Ultraviolet No No

There is something really wrong with these... and if you want my advice: steer away from them.

Oh... sorry, let me explain what they are first.

In today’s wonderfully modern age, we have all sorts of ways to enjoy life, entertainment and storytelling. Now that things are becoming increasingly digital, things are more instant and “now, now, now!” than ever before. Movies have experienced the effects of this change probably more than any other medium.

For example, 40 years ago, the only way you could enjoy a movie was if it was running on one of the three stations you could get from your television set. It was either that, or shell out cash to see a new flick in the theater.

20 years ago, a shift had taken place with the invention of VHS, and now you would take the fun with you and watch the movie of your choice in your hotel room, bedroom or living room.... provided that you have a VHS player and television, of course.

13 years ago (ish), we saw the rise of movies on disc... something that had previously only been able to host music files, now packed enough data to store an entire film.

Then, around 2006, movies became available through the internet, due to increasingly large quantities of data that could be projected through digital cables. And now, we have digital rentals, downloads, purchases, bit-torrenting and a whole host of other options. Ultraviolet, however, is the worst option of the lot.

You may noticed that a lot of DVDs being sold in stores now-a-days are advertised as giving you a plethora of options in which you are able to view your movie. Sometimes you can even get a movie pack that gives you the movie in digital download format, regular DVD, high quality DVD and 3D DVD..... that is.... if you want to shell out 60 bucks for a movie.

But not all digital copies are equal. At first, when the bonus digital copy editions came out, there was only one version (pioneered by Disney). As time went on, there arose a format war ala Beta vs. VHS, or HDDISC vs. BLURAY. While companies like Disney, Universal Studios, and Lionsgate Films made the Digital Copy standard on their DVD releases, other film studios such as Warner Brothers and Sony Pictures decided to introduce a new format of “digital download”... the Ultraviolet “Movies in the cloud!” While Disney’s Digital Download format could actually be downloaded to your computer and put on MP3 players, laptops, harddrives, thumbdrives, bake sale drives, as well as your little brother’s cat.... Ultraviolet instituted a series of steps that were ten times more complicated than putting a DVD into a disc tray.

Digital copy required no information from your or new account to keep track of you. Ultraviolet did.

Digital copy let you upload your movies to external drives and players and discs. Ultraviolet did not.

Digital copy required no internet access after you downloaded your movie in order to watch it. Ultraviolet did.

Digital copy required no other software be downloaded in order to access your movie. Ultraviolet did.

The digital format war is still going on. Ultraviolet is inferior in every way, and Warner Brothers needs to learn to play nice with others. Say no to Ultraviolet.