I applaud the developments of the movie industry to allow the downloading of movies through a new venture called Movielink.
The mere existence of this initiative doesn’t help their arguments made during the 2006 Oscars: nothing replaces the magic of going to the movies and that downloading movies therefore is like reading a graphic novel of a classic book.
But at least the movie studios realize that argument isn’t going to work on people paying through the nose for high-speed Internet connection. Also, the masses are going to go after what they want, even if Widescreen is better than Fullscreen.
Welcome to the future, Movie Industry. Sort of.
While you are actually acknowledging the desires of your customers by creating this service, you’re not quite there as evidenced by this warning message I received when I tried to use the site (emphasis is mine):
Sorry, but as of May 2, 2005, Movielink no longer supports Windows 98 and ME operating systems. Movielink also does not support Mac or Linux.
In order to enjoy the Movielink service, you must use Windows 2000 or XP, which support certain technologies we utilize for downloading movies.
I’ll grant the movie industry some slack in acknowledging that most people are using a flavor of Microsoft OS including, I don’t know, say, movie studio bosses. However, movie studios are denying so many people by relying on technology that’s OS-specific. Open up the system in order it works with other systems. Why? It means more customers.
If the only hurdles are the cost of software and servers, think about how much money was spent on Waterworld. Spare your customers another mega-motion picture failure and, instead, recreate your business model. In the end that would truly be great movie magic.
They also have browser requirements. Its not too hard now a days to make a website look and work the same everywhere. On a different note have you tried http://www.theveniceproject.com/ still in beta but its something to check out.