How to legally download movies

[Cos]

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[dj_rice]

Downloading TV shows is illegal?

I can understand movies being illegal but TV shows?Wouldn't it be the same as TiVO'ing it?

[rage2]

Originally posted by Cos
Where, besides iTunes, can you download .AVI's or similar so that I could use on my server? I think this is a huge missing in the marketplace today.
Downloads are dead. It's all about the cloud now that we can stream HD efficiently.

So nice not having to worry about storage at home. I've got about 50 or 60 movies, and hundreds of TV shows now purchased through Apple TV, and I can watch it anywhere I have access to an Apple TV. Come over to your house? No probs. Login to my account on your Apple TV, my whole library is there for the taking. I've pretty much stopped buying Blu-Rays as well, unless there's a digital download option and at around the same price.

I'm hoping that one day there's a iTunes movie match, so I can store all my movies on the cloud and not worry about local storage. I'm already subscribed to Music Match for $25/year, and I've deleted my entire music collection locally. Restore a new iPhone? No prob, music is already there through match service!

[Zhariak]

Originally posted by dj_rice
Downloading TV shows is illegal?

I can understand movies being illegal but TV shows?Wouldn't it be the same as TiVO'ing it?

Yes, TV shows are protected under the same copyrights as movies...

When you get a Shaw PVR, or some other provider based PVR, you accepted to their terms of service which outline digital rights and usage.

This is why you can't connect most PVRs to computers to extract their video footage...

[Cos]

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[natty54]

Google Play has their version of movies:

https://play.google.com/store/movies?hl=en

[Cos]

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[rage2]

I used iTunes because of how well it integrated with AppleTV. I'm not sure if other providers have players yet other than off a PC or Tablet. As mentioned, Google has a service, YouTube has a rental service, and Amazon has one too.

As for the cloud, the movies are shared by everyone and you only have access to stream it. I'm sure if they lost a movie, they can get another copy. Not that it would happen anyways. To be honest, your risk of losing stuff on local storage due to hardware failure is probably a lot higher than losing it off the cloud. Only risk is company going under.

In terms of pricing, iTunes charges $20 for HD, which is in line with most blu ray purchases.

[Cos]

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[eblend]

Originally posted by Cos


Cool thanks. I am starting to come around on cloud stuff but I still have copies of crap. Hence why I have 3 or 4 PC's in the house that all back up. My biggest issue is that I use a lot of my content offline. I have my bike set up in the basement and I watch movies through an .AVI on a USB key when I go down there. Going 100% streaming is going to be a bit of an issue. This was because I havent owed a DVD player in 5 or 6 years and didnt want to relocate my xbox into the basement.

Not sure why I am afraid of the cloud. I guess to me if my hardware fails that is on me. If google 'forgets' where they put my purchases I just dont like it. Haha

Google and or amazon or apple would all have insane redundancy for their cloud offerings, so chances of them losing something is very slim...though it is possibly, like those people who lost all their contacts and content off their Sidekick devices in the states, but that was a relatively small operation and procedures were not followed, which is very unlikely when your user base is that big. I would personally trust google and or Microsoft more over Apple, as I know that apple has had a few incidents recently with their icloud solution, but I don't think any data was lost, just wasn't available for some time.

Also, why would anyone buy a digital copy of a movie for $20 bucks when you can't actually have it? I would be cool with paying like $5 for a movie to own in the cloud somewhere, but to pay nearly retail price of a physical media for an online version seems pretty high

[Alterac]

Amazon cloud :D LOL those guys have problems.

But in general I kinda agree, except our internet plans in canada are archaic for the limits. :(

I dont feel like im getting anything, when i pay for something digital...

What happens if one of those services goes tit's up? or changes there drm models, or whatever?

I think if you go see a move at the theatre, you should get a 50% off coupon for the hard version, and a free copy of the digital version (once its released on media).

[403Gemini]

I'm so skeptical with streaming media... maybe it's why I haven't jumped on the Netflix bandwagon... I like the feeling of ownership, having something tangent like an actual file at the very least that I can re-download in case I forget to back it up when I reformat (like Steam and video games). But not actually owning the movies just feels like you're renting all the time with streaming. I guess it's like leasing vs financing a car to me. I'd rather put money towards something that I can say I own vs "I have access too"

[v2kai]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2012/sep/03/bruce-willis-apple-itunes-library

"Lots of people will be surprised on learning all those tracks and books they have bought over the years don't actually belong to them,"

http://articles.marketwatch.com/2012-08-23/finance/33336852_1_digital-content-digital-files-apple-and-amazon

Until you actually have ownership of files, local storage > cloud in my books.

I think there is definitely a demand for a digital download option in the marketplace where ownership of the file/purchase is actually yours. I'm not keen on being forced into a cloud solution where I am paying for access only. Eblend also made a good point about pricing of purchase and possession of a digitally distributed copy versus real world hardware. Make digital ownership and distribution cheap and easy and people will use it IMO. Still hoping for something to fill that void...

[Mitsu3000gt]

Originally posted by 403Gemini
I'm so skeptical with streaming media... maybe it's why I haven't jumped on the Netflix bandwagon... I like the feeling of ownership, having something tangent like an actual file at the very least that I can re-download in case I forget to back it up when I reformat (like Steam and video games). But not actually owning the movies just feels like you're renting all the time with streaming. I guess it's like leasing vs financing a car to me. I'd rather put money towards something that I can say I own vs "I have access too"

Until the streaming services offer 1080P and DTS MA/DD HD there is no interest for me. I understand that may be past current bandwidth limitations, but I would be on board in a heartbeat if they offered anything close to a blu-ray.

[Xtrema]

Originally posted by 403Gemini
I'm so skeptical with streaming media... maybe it's why I haven't jumped on the Netflix bandwagon... I like the feeling of ownership, having something tangent like an actual file at the very least that I can re-download in case I forget to back it up when I reformat (like Steam and video games). But not actually owning the movies just feels like you're renting all the time with streaming. I guess it's like leasing vs financing a car to me. I'd rather put money towards something that I can say I own vs "I have access too"

I know storage is getting cheaper and cheaper all the time but really how often are you going to watch something that will probably re-release in different resolution, feature about every decade.

Streaming is a good solution to get rid of piracy but streaming still have 3 issues IMO,

1) bandwidth constraint with ISP and streaming provider. I still find Netflix streaming in HD highly inferior to downloads or BlueRay. But for odd comedy and shows, it doesn't matter. I have no experience with iTunes. May be they have better infrastructure since you pay more.

2) pricing and selection. Studios are still very protective about their property and 3rd party streaming them. No single provider got the all the movie in the world in their collection.

3) as said by many before, I still have problem with ownership vs access when it comes to streaming. I have no problem paying $8 a month to access Netflix. But I have a problem with paying $20 to "own" a movie on iTunes or Google Play.

[rage2]

I just take a step back and ignore the "something in my hand" ownership, and treat it more as them storing my stuff for me so I'm not hoarding a bunch of stuff. At the end of the day, I can watch the movie as many times as I want, anytime I want, with greater convienence than looking thru my shelf for my movie, popping it in, and pressing play. I skip getting up haha.

As for the canadian ISP bandwidth constraits, I have a 500GB allocation, watch 80% of my stuff streamed, and used a whopping 250GB on the worst month. Not even close. I don't torrent, so those limits are more than enough. iTunes movies, Hulu, Netflix, every streaming service I can get my hands on.

Netflix streaming is inferior to Hulu Plus and iTunes TV shows and movies in terms of HD quality. There are a few exceptions, I've seen a handful of Netflix movies in HD that was really high bitrate. iTunes TV and movies are better quality than my DirecTV and Bell Satellite broadcasts. Shows such as walking dead looks better on iTunes than it does on Satellite because of how much compression/downressing that sat providers do. Blu Ray is still way better.

If you're an audiophile/videophile that wants the highest bitrates and the craziest audio codecs for 10.5 speaker systems, close this thread. While iTunes HD is excellent quality, I can see the difference on my 80" screen compared to Bluray. I can't see the difference, however, on my 50" (iTunes HD vs Bluray).

Oh, and that Bruce Willis story is fake. But there is no laws concerning passing on digital rights when you die. I'll worry about that when I die, and hope by then laws have been made. In the meantime, I'll keep my username/password on a piece of paper for my loved ones.

[v2kai]

Originally posted by rage2

Oh, and that Bruce Willis story is fake. But there is no laws concerning passing on digital rights when you die. I'll worry about that when I die, and hope by then laws have been made. In the meantime, I'll keep my username/password on a piece of paper for my loved ones.

nvm then! I had only heard through word of mouth about a case where someone couldnt leave their itunes library in their will. Quick google and I assumed that was the case passing through the grapevine... and this is what happens when you assume:facepalm:

Still not keen on off site/cloud storage placing ownership of items within the care of another entity. For how convenient and cheap local digital storage is I still prefer actual localized ownership.

[Cos]

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