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Ever bought a Blu-ray movie and noticed how most of them come with that “Digital Copy” for downloading to your Apple iPhone or iPod? If you just so happen to be an Android fanboy and a movie buff, you might have been feeling a little left out of the mix. Apparently, movie studios have a hard time trusting Android’s DRM system and it’s made them a little nervous when it came to publishing digital copies for our beloved OS. But don’t worry, because it looks like the tides may be changing.
Thanks in part to 20th Century Fox who (I didn’t even know this) made Unstoppable the first Hollywood release to feature Digital Copy for Android users. Now 20th Century Fox is ready to go full steam ahead and will begin releasing digital downloads for Android users this fall. Apparently, they will be using the power of Google’s Widevine DRM to control access to their films. It’s a system we’re currently being used by companies like Blockbuster in their movie app.
Fox’s digital copy service will act a little differently then with what we’re currently used to. The content wont be stored on the disc itself, but require a user to go online and download the movie from Fox’s servers. You can look forward to the first Android compatible release with the release of X-men: First Class on Blu-ray and will be available first in the US, UK, France and Germany. Hopefully other movie studios will start to catch on soon after.
How do you guys feel about this? Will this sway you to purchase more Blu-rays once other movie studios get on board?
[Via FT]
I’ve never understood what people keep saying about digital copies not working on Android. I bought a DVD set of Star Trek with a digital copy and it transferred to my Fascinate and plays just fine.
Hmmmmm.. maybe cuz Sammy’s phones are compatible with more video formats?? Dunno..
interesting you say that. i would think that if that were the case that DRM would be irrelevant. the whole DRM restrictions thing pisses me off anyway. I get that companies want to protect their profits but restricting me from putting the movie i BOUGHT in digital format on my phone or other device is going to be counter productive to that as i will be less inclined to add my coin to their coffers.
Yeah the Galaxy S phones can churn almost ANY video. I remember getting my Vibrant and throwing some 720p HD MKV files on there and they all played BEAUTIFULLY. That’s something even my Tegra 2 powered G Slate can’t accomplish. The video struggles to play at a reasonable framerate. People with other tegra 2 devices encounter the same thing when it comes to media playback. It’s really a testimate to the Hummingbird processor in that thing because I have yet to find a video file that it can’t play. It’s a shame the US Galaxy S II’s are going to have Tegra 2s in them because for people who used their phones for video playback they would be taking a step down upgrading to the Galaxy S II.
While I will agree the Hummingbird Processor is a great single core, let’s not give it too much credit. The reason why they play so well is because of the codec support that Samsung bakes into their TouchWiz Overlay. If you were to take a Nexus S and any Galaxy S and have them play the same quality video you’ll notice that the Nexus will have problems, yet they have identical internals. Processor only has a little bit to do with it.
Tegra 2 and every other dual core processor out now is still more powerful than the hummingbird, no question. It’s just a matter of what codec support is put into the rom. Nice Try.
Samsung bought the DivX codec. It’s not just TouchWiz either. I have a launcher pro rom’d vibrant and all the Divx things work on my phone as well.
We buy all our movies blu-ray. It will be nice to have digital copies work again. I liked that with WM 6.5.
Someone invite m
I cant wait for this.. I have tonz of blu rays and I am sooo sick of not being able to have them on my gtab 10.1… freaking sucks.. Also I wish Google would get a “Itunes” like service for movies and crap. I am sick of ripping them just to have to go through 8 million hoops to get it to play on my gtab.. Come on Google..along with a music tag editor.. this is what I miss with Itunes and apple products.. It all just works..
What are you talking about?
The new Android market let’s you buy and download movies, and Google will be releasing their Google Music service soon.
IN THE US.
I’ve been doing it the good ole fashion way…torrenting copies of the blu-rays I own @ 1280 to watch on my Xoom.
i have soo many blu rays someone needs to help me get them on my phoneee