I agree with David Pogue that the time limits imposed by Hollywood studios on film rental downloads are irritating.

Studios are now allowing consumers to download and watch films for a limited period on devices such as TiVo hard disk recorders and Apple TVs.

But the time limit for viewing rented films once you have downloaded them are that you have to start watching within 30 days and, once you have started, you have 24 hours more to complete the film.

I fell foul of these limits the very first time I tried out downloading a film to watch on my Apple TV last week.

OK, perhaps it was partly my fault. I chose to try out the high definition version of Doctor Zhivago. Given that the cinematography was by Freddie Young and it was directed by David Lean, I felt it was worth an extra dollar and the time to download in HD.

That part went fine. I downloaded it to the Apple TV overnight so I don’t know how long it took but it was safely there when I wanted it the following evening. Then a problem arose - the film is three hours and 20 minutes long.

Sure enough, we started watching it and, after two hours, we were too tired to continue. But we were at a gripping moment and we were enjoying the film, so it would have been nice to finish it the following evening.

No dice. As Pogue points out, a 24-hour time limit makes it impossible to watch a film over two nights. A 30-hour limit might be all right, or even a 27-hour one, but a 24-hour one rules it out. By the next evening at the same time, Doctor Zhivago had disappeared.

In principle, I like the idea of downloading a film for rental rather than going to the video store. I am one of those people who end up paying late fees because I return the videos late (yes, I know about Netflix and Blockbuster abolishing late fees, but I like our local store).

But restrictions on content use have to make sense for consumers as well as for studios. That balance has not yet been struck.

February 22nd, 2008 in Finance | Permalink