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NEWS: Crunchyroll Ends Its Download-to-Own Service


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Dargonxtc



Joined: 13 Apr 2006
Posts: 4463
Location: Nc5xd7+ スターダストの海洋
PostPosted: Wed Mar 10, 2010 11:40 pm Reply with quote
So all the people claiming DTO DRM-free was the wave to the future were wrong? Do tell.
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egoist



Joined: 20 Jun 2008
Posts: 7762
PostPosted: Wed Mar 10, 2010 11:45 pm Reply with quote
Well, it's good to see that they do possess an aim. I've never bought any of their anime, but I'm a subscriber and give them preference over fansubs. I'd rather own the DVD/BD.
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Sven Viking



Joined: 09 May 2005
Posts: 1043
PostPosted: Wed Mar 10, 2010 11:58 pm Reply with quote
Dargonxtc wrote:
So all the people claiming DTO DRM-free was the wave to the future were wrong? Do tell.

I used it, at least. Part of the problem may have been the fact that the DTO episodes had much lower video quality than your average fansub (and more typos).

Keep in mind, though, that this move probably has less to do with the success of the service than it does with studios disliking the whole idea of DTO. The line "we want to focus and bring the best possible experience and the most content possible, so that we can obtain 100% of on-air anime soon" hints at this. Many studios probably wouldn't accept a deal that involved non-DRM downloads.
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corinthian



Joined: 20 Feb 2009
Posts: 264
PostPosted: Thu Mar 11, 2010 12:04 am Reply with quote
I don't think this was so much DTO losing out to streaming as it was not-free losing out to free. Between bad economy, disposable shows, and entitlement complexes the overlap between being willing and able to pay for something has shrunk a bit. Plus one of the key appeals of DTO is that it's always on your computer to play. But with ever-expanding internet coverage the times where you actually wouldn't be able to stream something has shrunk a bit too...
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Sven Viking



Joined: 09 May 2005
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PostPosted: Thu Mar 11, 2010 12:12 am Reply with quote
corinthian wrote:
I don't think this was so much DTO losing out to streaming as it was not-free losing out to free.

Yeah, that's true, too. I never quite understood how companies ended up jumping directly from "No Internet distribution ever!" to "Everything free!" Shocked
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Deadwing



Joined: 18 May 2006
Posts: 174
Location: North Augusta, SC
PostPosted: Thu Mar 11, 2010 12:25 am Reply with quote
Yet another reason why physical media will never be superceded by digital media, especially if the latter is offered only as streaming content. If the distro that only offers streams goes under, well, you're SOL if noone else carries any titles they did. So much for getting to rewatch a series you like.

Last edited by Deadwing on Thu Mar 11, 2010 2:47 am; edited 1 time in total
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mglittlerobin



Joined: 28 Aug 2008
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PostPosted: Thu Mar 11, 2010 1:05 am Reply with quote
The problem with DTO is that if your computer hard drive dies, which mine has, you lose all your downloads that you bought and there's no way to re-download them without paying for them. Fortunately, I never have bot DTO, and I don't think I ever will. If I want to spend money on anime, I'll happily buy a hard copy. And besides, I like being able to take my DVDs to other place to watch them and not be stuck at my computer screen all the time just to watch anime.
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Panon



Joined: 07 Sep 2004
Posts: 242
PostPosted: Thu Mar 11, 2010 1:41 am Reply with quote
Dargonxtc wrote:
So all the people claiming DTO DRM-free was the wave to the future were wrong? Do tell.


Crunchyroll's DTO was bad.

I bought an episode of a show out of curiosity, and I got something that looked like it had been poorly ripped off Japanese tv. Not just low quality video with blurring, interlacing and various encoding artifacts, but even black bars being pasted over Japanese text that had been in the broadcast it had come from.
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NGK



Joined: 10 Mar 2010
Posts: 244
PostPosted: Thu Mar 11, 2010 1:48 am Reply with quote
There are groups who use Crunchy roll's DTO videos and later upload it for free.

as a trade off... we better get 720p streams for HD anime!
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Sakagami Tomoyo



Joined: 06 Dec 2008
Posts: 947
Location: Melbourne, VIC, Australia
PostPosted: Thu Mar 11, 2010 2:00 am Reply with quote
Crunchyroll actually had a download-to-own service? When did that happen? Whenever I'd checked their website, I couldn't find anything about it.

Panon wrote:
I bought an episode of a show out of curiosity, and I got something that looked like it had been poorly ripped off Japanese tv. Not just low quality video with blurring, interlacing and various encoding artifacts, but even black bars being pasted over Japanese text that had been in the broadcast it had come from.


I expect that'd be the Japanese licensor's paranoia about Japanese consumers downloading and then not buying DVDs/BRs kicking in. All up probably a good thing I never did manage to find their download-to-own service, then...
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the Rancorous



Joined: 08 Feb 2006
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Location: Hunting the Dragon in Gransys
PostPosted: Thu Mar 11, 2010 2:51 am Reply with quote
Quote:
He also stated that Crunchyroll is dedicating more resources to "increasing the number of ways [users] can stream content" from Crunchyroll.

XBOK Live? Pweese?????
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Sven Viking



Joined: 09 May 2005
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PostPosted: Thu Mar 11, 2010 4:16 am Reply with quote
mglittlerobin wrote:
The problem with DTO is that if your computer hard drive dies, which mine has, you lose all your downloads that you bought and there's no way to re-download them without paying for them. Fortunately, I never have bot DTO, and I don't think I ever will. If I want to spend money on anime, I'll happily buy a hard copy. And besides, I like being able to take my DVDs to other place to watch them and not be stuck at my computer screen all the time just to watch anime.

Could always burn them to DVD. That sort of freedom is the advantage to non-DRM files.

But yeah, summarising most of the above: paid, poor-quality download-to-own is probably never going to compete well with free streaming.


Last edited by Sven Viking on Thu Mar 11, 2010 4:21 am; edited 2 times in total
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Mohawk52



Joined: 16 Oct 2003
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Location: England, UK
PostPosted: Thu Mar 11, 2010 4:17 am Reply with quote
It seems old habits are hard to break afterall. Wink
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edzieba



Joined: 13 Dec 2006
Posts: 704
PostPosted: Thu Mar 11, 2010 6:43 am Reply with quote
mglittlerobin wrote:
The problem with DTO is that if your computer hard drive dies, which mine has, you lose all your downloads that you bought
Backup then? One of the benefits of DRM-free is that you don't have to muck about with licensing keys and machine authorisations: you can copy the file to whatever you want and it will still play.
Quote:
and there's no way to re-download them without paying for them.
That's just poor service, allowing re-downloading of past purchases is trivial and commonplace (e.g. Steam).

The root cause for shutting down can pretty much be summed up as:
Panon wrote:
Crunchyroll's DTO was bad.
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PetrifiedJello



Joined: 11 Mar 2009
Posts: 3782
PostPosted: Thu Mar 11, 2010 7:22 am Reply with quote
Ways to monetize the internet:
Subscriptions - oops, best go for the no charge route.
advertising - dang ad blocking software!
paywall/pay to view - someone fire Smith for this idea.
download to own - huh, it's only Fool's Gold.
donations - well, so much for putting trust in the customer.

And website owners wonders why each of these continues to fail.

Dargonxtc wrote:
So all the people claiming DTO DRM-free was the wave to the future were wrong? Do tell.

Thanks for the chuckle.

Sven Viking wrote:
Part of the problem may have been the fact that the DTO episodes had much lower video quality than your average fansub.

Another part was the $1.99 price tag.
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