Flexplay

[Douglas Spotted Eagle]

Has anyone seen these yet? Brilliant and fun. At the Sundance Film Fest, they distributed "Mission Impossible" on them. They self-destruct in 48 hours.
http://www.flexplay.com/dvds.html
I wish I'd not opened mine....I kinda thought it would last til I actually played it. It doesn't. But I was disappointed that it didn't smoke and Peter Graves didn't show up in my hotel room when it destructed. :-)
For those interested, Evatone in Florida replicates these. Pretty cheap, too.
Great idea, no doubt!

[Paul Jason]

Now the video rental companys will be able to rent these DVD's out. No more late fees:-)) Three day rental disk last three days!

(Edit) Just looked at the Flexplay site. Seems they beat me to the late video thing:-/

[Nicholi Brossia]

This sounds a lot like what Divx (actual dvd format not to be confused with the codec) tried years ago. Maybe some of you remember them, they were sold at Circuit City for the price of a rental movie (I think $3) and required a special Divx player that connected to the company via telephone line. You had to unlock the dvd to play it, then only had a disclosed amount of time until you were prompted to either dump the disc or purchase the movie with unlimited view time. The idea went down like a lead balloon.
Its cool that these Flexplay discs actually "time" themselves out after 48 hours and even better that they play on traditional, everyday dvd players. I think the lack of compatibility was a big contribution to Divx's demise.
As far as renting goes, in order to avoid the extremely high number of trashed dvds, maybe the rental companies would offer a redemption for returned discs to be recycled (sort of like the northern states and pop bottles). That might be a neat idea.
I'm curious to see how well this format is accepted.

[Douglas Spotted Eagle]

I don't know that it will run well in the masses, but it's definitely got it's place. And the discs are recyclable. The Circuit City DIVX thing was a disaster, no doubt!

[Paul Jason]

Do you think with so many people traveling these days that these disks might catch on?
Before going out on a 3 month tour, you drop by your local movie rental place and pick up the DVD you want to watch and then hit the road. When you are ready to watch the DVD you pop the package open and you are set. Not having to worry about getting the movies back would be a great thing and the redemption for returned discs thing sound like a good idea. That way when you get back, you just dump the disk off at the store. It might work.

[Seun Osewa]

Are these guys still around? Do their discs make more sense now?

For those interested, Evatone in Florida replicates these. Pretty cheap, too.

Can't find any price info on their site, though. Only an old FAQ.

[Douglas Spotted Eagle]

They're still around, but rare and expensive. I definitely recommend not replicating at Evatone, however. They've changed out most of their management and the excellent team they once had is now scattered to the four winds. You're lucky if you can get a complete job out of them without any issues any more. :-/

[Giroud Francois]

that a pretty stupid system that turn a media supposed indestructible into a waste.
French people seems to be smarter since they promote a new system (basically a small harddisk and its docking station).
you fill the harddisk with as many movies you want at the store (or downloading), and they expire 48 hours after first play. You can play them as many time you want until they expire.
you can grab a dozen of movie, go on holiday with them.
much much smarter.

[Ervin Farkas]

I am surprized rental companies didn't pick up on this idea in this era of concerns about industrial waiste, global warming and what have you.

It doesn't even have to be a hard drive, 10 GB memory cards and 12 GB microdrives are now available for 30-50 dollars. Just buy a couple of them when you first rent, then take them back and load another movie or two... Even if you had to buy a $50-100 player to play them on a regular TV, it would still be huge savings.

Just think of a BluckBuster store - would only need 25 sqfeet instead of 5000. And think of internet downloads... sky is the limit...

[Giroud Francois]

for info , the system is called Moovyplay