An interesting little detail has been revealed as of late as The Hollywood Reporter reveals that on the Live Free or Die Hard special edition DVD Fox will be including an electronic copy of the movie that can be played on a computer and select portable video players. The feature will be referred to as Digital Copy and is also expected to be included on future titles as well, although the exact titles are unknown at this time.
This comes on the heels of an October 9th article out of Video Business announcing the Warner Home Video will be testing the digital waters as well with a downloadable digital copy of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix when it hits shelves on Dec. 11, but as VB points out this is not the first time this has been available as consumers who bought Superman Returns at Walmart were getting a disc that had a downloadable copy of the movie.
In talking about the Die Hard 4 download The Hollywood Reporter says that the DRM-free feature allows consumers to quickly and easily transfer the movie file to Windows-based computers (sorry Mac owners) or portable video players equipped with Microsoft Windows’ PlaysForSure feature, available from such manufacturers as Archos, Toshiba, Samsung, RCA, Dell and Creative Labs.
To utilize the Digital Copy feature, consumers can insert Disc 2 of the Live Free DVD into their computer. A menu will pop up, giving users the choice of either executing the Digital Copy application or launching the DVD special features. If the Digital Copy application is selected, the computer will verify the proper requirements and ask the user to enter a 16-digit serial code, found inside the DVD case. After selecting a destination — either the computer’s hard drive or a connected PlaysForSure video player — the transfer will begin, and the program will be ready for playback after about five minutes.
Apparently the process will take a minimum of 45 minutes to complete just so you can watch a poor quality version the size of a thumbnail on something like an iPod. I honestly don’t understand why anyone would watch movies on portable devices as opposed to reading a book or just listening to music, especially in an age where quality is stressed and a home video war is even being waged between HD DVD and Blu-ray to decide supremacy. However, here it comes, have fun.
