I hope my fellow Zatz Not Funny readers are having a wonderful holiday season. Among other goodies, Santa kindly left a few Blu-ray movies under our tree. One nice thing, in theory, is that each disc is bundled with a free digital copy. Since I’m heading out to Los Angeles for business next week, I intended to put the movies onto my iPod Touch for the plane ride. For those that haven’t yet tried the digital copy, it’s very simple. Pop the disc in your computer, select video format (iTunes or Windows Media), and when asked, enter the code found on the DVD insert. A few seconds later, you’re enjoying the movie on your handheld of choice. Things were going great until I got to the Star Trek Blu-ray.
After entering my download code, I was greeted with the following message: “This code has already been used. Each code may only be used once.” That can’t be right. This was a sealed package with the security tape intact. I must have mistyped the code. My second, third and fourth attempts were rewarded with the same failure message.
Now comes the fun part. I swung by the Paramount support site and found info regarding problems with serial numbers (screengrab below). I then clicked through the Contact Us link to provide the necessary information in hopes of getting this resolved.
After filling out the form, I hit the submit button and was redirected to an Apple support page. It would have been nice to receive a confirmation message indicating the form was actually submitted. Something to give me that warm fuzzy that the data was received (and then promptly ignored). The automatic redirect seems like a brush off. And since filing my claim (twice) on Christmas day, I’ve yet to hear anything.
Some searching on the Internet turned up others with the same problem, including a related thread on the Apple support forum. A reply by Stephen Zupan, of Deluxe Digital Studios, indicates that Paramount knows of the issue and is working on a solution. Has anyone else had problems pulling down their digital copy of Star Trek?
Side note: I found the support form amusing because you can select Mac OS X in the OS drop down, iTunes from the Media Player Version drop down, but Apple is not listed in the Portable Media Device Manufacturer drop down. Poor Apple always getting put into the Other category.
I haven’t had that problem; however, what may not be known by a lot of people is that the Digital Copy does have an expiration date (I believe it is one year from the release date). So even if you legally buy the movie and choose to download/transfer 13 months later, you are out of luck. I had a couple of older blu-rays with Digital Copies that I wanted to transfer to my iPhone for a recent business trip when I made this unfortunate discovery.
@jcm are you saying the ability to transfer expires in a year, or being able to actually watch the digital copy after a year is not possible? Or both? That would really suck.
Transfer. As an example, I just grabbed my Digital Copy of “Speed Racer” which I know I have had for awhile. When I click on “Get Your Digital Copy” I am greeted with this message:
Offer Expired
Sorry, this offer is no longer available for Speed Racer
And of course, if you read the fine print on the Digital Copy certificate that has the authorization code, it does note that the offer expires September 16, 2009.
While I don’t have any Digital Copies that I transferred more than a year ago – at least I don’t think so – I don’t believe they stop working after one year. That really would suck!
It should never be less work to procure an unauthorized copy than one you buy in the store. I wish someone at the studios would wake up and realize that these sorts of restrictions actually hurt sales. If they’re so concerned with people sharing the files, they could include a watermark that makes tracking them down easy. It’d be one thing if there was no other way to get a digital version, but there’s a digital copy of about everything online. I think these sorts of restrictions have more to do with wanting you to buy that same film over again than it does to protect the content. After all, sooner or later you upgrade your PC or do a reinstall and use of those licenses that only serve to frustrate the end consumer.
Star Trek worked fine for me here out of the blu-ray packaging.
@Davis. Agreed wholeheartedly. If I legally buy a copy of any media type, I should have the ability to use it at my discretion, as long as I am not attempting to profit from it. I legally bought “Speed Racer” so what difference does it make if I elect to transfer the Digital Copy to my iPhone on September 15th or 17th?
@Davis Freeberg
Your point is well made. Big Content foolishly encourages piracy by making this stuff restrictive and difficult. Why should a knowledgeable person bother doing this legally when the legal experience is frustrating, time-consuming and unsatisfactory and the illegal method is simple and satisfactory?
I had no problem with Star Trek but have had issues with expired codes, for Speed Racer and Forgetting Sarah Marshall. For at least one of them, I was able to set the date back on my computer and get the iTunes download to work. The other was Windows WMA only and changing the date had no effect, but I didn’t have any use for that format anyway.
No problems for me.
This is why I no longer buy DVDs or BluRays for that matter. It’s easier to either download them from bit torrent or run Slysoft CloneMobile on a Netflix copy. I refuse to play along anymore.
@Craig. While some may disagree, I think there is a discernible difference between DVDs, downloads and blu-ray. If there is a movie I really want to watch in my media room and I want the absolute best video/audio quality I will buy the blu-ray disc. Nothing compares.
New Years 2010 Rule of Thumb: You get what you pay for. Unless you don’t pay at all, in which case you get more.
Of course neither this nor any other rule applies to you if you were born rich. Happy New Year.
my digital copy for Star Trek on Blu-ray just worked perfectly. Now in my iTunes library.
no problems here before xmas with the new star trek blu ray. The process is a bit cumbersome, but it won’t NTL
Yes. It was very disappointing, but the digital copy wasn’t why I bought the blu-ray.
Consumerist covered this earlier with some good info:
http://consumerist.com/2009/12/star-trek-blu-ray-digital-download-codes-all-used-up.html
It’s only good information if Paramount or their contractors follow through. It’s been over a week — Tom hasn’t heard back and hasn’t been given a code that works. Good luck to anyone trying to return an opened video disc of any sort.
So I got a copy of the regular DV for Star-Trek and ran DVD shrink and got my illegal digital copy – no problem. I realize the intent of the article was about legal copies but hey someone had to chime in.
PS – once I watched my illegal copy on my TiVo DVR I deleted it as I had rented the DVD.
Having seen this post the other day, I decided not to dawdle, and just installed my Digital Copy of “Star Trek” on my laptop. Worked fine, without any glitches using the redemption code in iTunes. Phew!
I actually hadn’t yet read the comments here, but noticed as I was looking through the insert that bore the redemption code that the transfer “may not be valid” after November 17th, 2010. I had taken this as an indication that they didn’t want to commit to ensuring the relevant servers would be available forever, but if they actually INTEND to stop you from using the code after that date, whether or not the infrastructure is still available, it’s pretty cheesy.
As for Davis’s comment, I wrote elsewhere that I think the Digital Copy concept is a nice nod to the idea that, once you’ve bought a movie, you shouldn’t have to buy it again in other formats just so you can watch it on other devices. The dual packaging that gives you Blu-ray Disc and DVD in the same box (or even on a hybrid disc) accomplishes the same thing for those who want the ultimate experience in the home theatre but also want to take a DVD on the road with the kids. This is the very early stage of such a concept, and if the protected format gives the studios the modicum of comfort they need to be willing to give it a try, I’m willing to give them that. The iTunes Plus format, stripping DRM from virtually all new music that’s sold in the iTunes Store, shows that the smart content providers will eventually come around.
Tom emailed me yesterday and said he has been sent a new code to try. He’s actually mobile in LA on his trip at the moment, so we won’t know right away if it works. (Probably safe to assume it will, despite the two weeks it took to get a response.)