This recent YouTube video from LTT on the topic of ripping DVDs and Blu-rays has got me wondering:
I’m not a big fan of stores, hoarding physical stuff and DVDs and Blu-rays, but I do love owning my stuff digitally and supporting the artists. Is there a service that let’s you buy the movie, TV series or anime that you want to watch and then simply download it to your drive? No app, no subscription bs, no delivery, just straight money for an .mkv file and that’s it?
TL:DR: Is there an equivalent to Qobuz but for visual enjoyment?
Edit: So in summary, the often repeated mantra of “piracy exists because it is more convenient than traditional services” doesn’t just apply to subscription streaming services, it applies to direct digital movie purchases too. I suppose the best approach remains to split the “supporting artists” part from the “digital file getting” part, at least until a service with a modern catalogue pops up that unifies the two parts.
Nothing that I’m aware of. This is a big reason why I pirate, having a simple .mkv or .mp4 or whatever is just so damn convenient
Often times on this sub there’s always an alternative being proposed, so I’m a bit shocked that this time most of the answers are simply “no”.
I have nothing against buying what I enjoy. But I also want to use my own streaming service (be it Plex or Jellyfin), I want to watch it offline, I want to not live in fear that it gets taken away, and most importantly I want to know that atleast 50% of my money rightfully goes to the artists of said content.
As I’ve said in another comment, it’s shocking that even the notoriously copyright-obsessed music industry allows retailers to sell high quality digital copies, while the film-industry just plainly doesn’t.
Often times on this sub there’s always an alternative being proposed, so I’m a bit shocked that this time most of the answers are simply “no”.
That’s simply because we can make our own rules and don’t have to abide by the terms IP holders set. Studios won’t give out DRM free media because then you can just copy it and share it online easily. That’s not to say you can’t already do that with current media, but there are ‘barriers’ in place along with laws against it.
As far as paying artists, with regards to TV and movies, who would you even pay of the hundreds/thousands of people that it takes to create them?
You’re right but the same argument goes for the music industry, yet they still allow direct downloads. I have phrased it incorrectly, I certainly don’t expect a solution for everything from you kind people, I’m simply taken aback by the fact that it truly wasn’t my bad googling skills that prevented me from finding such a service, it’s that for visual media there simply isn’t one.
To your other point, there are many people involved in the creation of music as well, altough not as many as those involved in movies and such. After I’ve made my purchase, may that be a DVD for a movie or a song on Qobuz, I do assume that my money passes through many more intermediaries and studios and execs that all want their cut before it finally gets distributed to the people that it took to create the content. That’s another huge can of worms. I was simply looking for a service that offered a digital file for money, just like with DVDs but without the plastic.
UltraViolet almost let you do this, but of course there was all sorts of proprietary fuckery to deal with. They shut down in 2019.
Interesting concept. If I understand it correctly it didn’t truly let you own the stuff that you bought. It instead gave you a proof-of-purchase allowing you to stream your purchased content on different streaming platforms (like Netflix, etc) as long as you have that one proof-of-purchase. However, if the platforms remove your purchased content from their catalogues at any time, it would be gone. So you’re right, almost but not quite like DVD.
I wonder why the notoriously copyright-obsessed music industry allows retailers to sell digital copies (and high-quality ones), while the film-industry doesn’t.
I knew the moment I saw these stickers on my dvds that the links to the online content would never last. This happens to me with textbooks all the time - oh great - digital searchable access to the content, but then after awhile the hosting site goes under or changes hands and it’s never easy to just download the content. Whether I purchase a text or not. I always try to find a pdf version of it that I can just save. No one is going to let this legally happen with video in any kind of format that you would be satisfied with. Pirating is often the only way to really own useable digital copies of media. Im at the point where I would prefer the simplicity of paying a fair fee to easily download an unfettered mkv file, but I don’t see that becoming a real thing.
There likely will not be anything like this in my or your lifetime. The music industry finally caved, but I don’t see the movie industry ever capitulating.
And with computer literacy on the decline, I wouldn’t be shocked to see in our lifetime a generation of people who conceptually cannot understand a local video file.
“Wait, so you’re telling me you can watch a movie you bought without using the official app?”
Other than GOG’s withering “movies” section, I only remember of two that aren’t overly niche, DLsite and Fakku (both mainly porn stores). Maybe Itunes’ videos are DRM free, but I haven’t tested and still it would break the “no app” condition since it’s required for payment and download. Also maybe Itchio and Gumroad have something on videos too, since they don’t limit the types of media allowed there, but I have yet to confirm.
Thanks a lot for your suggestions, admittedly those are all fairly niche and don’t really have up to date content but they do indeed offer a digital video file for money (apart from iTunes, I’ve tested it and can’t seem to get a DRM free video file). Who knew that GOG had a movies section!
As for my personal takeaway from your suggestions and those from others, I guess the best approach is to continue to split the “supporting” part from the “getting a file” part.
Found something: Apparently Recochoku occasionally sells music videos, but the store is blocked outside of Japan.
I appreciate the effort, thank you very much! I’ll look into it as soon as I’m home, hopefully a VPN makes it accessible👍
Looks like Amazon offers digital purchases.
If you find a company you support that offers a digital purchase, I’d do that and then “pirate” it through normal means. You’ve already paid for the digital copy, and “pirating” is easier than ripping your own.
Oh I nearly forgot but specifically Prime Video is indeed a service that allows direct movie downloads, thanks for the suggestions!
Altough…now that I’ve looked at it more closely and if I understood it correctly:
- one can only use their proprietary app to initiate a download
- one can only watch the downloaded content on their proprietary app, and
- the downloaded movie expires after 30 days.
I’ll try it out as soon as I can, but if true then this is just a horrible experience.
Everything about Prime video is a horrible experience.
They do not offer downloads like you think. The downloads from basically any service are wrapped in DRM and can only be downloaded and played through their interface. You don’t own it. They can revoke your access to it.
Yeah…thanks for the clarification, when I read the download part I expected to get a file, not just an offline viewing experience. I’ll be more careful now whenever I read that a service offers downloads, I came in from the perspective of someone buying music and thought I would get a file.
Yeah, that’s why I said buy and then “pirate”.
Splitting the “file getting” from the “supporting artists” part is my current approach for movies and such, but I fear that Prime Video isn’t a very good service for the “supporting” part since their cut is so big. But as you’ve already correctfully said, if I have to split my approach to movies, then I’ll be on the lookout for a service that offers digital purchases and that I support, which entails that it doesn’t take half of my money before it even reaches the movie studios that will want their cut too.
They’re saying you can pirate a copy from the high seas to keep on Plex/Jellyfin but pay for a digital copy in order to pay the artists/studios. You won’t want to rely on Prime Video to actually store or watch your purchases because it’ll be disappointing in both regards.
Splitting the “file getting” from the “supporting artists” part is generally an approach that I’m fine with, but I fear that Prime Video isn’t a very good service for the “supporting” part since their cut is so big.
That sounds like a really solid approach!
As for Amazon Prime Video, they aren’t really a company/service I trust with supporting the artists behind it, also seen by the fact that they’re increasing their cut each year (Amazon’s average cut is now at 50%, and somehow I have a hunch that they won’t stop there). And I was already being generous by asking for a 50% split, compared to platforms like Steam (30%) or the App Store (30-15%) it’s insulting.
Basically, for me Qobuz’s attractiveness doesn’t lie in offering direct downloads, as we all know there are other ways. Personally it’s attractiveness lies in not having to support artist by buying tickets to their show, buying their merch, buying CDs and leaving them sealed anyways, donating or funding their sideprojects, but instead in supporting them by directly buying their product, in that case it being their music. All the other stuff is just waste I don’t want.
Why don’t you just buy and rip the (dvd, blueray, etc.) and then donate or give away the physical copy to someone?
I am like you in that I don’t care to have the box a movie comes in and everything I buy gets ripped and then given away to my neighbors or friends.
Honestly, after seeing that there’s truly no GOG equivalent for movies, neither now nor probably ever, this is the solution I like the most.
If I want something fast, I get the file through “other means”. If I like it and want to support the production behind it, I add it to a list and at the end of the year I do what you’ve said.
This way I neither accumulate DVDs nor throw them in the trash, I support the production, I make my neighbors happy and get a high quality file on top. Sometimes it’s the simplest things, thanks for the reminder and the idea :) Hopefully in the future this will all be possible digitally.
No doubt! I wanted to just quickly add that sometimes you can find more obscure movies through YouTube, Roku, plex or the many other free movie and tv options available. My wife and I just came upon this situation today where we couldn’t find the movie from her youth to rent or buy anywhere but lucky YouTube had it (with ads of course).
Not without DRM that I’m aware of.
GOG tried, but either gave up or wasn’t able to keep supporting it (their communication is bad so hard to pinpoint). Now their movies section is just collecting dust, like Humble Trove was in the months before the old model was axed.
Steam tried as well and as big as they are, they couldn’t maintain a movies section for too long.
This might not be very popular, but I find their games section to be lacking as well. I’ve recently tried GOG for the first time expecting a “money for an .exe file” kind of approach for every game that had its Denuvo removed on Steam. I couldn’t wait to get my hands on Dragon Quest XI without DRM!
Oh boy, how naive…
Well, it’s not that easy… Denuvo is ONE DRM, removing it doesn’t mean there aren’t any other layers still present in the new builds, and since, for the most part, GOG games are completely devoid of DRM, Denuvo being removed doesn’t actually mean that the game can be sold on GOG.
Skyrim never had Denuvo, yet started being sold on GOG something like a year ago or so
Yeah, things like interest of the right holders, contractual limitations and availability of a given media do play a part on getting published on a given platform.
Somehow wasn’t expecting this in the context of games but of course makes perfect sense. Denuvo =/= DRM, the latter being much more broad. Thanks for the knowledge nugget!
but I do love owning my stuff digitally
There was/is a solution but it is hated by the crowd.
Such as?
Unfortunately, no, no such platform exists.
The closest site I’ve seen getting to this was https://github.com/ZorrillosDev/watchit-app but their website seems offline for some reason.
Hey, thanks for the suggestion! The website does work for me (although the web-app doesn’t, yeah). As for the project: Decentralized sharing, on-chain DRM, p2p social features and payments? The project seems ambitious to say the least. Although many of its features stand in stark contrast with what Disney, Apple and co. currently exploit, so I doubt they would ever have the motivation to join in.
I’m going to follow its development for sure, thanks again for shining a light on it.
