Amazon VOD VS Apple iTunes Which DRM Do You Hate More?
Being a user that tends to buy a lot of movies online I find myself in a constant battle on which service to use any why. The two that I dispute the most between are the Amazon’s Video On Demand service and the Apple iTunes store. Both have great features and both have problems. Help me decide which is better by leaving your feedback after the break.
Amazon Video On Demand offers excellent quality video that you can watch online, download, or watch on select devices like the Roku. So what could possibly be wrong with this you ask? Well I’ll tell you. The movie files you download are WMV files with a DRM that only works on select devices. The WMV files have to be viewed on computer running Microsoft Windows operating system . If it were not for VOD allowing you to watch the videos online and through the Roku box, I would have never even considered buying content from Amazon. Being a mac user it was a no go for Amazon VOD previously. Now with the support of several Nokia devices and the Roku box, its very convient to purchase media and watch it “almost” anywhere.
One caveat of the Amazon format is that if you do choose to download the movie you purchased for safe keepings the format and DRM are not compatibile with macs in any shapre or form. For me this is a big deal as I use 99% mac and 1% other. If you are a Windows user this may not bother you one bit and life is good for you. For now just bear with me and lets move on to the compeitiion.
The iTunes store, from its conception, has changed the way we download music/movies on our mobile devices and computers at home. I don’t deny that and people that do are just being stubborn. While Apple did not invent the concept, they did come close to perfecting it, at least in some people’s eyes. I’m not here to compare the two stores but moreover the DRM and playback that is associated with the content of the stores. As I mentioned earlier the Amazon VOD store allows downloads and online playback. Let us see what the iTunes store offers and how it stacks up for me in real world use.
When you purchase that first movie on the iTunes store it automatically begins to download to your iTunes library. Notice you do not have any options to watch the movie online or choose not to download it and keep it stored online for you. Yes I know you can click pause and not download the movie through iTunes but really what is the point of that if you just bought the movie to watch it. To make this clear, any movie you purchase from iTunes has to be downloaded and viewed on a local player (computer/iPod/iPhone).
Some may view the fact that you must download the files as a problem and some may not. I prefer the amazon approach. I like the ability to watch online but also to download my purchase for safe keeping or local playback as well. Not having the choice kinda stinks for iTunes purchases but that may be just something that bothers me and me alone.
Next up lets talk about local playback of the iTunes content, more specifically movies. When you purchase a movie from iTunes the movie has a DRM which only allows you to playback the movie on a certain number or authorized computers as well as mobile devices. When I say devices I really mean only Apple devices because to my knowledge there is no third party gadget that can playback iTunes content under the iTunes DRM. Apple has several products aimed at filling the spot of the Roku that Amazon provides.You can purchase an Apple TV or Mac Mini and both will do the job just fine. However at $99 the Roku is clearly a better value for watching content on your television.
In closing its a lose lose honestly. If I buy movies from the iTunes store I can’t play them on any of my gadgets other then the iPhone/iTouch. But if I purchase from Amazon VOD I can’t play the movies on my iPhone/iTouch. If nothing else this tells me that DRM will never work and its always going to be a battle.
Knowing these things what would you choose? Which DRM do you hate more? The gates are open.
Posted via web from Sloan Bowman
