previously, Super HD and 3D content were only available with selected participating ISPs, those that had signed up to Netflix’s Open Connect Network (which is free for ISPs to join). Comcast, for example, did not support Super HD even though many smaller ISPs did. Now, all users will have access to Netflix’s best quality streams, regardless of their ISP. Although those using ISPs not on Open Connect may experience slow downs during peak usage times, something that Open Connect was designed to prevent.

In my experience, Netflix’s Super HD, while not quite Blu-ray quality, is definitely superior to their standard 1080p streams. At a distance of about 10 feet, staring at a 60″ TV, it can be hard at times to tell the difference between Netflix Super HD and Blu-ray. Netflix’s 1080p uses 5 Mbps, compared to Super HD’s 7 Mbps, and 3D’s 12 Mbps.

Obviously, you’ll also need a device capable of supporting Super HD streams. This should mean almost all devices capable of Netflix 1080p output, which covers most of the popular devices. The notable exception being the Xbox 360, which only supports 720p Netflix streams.

Having started a new website about streaming recently (not so subtle plug, I know), I’ve been keeping an eye on all things streaming. But not just Netflix, but also game streaming. With both next-gen consoles promising game streaming of some kind, and has been the trend for this generation of the console war, Sony was the first to fill us in with juicy details of what their service could offer. And it also (sort of) solves another problem for potential PS4 owners – PS3 compatibility!

PS3 games can be played on the PS4 via the Gaikai cloud gaming service

Sony announced this week at the Tokyo Game Show that PS3 games will be playable on the PS4, but only via the Gaikai cloud game streaming platform. The same set of supported PS3 titles can also be streamed on the PS3 (it does makes sense if you think about it a bit more) and even the Vita. The game will be rendered on Gaikai’s servers and beamed to your PS4 as a video stream, and will be perfectly playable as long as your connection has low latency.

For this to become a true backwards compatible solution, Sony will have to think up a way to allow previously purchased PS3 games to be playable on Gaikai, on the PS4, without the need to fork over any more cash. One possible technical solution could be as simple as inserting your PS3 game disc into the PS4, which will be used purely for authentication purposes. But the hurdle for this to happen isn’t a technical one, but one of will on Sony’s part. If Sony finds the kindness in their heart to allow this to happen, that is to allow previously purchased PS3 games to be played on Gaikai for free, then this is the kind of thing that would tip the upcoming console war crushingly in Sony’s favor.

I think that’s it for the week. Back to GTA V for me. Hurray for escapism!

Posted in Copyright, Gaming, News Roundup, PS3, PS4, Video Technology | Comments Off on Weekly News Roundup (29 September 2013)

Weekly News Roundup (22 September 2013)

Sunday, September 22nd, 2013

Work. GTA V. More work. More GTA V.

That’s been pretty much my week so far. Not enough time with GTA V, and far too much work, unfortunately. And having an annoying cold didn’t help either.

It’s a fantastic game, the first really fun GTA game in a long time (after the bland and self-important GTA IV). I can’t recommend it enough, and if you have any inkling of interest in sandbox games, or driving around a real city, or gunning and running over people for no particular reason, then GTA V is the game for you. It’s mad fun, and here’s a gameplay video for the clueless gamers out there.

Oh yes, a WNR to go though. Here we go.

We now know, possibly, why Google decided to release a report on their anti-piracy efforts last week. Instead of the report being a fire across the bows of the copyright lobby, as I originally thought, that particular report now seems like a defensive move in anticipation of the MPAA’s own little report this week, which took center aim at Google for its role in “helping” Internet piracy.

Saucy stats in the report include the 74% of those surveyed that use Google or a search engine like it to discover websites that offers pirated content, even when some were not looking for it in the first place. Or that 58% of perfectly innocent search terms resulting in result pages that contain links to infringing content. And the study even dissects Google’s piracy downranking algorithm and finds that piracy sites are not being affected at all, traffic wise.

Of course it goes without saying that the MPAA were the ones that commissioned the report in the first place, befitting their usual M.O. I will refer you to the story I talked about last week, regarding a truly independent study that found a worrying bias in studies referred to or commissioned directly by rights holder groups.

Google’s anti-piracy efforts not enough, says MPAA as Hollywood’s trade lobby points accusing finger at Google over Internet piracy

Google, being the dominant search engine, was always going to have a role in linking to pirated content. Just like they have a big role in linking to legitimate content too. Would Hollywood be better off with or without Internet search engines, there to help them promote their latest shitty movie? That’s one of the many pertinent question the study doesn’t look at.

People who want to find pirated content, will find it, whether Google is there or not. There are forums, Facebook, Twitter. Hell, even the MPAA has done a pretty neat job at pointing to the best piracy places via their DMCA notices and frequent blog posts. Really, there’s nothing in the report that we didn’t know already.

So it’s hard to tell what publicizing facts which are already widely known will do towards reducing piracy. But the report is not really intended for you and me, or pirates, or even Google. It’s for those that sit on Capitol Hill, those that are funded by the MPAA, the ones needing something to be outraged about to justify their coziness to Hollywood’s cashed up lobbyists.

And then you have Netflix. Not only does Netflix helps to reduce piracy, it also uses piracy stats for its own advantage, according to Netflix’s VP of content acquisition Kelly Merryman. Merryman says that piracy stats are being used to judge a show or movie’s popularity in a particular region, and this then help form the decision whether to license that particular piece of content in the region. Merryman, who was being interviewed by the Netherlands based Tweakers website regarding Netflix’s recent launch in the country, noted that the TV show Prison Break was one of the shows whose licensing was determined by the popularity of the show on piracy networks.

It’s certainly an interesting and common sense approach. Piracy has always been a measure of demand, and unmet demand usually. And so it makes perfect sense for Netflix to tap into piracy stats to determine a show’s popularity. With Netflix less eager to make bulk licensing deals with studios, instead choosing to license specific content on a case-by-case basis, these stats could prove invaluable. At the very least, it’s cheaper than conducting market research.

In a separate interview, Netflix CEO Reed Hastings also confirmed that Netflix is having a big effect on piracy, stating that Canadian piracy related BitTorrent traffic dropped by 50% following the introduction of Netflix into the country. Hastings believes that the ease of use of Netflix is why it is beating piracy, even though pirated content comes at zero cost.

People have always been willing to pay for content, even if it is already available on the Internet for free. How much they’re willing to pay largely depends on the overall user experience, and people’s notions of value. There is no doubt that Netflix, with its $7.99 per month price point, offers both value and a better user experience thanks to the large number of supported devices. And this, not via legislation or DRM, or studies, is how you beat piracy.

High Definition

And the next battleground for Netflix may be in the 4K arena. The company’s CEO is already hinting at the technical aspect of Netflix’s 4K offering. Speaking in an interview conducted in Netherlands, Netflix CEO Reed Hastings said that Netflix’s 4K offering will “only” require a 15 Mbps connection per stream.

4K will use more bandwidth than DVD or Blu-ray quality videos, but Netflix thinks 15 Mbps should be enough

Netflix currently uses eyeIOs compression technology to delivery its up-to 1080p videos. Sony’s recently launched Internet based 4K download service, incidentally, also uses the same firm’s platform. 4K movies on Sony’s service are 40 to 60 GB large at the moment, which is actually about 45 to 70 Mbps (but to be fair, Sony’s service is more download than streaming). eyeIO is also believed to be investigating adapting the HEVC codec into their platform in the future, offering possibly even better compression and/or quality.

Of course, 15 Mpbs would seem like the minimum requirement, and for only one stream. Given overhead, multiple streams, and the fact that people in the same household might use the Internet for other things while someone streams 4K content, a steady 30-50 Mbps connection would be ideal. That’s not really achievable on a mass scale right now, but Hastings says that the 4K take-up would be slow enough to allow ISPs enough time to ramp up their infrastructure.

I don’t know though. I think the people who are likely to be interested in 4K, the cinephiles, won’t want compromises on quality. Therefore, they’d want the highest possible quality 4K streams, and 15 Mbps (and Netflix in general) isn’t going to do it. Fiber connections or discs, I think, is where the majority of 4K content will be delivered across.

That’s it for the week. Back to GTA V for me, at least for a while until the work deadlines become a bit more serious. See you next week.

Posted in Copyright, High Definition (Blu-ray/HD DVD/4K), News Roundup, Video Technology | Comments Off on Weekly News Roundup (22 September 2013)

Weekly News Roundup (15 September 2013)

Sunday, September 15th, 2013

How are you on this fine Sunday. Most of this WNR was written ahead of time as I went sand crab catching on Saturday. [INSERT UPDATE ON HOW MANY CRABS WERE CAUGHT OR INSERT SOMETHING FUNNY IF NO CRABS WERE CAUGHT]. It was a very enjoyable, “and very rewarding”/”but not very fruitful” [DELETE AS APPROPRIATE], trip. So a short WNR, but still with a few interesting tidbits to go through. Let’s get started.

Copyright Common sense tells us that graduated response, or three-four-or-however-many strikes, hasn’t really worked as a piracy deterrent. Or as a way to promote the purchase of legitimate content. It’s common sense because many countries, like France, New Zealand, Taiwan, South Korea, have had their own regimes for a while now, and there doesn’t seem to be a lot of noise regarding their effectiveness, even from the most biased sources. It is also common sense to us because we’re not idiots.

At the same time, there has been many studies that point out the ineffectiveness of three-strikes. The latest one comes from Australia’s Monash University. A new paper by Dr Rebecca Giblin finds that graduated response has failed in the three key areas that it was designed to have an effect in. Namely, reduced infringement, to promote the purchase of legitimate content, and to promote the creation and distribution of new content. The study found little evidence, if any, that graduated response has had a positive effect in any of these three key areas.

Three, or however many, strikes doesn’t work to stop piracy, encourage legal purchases, or the creation of new content, a new study finds

It doesn’t reduce infringement because people can simply use another method to download their movies and TV shows, one that is not monitored by three-strikes. It doesn’t promote the purchase of legitimate content because of the previous point, and also because it doesn’t really solve any of the issues that encourages people to pirate (namely price, availability, usability). This is all fairly obvious to anyone who just thinks a little bit about the problem with piracy. In that piracy isn’t a problem of enforcement, it’s an issue of convenience and pricing. And effective enforcement was never really going to be possible anyway, not without a herculean effort that would fail even the most optimistic cost/benefit analysis, and at the same time, shred our privacy rights.

Simply stated, graduated response doesn’t work. It’s a waste of money, and it unnecessarily reduces our right to privacy and due process. But it’s considered a panacea among the pro-copyright lobby, so expect more countries to adopt this in the near future.

The only thing more pointless than graduated response, and more dangerous, may be search engine censorship. And in an effort to hold the fort against the mounting pressure from copyright holders to start messing around with search results, Google has released a report detailing the company’s anti-piracy principles and the successes in fighting the good fight.

Other than the usual self propelled back patting, the report does state quite clearly what methods the search engine giants thinks is most effective in reducing online piracy. It starts with the perfectly reasonable call for better legitimate alternative to piracy, more of your Netflixes and Spotifys, and in a somewhat transparent gesture of self promotion, Google Play and YouTube. The rest of the report simply states Google’s anti-piracy efforts, including the 4 million DMCA takedown requests the company has to deal with every week, as well as efforts in shutting down revenue sources for pirates.

An interesting read, no doubt. But will it placate the copyright lobby and their political servants? Probably not, but it was worth a shot anyway.

High Definition

I mentioned a couple of months ago that the BDA (Blu-ray Disc Association) has been investigating the potential for 4K movies to be distributed via Blu-ray discs. New rumors suggest that a positive announcement from the BDA on this is not too far away. Adding fuel to the fire is this story about a German Blu-ray disc manufacturer announcing a new line of triple-layer 100GB Blu-ray discs, and their press release specifically mentions 4K as one of the intended uses.

Could existing Blu-ray players be made capable of reading 100GB triple-layer discs containing 4K content? Does it even matter, as these players may not be powerful enough to decode 4K content anyway …

100GB should be more than enough for 4K movies, especially if it uses the new H.265/HEVC codec (but even with H.264/AVC, 100GB should be enough). The big question is whether these new discs would be compatible with existing Blu-ray players, perhaps after an obligatory firmware update. However, new players will probably have to be produced to support 4K output and support for H.265/HEVC, and older players may lack the processing grunt to handle the decoding anyway; so having these discs be readable by older Blu-ray players may be somewhat pointless (although being able to downscale Blu-ray 4K content to 1080p would be a very nice feature to have for existing Blu-ray owners, and will no doubt help push Blu-ray 4K sales at a time when 4K TVs are still too expensive).

The other main advantage of backwards compatibility is that with the PS4 and Xbox One both having Blu-ray drives, and both capable of outputting at 4K resolutions, these would instantly become the Blu-ray 4K players of choice in the same way the PS3 was the Blu-ray player of choice back when Blu-ray first launched. Stay tuned to this space.

If any of this is true, it would definitely keep Blu-ray relevant in the 4K era. I know Sony, of all people, are going down the disc-less route in terms of 4K, but discs are still the most efficient way to transmit the large amounts of data required by 4K right now. That will change with the increase penetration of fiber based broadband, but this could take years. And we’ll probably have the bandwidth hogging holographic TV to worry about by then!

The August NPD report has been released. The Xbox 360 was once again the most popular home based console for the month of August 2013 for the US market. This is the 32nd time in a row that Microsoft’s console has won the accolade.

GTA V will be occupying most of my free time over the next couple of weeks, I suspect

However, only 96,000 Xbox 360s were sold, only half of what it was a year ago. This is the first time in a long time that the Xbox 360 has sold less than 100,000 units in a given month, and the fact that it was still the best selling out of the other home based consoles, tells a rather unfortunate story. Still, with only months left before the Xbox One and PS4 are on the market, the low hardware sales are to be expected. GTA V’s release this month will boost hardware sales when the NPD releases its report this time next month though.

Speaking of GTA V, I’ve pre-ordered my copy (despite the fact that the pre-ordering phenomenon is directly incentivizing the video game industry’s many bad habits these days – but I just can’t say no to a GTA game). I doubt I’ll have time to play it until next weekend, so please do not expect a surprisingly wordly edition of the WNR next week. It ain’t gonna happen!

That’s it for the week. I’m off the enjoy a nice dinner that includes crabs/no crabs [DELETE AS APPROPRIATE]. See you next week.

Posted in Copyright, Electronics, Gaming, High Definition (Blu-ray/HD DVD/4K), News Roundup, Nintendo Wii, Wii U, Switch, NPD Analysis, PS3, PS4, Video Technology, Xbox 360, Xbox One | Comments Off on Weekly News Roundup (15 September 2013)

Weekly News Roundup (8 September 2013)

Sunday, September 8th, 2013

So Australia is getting a new government that promises to takes us back to the past by stopping work on our national fiber network, in favor of a FTTN one relying on our badly maintained copper wires. (Up to) 25 Mbps here we come!

Coincidentally, this is the week that Sony launched their 4K download service. With 40GB+ per 4K movie download, even downloading via a 100 Mbps fiber connection will seem like a long wait, although this should theoretically allow for uninterrupted streaming. HEVC, which also features in the news roundup this week, will help to reduce the bandwidth a bit, but 40GB is still probably the benchmark when it comes to the size of a typical 2 hour movie, if you don’t want to sacrifice quality. Of course, our new prime minister says that there’s no need for high speed broadband, not when most people are just using Facebook and Twitter and whatever (seriously, that’s what he said).

Enough politics for now though, we’ve got an WNR to get through.

A huge copyright fight over 3D printing is brewing. It’s actually two fights, one that involves the creator of 3D designs and those that want to obtain it without having to pay; the other involved ensuring those designs are in fact original and not ripping off existing designs, say based on objects in popular movies and TV shows. An impending copyright storm inevitably leads to a pre-emptive solution, and no surprise that DRM is being chosen as the answer.

The copyright storm is brewing over 3D printing (Credits: Mirko Tobias Schaefer via Flickr, CC)

Sendshapes is a new service, currently in alpha testing, that aims to solve one or maybe both of these copyright problems by allowing content designers to enforce a one-time printing rule. This act of digital right management is performed using software that only allows designs to be streamed to the host PC for printing, pieces at a time, and with the design completely removed once the printing is done.

While this solves the problem of ensuring designs won’t end up on The Pirate Bay (well, at least until the DRM is cracked), the second and larger problem may be harder to enforce. Sendshapes will need to have a system to ensure all shared designs are fully licensed, or at the very least, ensure safe harbor applies to their service (as, after all, they are a service provider and should not be entirely liable for what their customers end up doing).

But none of this prevents people reverse-engineering the designs of popular physical objects, and then uploading the designs gratis to sites like The Pirate Bay. Yes, self-printing these things may end up costing more than the original mass manufactured version, but there will be plenty of people who will want to do a bit of self-printing. For fun and stuff. Licensed owners of these designs need to take proactive action and offer a legal self-printed alternative, if they want to avoid creating a new piracy problem.

——

If you’re like me and you’re a fan of Homeland, you might have been quite confused when people you know started talking about plot elements in the premier episode of season 3. Confused because the damn episode wasn’t supposed to air until the end of this month. While spoilers are indeed annoying, it surely must have annoyed Showtime more that such an eagerly awaited episode was leaked online almost a month earlier than the air date.

S03E01 of Homeland has been leaked a month before the air date, but the leaked version is missing some special effects

The leaked episode, missing opening credits and some special effects, made its way to the usual BitTorrent places earlier this week and has already been downloaded hundreds of thousands of times. I don’t really want to get into the legal and moral debate of the leak (in that it’s both illegal and probably immoral as well), but it struck me as interesting how popular the download was. Most people who downloaded the episode were well aware of the missing special effects, knowing they were downloading an inferior and incomplete product. But still, they downloaded and downloaded, and downloaded.

So is quality really that important, or is timeliness of availability a much bigger draw? Someone like me who prefers to make the viewing experience as perfect as possible, especially for top quality content like Homeland, the leaked screener or workprint just won’t do (I’m also too lazy to watch both the leaked version, and the official version when it airs here in Australia most likely on a seven day delay). But I also feel tempted, very tempted, to watch the leaked version. So timeliness is probably the biggest draw, and I think a lesson is here to be learnt by those who still insists on release windows and unnecessary delays.

——

Jealous at their French rivals and their American friends having all the fun with their own graduated response systems, the UK’s record industry trade group is apparently working on their own system. The BPI have been in negotiations with UK’s major ISPs for several months now, working on a voluntarily agreement that could see a central database of “piracy offenders” being created to help dish out warnings and disconnections.

Unsurprisingly, ISPs have rejected the BPI’s preferred solutions, calling them “unworkable”, and also citing concerns that customer’s rights are being compromised. It is believed that the BPI is fed up with waiting for action to come via the government’s Digital Economy Act, which was passed into law in 2010, but has yet to actually do anything.

The BPI also doesn’t appear to be concerned about the fact that the graduated response experiment across the Channel has failed. I mean, let’s not let facts get into the way of rhetoric, right?

High Definition

In HD, or rather, Ultra HD news, Sony’s long awaited 4K video download service finally launched this week. Video Unlimited 4K will offer 4K movies to rent for $7.99 per 24 hour viewing window, or to buy from $29.99. Launch titles includes Men in Black I and II, The Da Vinci Code, with Moneyball and Ghostbusters available to buy. Even episodes of Breaking Bad gets the 4K treatment.

Sony launches Video Unlimited 4K, with rentals starting from $7.99 per 24 hours, and purchases starting at $29.99

Some interesting stats I’ve gathered from places. A typical 2 hour movie uses around 40GB of storage, which isn’t a lot when you consider the fact that 4K video has 4 times as much data as 1080p videos. Some movies play instantly, suggesting some kind of buffering/pre-caching system. Still, some kind of ultra fast broadband connection would be required to get the best out of system. Something like Google Fiber would be a natural complement to the service. Which brings me back to the point I made in the intro about Australia’s soon to be abandoned fiber network.

On a related note, DivX (yes, they’re still around) has had a major release milestone this week with version 10 of their codec being released. Most interestingly, it includes HEVC support, possibly the first consumer based solution for the relatively new codec. HEVC, also known as H.265, is the natural successor to the ubiquitous H.264 and promises even more efficient encodes. It’s the perfect complement to 4K.

Might be time for me to start playing with HEVC and see what I can do with it. I might even can create some sample 4K videos and make them available to download.

I think that’s it for the week. See you in seven.

Posted in Copyright, High Definition (Blu-ray/HD DVD/4K), News Roundup | Comments Off on Weekly News Roundup (8 September 2013)

Weekly News Roundup (1 September 2013)

Sunday, September 1st, 2013

Another short WNR this week. From the feedback I’ve received, it seems people don’t really mind the the short WNRs. And by feedback, I mean a rather poignantly written email which simply stated “you suck less this week cause their [sic] was less carp to read”. And by “carp” I think the gentleman or lady meant crap, as I haven’t added a fishing section to Digital Digest. Not yet. Speaking of carp, I actually quite enjoy Asian carp. Bony, but worth the effort, in my opinion. And so my suggestion to the gentleman/lady that emailed me is: read less, eat more.

Copyright It took a while, but it eventually got there. A Southern Florida court this week summarily ruled against file uploader Hotfile in favor of the MPAA, in a ruling that won’t surprise anyone who has followed the case.

While Hotfile did put up a good fight, the actions taken against Megaupload (which occurred after the lawsuit was initiated), and the fact that Hotfile did seem to go out of there way to award those who uploaded the most popular files (which, surprise surprise, were mostly files of a pirated nature), has all led to Hotfile’s downfall. The owner/chief executive of Hotfile, Anton Titov, was also found personally liable for what could be hundreds of millions of dollars worth of damages.

Hotfile may yet appeal, but a summary judgement means that the judge deemed the MPAA’s case strong enough to not require a full trial to hand down a ruling. So it’s not looking good for Hotfile, although at the time of writing the website was still operational.

And the effect on piracy if/when Hotfile is closed down? Zilch, probably.

High Definition

Can traditional TV networks learn a thing or two from Netflix? Well, Kevin Spacey thinks so, as the star of the Emmy nominated Netflix original series House of Cards says that giving people what they want is the future of film and TV, and the solution to the piracy problem.

Can traditional TV networks learn from the successful distribution model of Netflix Originals, like House of Cards?

With the debut season of House of Cards made available on Netflix all at once, and across the world at the same time, Spacey thinks this kind of universal availability is what will make a serious dent into the piracy problem. He says that if movie theater owners and studios can be convinced to allow for the release of movies on the big screen, the small screen and on smart screens all at the same time, it can become a new way to fight piracy.

An interesting idea that theater owners will never, ever, agree to, but it’s at the very least worthy of academic discussion. How will piracy be affected if a film is made available everywhere, on every platform and device, all around the world at the same time? I think it will go a long way towards reducing piracy, but some will always pirate, just because they can.

As for releasing all episodes of a season at the same time, I don’t think this is something the big TV networks will embrace either. If anything, they want to stretch a season over as long a time span as possible, although I suppose if a revenue model can be worked out where months worth of advertising can be gained from instant releasing, they’d probably go for it.

At the end of the day, it’s all about money, rightly or wrongly. I believe the right revenue model can found that strikes the right balance between giving people what they want (freedom and value) versus what the creative industry wants (money).

It may very well be too little, too late, but Nintendo has upped the ante by dropping $50 from the price of the Wii U. The 32GB version of the console, which includes a copy of the game Nintendo Land, will now retail for $299.99. In addition, a limited edition Zelda: Wind Waker HD bundle is also being released at the same price point. The 8GB version of the console will now be phased out.

Wii U The Legend of Zelda Wind Waker Limited Edition Bundle

A new Zelda Wind Waker bundle being released at the same time as a $50 price cut for the struggling Wii U

This now puts the Wii U’s price at a point between that of the Xbox 360/PS3 and the PS4, but closer to the current-gen consoles than the next-gen one. The problem with the Wii U is that while it is technically superior to the Xbox 360/PS3, the graphical differences aren’t day and night, and these older consoles have a much better (and cheaper) game library. So even at the same price as the Xbox 360/PS3, the Wii U may still be perceived as poor value.

With the holiday sales period just around the corner, a period that traditionally favors Nintendo, there is still some hope for the Wii U just yet. Recent sale figures suggest that Xbox 360 and PS3 sales may have reached saturation point – most people who want one will have one already; the same cannot be said of the Wii U. So the Wii U can be seen as a cheaper next-gen option for the masses, for those unwilling to spend big on a PS4 and spend even bigger on a Xbox One. Nintendo will also have a stronger game line-up by then.

The next couple of months of gaming, for me, will be all about GTA V. IV was a relative disappointment to me, but I just can’t resist a good open world game. Or a bad one. No GTA V for Wii U though, which is a shame as I think the GamePad and asymmetric gameplay could have been used to great effect. Oh well.

I think that’s it for this short and reduced carp version of the WNR. See you next week.

Posted in Copyright, Gaming, News Roundup, Nintendo Wii, Wii U, Switch, Video Technology | Comments Off on Weekly News Roundup (1 September 2013)

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Archive for September, 2013

Weekly News Roundup (29 September 2013)

Weekly News Roundup (22 September 2013)

Weekly News Roundup (15 September 2013)

Weekly News Roundup (8 September 2013)

Weekly News Roundup (1 September 2013)

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