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Comment by ezfe | Hacker News Reader

The iTunes Store continues to be the only reputable place to buy movies, mainly because they allow downloads (except 4K...but I digress).

In the past, redownloading movies wasn't even permitted. You download it and save it somewhere yourself. You can still do that to avoid any issues in the future, but I suspect the few incidents that have affected the iTunes Store are unlikely to re-occur. Why? For exactly the reason I mentioned at the beginning, originally you couldn't even re-download movies so it stands to reason the initial transition might've had some licensing loopholes.

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It's interesting that even storefronts run by the same company don't always have the same reliability. Microsoft fucked over thousands of gamers when they pulled the plug on Games for Windows Live, yet I can still download episodes of Invader Zim I purchased on the Xbox Live Store in 2006.

Do the downloaded movies have DRM attached that requires a network connection or limits their usage?

They have DRM attached and need to be played on a computer that has logged in to your iTunes account and been "blessed". But unless something has changed, as long as you keep that computer offline it will be able to play those videos in eternity.

You can un-bless all your other computers (as you can only have 5 computers blessed at once) but I guess if the other computers are offline they can keep playing old downloads.

> But unless something has changed, as long as you keep that computer offline it will be able to play those videos in eternity.

I don't know if it ever was that way. If it was, something has changed.

During the early months of the pandemic, we carried a Mac mini around that had a ton of downloaded content, and spent a lot of time in places with no internet service. It needed to "re-bless" itself every so often (I don't remember how often - maybe once a month or twice a month - it wasn't very often).

Our solution was to carry it with us when we were near enough to a tower. Using a phone hotspot with just a single bar of bad service, the process took 10-15 seconds.

So as far as tech/media companies go, Apple is almost certainly the least bad option, by a wide margin. But it's not perfect ;)

> I don't know if it ever was that way. If it was, something has changed

To be fair, it was a LONG time since stopped buying video from iTunes. Like 5 years at least. I subscribe to a bunch of the streaming services but instead of bothering to figure out exactly where something is streaming I just download it from the Pirate Bay where I know I can find everything right away.

> But unless something change

4 words that explain why, if I ever wanted to collect movies, they would all be DRM-free torrents.

When the "legal" way to do it is self-evidently a scam perpetuated by corporations and governments working together against our interests, then they only honourable ways are either to watch illegal downloads or not watch movies at all.

Why eschew ripping physical media? You'll likely have a more uniform collection in terms of quality. Also depending where you are in the world, it's either legal or just as legal as torrenting media. In the latter case, it's not really enforced. It's also probably more honourable, if that's something you really care about.

> Why eschew ripping physical media?

None of my computers has a DVD drive! Though if I was interested in movies, probably one would.

> You'll likely have a more uniform collection in terms of quality.

Also 4K is useless to me as I have a 1080p monitor.

> It's also probably more honourable, if that's something you really care about.

Helping systems of control that are actively hostile towards me is not honourable, IMO.

You need a real computer to rip BDs. A netbook or a Raspberry Pi aren't going to cut it because of the CPU requirements. Said Pi will have no trouble running a torrent client though.

Found the spartan.

>The iTunes Store continues to be the only reputable place to buy movies

Best Buy, Target, Walmart, and Goodwill work pretty well for me.

I obviously meant for digital movies, even if I forgot that detail

I think all movies are digital now ;)

Can you play those downloaded movies outside of Apple hardware/software?

Others have mentioned that the AppleTV app is ubiquitous across every major streaming platform - Roku, Amazon, Samsung Smart TVs, etc.

A little known service in the US is “Movies Anywhere”. Four of the major studios participate in as well as does Apple, Amazon, Google, Vudu and other platforms. You link all of your accounts and a movie bought on one, automatically is credited to the other accounts as a purchase.

https://help.moviesanywhere.com/hc/en-us/articles/1150045768...

iTunes is a Movies Anywhere partner and if you connect your Movies Anywhere account you can download iTunes purchased Movies Anywhere films (most but not all studios today) in other Movies Anywhere partnered apps.

I don't think any of the other Movies Anywhere apps support sharing/playing the exact same downloaded file, but cross-app downloads are supported (buy on iTunes and download on Xbox Movies or Vudu or whatever).

Yes. A bunch of non-Apple devices have an Apple TV app now¹, and you can also play movies to any device that supports AirPlay 2¹.

¹ https://www.apple.com/apple-tv-app/devices/

That's still Apple hardware/software. If you can't play it outside of the locked down Apple ecosystem which is checking your license, then you don't own it.

> If you can't play it outside of the locked down Apple ecosystem which is checking your license, then you don't own it.

The DRM does not require being online to verify once it's been set up

If your movie is from any of the five participating studios you buy the movie once and it works across all of the major video platforms if you use Movies Anywhere

https://help.moviesanywhere.com/hc/en-us/articles/1150045768...

Blu ray players are also locked down and the embedded keys are subject to revocation

Movies Anywhere App Launches with Joint Studio Backing

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15456800 (2017)

If you buy blu-rays from those five participating studios, they also give you the same Movies Anywhere digital copy.

US only though, so if you move you are out of luck.

> That's still Apple hardware/software.

Incorrect, Apple did not build the software for all of the listed devices. Apple licenses the protocols and provides reference implementations through their MFi program.

You couldn't play a downloaded title on a non-Apple Apple TV device or via AirPlay 2 tbf.

In both scenarios the playback support is that the file just gives the credentials for the device with the Apple TV app or Airplay 2 to go and stream it from Apple's servers. No transfer of the video from a local download occurs.

> You couldn't play a downloaded title on a non-Apple Apple TV device or via AirPlay 2 tbf.

You absolutely can.

Vudu while it was owned by Wal-Mart was quite reputable for purchasing digital movies and TV for some similar reasons to following iTunes' lead and was at times "the blue collar iTunes Movie Store".

Vudu's current owner, Fandango Media, I have a lot less trust in because they have burnt a few bridges with previous digital movies sites (including one of their same brand; they briefly ran a Fandango branded digital movies app that closed without much notice or refunds, to be rebooted as FandangoNOW months later, in part because they bet on UltraViolet and didn't want to just convert UltraViolet purchases to Movies Anywhere like Vudu and iTunes did during that same time). So far Vudu has still seemed to be doing well under the new ownership, but that distrust in the new owner still sews seeds of doubt.

Speaking of Movies Anywhere, that is still an assurance that I trust when making purchase decisions. Even after UltraViolet died, possibly especially because UltraViolet died (and the way at least iTunes and Vudu handled that transition). Movies Anywhere seems to have won out because it is technologically simpler. Plus the Disney backing seems to work in its favor as Disney has some reason to make sure Movies Anywhere does right by families and doesn't tarnish their brand by association. I'm a little less particular which store I buy from if it supports Movies Anywhere. For movies that still aren't yet Movies Anywhere I'm much more cautious. (This was why I avoided Steam's brief foray into movies, for example. They worked with non-Movies Anywhere studios and it didn't feel all that shocking when the experiment failed and Steam stopped selling movies.)

Those downloaded movies still have DRM, and can only be played on official Apple devices or apps. Apple can revoke the license whenever they want. No better than what Amazon and others do.

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