We FINALLY got an update on UV's CFF (Common File Format) (1 Viewer)

The UltraViolet Demystified FAQs was finally updated yesterday. They gave an update on CFF:

What happened to some of the original features?


In 2014 and 2015, based on a feedback from the first three years of operation, DECE made UltraViolet simpler for consumers to use and for services to implement.

• The Common File Format (CFF) was made optional. Studios are no longer required to encode in CFF. Retailers are no longer required to make CFF downloads available and deliver DRM playback licenses for every approved DRM.
  No UV Players (CFF players) have been made available. Services have chosen to provide their own options for downloading and for offline playback.
• No UV files (CFF downloads) have been made available. Interoperable files (see 3.3.5) was an important part of the original UltraViolet usage model, but it turned out that users stream more than they download, and when downloading they download over again to each device rather than attempting to copy files between devices.

Click to expand...

Link: http://uvdemystified.com/uvfaq.html#toc1.3.1



Sigh. I remember last year somebody on the Vudu forums was saying that CFF was available right now, but that it was now optional & up to the retailers if they want to use it. Looks like he was right.

Here's the link to those threads: https://forum.vudu.com/showthread.php?944289-CFF-delayed-to-2nd-half-of-the-year&p=1275375#post1275375

https://forum.vudu.com/showthread.php?945930-When-Will-VUDU-Roll-Out-The-Common-File-Format


I really hope iTunes joins UV. That would fix everybody's issues with lack of a digital download file that you can transfer to other devices.

Don't hold your breath.

Sad!

That was me. And until just now I thought that since it was optional, that no one would deploy it. But according to the FAQ, Vidity is just a wrapper for CFF files. So we will still get them, but they will be marketed as vidity, and not CFF.


http://uvdemystified.com/uvfaq.html#3.2

Joshua Clinard said:

That was me. And until just now I thought that since it was optional, that no one would deploy it. But according to the FAQ, Vidity is just a wrapper for CFF files. So we will still get them, but they will be marketed as vidity, and not CFF.


http://uvdemystified.com/uvfaq.html#3.2

Click to expand...

Just saw this post. Very interesting...

Anybody using Vidity? or is it even available yet? With 4K working with the new Roku it may be nice to download some of those 4K movies...

[email protected] said:

Anybody using Vidity? or is it even available yet? With 4K working with the new Roku it may be nice to download some of those 4K movies...

Click to expand...

It's been available since early this year, but it doesn't seem to be making much of a splash. Players (hard drives?) are available on Amazon but they won't hold much. I think AVSForum has a long thread going with people who own it...

Patrick Donahue said:

It's been available since early this year, but it doesn't seem to be making much of a splash. Players (hard drives?) are available on Amazon but they won't hold much. I think AVSForum has a long thread going with people who own it...

Click to expand...

Its been available this year but the big push will come in 2016 so Im told. There are only a few drive and players available right now. Almost like an early adopter test in my opinion.

Thanks for the info.

Again, this is where the paradox of choice comes back to bite all these stores. Even if they have attractive features that help them stand out from the competition how can they hope to compete against the scale of Vudu and Amazon? Realistically all of these other stores are dead men walking. Even possibly Microsoft and Sony's.

Microsoft & Sony's are kind of different animals because they mix in with their console market, which sells anyway. In other words: they aren't really worried about how many sell on it because it isn't the principle revenue engine to begin with for either Sony or MS, it's just a "nice bell and whistle" added to their game units.. especially since their units also support Vudu/Amazon/etc. on both... so, neither company is going to feel almost any pressure to fold up shop, because: inbuilt, minimal cost, minor revenue stream with almost no negatives.. it's using the same backend (for both) that they already have in place for digital delivery of game content.


Meanwhile, in markets where the reliance on sales of digital content is really important (Vudu/etc.) this is a whole different ballgame; it's very hard to "break into" the market when the universal standards are pretty well established because then you don't have an inbuilt "well, people already have it and I can push.." nope, you need a pro-active marketing push.. and that costs real money in an uphill climb.

Yep.