Digital Movies

I just bought the Chronicles of Narnia on DVD. Actually, it wasn’t on DVD, it was on DVDs. Three DVDs: one with the movie (plus commentaries), one with special features, and one that was a digital copy of the movie, that I now have on my iTunes. And amazingly enough, I think this is one of my best purchases all year!

I’m not a huge Narnia fan. I’ve read the books a few times and quite enjoyed them, but they’re no Potter. The first movie was pretty good, but the kids were all so young that they were somewhat annoying, and they still hadn’t quite decided how they were going to translate the fantasy book to film. The second wasn’t all that much better (though it did add Ben Barnes as Prince Caspian, one of my top three British hotties with co-star William Moseley - Peter Pevensie – and Rob Pattinson – Twilight’s Edward Cullen), though they did work on some of the CGI, which is getting much better with time.

The reason this was my favorite purchase: the digital copy. Such a simple concept, something that iTunes has been doing forever. Put the DVD into your computer, and it automatically uploads onto iTunes (or windows media for non-apple people), then onto your iPod. I don’t particularly like watching something on my iPod, the screen is so small that it starts to hurt my eyes, and I never before felt any great need to have movies on my iPod if I have them downloaded illegally on my laptop.

But I realized this week…digital copies are the smartest thing ever! The movie company can charge a few extra bucks with the DVD if you’re getting two copies of the movie, and consumers aren’t going to complain if they’re paying $20 for the DVD instead of $15 (well, not yet at least). Digital copies exist anyway, why not charge a little extra, and give someone a good quality copy, instead of the crap you get off limewire.

And for people like me, who think they don’t need a copy of a movie on their 1.5 inch by 2 inch iPod screen, let me tell you, there is nothing better than sitting in rainy traffic in LA, listening to Caspian and Peter sword fight…seriously.