Comments on: Taking a look at DRM-free online movie service EZTakes

By: Dave Wakefield

Dave Wakefield — Sat, 01 Nov 2008 15:38:16 +0000

Digital rights management (DRM) is a generic term that refers to access control technologies used by hardware manufacturers, publishers and copyright holders to limit usage of digital media or devices. DRM is controversial and rightfully so, as consumers avoid it wherever and whenever it crops up.

Eztakes and its constant insistance on DRM, is more of a hindrance for any filmmaker and producer. The people who would use download features are realistically not there: they download from p2p sites anyways. DRM does not actually exist, because any content can be downgraded to analog and then digitzed again; thus eztakes’ claims of DRM are misleading, if mot false.

For independent producers other and better options such as filmbay ,brosmedia and xing are available. Their networking and distribution features are well beyond the standard fare, suggesting a web 3.0 notion. Indy producers need useful tools. Time will tell how things will pan out, but at least there are some good choices out there.

By: Andy

Andy — Sat, 20 Sep 2008 12:52:20 +0000

You have very well collected all the information at one place and i also believe that EZTakes, despite the shortcomings mentioned in this review is still worth checking out.

By: TDavid

TDavid — Sat, 28 Apr 2007 00:33:12 +0000

That’s a fair point, Paul, however EZ Takes doesn’t do much (enough?) to help educate their customers about what brands of players work best with what DVD players. I’m sure they could collect this data and share it back to their customers. E.G put in the model of your DVD player and it will spit out the brands of writeable DVDs that are known to work best.

Let’s face it, most people just want to pay the money, download and watch. The addition of the burn to own part should be as hassle-free as possible. If it’s not, then it’s something they need to do a better job helping their customers figure out rather than expecting that burden to fall onto the customer, Google searches and third party review site comment sections.

Thank you for sharing those links.

By: Paul

Paul — Fri, 27 Apr 2007 23:44:46 +0000

I just felt like I needed to comment regarding the DVD player compatibility issue you mention. In my experience the brand of DVD media and/or DVD format (+R/-R,+RW/-RW) of the media used can result in compatibility issues with players. I have used the EZ Takes service for some time now (over 6 months) and burn to DVD media I know works in my DVD players and have not had problems other than occasional ‘bad’ DVD media (defective disc). I don’t think the EZ Takes service should be blamed for the DVD playback problem you encountered. As you said, you have not had lots of experience playing a DVD that was ‘burned’. Burned DVD and store bought DVD movies are created in an entirely different ways. The ‘pressed’ method of commercial movies (store bought) results in pretty much guaranteed compatibility with all DVD players. Burned DVD media issues can arise. Here are a couple of links that might be useful in determining player and brand/media format compatibility:

http://www.cdrinfo.com/Sections/DVDMediaFormats/Home.aspx

http://www.videohelp.com/dvdplayers

As formats of DVD media go, DVD-R is the most compatible of all the -/+ formats.

Cheers.