While the home theater purists out there will balk at the notion of ever watching a movie on a phone or tablet, the fact of the matter is that portable viewing is a rapidly growing market. The home video studios have attempted to respond to this demand by bundling Digital Copies or UltraViolet codes with your DVD and Blu-ray purchases. But what’s really the best method to get a movie onto your portable device? Do you prefer to download or stream?
\n<\/p>\n
This week’s poll was inspired by an interesting reader email that we received in response to one of our Blu-ray reviews:<\/p>\n
The “bad egg” you forgot to mention is that there is no digital copy for those of us that use iTunes instead of the ROTTEN CRAPPY service known as Ultraviolet. I used to buy DVDs every week and this Ultraviolet crap has RUINED my rights and experience. It is such a scam. I should be able to watch my “digital copy” how I choose, when I’VE PAID FOR IT. Not forced to watch it from some WiFi cloud………!!! PLEASE STAND UP FOR US OUT HERE over this issue…. <\/p><\/blockquote>\n
I can’t say that I’m invested enough in this issue to get quite that upset over it, but I can certainly see the benefits of a Digital Copy over UltraViolet, at least when it comes to portable viewing. I’d much rather have a copy of the movie that can be downloaded onto my phone, than be forced to rely on streaming from the cloud. I tend to watch movies on my phone during my daily commute. There’s no WiFi on my subway, and 4G is terribly unreliable when the train is underground. Streaming is a non-starter in that situation. People traveling by plane are likely to have the same issue.<\/p>\n
Unfortunately, I loathe using iTunes, and I find the expiration dates on most Digital Copies to be infuriating. I’ve pretty much given up on the Digital Copies bundled with my Blu-ray purchases. I’m much more likely to just rip a movie from my old DVD collection, which mostly goes unwatched in my home theater otherwise. (The Library of Congress can go screw itself if it wants to call me a criminal<\/a> for doing that.)<\/p>\n
How do you do it? You can vote for multiple options in the poll if you’d like.<\/p>\n
\n\t