Continue reading »]]> Digital online films are all well and good, but are they better than DVDs?

It amazes me – despite the fact that my computer is rapidly becoming my digital shopping centre, I’m still not sure whether it’s better to buy physical discs (in my case DVDs – my budget doesn’t stretch to Blu-Ray films… yet!) or whether to digitally buy them online.

Cost is still the biggest factor for me – and probably for most people. Often films are horribly expensive on digital stores, such as iTunes, when you can get them very cheaply on shops such as Amazon or eBay as a physical disk.

Also, even if I buy it as a physical disk I can still rip it to my computer and use it on whatever device I want. As far as I’m aware, I’m perfectly within my rights to do so if I own the disk and don’t share it with anyone else. If I buy the content through a digital provider, that may be subject to DRM which means I won’t be able to place it on my iPod or whatever.

I was interested to hear rumours that some stores were offering free digital downloads of content together with purchases DVD discs. I’m not entirely sure whether that’s true or not, but I’d be interested to hear if anyone can verify that info for me.

Do you buy discs or download them (legitimately, of course!)? I’m still a cost-cutter – so whatever is cheaper get’s my purchase! But there are many other factors such as quality or portability that should be considered.

Continue reading »]]> At last, senior vice president of Apple marketing. Phil Shiller finally announced at Macworld yesterday that iTunes is in the process of going DRM free!

Yesterday, 8 million tracks were converted to non-DRM tracks thanks to a deal with Sony BMG, Universal, and Warner music, and it has been said that all 10 million tracks on iTunes will be DRM free by the end of this quarter.

It has not yet been confirmed whether music you have already bought from iTunes will be stripped of its DRM, but we’ll soon find out.

If you use iTunes, which millions of us do, this is a big day. This may well cause the end of DRM forever, eventually.

Good times!