The lowdown on Knock-off nigel

[Skull]

Why would anyone pay $20 for a film they could see at the cinema for $7, or download for $0.

 

[Zogger]

Why would anyone pay $20 for a film they could see at the cinema for $7, or download for $0.

Dunno, I heard about this technology called dvds retailing for about that price but I don't know if they ever took off

I think there is a movie download service or two in the works (possibly already existing?)

 

[RuMp3l4$k1n]

But you're still just saying the films are crap so they're not worth paying for. If they're so bad, why are you watching them?

No I'm retracting that part of my comment but explaining to you why I feel film as an art form is **** right now. As to why I watch the films, if I didn't study the art form how could I possibly expect to change it in the future? Or even have the right to critique it?

I am by no means a prolific pirate btw I can very rarely bring myself to sit in front of a movie these days, I even have around 20 dvds that I have bought but not watched or unwrapped. Most of my activity will come from boredom or stuff being passed along to me(freely).

As a counter to this download services for Legal copies of films are becoming much more attractive to me, as long as things like drm and 'rental' periods are sorted I can see the ease of having movies being legally stored on my media devices being great. Cost appears to be better in this area also and I look forward to seeing Microsoft launching the tv/film service for 360 this year.

On Nexys point my recent trip to the cinema with my gf cost as much as a dvd would new (not including food and drinks) and I had to sit through half an hour of adverts before it started. The knock of Nigel thing was even wrapped up inside what looked like a trailer for Ratatouille complete with release dates and logos, this was played twice before the film even began!

 

[Deep]

here is a question for everyone:

If you wanted to watch a film but you didnt know if it would be worth it, would you download it? and if you did download it and then didnt like it would you care that you downloaded it?

i recently downloaded Saw 3, pile of poo, and i dont feel bad about downloading it as i would have been extremely annoyed if i had paid £4 to rent the film.

I once downloaded season 1 of 24 as soon as i had watched 3 episodes i went out and bought 5 seasons! (what fun i had!)

 

[Topgun]

£7 to goto cinema now adays for one person! You go with ya partner you be lucky not to spend £20. Then a DVD comes out and costs like £15-20, a rip off if I say so my self. I will buy DVD's if I like them but only when they have come down in price no way in the world I pay full whack for a DVD.

It is interesting to note that cinemas don't actually make a lot of money on ticket sales, something like 5% on a £7 ticket iirc. Their profit is almost entirely from ancillary services (popcorn, hot dogs, advertising).

The other 95% of ticket revenues goes back to distributers/movie studios of which a huge chunk of that goes back to the actors; whom the studios are prepared to pay big bucks for. This is basically insurance for the studios because with Brad Pitt onboard, even the crappiest movie won't lose you money!

 

[Vonhelmet]

Not being funny, but you can't really say that. How do you know whether something is good or not without watching it for yourself? You can't tell somebody to avoid watching all films?

You don't have the luxury of knowing whether everything will be 100% great before you pay for it, but there are these neat things called reviews, which are often some help in this regard.

At risking of calling down all hell with tangible/intangible arguments, you couldn't justify stealing a packet of crisps to see if you liked the flavour before paying for it, could you?

 

[Hamster]

A downloaded copy would have some sort of size restriction as not everyone has a superfast unlimited broadband connection.

With entertainment companies pushing high definition content, a 700MB download watched on a 50" 1080p plasma wouldn't really cut it. HD films are in the region of 15-25GB in size.

 

[RuMp3l4$k1n]

At risking of calling down all hell with tangible/intangible arguments, you couldn't justify stealing a packet of crisps to see if you liked the flavour before paying for it, could you?

No you couldn't, though you might be cheeky and steal one out your mates packet...


Marmoset I understand what your saying but if we in the UK got our *** into gear and sorted out affordable high speed net access this wouldn't be a problem at all.
Some interesting stats on the 360 movie service (not 10801/p):http://www.engadget.com/2006/11/06/microsofts-xbox-live-video-hdtv-and-hd-movie-downloads-for-you/

# Downloads are in VC-1 (aka WMVHD) at 720p, 6.8Mbps video with 5.1 surround.

# An average HD movie download should be between 4-5GB, and a two hour SD movie would be 1.6GB.

# An average 1 hour (44 min) HDTV download should be about 2.2GB, and an average 1/2 hour (22 min) HDTV download should be about 1GB. A 1 hour SDTV download should be about 600MB, and a 1/2 hour SDTV download should be about 300MB.

 

[Phil99]

You don't have the luxury of knowing whether everything will be 100% great before you pay for it, but there are these neat things called reviews, which are often some help in this regard.

At risking of calling down all hell with tangible/intangible arguments, you couldn't justify stealing a packet of crisps to see if you liked the flavour before paying for it, could you?

But is it such a bad thing to download a movie, see if it's any good and then buy the DVD?

 

[banja]

Piracy doesn't concern me. The slimming off the disgustingly fat wallets of big corporations doesn't bother me at all. Until there is fair distribution of wealth, which there will never be because human nature and greed won't allow it, there will be piracy and poorer people will get stuff for free if they can. Perhaps greedy well off people dl illegal stuff too. Well, again that just tells you more about human nature and greed.

There must be millions of hours of entertainment out there, yet if you're poverty stricken these luxuries will never be there for you. The Bechkam's of this world will earn in a week, sitting injured on a bench, what my father would have to work 25 years for. Explain that to the mortgage paying workers of the world. And those who can't afford mortages or DVD's? Well, let them rot on the streets. After all, if you have even a penny in your pocket you're in the top few percent richest people on the planet. 5.5+ billion people in this world don't give a crap about piracy. There only concern about the Western Capitalism is that they aren't allowed to be part of it.

Most artists making the product don't care about piracy, the ones that do (usually revoltingly rich) just tells us more about human nature and greed.

While they remain poor, poorer people will continue to take stuff for free if they can't afford it. And people who can afford it will take it too. Until they make it impossible to do so. And they'll never make it impossible. If you can hear it, or see it, it can be captured.

And it's funny how the self righteous anti-piracy voice only seems to exist on internet forums. I've never heard anyone voice an opinion against it as self righteously in person. Some people doth protest too much I think.

Personally I don't care. If they bring an end to piracy, I'll be too busy to notice or care. Life's too short to be shafted by the constraints of money.

 

[Hamster]

RuMp3l4$k1n, thanks for the link I didn't know about this format.

4-5GB for an HD movie is a lot less but is still too much to expect people to download, especially with ISP's capping/shaping left right and centre. a 5GB film would take 10 hours on a 1Mbit connection and that's also assuming download speeds are maxxed out.

You're absolutely right, broadband in this country needs a shake-up but things aren't heading in the right direction this particular moment but that's a whole new area for discussion!

 

[FrostedNipple]

RuMp3l4$k1n, thanks for the link I didn't know about this format.

4-5GB for an HD movie is a lot less but is still too much to expect people to download, especially with ISP's capping/shaping left right and centre. a 5GB film would take 10 hours on a 1Mbit connection and that's also assuming download speeds are maxxed out.

You're absolutely right, broadband in this country needs a shake-up but things aren't heading in the right direction this particular moment but that's a whole new area for discussion!

i can do a 4 gig dvd on my 2 meg conncetion well under 10 hours

 

[Hamster]

i can do a 4 gig dvd on my 2 meg conncetion well under 10 hours

That's probably because a 2meg connection is twice as fast as a 1meg connection.

 

[Burnsy2023]

I really believe that the film companies are going the wrong way at reducing piracy. Instead of making people who buy fake DVDs into the devil, educate the public and give them a better option.

Why isn't there a movie iTunes? Why isn't there an easy, cheaper way to download legal movies and watch them at your leisure? We have the internet connections to handle video on demand so why havn't the movie industry stepped up and given us a better alternative to piracy?

If songs are sold for 99p why can't we have a film for £3-£4? Cheaper then the cinema and then maybe we could have DRM to allow the movie to be burnt to a dvd one time only.

Online stores such as iTunes are good for the music industry, they prevent piracy by giving a legal, easy and cheap way to aquire media.

Why is the move industry lagging behind?

Edit: and I'm talking standard definition here, so not amazingly huge files.

Edit2: I really must read the WHOLE thread before posting

Burnsy

 

[Margaret]

I download stuff most the time (<3 2.4MB/s + Usenet) and these ads are just ridiculous, I love how they generalize a bad copy DVD and make it out that every single copied DVD is crap quality.

It's amazing, I hate going to the cinema, for example I paid money for Rush Hour 3, part of the experience was ruined by some idiots behind laughing really, really loud and repeating everything funny said in the movie.

Proper thick idiots as well, couldn't move as it was packed.

 

[FeFiDoh]

You don't have the luxury of knowing whether everything will be 100% great before you pay for it, but there are these neat things called reviews, which are often some help in this regard.

Slight flaw in this theory

Reviews are of people who may not have same taste as you, I enjoy DnB music. Infact I LOVE it, now you may hate it but our tastes are different. I dont really go on reviews. Look in the music & box office section people say they hate one film followed by posts of people saying they love it. Who are you going to believe?

 

[marc2003]

the mods are slacking...... i'm surprised this is still open especially with all these admissions of what you're getting upto. i've seen people suspended for a lot less......

 

[Nexy]

the mods are slacking...... i'm surprised this is still open especially with all these admissions of what you're getting upto. i've seen people suspended for a lot less......

Maybe they can't search for "Piracy" at the moment? I thought they still had the Search button, but maybe not.

Have multiple versions of the same movie with different resolutions, sound qualities and bitrates for people with different requirements. Those with 99999" plasma screens and 10.1 sound can download then 40GB monster, they can probably afford an OC-999 line or whatever. The rest of us can get by with 5.1 and 720p at 5GB. Those in a hurry can stream it realtime in standard def.

 

[Tom|Nbk]

i can do a 4 gig dvd on my 2 meg conncetion well under 10 hours

And I could do one in less than half an hour

 

[the shadow]

some interesting coments here.