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Post by IT Troll on May 12, 2014 10:58:47 GMT
I hold a number of movies and TV shows as digital UltraViolet titles which supposedly allows you to "buy once, play anywhere" in "Digital HD". In theory you are free to obtain your content from a number of providers and watch on any device you like. In reality in the UK you can only use Flixster or Sony Pictures. The Flixster website and mobile apps are fairly good but unfortunately not all the titles are available in HD. A prime example is Breaking Bad which I hold as a digital entitlement only (I thought this would be more flexible than juggling umteen discs). To get Breaking Bad in HD you have to go direct to Sony Pictures. First you have to link your UVVU licence entitlement account to your Sony Pictures content delivery account. This should be a one-click operation but in reality it took about a week of backwards and forwards with Sony customer support before my titles showed correctly. Then I discovered that even with their DRM in-place and a fully HDCP compliant system they only allow downloading of SD episodes. To get the HD versions you have to stream, no other option. I have a constant and stable 20Mb/s Internet connection and so in theory this shouldn't be a problem, but those with a slow connection are stuffed. It was going OK up until a couple of weeks a go, by which time I had managed to watch about 30 episodes. Then I started to see buffering problems and streams just dropping without warning with various obscure errors. My Internet connection is solid and doesn't exhibit problems with other services, so these are definitely down to Sony's infrastructure. Then last night, when I settle down to watch an episode, my Sony Ultraviolet Library is now completely empty - "0 titles found". WTF? They showed fine last week and I haven’t changed anything. Streaming is supposed to be the future of television and this is how we are all going to be watching our Ultra HD 4K content. Well if a company the size of Sony can't provide a basic level service of any quality then I think we will be mostly watching swirly wheels and egg-timers in the future. Are they really surprised that people resort to illegal downloads when the legal alternative is so restrictive and painful to use. |
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Post by IT Troll on May 12, 2014 14:23:01 GMT
I received a reply from Sony support:
So Sony think it is completely fine to take down their "anytime anywhere" streaming service for a number of days without any prior notice and without posting current service status information on the website.
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Post by Oliver on May 12, 2014 16:25:48 GMT
That is annoying. You buy content in a legal way and are left with issues when trying to playback your content, you get poor support and have wasted a lot of time trying to resolve an issue that Sony could have told you was at there end.
I like the idea of streaming content, I believe it is the future. I currently stream through free services like BBC iPlayer, 4od and others. These work fairly well most the time.
Hopefully things will improve, they need to make paid legal services reliable, easy to use and fairly priced to discourage piracy
Let us know when you can finally watch breaking bad, its awesome btw, if you haven't seen it yet?
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Post by Woody on May 12, 2014 20:32:17 GMT
Hi IT Troll, This is disappointing, I am in the process of ripping a lot of my DVDs over to my NAS to play via Media Browser Classic. I was then going to move on to the Ultraviolet discs I have.. ..I thought they just gave you a simple download link.. ..should have known it wouldn't be that simple!  |
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Post by IT Troll on May 12, 2014 21:13:20 GMT
..I thought they just gave you a simple download link.. ..should have known it wouldn't be that simple! No chance. SD video, stereo audio only for downloads. They are DRM locked, can only be played with their Silverlight player and you cannot even choose where they get stored (it goes into the local user storage on the C: drive).
You are better off ripping them yourself. Remember as of next month you are legally permitted to format shift. However it is still unlawful to circumvent DRM encryption. Hmmm, that makes sense then...
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Post by sinful on May 13, 2014 5:39:01 GMT
I absolutely despise their digital "solution", It's a joke. they do this to help prevent piracy, but they strip it of any and all quality and usefulness, require you to jump through hoops to play it and then throw on enough DRM to make my PC cry. This is why piracy is as it is. It's they ONLY way to make it work as it should. I will forever continue to circumvent any and all copyright protection so that I can offload whatever disc content I pay for onto my local storage. I don't trust buying cloud content because whenever said content's value is exceeded by the cost of server upkeep they pull the plug and give some BS sorry for the inconvenience (forked tongue corporate speak for go screw yourself) This has been an increasing problem especially within the video game industry. The original Xbox had it's entire online play stripped from every game across the whole platform. Even many newer games continue to be shut down, some less than 2 years after release. EA is by far the biggest repeat offender of this and is why I would rather shove an Atari 2600 paddle up my ass than ever buy another EA game. Anyhow whenever I buy a movie with some form of digital copy included I just give away the codes to whomever that may want them.
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Post by Woody on May 13, 2014 12:36:08 GMT
..I thought they just gave you a simple download link.. ..should have known it wouldn't be that simple! No chance. SD video, stereo audio only for downloads. They are DRM locked, can only be played with their Silverlight player and you cannot even choose where they get stored (it goes into the local user storage on the C: drive).
You are better off ripping them yourself. Remember as of next month you are legally permitted to format shift. However it is still unlawful to circumvent DRM encryption. Hmmm, that makes sense then...
Err, what I meant to say was that I was in the process of planning to rip my DVDs to my NAS, in some way that does not circumvent their DRM encryption, after the 1st June!  |
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Post by IT Troll on May 26, 2014 14:33:52 GMT
Two weeks on and I still don't have access to my content. After I pestered them for the fourth time Sony support said, "We are aware of this issue and we are working on this issue to be resolved as soon as possible. We hope we can count on your patience during this time". Grrr. It would actually be easier and quicker to download illegal copies of these titles than it is to gain access to my legal entitlements.  |
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Post by Oliver on May 26, 2014 22:06:53 GMT
In your case IT Troll, I'm not sure it would be illegal to download the content you have bought, as you have paid the royalties. Though I'm not a lawyer so don't blindly do it, I don't want to get anyone arrested lol. If you did "illegally" download the content that Sony own the right to and you've paid Sony for but due to their issues you can't watch via there own service I think a judge would be understanding, it would certainly make for an interesting case  |
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Post by Oliver on May 26, 2014 22:10:16 GMT
Its shocking it is taking so long, so you still have no idea when you might actually be able to watch your content? In your case IT Troll, I'm not sure it would be illegal to download the content you have bought, as you have paid the royalties. Though I'm not a lawyer so don't blindly do it, I don't want to get anyone arrested lol. If you did "illegally" download the content that Sony own the right to and you've paid Sony for but due to their issues you can't watch via there own service I think a judge would be understanding, it would certainly make for an interesting case |
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Post by IT Troll on May 31, 2014 21:18:40 GMT
I checked my library today and everything has finally returned! So that was at least three weeks I was denied access to my "anytime anywhere" digital media. I wonder if I will get an explanation or apology from Sony?
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Post by IT Troll on Jun 3, 2014 18:31:04 GMT
This is what I got from Sony as way of an explanation and apology:
Hmmm, all your incoveniences are belong to me. They'll not be getting any more of my patronage.
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Post by IT Troll on Jul 1, 2014 22:18:29 GMT
Sony are at it again.
This time all my titles are listed in my library but none of them have a play button. Then when I try to report the problem through their website I repeatedly get the message, "There was an issue sending your message. Please try again."
So I email Sony customer services and immediately get an automated stock response which basically recommends that I use Flixster. This would be fine except Flixster do not provide HD versions of Breaking Bad. What a bunch of clowns.
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Post by IT Troll on Jul 7, 2014 14:35:29 GMT
I've still had no explanation why it is no longer possible to stream my content from the Sony Pictures Home Entertainment (SPHE) site. Well I give up. They have left me no choice but to source an "alternative solution" which is not dependent on their unreliable service. I have learnt a valuable lesson through this experience; whilst streaming may be the future of entertainment, the service offered by Sony is simply not fit for purpose. I will be sure to never again purchase a title which is only available in HD from a single service provider. Attachments:
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Post by Oliver on Jul 9, 2014 20:53:45 GMT
That's really annoying, no one wants to wait for breaking bad! I used to get withdrawal symptoms between seasons I'm waiting for the prequel/sequel 'Better call Soul' now. |
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