UltraViolet Digital Downloads are Junk!

I was a background extra in the movie, "Contagion". The mostest boringestest movie ever, but that's another story. At least it was fun being an extra. Anyway, it recently came out on Blu-ray and DVD. I don't even have a Blu-ray player but I bought the BR anyway because I wanted the "digital copy" that I could play in iTunes and stream to my AppleTV. Normally I buy DVD's. And this time I wish I had because little did I know what I had gotten myself into.


I get home and open it up and start to go through the process of getting my digital download copy only to realize that they are using this new technology called, "UltraViolet". Here's what this means:

1. You have to install Adobe AIR on your computer and jump through hoops for the code activation. Then if you're lucky, you *might* be able to watch the movie on your laptop. This whole process took over half an hour to setup. And that's if you're lucky enough to even make it through the whole process.
2. UV is so heavily DRM'd that you can't do much with it (like drop it into iTunes for instance). It will ONLY playback using their boggy, slow, junky software.
3. To watch it on your smartphone or tablet, you have to download the Flixster app and then download the UV movie through that. And then once you've done all that, you will have a low quality version of the movie AND you STILL can't even AirPlay it to your AppleTV. So this means you are stuck watching it on your tiny smartphone screen.

So bottom line is that you have two movie watching choices. First, you can watch the UV digital download on your laptop through the slow, buggy, crashy, Adobe AIR application or you can view it on your smartphone or tablet using the Flixster app. TOTAL AND COMPLETE GARABAGE!! And if you don't believe me, go buy a BR movie with an Ultraviolet digital download and then tell me what you think of it. You will be pulling your hair out. They did this with Green Lantern and Harry Potter also.

Here's what the movie looks like on iPhone. Notice,... no AirPlay option. Grrrr!!

After all this, I then went to the Flixster support site and sent an email asking them to just give me an iTunes code instead because this wasn't the usual normal type of digital download. They responded that they were "investigating the matter". Then I sent a second letter. Now I have two separate support ticket numbers. They responded with a generic email saying how great their product is. It's been two weeks and really nobody has contacted me back.

After this I go on Twitter and tweet bad things about Warner Bros/Flixster/Ultraviolet. Soon after I get a response from a reporter (@benfritz) from the LA Times. He wanted to interview me about this subject but I responded to his tweet request too late. But thankfully he got everything he needed anyway and ran this article: http://articles.latimes.com/2012/jan...iolet-20120111

I also got a response from @FlixsterUVHelp asking me if I needed help. I told him that their product is junk, that I will never buy anything that says "Ultraviolet" on it again and that I want an iTunes code or we having nothing else to discuss. He then said I should contact Flixster support. Good one @FlixsterUVHelp. Thanks for offering to help but I'm just getting the runaround. But it's OK. I've already made up my mind. I will never buy another movie that says "UltraViolet" on it again.

Anyway,... long story short, I wish I had just bought the DVD instead. Then I could've at the very least, just ripped my own video file that would work in iTunes. Oh well. Lesson learned.