Wraithfodder&#39;s Lair

Curiously, I read about this on Joe M's blog (I don't usually read it, for fear of spoilers usually, but...his pictures were so cute and I was skimming to see what they were and...anyhoo...I ended up reading about this). It's not actually iTunes fault. Doppelganger was the first episode produced, so it had 4.0.1. on it when it was delivered to the iTunes folks. In other words, the problem was at the production end, mislabeling the episodes. In other words, it was a totally honest mistake.

I also don't blame iTunes over the whole fight thing, mostly because I think the whole kerfuffle with NBC Universal isn't about timing or quality, but about money -- about NBC Universal wanting to earn more profit and iTunes not willing to bend on its pricing to accomodate them. It's just a shame all around.

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And, apparently, I like to use the phrase "in other words" a lot. Heh.

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pisces227.livejournal.com

I'm trying to be good and stay away from spoilers. I wished I had done that last year with Sunday, I would have enjoyed so much more.

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Firstly - SUBJECT LINE LUFF! =D

Conversions and DRM removals are going to be in the pipe, and to be honest, at this point there are probably only two options - take it when it's served - which in my defence is neither here nor there since my viewing wouldn't count being outside of the US. Or leave the internet for the next 19 days.

It was a very stupid mistake for iTunes to make, despite the fact I understand how and why it came about - Doppelganger was 401 in the production order and episodes provided are numbered via their production number rather than the air order numbers we get. If I were TPTB, I'd be seeking damages. This is the last thing SGA really needed, and if Skiffy had any decency, a low rating for this ep would be disregarded in consideration of a new season and pinned on Apple's ass.

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If this had been the first time iTunes had misdelivered a show, it would be different, but they've done it before. I read some articles on iTunes and I DO agree with NBC that iTunes pushing of its proprietary software is a huge pain in the butt to many people. I don't want to be forced to buy just iTune/iPod whatever, to view a show. If you buy a DVD, you can play it on any DVD player, not just one MGM suggests ;)

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That's the trouble. Some folk are stupidly going to spill the beans on this episode on Stargate forums. I'm already leery of entertaining certain GW threads. I don't mind a few screencaps but some people might inadvertantly give away key points (that otherwise you'd like to see as a surprise).

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Yeah, the whump thread is getting too riddled with Doppelganger stuff right now I'm afraid someone might forget a spoiler tag or, actually, it's nothing but spoiler tags so there's not much you can read! ;)

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I have no patience for NBCU or Apple. If TV companies want more money for this stuff they should distribute it themselves. It's not like the tech isn't there. Hell, it's not like the tech isn't there for free downloading and serving up intermission adverts to support it. The entertainment industry just took the path of least resistance and then has the audacity to whine about illegal downloading.

As for Apple, my opinions of the stranglehold on this market and the proprietary crap between their iTunes downloads and the players are not a big secret. It smacks of monopolization - which just humours me considering they exist in an industry that is perpetually smacking Microsoft for the exact same.

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tjackson.livejournal.com

i no teh spoilers.
this is bad for me.
now i must know all of dem.
dis means full out pursuit of dl'ing the eppie

and talking like a lolkat

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But iTunes is free. Still, I can see your point--I can't just watch it on my TV without buying the TV thingy. Of course, I can't watch anything I downloaded off the net on my TV, regardless of source, because I don't have any of that software/hardware that you need. So, I guess, it doesn't matter to me. Yet. It may in the future, if I ever get more techy. I'm still trying to get a Tivo. Man, I wish I wasn't so lazy! I'd love to download eps straight to TV!

Anyway, the funny thing about the statement that Apple is "pushing proprietary software" is that, in general, that's the opposite of what Apple is about. It's the opposite of everything they do or have ever done. In fact, now that they've got clout, they're actually trying to get the music companies to get *rid* of the licensing stricture that they place on the music, so that you *can* play music downloaded from iTunes on any computer, any device, anywhere. It's much better for Apple if that happens, because it makes iTunes and even more profitable source of music and other media. To be honest, if NBC is saying that iTunes is pushing proprietary media, then something has been seriously screwed up in the translation in the print media. I'm guessing NBC is pushing to *stop* Apple from allowing whatever is downloaded from being broadcast to other media (which I believe is the case right now). Also, from what I read in the NYT (and, I'll admit, the only articles I read were NYT and CNN, so I haven't read all that broadly), it *is* about money, not about software.

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And I actually think it's fairly dubious that iTunes is required to put stuff on your iPod and that happens to be tied to the retail arm of the company too. Plus I think their players are crap - the constant need to sync my collection to keep it from losing it's associations and becoming null content on the player was problematic and to me defeated the purpose of having it. I don't want to keep 80GB of music and video files on my PC. I want to put them on back-up storage and be able to fill my player from that.

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Yeah, stupidly being the key word there. People seem to lose all ability of consideration for others when they've got their squee on.

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Steve Jobs has stated that iTunes has no intention of pushing for a removal of Apple DRM from video files at present.

http://www.macworld.co.uk/news/index.cfm?RSS&newsID=17665#mainContent

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All the studios are capable of doing downloads, etc. on their sites. If anything, why download? Why not get the DVDs out sooner?

Anyway, I'm not a big fan of how Windows, Apple, etc. compete to try to create strangleholds on technology so if you want to watch a third-party show/movie, you're forced into buying their viewer. They tried that with their iPhone but it took some kid what, a week? to crack that so you'd be enslaved to AT&T (don't get me started on how bad AT&T phone can be... aieeee....)

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Yes. But that article made my point. The proprietary software isn't Apple's -- it's the movie industry's. Hence why the statement sounded backwards to me. Seems pretty clear that, unlike music, Apple's clout with TV and Movies is still too nascent. NBC has gone it's own way, because it can -- providing its own free downloads, but only watchable on NBC.com, and only for a limited time. Eventually, NBC says it'll offer episodes for purchase online, but I guarantee it won't be for $1.99, like iTunes and Amazon Unbox. So...again...it's not Apple. It's NBC. And it's the rest of the movie industry. Jobs is right--they work differently from music.

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I agree that "Sunday" is one episode you should walk into spoiler-free, otherwise you sit there just waiting for "it" to happen.

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That's strange - you can't back up your collection on DVDs? I do that. I've everything on DVDs data discs. I also make CD mixes all the time for friends. Maybe I'm misunderstanding, but I move stuff around all the time. I also use my PC and my laptop interchangeably. I keep the shows and movies on the iTunes on my laptop, and the music on the PC and the iPod never has an issue with it.

But, again, I'm probably misunderstanding. I'm really not that up on stuff that's technical. It's the business side of things I understand.

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TiVo will soon be the only way to burn TV shows to DVD. I was at a big box store not long ago and was looking for a DVR and they said all they had was TiVo as they were knocking everybody else out of the marekt, although I don't know if TiVo can burn DVDs...

Oh yes, it all really boils down to money. No argument there. I read that somebody (not iTunes/Apple) was going to release music that could be played on any device. Hadn't heard anything about Apple doing that.

But apparently SciFi (if JM's blog is right) isn't at fault for this fiasco. Well, if they keep it up, episode 3 will get released next week ;)

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Idon't know much about proprietary software, but they do push proprietary hardware. iPhone is a big example, plus the bundled tiep-in with AT&T (shudder, they're a dreadful phone company, at least in my region).

The movie industry wants people not to burn illegal dvds and sell them on the street. What gets me is that you can go to ABC and watch "Ugly Betty", in its entirety, on their site, so why can't SciFi offer that on their site? It's weird how some networks freely give away some stuff, while others want you to pay for the air you breathe while switching channels ;)

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What I mean is, I don't want it sat on my computer by necessity because every 7th day, all the music on the pod loses it's ability to be played because I didn't sync it.

I got rid of my iPod because I spent more time finding the stuff on DVDs to put it back on the iPod because of this problem than anything else I did with it.

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Ooh, really? Tivo's getting that strong? That's not good. I kinda thought, with OnDemand, Tivo might be suffering. Maybe it's just the smaller ones, like ReplayTV that's suffering, eh?

Also, I should have mentioned, I'm so with you on the spoilers. The fact that Doppleganger has been leaked is *horrible*. Of course, I know from a friend that he watched the premieres of everything in advance, so it's not just SGA that's suffering from this. It's really awful for the smaller shows like ours.

Oh, and as for DRM free music, that *was* Apple that did it. Last February, Steve Jobs told the Big Four they needed to sell their downloaded music DRM free (since CDs are). In April, EMI agreed to do it, through iTunes, and it was a huge deal. The news came down at the same time the TV and Movie industry cracked down on You Tube, so it was a strange dichotomy. Then, in July, Universal decided to sell its music DRM free (that's probably what you just read), but through its own site -- So you can see that Apple and Universal have been not geting along for a while. Some even speculate that it's the pressure from Jobs due to the music that riled up Universal so much that it decided to swing back with the TV show thing. BMG and Sony, meanwhile, are still in talks to go DRM free, but it's pretty sure that they'll follow in EMI's footsteps, because the money is just too good. And, of course, once the music is DRM free that you get from iTunes, you can play it on anything and anywhere. So, yeah, its Apple you need to thank for DRM free music.

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That's AT&T, not iPhone. They're the only ones who took the chance on the new gadget, so they need iPhone to be AT&T exclusively. It's a Catch 22. And I agree. I'm not going near the iPhone until I can carry Sprint on it. AT&T sucks. They're awful here too.

It would be nice for Scifi to do that. Funnily, they do that with Eureka. I don't know why they don't do it with the Stargates, though I can only assume its Universal's fault again.

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Yeah, and it took Apple only weeks to make an update that bricked your iPhone if you had the balls to crack it.

They're bringing them out here...and they are tied to the service provider I use. I'm not in the least bit tempted - they aren't exactly cutting edge technology when it comes to cell phones over here. The lack of 3G is probably going to be a huge anti-point here.

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