Does piracy help or hurt word-of-mouth movie buzz? (1 Viewer)

[DVBRD]

The net effect of post-release piracy varies across genres of motion picture. Action movies benefit the most, and thrillers benefit the least.

Well, that settles it. Hollywood, make more thrillers!

 

[Radioman970]

how about when something doesn't work but you bought it? I noticed yesterday that Psychoville season 1 and 2 blu ray doesn't work. I learned it's 50hz and not 60. region free, which is why I bought, but doesn't work. so it just plays the first logo and goes back to the sony menu. darn thing is brand new too. I paid for it and can't play it. Not sure if a region free player will convert that. I sure hope so. But how about if it doesn't?

oh, similar when you have something die. I've had a bunch of rotting lately. rebought or planning to rebuy all of it. chunk of change there!

 

[David Norman]

how about when something doesn't work but you bought it? I noticed yesterday that Psychoville season 1 and 2 blu ray doesn't work. I learned it's 50hz and not 60. region free, which is why I bought, but doesn't work. so it just plays the first logo and goes back to the sony menu. darn thing is brand new too. I paid for it and can't play it. Not sure if a region free player will convert that. I sure hope so. But how about if it doesn't?

oh, similar when you have something die. I've had a bunch of rotting lately. rebought or planning to rebuy all of it. chunk of change there!

I'm guessing you have a Sony non4K player (or PS3)?
Non region free LG, Samsung, OPPO, many Panasonics, PS4, Sony 4K, XBO all should play it fine assuming it's really region free.
All region free players can handle 50Hz OK

 

[Radioman970]

I'm guessing you have a Sony non4K player (or PS3)?
Non region free LG, Samsung, OPPO, many Panasonics, PS4, Sony 4K, XBO all should play it fine assuming it's really region free.
All region free players can handle 50Hz OK

I do. And THAT is a relief! thank you!

 

[David Norman]

I do. And THAT is a relief! thank you!

At least give it a shot with a different brand (or higher level Sony). Worst case you got a bad disc, but all US pre PS4 Sony's choked on 50HZ discs and won't even load to the menu page.

 

[Radioman970]

At least give it a shot with a different brand (or higher level Sony). Worst case you got a bad disc, but all US pre PS4 Sony's choked on 50HZ discs and won't even load to the menu page.

mine is a region a/1 player and stops after that first logo thing. doesn't get to the menu at all on any disc in the set so I'm sure it's not the discs.

I was planning a sony all region with 4k and 3d, atmos and all. those are about $399 now, too much for me.

 

[David Norman]

mine is a region a/1 player and stops after that first logo thing. doesn't get to the menu at all on any disc in the set so I'm sure it's not the discs.

I was planning a sony all region with 4k and 3d, atmos and all. those are about $399 now, too much for me.

I was suggesting trying one of the other brand players just so you could watch the discs. Actually hoping you might have a 2nd Player (or a PC BDROM or PS4) in the house. I see $20-30 clearance LG BDP at my Walmart pretty regularly.

As an alternative since you were considering a Region Free player anyway is to get a Region Free BDP now and wait for a 4K player around Black Friday possibly. That would probably allow you to go a little higher quality with the 4K Player without having to worry about modding the new more expensive component. Depending on whether you want 3D or not, plain jane Region Free BDP run can be had for as little as $100

 

[Radioman970]

I was suggesting trying one of the other brand players just so you could watch the discs. Actually hoping you might have a 2nd Player (or a PC BDROM or PS4) in the house. I see $20-30 clearance LG BDP at my Walmart pretty regularly.

As an alternative since you were considering a Region Free player anyway is to get a Region Free BDP now and wait for a 4K player around Black Friday possibly. That would probably allow you to go a little higher quality with the 4K Player without having to worry about modding the new more expensive component. Depending on whether you want 3D or not, plain jane Region Free BDP run can be had for as little as $100

that is an idea. I'll look into that. I'm definitely forever 3D. I have another sony, cheap crap that started buzzing. I use it in the kitchen with my old panny plasma while doing dishes so there's nothing quiet going. that used to bug me. anyway, the discs do that same thing on it. my old panny bu ray player won't load discs anymore. that's all i have.

but I like your idea!

 

[David Norman]

that is an idea. I'll look into that. I'm definitely forever 3D. I have another sony, cheap crap that started buzzing. I use it in the kitchen with my old panny plasma while doing dishes so there's nothing quiet going. that used to bug me. anyway, the discs do that same thing on it. my old panny bu ray player won't load discs anymore. that's all i have.

but I like your idea!

Other than the OPPO 203, modding 4K players still seems to be more difficult and none but the LG seems cheap (not a fan of LG Players). I have yet to read of anyone modding the Panasonic which was the model I was most considering so just staying separate in my plan

 

[Radioman970]

oh! you're talking about making it all region 4K? that's actually not necessary for me. I just want 3D and regular bd and DVD all region. I think I have 1 3D blu ray, The BFG region b, that I need to work. And quite a few Pal discs and a few non region 1 dvds I need to play.

 

[Worth]

There's no region-coding on UHD discs. It only affects blu-ray and DVD playback.

 

[David Norman]

oh! you're talking about making it all region 4K? that's actually not necessary for me. I just want 3D and regular bd and DVD all region. I think I have 1 3D blu ray, The BFG region b, that I need to work. And quite a few Pal discs and a few non region 1 dvds I need to play.

4k doesn't have regions so a Region Free 4K machine is just talking about BD/DVD anyway.
Basically it justs make 1 machine do the work of two. I think it's cheaper and preferable for me to keep them separate anyway

 

[Stephen_J_H]

Let's talk about root causes of privacy:

1. There will always be pirates. It's a fact of life. That being said, how many pirates there are will come down to a few basic factors;
   • Cost;
   • Availability;
   • Status of copyright
2. If you want to combat piracy effectively, you have to make the cost of media something the public is willing to pay, not simply the highest price the market will bear;
3. Forced unavailability of certain media *cough* The Disney Vault *cough* encourages rather than discourages piracy. The first thing a technologically skilled consumer is going to do when a certain title is unavailable or prohibitively expensive is try to find alternate means, which usually end up being piracy; and
4. The efforts of certain persons in the entertainment industry have extended copyright eligibility past a reasonable shelf life to the point of near perpetuity. This not only stifles creativity, but allows copyright holders to maintain control of properties and charge "what the market will bear" for them. Copyright needs to be restricted for the industry not only to survive, but to thrive.

 

[David Norman]

The root cause is pirates wanting to steal something from the owner for any number of self justified reasons and generally lacking the ethics to not only self correct it or the self control to stop, but the audacity to claim moral superiority b/c they deserved something more than the owner of the property did.

They deserved to have it stolen

 

[Josh Steinberg]

I think Stephen and David both have points and neither are mutually exclusive.

There are people who absolutely feel entitled to other people’s work and have no qualms about seeking out illegal download sites to achieve that goal. As David describes, they’ll use anything to justify it. I’ve seen such reactions in Facebook comments left in response to HTF postings there. That if a movie was being released on disc in a way that didn’t 100% match the poster’s expectation, that he was going to download it instead. I think it was in response to the new “Lost Highway” Blu-ray based on an older but still high quality master. But even that could be perceived as being in a grey area (not the piracy itself but reasoning behind it) because Lost Highway’s filmmaker publicly encouraged his fans not to buy it. The artist basically told people it was OK to steal it because it wasn’t up to his standards.

Then you have the levels of piracy where people don’t believe they’re doing anything wrong and receive indications from existing structures that they’re not. It’s not the consumer’s responsibility to recognize a bootleg on Amazon any more than it’s his responsibility to ensure that Best Buy is stocking legit discs.

Should the consumer bear sole responsibility if they purchase a legitimate looking product and a legitimate store? For people who buy pre-hacked streaming boxes at Amazon and Walmart, there’s a case to be made that many don’t understand that it’s piracy. They went to a store and bought a product whose box says it does X, Y, and Z. The store bears some responsibility for stocking it and selling it to them.

What about people who share passwords to legitimate subscriptions? It’s buried in the fine print in most places that such sharing is against the rules, but it’s very rarely enforced. Netflix makes it enormously easy to share passwords by allowing each account to have a bunch of different user profiles and have publicly said they’re not out to stop it. But the result is the same: people not paying for the media they consume, which devalues said media further. If the $10 or whatever monthly fee can be split among five friends, that means this giant company has established that prerecorded media should now be worth only $2 a person for unlimited access. And if a legitimate company like Netflix establishes that, it puts other companies who sell media at higher prices in an incredibly difficult position.

As a society and culture we’re long overdue for conversions about the value of art and entertainment and who should be responsible for what, but those conversations don’t seem likely to happen.

I think stealing content is wrong. But I also think there are a lot of people who are coming to the conclusion that what they’re doing isn’t stealing, and I think there are a lot of legitimate businesses that have products, services and policies in place that help to create that confusion and profit from it. Netflix cares about growth above all; they’re more concerned that they have members than they are how people use those memberships. Amazon wants sales and doesn’t care if you buy a bootleg Kodi box or a Roku, so long as you’re buying. Your internet service provider cares more that you’re subscribing to their high bandwidth plan than they care what you’re viewing with it. All of those groups have a hand in this too.

For decades, the deal for visual home entertainment was that if you bought the hardware (the TV set, roof antenna, etc), the software (TV broadcast) was free. It’s very hard to put that genie back in the bottle.

All of that to say, with piracy, I think it’s a much more nuanced thing that it being solely bad people stealing stuff they feel unjustly entitled to. That’s certainly a big portion of the problem but not all of it in my view.

 

[Todd Erwin]

But I also think there are a lot of people who are coming to the conclusion that what they’re doing isn’t stealing, and I think there are a lot of legitimate businesses that have products, services and policies in place that help to create that confusion and profit from it.

I think I've said this before in this thread, but there are also a lot of people, some I even worked with at a big box retailer, that think there's nothing wrong with watching an illegally obtained download of a movie, TV show or even a music file, and even worse, that it's not hurting anyone. Try telling that to the Grip or actor/actress who was lucky enough to have one line of dialogue in that production. Sure, he/she's not getting that $0.15 residual owed to them because you watched it from an illegal source, but try multiplying that by the thousands (or much more), and try to remember that many of these low-level people in the industry pretty much rely on these residuals to make rent and buy groceries, or else have to make ends meet by working at Trader Joe's as a cashier when they can't find work.