Streaming: Movies, Media, and Instant Access, Wheeler Winston Dixon, 2013, ISBN 9780813142197
Like it or not, streaming movies and music is becoming a growing part of all internet traffic. This book gives the details.
Why shouldn’t a person be able to pay a few dollars to stream a movie at home, when going to the movies or buying the DVD costs so much more? In the cinema, does the projectionist load a film cartridge into a 35mm projector and turn it on? Increasingly, the answer is no. Most theaters have opted for fully digital systems. The film is downloaded from the distributor, along with an electronic code. That code can be good for a single sample, on a specific day. If the correct code is not available, or if it does not work correctly, it is not displayed.
Fewer and fewer movies are being shot on real film, because fewer and fewer theaters have movie projectors. Unless there is an art theater nearby, it is practically impossible to see older or lesser known films on real film. When was the last time an old or dark movie was available at the local multi-theater megaplex? If whoever owns a cinematic copy of that dark old movie doesn’t think it is profitable enough to put on DVD, there is little that can be done about it. Soon the only way to watch movies of any kind will be through online streaming. Depending on your point of view, this is either the natural progression of technology or is it the end of the world.
What Netflix is doing with the movie business, Apple is doing with the music business, and Amazon is doing with publishing books. Amazon now sells more copies of Kindle books than paper copies. Facebook is little more than a way to suck up people’s personal information and sell it to advertisers (Google Glass, plus new facial recognition technology, will make it that much easier). Facebook has created more than 80 million fake accounts. The hope is that the author, for example, sees his account already set up and decides to use it. For that reason, the author says that he will never post to Facebook.
This is a very interesting book. For some, it may be common knowledge, but I learned a lot from it. It is non-technical and very easy to read. It is also worth checking out.