03.02.10
Get a Free DivX Cartoon
Currently the #1 download at Film Fresh is a free cartoon by Sid the Science Kid from PBS.
Film Fresh offers lots of DivX movies for sale that will play on a Mac or PC but also work in any DivX certified device. Do you have a DivX device? Maybe a DVD player with a DivX logo or a Sony Playstation 3? This free video allows you to try out DivX at zero cost.
Using the DivX Video On Demand (VOD) system can be kind of difficult for new users and I’d like to know how it could be improved. Pretend to be an average consumer. Can you get this cartoon to play on your DivX DVD player? How many steps do you have to go through? What problems do you encounter? Is there some point at which most people would just give up?
Davis Freeberg said,
March 2, 2010 at 9:27 pm
I think that the biggest thing that you could do to improve the service would be to create some kind of a monthly rental program instead of having everything be 24 hour rentals or download to own. I understand that not every film could be included, but even if it was just all you can eat indie movies, it’d be worth paying $5 – $10 a month. I think that Jaman also supports DivX and they have a ton of great content in need of an audience. At $20 a download the current prices are just too much for the DivX;) savvy customer.
wfrantz said,
March 4, 2010 at 12:50 pm
Thanks Davis, although I was hoping for feedback along like lines of, “that settings menu was hard to find” rather than “you should bring harmony to this incongruous world.”
IMHO, renting digital media doesn’t make sense. It’s become an artificial construct anyway. There are widely available tools and laptops that make it easy to practice “rent, rip and return” without even leaving the Blockbuster parking lot. So why pretend there is any difference between renting a movie and selling a movie? I would rather see Download-To-Own become so cheap that offering a rental service isn’t a practical business model. I believe Hollywood should sell digital copies for about the same cost as renting a physical disc.
Alternatively, as you suggest, a subscription model makes a lot of sense and DivX is one of the few technologies that supports a New-Replaces-Old rental model that seemed to work so well for Netflix. Unfortunately, NRO for digital media does not neatly fit into the business models of Hollywood studios and digital NRO is just hard for most consumers to wrap their head around.
In any event, your advice is better targeted at Film Fresh and/or Hollywood. DivX doesn’t create or sell media. Nonetheless, I take it to heart and endeavor to chip away where I can.
For those who don’t know Davis Freeberg, he is a prolific blogger on all things digital media. Sometimes I envision a foaming lunatic but usually he dispenses sage wisdom. I’m honored he stopped by my site and certainly encourage everyone to visit his.
Davis Freeberg said,
March 4, 2010 at 2:43 pm
I tend to view myself more as a foaming lunatic than any kind of sage, but can appreciate the challenges that you are up against. Here’s hoping that purchases get cheaper than rentals sooner than later.