Purchase Films As Digital Format

[FN-GM]

Hi,

 

Does anyone now where you can purchase films and receive an MP4 or AVI file instead of streaming or physical disc please?

 

As DVD drives are now dying out, we want to go down this track.

 

Thanks

[Garacesh]

Very unlikely you're going to find something like that as companies want DRM.

Your best bet is ripping a DVD. Everywhere you buy it from that doesn't include DVD will be buy-to-stream, I suspect.

 

I'd like to be proven wrong, but I won't hold my breath.

[LeMarchand]

Your best bet is ripping a DVD. Everywhere you buy it from that doesn't include DVD will be buy-to-stream, I suspect.

 

Isn't ripping back to being illegal in the UK? Interested in this thread because I know someone who wanted to buy-to-download stuff so he could take it on holiday (poor internet there) and we didn't find a decent solution. We found a couple of ways to download, but they seemed to be device locked.

[Garacesh]

Oh, bummer. Yeah, I keep forgetting that. They made format shifting legal for about two months and then reverted it

 

Good thing I never got my media centre set up, huh? -_-

Edited January 29, 2016 by Garacesh

[elsiegee40]

Please remember that this is a professional forum. Promoting illegal ways of obtaining downloads is not permitted

Edited January 29, 2016 by elsiegee40

[ZeroHour]

Hi,

 

Does anyone now where you can purchase films and receive an MP4 or AVI file instead of streaming or physical disc please?

 

As DVD drives are now dying out, we want to go down this track.

 

Thanks

 

It sucks but there are very few ways to get around this problem, you cant technically even have a bank of drives with DVD's in them which are network accessible as *technically* it is retransmission. One option although not ideal would be to purchase USB powered DVD drives and allow staff to sign them out but the movie industry is still in the dark ages which makes it much harder to legally purchase digital copies for use.

[unixman_again]

What about Netflix or similar? Do they allow educational use? I don't stream stuff so I have no idea.

[LeMarchand]

the movie industry is still in the dark ages which makes it much harder to legally purchase digital copies for use.

 

You can see why, though. We've all seen people bring in blatantly illegal downloads/DVDs or use illegal streaming sites - and most see nothing wrong with this, or it doesn't even occur to them that it's copyright infringement. Then there are the people who would have a field day if downloading and sharing a movie was as easy as downloading and sharing a pdf. Unfortunately those people who are prepared to play by the rules get penalised because so many others won't.

[Arthur]

Does anyone know where you can purchase films and receive an MP4 or AVI file instead of streaming or physical disc please?

You could get PRIMA Cinema players for each classroom.

 

• www.theverge.com/2015/4/7/8361475/prima-cinema-luxury-movie-watching-furious-7
   
  

  The only way PRIMA works — the only way studios and theaters are cool with its existence — is by being heart-stoppingly expensive and Fort Knox secure. It needs to be so ridiculous that it doesn’t pose even the smallest threat to the theater business. Without user intervention, movies are automatically delivered to the PRIMA box several days before their theatrical release over its business-class internet connection at 40 gigabytes apiece. There they sit, encrypted, until the studio signs off — and that’s when the biometric authentication comes into play. Only authorized users can rent a movie, which requires that they swipe their thumbprint across the futuristic, angular security terminal designed by BMW’s contract design arm, DesignworksUSA.
   
  The theory behind requiring the biometric authorization is that authorized users (usually just the homeowners) are less likely to invite shady characters over for a viewing party — the kinds of people who might covertly record a movie and post it online. And at $500 per 24-hour rental, you don’t want someone renting Hot Tub Time Machine 2 without your explicit permission, anyway.
   
  [...]
   
  The box is also equipped with accelerometers and will stop working if it’s moved (to quote Yeager, it "Mission Impossibles itself"). It’s tied to an individual homeowner, and an invisible watermark on every movie identifies which box is in use. That way, if a recording does show up online, an owner can be identified and put in the hot seat very, very quickly.

   
  
• www.engadget.com/2013/09/27/prima-cinema-eyes-on/
  

the movie industry is still in the dark ages

^ Pretty much this! They would never let people download MP4s of movies without tons of DRM added.

Edited January 29, 2016 by Arthur

[ZeroHour]

You can see why, though. We've all seen people bring in blatantly illegal downloads/DVDs or use illegal streaming sites - and most see nothing wrong with this, or it doesn't even occur to them that it's copyright infringement. Then there are the people who would have a field day if downloading and sharing a movie was as easy as downloading and sharing a pdf. Unfortunately those people who are prepared to play by the rules get penalised because so many others won't.

 

I can see why they are worried but effectively they lose the chance to gain revenue from legitimate sales because of the fear it would be mass shared which happens anyway. There would be a fear of x member of staff copying the file to their device but drm could help as long as its not a pain to implement. I am not against DRM when it has potentially valid uses for example a client you rolled out to desktops that pulled the drm from a central server permitting the playback. It would make it easy to manage and license films and videos then without the same issues DRM has when its implemented for home users.

[zebulunn]

Lots of DVDs come with digital copies these days. I have no idea what DRM they use though as I stream everything..

[Arthur]

I have no idea what DRM they use though as I stream everything..

UltraViolet.

[ZeroHour]

Lots of DVDs come with digital copies these days. I have no idea what DRM they use though as I stream everything..

 

UltraViolet.

 

Also normally those dvds permit home use only.

[LeMarchand]

You could get PRIMA Cinema players for each classroom.

 

When I win the lottery I'll install it in my Game of Thrones fan creates ultimate viewing room .

 

I can see why they are worried but effectively they lose the chance to gain revenue from legitimate sales because of the fear it would be mass shared which happens anyway.

 

I guess they've done the sums and don't think it's viable.

 

Lots of DVDs come with digital copies these days. I have no idea what DRM they use though as I stream everything..

 

I looked into Ultraviolet, but it was more hassle than it was worth for me. YMMV.

[Arthur]

Also normally those dvds permit home use only.

Indeed. The same would almost certainly apply to Google Play Movies (which lets you watch movies offline, but only on Chrome OS devices).