Staples to stock Flexplay self-destructing DVDs (1 Viewer)

[Todd Erwin]

Saw this story on KCAL-9 news last night.

Apparently, Flexplay is still around, and has made a deal for Staples to begin stocking these "self-destructing" DVDs in their stores. I thought after the failed Disney experiment a few years back in Arizona Flexplay would have cashed in their chips by now.

At $4 to $6 per disc, that is still too expensive for this to really take off, even at Staples.

The only good application for this technology I can see is for Academy, film festival, and review "screeners."

 

[Todd_W_Zimmrman]

Does it address the viewer as "Mr. Phelps"?

 

[Jeff Jacobson]

It is still a stupid idea.

 

[Bonedwarf]

In the 21st century, when climate change, global warming, dwindling resources and the like, it's awesome to see some companies are still happy to produce disposable crap for no good bloody reason other than that they can. Yeah, screw the planet. Let's pile up more crap in the landfill. Let's produce something that the consumer has no need or use for.

Todd: There IS no good use for these things. They're an utter waste of resources and a drain on the planet. Not to mention that I doubt these are any less rippable than regular DVD's, so if someone is going to rip it, they'll just do it immediately instead in the case of screeners etc...

This product is like someone coming up and saying "HEY! WANNA BUY SOME CANCER?!" It's that useful and necessary.

 

[Radioman970]

they should shape these like fast food cup tops. Then we could buy, watch, then send them to Burger King for reuse.

 

[mylan]

This is like Divx all over again, it failed the last time and it will fail again.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

Agreed, I don't see how this has any sort of success large enough to justify continuing it. It seems silly to expect people to go to the trouble of driving to a store and paying more than the cost of a rental (if they're indeed $6) for something they'll only see once. I'd still say it was ridiculous if gas prices were as low as they were the last time this idea reared its ugly head, but especially with the high price of gas, who wants to drive to pick up a disposable DVD when they can get the same thing through Pay-Per-View on their cablebox for less fuss and less money?

 

[AndrewWickliffe]

Considering those one-dollar rental things are about to put blockbuster's brick and mortars out of business...
What about the DIVX failure did Flexplay not understand?