Austin is a test market for a new product coming out called EZ-D. These are DVDs that are playable for 48 hours, after which the surface of the DVD becomes unreadable. The disks are about $7, available at 7-Eleven, several grocery stores (HEB I think), and other convenience-type stores.

I tried one out this past weekend and thought I'd post my experience...

I got mine from a 7-Eleven. They had about 15 different titles available in an endcap style display just opposite of the cash registers. Most of the titles were "blow up" type movies: you know, the ones with guys hanging off of helicopters and pretty ladies in peril. (Not a lot of chick flick choices.) I did manage to find one that interested me, Frida. They come in slim, vacuum sealed packages with a cardboard label glued on the front. There's only a couple of sentences on the back describing the movie, instead of the usual paragraph or so you'd get on the back of the case at Blockbbuster. Instructions on how the EZ-Ds work are also printed on the label -- including encouragement to send in the disk for recycling after use. This is also printed on the disk itself, along with the address to the recycling center.

The surface of the EZ-D is red. Once you open it from the vacuum sealed package it begins oxidizing, which turns the surface black and renders the data unreadable. Very clever! I have a vacuum sealer at home, so I tried vacuum sealing my disk after playing it, which may have prolonged the disk's life by about 6 hours. I should have thrown in an o2 absorber. Oh well.

I don't know if it was just my movie, or if all of them are like this, but my DVD had no special features. It played the movie, and that's it. I'm a big fan of the extras, so this was a bit of a disapointment. Chicago is coming out in a couple of weeks, so I'll give it a try. If there are no special features on that disk, one can conclude that it's a characteristic of EZ-D and not just Frida.

EZ-D's web site is kind of cludgey, but all the information you need is there, including the obvious fact that they don't offer a wide variety of movies yet. They do mention that when you send in 6 disks for recycling you get a free movie. Good idea!

What prompted me to try them in the first place was a news report that some Austin hippies were protesting EZ-Ds, claiming that the product would contribute to landfills and that it was wasteful etc etc. I don't know if these people just didn't notice or didn't care that EZ-D is doing just about all a company could to promote recycling of its product, including offering a pretty sweet incentive program. I suspect the small bevy of protesters didn't inform themselves fully on the object of their ire.

Anyway, I think that this product would be pretty handy for traveling and would probably sell like crazy at airports, where rentals are not practical. I think a $5 price point would be a little better. $7 is just a tad bit too spendy for 48 hours of movie -- especially if there's no goodies that go along with it.

Whenever I've looked for DVDs to buy at airports, I've been shocked to see them going for as much as $40!! (usually kids' DVDs, also!) I'm hopeful that this catches on, if only as a stopgap until we are able to easily download our flicks from the Web from the next incarnations of iTunes, BuyMusic and the like.


[This message has been edited by swise (edited 10-21-2003).]

[This message has been edited by swise (edited 10-21-2003).]

What an awful idea. It sounds to me like the start of the slippery slope to being charged by the entertainment industry each and every time we watch a movie. Could this be the begining of the end of the Video/DVD collection?

Edited to add: And aren't we ****ing over the environment and wasting far too much plastic already?

[This message has been edited by Internaut (edited 10-21-2003).]

I think it's more of a portable pay-per-view. Since the disks are only good for 48 hours, I don't think there's much threat to those who want to add movies to their collection.

I see it as two different markets. This would fit in with the movie rental/ppv market vs. the movie purchasing/collecting market. I certainly wouldn't have wanted to buy Frida -- or any of the movies in my Netflix queue or that I would get through EZ-D.

However, there are some movies I've Netflixed and later purchased. Maybe I'm wrong, but it seems to me that offering the customer the option of temporary use through one medium or another and then also the option of owning outright ensures that the movie folks are maximizing their demand, markets and revenues.

There was something like this sold at Circuit City a couple of years back that crashed and burned. You also needed to buy a special dvd player too. Can't remeber what it was called. People found a hack eventually.

DIVX. Not to be confused with the other DIVX.


[This message has been edited by winkydink (edited 10-21-2003).]

Can you rip (i.e., copy) them like you can a normal cd?

I don't see why you couldn't. I didn't try though.

I've been seeing these around town too, but can't understand why they exist. As stated above, DIVX was a huge failure because people didn't like the idea of buying a movie and then *not* owning it.

If you can rip it and share a $7 copy of a movie, then why bother with the higher priced copy?

I give this phenom a year before they disappear. Too bad the same can't be said for the Austin hippies.