×
  • remind me tomorrow
  • remind me next week
  • never remind me
Subscribe to the ANN Newsletter • Wake up every Sunday to a curated list of ANN's most interesting posts of the week. read more

Forum - View topic
NEWS: Funimation Discontinues Download-to-Own Service


Goto page 1, 2  Next

Note: this is the discussion thread for this article

Anime News Network Forum Index -> Site-related -> Talkback
View previous topic :: View next topic  
Author Message
TheAncientOne



Joined: 06 Oct 2010
Posts: 1868
Location: USA (mid-south)
PostPosted: Wed Aug 10, 2011 10:45 pm Reply with quote
Quote:
..., but if users transfer or remove video files, they may stop playing.

As long as statements like this can be made about a company's download-to-own media, many consumers can be expected to shun it in favor of DVD and Blu-ray.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
DangerMouse



Joined: 25 Mar 2009
Posts: 3980
PostPosted: Wed Aug 10, 2011 10:59 pm Reply with quote
Well said.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Sea Lion



Joined: 07 Apr 2009
Posts: 307
PostPosted: Wed Aug 10, 2011 11:02 pm Reply with quote
This. This is what I dreaded when everyone started talking about downloads killing off DVDs and Blu-Rays. It seems like the entertainment biz is trying to make it so every time we want to see a certain property, we'll have to pay for it, and ownership of any show or movie will be virtually impossible through legal means.

Don't get me wrong. There are many shows/movies I'll watch once and that'll be good enough for me. However, there are certain titles I'll watch again and again, and I don't want to have to pay to see them every time I want to see them.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Rukiia



Joined: 30 Aug 2010
Posts: 1897
Location: British Columbia, Canada
PostPosted: Wed Aug 10, 2011 11:06 pm Reply with quote
And this is why I stick to buying DVD's and Blu-rays (and paying a monthly subscription for Crunchyroll and Anime Network's streams) only. Crap like this could spontaneously happen with digital downloads.

Home releases FTW!
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message Visit poster's website My Anime My Manga
Panon



Joined: 07 Sep 2004
Posts: 242
PostPosted: Wed Aug 10, 2011 11:10 pm Reply with quote
Download to own until you don't really own it anymore.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message My Anime My Manga
LagannImpact



Joined: 03 Apr 2009
Posts: 574
PostPosted: Wed Aug 10, 2011 11:24 pm Reply with quote
This is a really bizarre move by Funimation, when you consider that they currently offer full runs of many of their dubbed properties streaming on services like YouTube and Hulu for FREE. They may even be streaming in this fashion on their own site, but I don't really know. Getting back to the DTO thing, the one reason I can think of is it's too much bandwidth to host the episodes, and by splitting their market between their site and iTunes, they were losing money by having them on iTunes. Since iTunes has more customers and better compatibility, they've just gone ahead and switched all their DTO's to iTunes. Correct me if I'm wrong...
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Teriyaki Terrier



Joined: 26 Mar 2008
Posts: 5689
PostPosted: Wed Aug 10, 2011 11:40 pm Reply with quote
I am sure Funimation had their reasons, but unless the reasons were really serious, I don't think we'll ever find out the "true" reason why this service was discontinued.

But I like Funimation and never bothered to take part in this service at all. I had a feeling it would eventually be discontinued and it would be a hassle to deal with when it came time to dealing with this event.

Although I've heard for the most part Funimation's download to own service was pretty good, I heard other companies doing this were not nearly as good.

In some cases, if the download stopped/didn't work for what ever reason, you'd have to buy the episode again, even if you had proof of purchase. It's been years since I heard that, so maybe polices have generally changed.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Racheldoublemm



Joined: 06 Feb 2011
Posts: 112
Location: San Francisco
PostPosted: Thu Aug 11, 2011 1:07 am Reply with quote
I've never really seen or heard anyone using the service.
If it's not making enough to support it, it's only reasonable to end the program. From what I remember, Funi promoted their downloads pretty well and the deals were goods.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message Visit poster's website
Guren Alchemist4



Joined: 22 Aug 2010
Posts: 347
PostPosted: Thu Aug 11, 2011 1:20 am Reply with quote
I learned my lesson of not buy digital copies back when I lost access to the episodes of Basilisk I purchased on Xbox live. DVD's and blu-ray's only ever since
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
PetrifiedJello



Joined: 11 Mar 2009
Posts: 3782
PostPosted: Thu Aug 11, 2011 5:42 pm Reply with quote
Rukiia wrote:
Home releases FTW!

I do not share this statement.

I had kept my fingers crossed FUNimation would announce their DTO would be DRM free, considering these episode already exist online. Instead, it's another path of legal alternatives closed to those who want to buy, but can not.

This is a very stupid decision.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
androvsky



Joined: 22 Jul 2003
Posts: 20
PostPosted: Fri Aug 12, 2011 1:27 pm Reply with quote
The movie and anime industries aren't going to drop DRM completely any time soon. The best we can hope for is Funimation getting on board with Ultraviolet, which allows you to download files from virtually any provider (minus iTunes and Amazon), and play on a bunch of different devices (you can buy a movie off of XBox live and play it on a PS3, for example).
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Shiroi Hane
Encyclopedia Editor


Joined: 25 Oct 2003
Posts: 7578
Location: Wales
PostPosted: Fri Aug 12, 2011 1:32 pm Reply with quote
There have been two companies to offer DRM-free DTO for anime. One (BOST) disappeared seemingly overnight, the other (Crunchyroll) cancelled it since no-one was using it (although the system dated back to before they started doing HD streams and it showed).
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message Visit poster's website AIM Address Yahoo Messenger MSN Messenger ICQ Number My Anime My Manga
domino



Joined: 25 Nov 2004
Posts: 373
PostPosted: Fri Aug 12, 2011 2:56 pm Reply with quote
And this, folks, is why Download-to-Own is a terrible idea.

I feel sorry for anyone scammed into paying to download episodes of anything. I'd never invest in something so expensive unless I have a physical copy of it.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Megiddo



Joined: 24 Aug 2005
Posts: 8360
Location: IL
PostPosted: Fri Aug 12, 2011 8:54 pm Reply with quote
I'm not surprised Download-to-Own failed miserably. There's not enough people that would pay for downloads when instead they could just download it for free elsewhere. And that's before getting to DRM (which is the only thing that makes DTO feasible and yet alienates customers). The current method at least will never work.

So that said, DVD/BD releases ftw Very Happy
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Rukiia



Joined: 30 Aug 2010
Posts: 1897
Location: British Columbia, Canada
PostPosted: Fri Aug 12, 2011 11:39 pm Reply with quote
PetrifiedJello wrote:
Rukiia wrote:
Home releases FTW!

I do not share this statement.

I'm sorry to hear. But to each their own. I personally don't want to risk having BS like this happening to me so home releases are the safer, and in this case cheaper, option. Plus I much prefer to watch my Anime on my big screen TV via Blu-ray player.

Megiddo wrote:
So that said, DVD/BD releases ftw Very Happy

Amen.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message Visit poster's website My Anime My Manga
Display posts from previous:   
Reply to topic    Anime News Network Forum Index -> Site-related -> Talkback All times are GMT - 5 Hours
Goto page 1, 2  Next
Page 1 of 2

 


Powered by phpBB © 2001, 2005 phpBB Group