It seems that you're using an outdated browser. Some things may not work as they should (or don't work at all).
We suggest you upgrade newer and better browser like: Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer or Opera

×
Community
General discussionIntroducing GOG.com DRM-Free Movies(632 posts)(632 posts)
(632 posts)
Pages:
1
5
10
15
20
25
28
29
30
31
32
35
40
43
This is my favourite topic
Posted August 27, 2014
Cause there's no business like show-business!

Our DRM-Free approach to digital distribution has been the foundation of GOG.com since day one and we're convinced it is now firmly rooted in the gaming industry landscape. More and more users start to expect and demand the digital content they paid for to be free from any kind of restrictive mechanisms that limit access to their collections and get in the way of enjoyment. We think this is a good time to take the next step in our quest to make digital entertainment better for everyone. Today we set out to spread our DRM-Free ideas across the movie industry! That's right: GOG.com now offers DRM-Free movies.

Our goal is to offer you cinema classics as well as some all-time favorite TV series with no DRM whatsoever, for you to download and keep on your hard drive or stream online whenever you feel like it. We talked to most of the big players in the movie industry and we often got a similar answer: "We love your ideas, but … we do not want to be the first ones. We will gladly follow, but until somebody else does it first, we do not want to take the risk". DRM-Free distribution is not a concept their lawyers would accept without hesitation. We kind of felt that would be the case and that it's gonna take patience and time to do it, to do it, to do it right. That's quite a journey ahead of us, but every gamer knows very well that great adventures start with one small step. So why not start with something that feels very familiar? We offer you a number of gaming and internet culture documentaries - all of them DRM-Free, very reasonably priced, and presenting some fascinating insight into topics close to a gamer's heart. Now, what do we have in store for you?

- There's a whole new Movie Catalog for you to browse!
- All the movies we sell are priced at $5.99 (that's a launch promo price for a few of them), and we aim to have that as the main price point for most of our future releases
- Two of the movies - The Art of Playing and TPB AFK: The Pirate Bay Away From Keyboard are available for FREE, so that you can test our new movie distribution features
- Most of our movies are in Full HD 1080p quality, some in 720p. With those of you with limited bandwidth or download quota in mind, we also supply much lighter 576p versions.
- Apart from downloading your movies you have the option to watch them streaming online, right here on GOG.com
- GOG.com is famous for its bonus goodies - each movie will come with as many of them as we can muster
- You can expect subsequent movie releases each week

That's it. GOG.com Movies is a go, time to get some popcorn!
Posted August 29, 2014
avatar
haydenaurion: I've said it before, unless gog can get some good anime and foreign films, I will have close to zero interest in the new movie side of gog.
avatar
JudasIscariot: We are working all the time to get all sorts of cool and interesting movies and even genres but this will take time depending on the willingness of various movie creators or publishers willingness to go DRM-free :)
I hope so and soon, because if the rumors of Steam jumping into the movie market soon are true (and I think they are), gog's movie venture could be in trouble.
Posted August 29, 2014
avatar
JudasIscariot: We are working all the time to get all sorts of cool and interesting movies and even genres but this will take time depending on the willingness of various movie creators or publishers willingness to go DRM-free :)
avatar
haydenaurion: I hope so and soon, because if the rumors of Steam jumping into the movie market soon are true (and I think they are), gog's movie venture could be in trouble.
Not really, since Steam would be DRMed so not really different from many other DRMed options, while GOG offers something unique here. It's not like GOG and Steam are the only video distributors. The main competitors here are Netflix, Amazon, Google, Apple and the like. So Steam will just join the long list of other DRMed services and won't stand out in any way.
Post edited August 29, 2014 by shmerl
Posted August 29, 2014
avatar
haydenaurion: I hope so and soon, because if the rumors of Steam jumping into the movie market soon are true (and I think they are), gog's movie venture could be in trouble.
avatar
shmerl: Not really, since Steam would be DRMed so not really different from many other DRMed options, while GOG offers something unique here. It's not like GOG and Steam are the only video distributors. The main competitors here are Netflix, Amazon, Google, Apple and the like.
I hope you're right.
Posted August 29, 2014
avatar
shmerl: Not really, since Steam would be DRMed so not really different from many other DRMed options, while GOG offers something unique here. It's not like GOG and Steam are the only video distributors. The main competitors here are Netflix, Amazon, Google, Apple and the like.
Yeah but the problem is that Steam's user base is 100 times bigger then gog's and a lot of Steam users are also gog users and they will go for the movie when it is available. Remember all the comments when games are released on gog. For example this: O I am sorry but I already bought that on Steam, etc...
Posted August 29, 2014
Well, I am not reading through the whole 20 something pages of posts previous to this, but I think GOG should focus on animations rather than live action movies, and you dear reader might wonder "Why would they do something like that?" Well, because many gamers also like animated movies a lot, sometimes even more than live action movies (Myazaki's artpieces might be an example), also there are many animated films forgotten by time which deserve new life, and GOG is known for breathing new life into dusty corpsese every now and then, and finally, It is easier for big studios to let go their Direct to TV/DVD/Online movies, many of which are animated.
Also they should try to get deals for "So bad it's good" films like Sharknado and Machete.
Posted August 29, 2014
avatar
Matruchus: Yeah but the problem is that Steam's user base is 100 times bigger then gog's and a lot of Steam users are also gog users and they will go for the movie when it is available. Remember all the comments when games are released on gog. For example this: O I am sorry but I already bought that on Steam, etc...
Those who don't care about DRM are probably already getting video elsewhere (like Netflix / Amazon). So GOG doesn't lose much here if Steam rolls anything out. The initial project appeals only to hardcore DRM-free supporters (especially given the small choice here). But as it will grow, more people will hopefully start using it as well.

As with games, people who jump to Steam if GOG delays something aren't really loyal DRM-free customers, they just use GOG casually. But if GOG have an option to get some releases faster, why not. I don't think they waste time without reason.
Post edited August 29, 2014 by shmerl
Posted August 29, 2014
avatar
Matruchus: Yeah but the problem is that Steam's user base is 100 times bigger then gog's and a lot of Steam users are also gog users and they will go for the movie when it is available. Remember all the comments when games are released on gog. For example this: O I am sorry but I already bought that on Steam, etc...
avatar
shmerl: Those who don't care about DRM are probably already getting video elsewhere (like Netflix / Amazon). So GOG doesn't lose much here if Steam rolls anything out. The initial project appeals only to hardcore DRM-free supporters (especially given the small choice here). But as it will grow, more people will hopefully start using it as well.
The difference is the same person who is hardcore DRM-free when it comes to games may not hold the same standard when it comes to movies. I also think you probably need to remove services like Netflix from the equation as you are not buying movies when you subscribe to that service.
Post edited August 29, 2014 by synfresh
Posted August 29, 2014
avatar
shmerl: Those who don't care about DRM are probably already getting video elsewhere (like Netflix / Amazon). So GOG doesn't lose much here if Steam rolls anything out. The initial project appeals only to hardcore DRM-free supporters (especially given the small choice here). But as it will grow, more people will hopefully start using it as well.
avatar
synfresh: The difference is the same person who is hardcore DRM-free when it comes to games may not hold the same standard when it comes to movies.
Why not? DRM is nasty always and everywhere. Why would you be lax with it on video more than on games? What about e-books and other media?
avatar
synfresh: I also think you probably need to remove services like Netflix from the equation as you are not buying movies when you subscribe to that service.
I don't think you should ignore Netflix as a competitor. As was discussed above already, while they provide a renting service, most people anyway watch the majority of films once. What is the replay value in them? How many films you want to watch many times? I bet just a few that you really like. So for comparing the competition, it's not so critical that Netflix is renting and not selling video, since even if it'd be selling it, people would watch most things once.

There is a value in DRM-free experience even for "watch it once" type of films. For instance standard compliant HTML streaming without DRM junk clients required to watch it and so on.
Post edited August 29, 2014 by shmerl
Posted August 29, 2014
avatar
JudasIscariot: As I said to Crosmando, we'll be adding MKV versions of movies and you can choose whether you want the MP4 version or the MKV :)
How about the original full quality retail version? Assuming for example you obtain Howl's Moving Castle Blu-ray at some point, I'm only interested in buying it with the full blu-ray encode with the 2 lossless audio tracks, the high bit-rate French track and all the subtitles. It comes on a 50GB Blu-ray Disc as it doesn't fit on a 25GB disc. Feel free to make the original quality version download only, which by the way is how I personally would use the service.

Honestly though I have no real confidence that GOG would not transcode everything to begin with including 1080p versions. I'm basing this in part on certain soundtracks. I will say I do appreciate GOG's & your response to those soundtracks even if for example the Witcher soundtrack, pre-FLAC, had problems for far too long. With movies this is a primary concern and not just some extra.
Post edited August 29, 2014 by Gydion
Posted August 29, 2014
avatar
synfresh: The difference is the same person who is hardcore DRM-free when it comes to games may not hold the same standard when it comes to movies.
avatar
shmerl: Why not? DRM is nasty always and everywhere. Why would you be lax with it on video more than on games? What about e-books and other media?
avatar
synfresh: I also think you probably need to remove services like Netflix from the equation as you are not buying movies when you subscribe to that service.
avatar
shmerl: I don't think you should ignore Netflix as a competitor. As was discussed above already, while they provide a renting service, most people anyway watch the majority of films once. What is the replay value in them? How many films you want to watch many times? I bet just a few that you really like. So for comparing the competition, it's not so critical that Netflix is renting and not selling video, since even if it'd be selling it, people would watch most things once.

There is a value in DRM-free experience even for "watch it once" type of films. For instance standard compliant HTML streaming without DRM junk clients required to watch it and so on.
Are digital movies not DRM-free when you download them from Amazon? I don't know i've never bought a digital movie (thanks Netflix), just curious.
Posted August 29, 2014
avatar
synfresh: Are digital movies not DRM-free when you download them from Amazon? I don't know i've never bought a digital movie (thanks Netflix), just curious.
I don't think Amazon video ever lets you backing up anything, or even watch it DRM free (HTML streaming). I'm not using it however, so I've heard about it indirectly. Same thing with iTunes, Google Play video and so on.

If anyone used it, feel free to correct me.

UPDATE:

Here you go: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amazon_Instant_Video

Customers of Amazon Instant Video need only a web browser with Silverlight to stream videos.

For transfer to portable device, the service requires the installation of a client application which manages playback and the transfer of video to portable devices that bear the Microsoft PlaysForSure certification, such as the Creative Zen or a Portable Media Center.
All kind of DRM junk right there.
Post edited August 29, 2014 by shmerl
Posted August 29, 2014
avatar
synfresh: Are digital movies not DRM-free when you download them from Amazon? I don't know i've never bought a digital movie (thanks Netflix), just curious.
avatar
shmerl: I don't think Amazon video ever lets you backing up anything, or even watch it DRM free (HTML streaming). I'm not using it however, so I've heard about it indirectly. Same thing with iTunes, Google Play video and so on.

If anyone used it, feel free to correct me.

UPDATE:

Here you go: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amazon_Instant_Video

Customers of Amazon Instant Video need only a web browser with Silverlight to stream videos.

For transfer to portable device, the service requires the installation of a client application which manages playback and the transfer of video to portable devices that bear the Microsoft PlaysForSure certification, such as the Creative Zen or a Portable Media Center.
avatar
shmerl: All kind of DRM junk right there.
I'm not talking about Prime (which is basically like Netflix) but when you individually buy a movie off of them.
Posted August 29, 2014
avatar
synfresh: I'm not talking about Prime (which is basically like Netflix) but when you individually buy a movie off of them.
That's where they "sell" them and rent as well (Amazon Instant Video). They don't have other video services, unless you mean simply buying physical DVDs and such. And it's all DRMed.
Post edited August 29, 2014 by shmerl
Posted August 29, 2014
Hopefully we can get new movies next week?

And... what about Galaxy?
Posted August 29, 2014
avatar
ShadowWulfe: Hopefully we can get new movies next week?

And... what about Galaxy?
New movies are coming, yes :)

As for Galaxy, all I can say is "Soon" :)
Pages:
1
5
10
15
20
25
28
29
30
31
32
35
40
43
This is my favourite topic
Community
General discussionIntroducing GOG.com DRM-Free Movies(632 posts)(632 posts)
(632 posts)