Looking at the new distribution method from the consumer’s perspective, Captain used three burn-to-DVD services — CinemaNow, which distributes adult titles; MovieLink, which is jointly owned by MGM, Paramount, Sony Pictures, Universal Studios and Warner Bros.; and EZTakes, a little-known online distributor of independent, classic and foreign titles.
“At its best, it’s like Blockbuster without the drive or Netflix without the postal service,” Captain said. “With a good broadband connection, your movie arrives in about an hour and a half; delivery requires merely clicking the download button.”
While Captain said “there is definitely a market for movies that you can download and own,” he worried that the current process leaves something to be desired in terms of quality.
“Right now, though, this stuff works better in theory than in practice,” Captain said. “The original download, which remains playable from your hard drive, looks at least as good as a store-bought DVD. But converting it from Windows Media Video to the MPEG-2 format for burning purposes compromises the quality — it's like making a photocopy of a photocopy.”
Offering Vivid a backhanded compliment, Captain concluded that the quality problems were less pronounced in adult titles than in many mainstream films. Watching the Vivid title “Third Date,” he said the quality issues were less apparent because the “‘real’ DVD was so cheaply produced that it had nearly as many flaws as the download version.”
Through its AllAdultChannel website, CinemaNow also distributes titles from Red Light District, Evil Angel, Elegant Angel, New Sensations and Hustler.
Captain’s review of the mainstream title “Scent of a Woman” downloaded and burned to DVD was equally critical. From time to time, the faces would appear blurry or pixilated, he said.
According to Captain, only the indie-focused EZTakes service adequately solved the technology problem — in part because it offers no piracy protection at all. From a consumer’s perspective, a service like EZTakes won’t take off unless it can offer a competitive library of titles. But the lack of copy protection, according to Captain, is precisely why Hollywood won’t endorse EZTakes.
Hoping to bridge the gap between services with content and effective technology solutions, Captain concludes his review with a wish that Apple and Netflix — two companies that have expressed an interest in building their movie download services — learn from the shortcomings of the firms that were first to market with the new distribution paradigm. Ideally, Captain said, firms such as Apple and Netflix would marry vast libraries with easy-to-use, high-quality technology.