Veronica Mars’ Movie Digital Access Leaves Some Fans Screaming Foul (1 Viewer)

Server overload or whatnot they need to get their house in order at some of these electronic sell thru businesses.http://homemediamagazine.com/warner/veronica-mars-movie-digital-access-leaves-some-fans-screaming-foul-32791

This is being blown all out of proportion. I'm a backer who was entitled to the digital download. The issue is that the digital download was made available through Flixter, so people complained.

But this is a no-win. The complaint was 'it doesn't work on X device'. No matter which system they went with, there would be devices that might be shut out. More importantly, at that benefit level, there were a ton of other freebies, and more then that there were 91,000 backers total, of which less then 8,000 were in the camp entitled to the digital download. And only -some- of those complained.
So, we're talking about a pretty small number of people who had even the right to voice a complaint. Having it as a Vudu download was an issue, but come on.. for those people in that smaller group who could complain, Warner ended up offering them to pay their cost if they purchased the digital title for rental elsewhere (like Amazon or Vudu) which is all this was.

mattCR said:

This is being blown all out of proportion. I'm a backer who was entitled to the digital download. The issue is that the digital download was made available through Flixter, so people complained.But this is a no-win. The complaint was 'it doesn't work on X device'. No matter which system they went with, there would be devices that might be shut out. More importantly, at that benefit level, there were a ton of other freebies, and more then that there were 91,000 backers total, of which less then 8,000 were in the camp entitled to the digital download. And only -some- of those complained. So, we're talking about a pretty small number of people who had even the right to voice a complaint. Having it as a Vudu download was an issue, but come on.. for those people in that smaller group who could complain, Warner ended up offering them to pay their cost if they purchased the digital title for rental elsewhere (like Amazon or Vudu) which is all this was.

Click to expand...

. Matt were people purchasing or renting the title. Reading the complaints it seems that it was a purchase and not rental. I agree all blown out of proportion and if the studios and device manufacturers all came together and issued one common standard this would still probably have happened.you mention it was a flixter download but later said VUDU. Do you know which it was???

Towergrove said:

. Matt were people purchasing or renting the title. Reading the complaints it seems that it was a purchase and not rental. I agree all blown out of proportion and if the studios and device manufacturers all came together and issued one common standard this would still probably have happened.

Click to expand...

Delete

Producer comments:https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/559914737/the-veronica-mars-movie-project/posts/777894The bottom line is they keep forcing UV down people's throats and the people aren't having any of it. The FULL rundown of why it's BS, said better than I ever could:http://www.techhive.com/article/2108800/why-veronica-mars-embraced-ultraviolet-and-angered-fans.html

Thought this comment was good"Ultraviolet works great for millions of people. itunes was fine a few years ago when all smart phones and tablets were made by apple. Today more devices are android than ios. With itunes only working with ios, a new universal system had to be put in place so everybody could use the digital copies, not just apple users. Don't blame Ultraviolet that there isn't a way to access UV from apple tv, blame apple. Do you see any video storefronts on apple tv besides itunes? "http://www.techhive.com/article/2108800/why-veronica-mars-embraced-ultraviolet-and-angered-fans.htmlI do think Ultraviolet needs to revamp their system for easier sign up and less connecting from one store to another though I believe it on the way.

Sam Posten said:

Producer comments:https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/559914737/the-veronica-mars-movie-project/posts/777894The bottom line is they keep forcing UV down people's throats and the people aren't having any of it. The FULL rundown of why it's BS, said better than I ever could:http://www.techhive.com/article/2108800/why-veronica-mars-embraced-ultraviolet-and-angered-fans.html

Click to expand...

Eh, look.. I'm glad for anything that isn't an iTunes only option, which to me is garbage. More and more users aren't on Apple devices. 70% of mobile device users are now other-than-apple (Android, WP, etc.) and the apple format isn't universal, you can't watch that content on anything but apple devices.

That said, I favor an alternative, but my UV experience is mixed. Frankly, I really like Vudu. Which I think is a great service and works on everything. But the ultraviolet redemption setup is a mess. If the industry would have just unified and said: we'll back everything on Vudu or whatever, that would have been fine. But starting a new format without any set rules is just not a good deal.
That said, this is why I love physical copies that I convert on my own to a format that will transport to anything I have. I realize most people can't/won't do that, but eh..

I've heard a large number of people complaining that Ultraviolet isn't any good because it doesn't work with iTunes, but these people are often unaware that you can very easily access any Ultraviolet purchase on an iDevice, you just need to get the app for Flixster or Vudu to do so. I like the concept of Ultraviolet - my one complaint is that it's not supported on any of my TV-attached devices. The AppleTV won't support any of the Ultraviolet retailers at all, and my Roku is one of the older ones that doesn't connect to any of the retailers either, and my BD player can't stream fast enough to play anything without severe hiccups and studders along the way. Digital downloads online seem to be stuck in that place where Blu-Ray/HD-DVD was for a while, where if you liked content from one studio you needed one kind of player, if you wanted content from another studio, you needed another player. Now it's seeming like Disney/Apple are the only ones not playing ball with everyone else. I got an email from Disney about their new "Disney Movies Anywhere" but I don't see what the point is - it just took all of my iTunes digital copies and made them streamable on a different website, but with the same Apple device limitations.

That said, shouldn't be surprising that Veronica Mars (a Warner Brothers project) was released for digital download through Flixster (a Warner-owned site).

Correction Josh: You can STREAM those movies if you have wifi bandwidth on an iDevice. good luck downloading them still. And even with the apps that do let you download temporarily you can't manage it with iTunes, which is the point.

Sam, I've never had an issue downloading Ultraviolet content to my iPhone - I have a couple Warner movies on my phone that are downloaded and stored locally on the device, which I've watched when I was in an area without cell service or wifi. I'm not saying that everyone has had a smooth experience - just that mine has been.

iTunes (IMHO) is one of the most destructive, poorly designed pos software I've ever dealt with on a pc. Just garbage. I can't tell you how many times it's 'auto sort' function has screwed up massive libraries I've dealt with, especially dis-organizing soundtracks, various artist compilations, etc. just trash. As far as storing uv locally to a device to travel with, I agree that's a negative. Again, though the benefit for that is only for those in an apple centric ecosystem.

mattCR said:

More importantly, at that benefit level, there were a ton of other freebies, and more then that there were 91,000 backers total, of which less then 8,000 were in the camp entitled to the digital download...

Click to expand...

FWIW, the Kickstarter page for the project indicates nearly 23,000 people are entitled to the digital copy. However, I do agree it is being blown out of proportion. Of course, that applies to pretty much any story these days.

The Kickstarter page indicated what people were going to get, Flixster. It even said the download would be available within a few days of the theatrical release which, in my mind, gives them some wiggle room to deal with distribution problems while still fulfilling their commitment.

But with "news" on the internet, the bigger the stink, the more eyes on your link (maybe I should get that trademarked).

-Keith

mattCR said:

As far as storing uv locally to a device to travel with, I agree that's a negative.

Click to expand...

Are you not able to do that on your device? I've never had an issue downloading it to an iPhone. (When I use my UV on my girlfriend's PS3, it also gives me the option to either stream the movie, or download it.) I'm sorry for potentially causing thread confusion, it's just that I've heard people saying for years that the knock on UV is that you can't download the movie, but I've never had any difficulty doing that - I'm wondering where the breakdown is happening. Is it that certain devices won't allow you to download anything, or that people aren't aware that downloading is an option?

Josh Steinberg said:

Are you not able to do that on your device? I've never had an issue downloading it to an iPhone. (When I use my UV on my girlfriend's PS3, it also gives me the option to either stream the movie, or download it.) I'm sorry for potentially causing thread confusion, it's just that I've heard people saying for years that the knock on UV is that you can't download the movie, but I've never had any difficulty doing that - I'm wondering where the breakdown is happening. Is it that certain devices won't allow you to download anything, or that people aren't aware that downloading is an option?

Click to expand...

To be honest, I've never tried. I hate watching anything on my phone, and when I travel, I've had no problem streaming anything to my tablets, so I've never had the need to go offline.

Wish my Roku 3 had a download option on Vudu. As mentioned you can download to a PS3, I download just a handful of mine that I want full HDX on (I don't have very fast internet) I also download a few things on my Samsung note 2 for when I'm travelling and can't hook up the Roku. Works great for me. I guess I'm one of the 70% not having any apple devices so itunes was a non starter for me.