Davis Freeberg’s Digital Connection

Posted on February 10th, 2010 by Davis
Filed under: DRM, Disclosure - I own stock in co. mentioned, DivX, Media, Technology, TiVo, VOD | Comments Off

HBO may stand for Home Box Office, but it may as well be Hates Being Online given their objections to internet video. According to Time Warner, HBO has over 40 million subscribers and while this lucrative revenue stream allows them to produce some of the most compelling content on television, it also gives them an [...]

Posted on January 24th, 2010 by Davis
Filed under: DRM, DVDs, DivX, Media, Netflix, Technology, VOD | 2 Comments »

Over the last decade, internet video has come a long way, but it’s been a bit of a clunky experience. Competing standards, DRM turf wars and fear of giving the consumer anything and everything for a song has held the industry back. You may be able to get your digital video to your television, but [...]

Posted on November 6th, 2009 by Davis
Filed under: DRM, DivX, TV | Comments Off

Normally, I tend to think that most regulations are bad. In a free market, businesses should be allowed to operate with a wide degree of latitude. At the same time there is a pragmatic part of me that understands there can be exceptions to this. Everyone should have the right to free speech, but that [...]

Posted on November 5th, 2009 by Davis
Filed under: DRM, Media, Movies, Netflix | 5 Comments »

Anyone who has paid attention to digital distribution knows that P2P is a popular way for people to download content, but how popular it is may surprise more than just angry content owners. Last June, Futuresource Consulting released the results of an in depth survey called “Living With Digital: Consumer Insights into Entertainment Consumption” which [...]

Posted on August 11th, 2009 by Davis
Filed under: DRM, Technology, VOD | Comments Off

Photo by Thomas Hawk One of my very first jobs was working behind a concession counter for a big multi-plex cinema. It isn’t the sort of place where one would expect to learn a life skill, but early on I learned an important lesson in business, the art of the up-sell. You see, movie theaters [...]

Posted on July 20th, 2009 by Davis
Filed under: DRM, Music, Netflix, SA, Technology | 6 Comments »

I love Netflix, but more than once their data policies have forced me to reconsider whether or not I should have a membership with them. You see, I believe that when you rate a movie, the data should belong to you. After all, you were the one that spent the time to input the rating [...]

Posted on June 29th, 2009 by Davis
Filed under: DRM, Netflix, VOD, Web 2.0 | 4 Comments »

CNET reported this morning that AT&T and Comcast are planning on adopting a three strikes and you’re out policy for P2P users. The move is yet another desperate attempt by the media industry to try and regain control over content distribution. Because most broadband providers have government protected duopolies, they hope to use the MSOs [...]

Posted on January 29th, 2009 by Davis
Filed under: DRM, Media, SA | Comments Off

DivX reported their 1st quarter earnings on Monday and while I’m still waiting to read the actual 10k before digging too far into the numbers, I did want to comment on what I see as a significant shift in strategy. Over the last 7 years, DivX has done an impressive job of building an eco-system [...]

Posted on May 7th, 2008 by Davis
Filed under: DRM, Disclosure - I own stock in co. mentioned, DivX, Netflix, SA, TV, Technology, VOD | 2 Comments »

Over the past few months, I’ve finally started to get a feel for Media Center Vista and while I haven’t tried out every feature in the program, I have played around with it long enough to have some initial thoughts. Before I tried the software, I had low expectations, but after actually using the program, [...]

Posted on January 31st, 2008 by Davis
Filed under: DRM, Disclosure - I own stock in co. mentioned, DivX, Media, Microsoft, Slingbox, TV, TiVo | 7 Comments »