Nothing worse than being stuck on a long flight and hearing the stewardess announce, “today’s in-flight movie is ‘Bangkok Dangerous‘.”
So it’s great to see mobile devices like iPods are teaming up with DVDs to save the day.
Film studios are starting to offer “digital copies” along with their DVDs. That means you get a computer disk with a copy of the movie in question in addition to the standard DVD disk. Pop the computer disk into your computer, crank up iTunes, and you’ll be able to transfer the film to your iPod.
The forthcoming “Forgetting Sarah Marshall” (Sept. 30) comes with a digital copy, as does the Sept. 23 re-release of “Reno 911! Miami.”
A source tells me these films take up anywhere from 1 to 1.5 GB of space, so even an 8 GB iPod Mini can carry several films at a time.
The iTunes site already offers digital movie downloads, but the digital copy wave is the latest way to make movies portable.
I’m flying to Chicago this weekend and plan to throw a movie or two on my old-school iPod - just in case ”
Jumper” is the in-flight selection.
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
monkey 09.16.08 at 7:19 pm
i recently travelled to the US and before going i had to upload several filmse to ipod, id done this before on my PSP and it was great. So 16 hours worth of travel and i had watched all that was worth watching on the in flight (21, Vantage Point).
But it doesnt stop there, i have even sat in bed, train, bus, work watching my PSP its just great. Films none stop, its about time that the DVD’s have a downloadable version as this might reduce the illegal downloads.
cftoto 09.16.08 at 7:32 pm
Great point. I don’t mind paying for these kinds of services — just make it reasonably priced and easy to download.
whiskey 09.18.08 at 6:12 am
You know you can use a free tool to rip your (legally owned) DVD onto a copy for your Ipod. As long as only one copy plays at once you’re OK.
There’s stuff for both the Mac and Linux to do this. I think Handbrake is the preferred app for Mac. Great to see studios making it easier though. Lots of people commute by train, or plane. That’s a lifesaver, for sure.