Movies Anywhere

Recently, Disney made a big announcement. They relaunched their digital movie service as Movies Anywhere, and added most of the major studios. Overwhelmingly, websites discussing this change are celebrating the demise of Ultraviolet. Personally, I think this was horrible news.

Most of the praise for Movies Anywhere seems to be coming from Apple loyalists. They have been using iTunes, frequently insisting that loyalty to Apple's ecosystem was more important than the benefits that Ultraviolet provided. In many cases, they outright shunned the more versatile Ultraviolet because it wasn't attached to their precious Apple.

A lot of this reminded me of the early days of iTunes. You could by DRM-free music for the same price being charged by Apple, but Apple remained dominant thanks to people caring more about Apple than what they can do with their own purchases.

For movies, Disney came in and saved the day. At least that's what Apple loyalists have been saying. Disney movies were placed in a digital locker similar to Ultraviolet, but Apple fans could finally carry their rights outside of just Apple. I find it kind of odd how much Apple fans praise a concept that they previously shunned.

There are definitely advantages to Disney relaunching their Movies Anywhere service. Ultraviolet did a horrible job of developing partnerships for streaming. For them, it was all about Vudu. With Amazon.com involved in Movies Anywhere, I will now have a backup for purchases that I make for my second favorite streaming media provider. Looking past that, there are definitely more negatives than positives related to Movies Anywhere.

One of my biggest criticisms relating to Ultraviolet has been their poor handling of television shows. It seems like the only shows that get the Ultraviolet treatment are trying to use the inclusion of a digital copy with Blu-ray discs as a selling point. Most new shows still do not have Ultraviolet, and very few older shows have received this treatment.

How does Movies Anywhere handle television shows? They don't. There is nowhere in any text that I have read about the service indicating any support or even plan for support.

There are a couple of really nice features that I have been using with Ultraviolet. Disc-to-digital has made it far more affordable to add digital copies of movies that I have already purchased. There is no equivalent with Movies Anywhere.

How about sharing? Ultraviolet allows users to link accounts, allowing users to access content from friends and family across the country to share their purchases with each other. How about Movies Anywhere? They use subaccounts, essentially preventing people with their own content from accessing a separate collection.

Now that I have mentioned features that Ultraviolet gave us, what new does Movies Anywhere provide? Absolutely nothing. I have yet to see a legitimate benefit of the service itself or any innovative ideas in the works to counter what they are trying to take from us.

I also wanted to mention something that seems to be downplayed. Ultraviolet was set up collectively by different studios. While Disney plans on working with different studios in regards to Movies Anywhere, they will remain the sole owner. I'm not personally a fan of my digital library being controlled by a single business that I seriously don't trust.

Technically speaking, Ultraviolet is not dead. Perhaps more people migrating to digital media will start to see the benefits of Ultraviolet. Maybe Ultraviolet will cut a deal with Apple to eliminate the only advantage that most people are willing to cite in regards to Movies Anywhere.

A lot of people say Ultraviolet is dead. Movies Anywhere still doesn't have the studio support that backed Ultraviolet, but I have seen a non-Disney title with the Movies Anywhere logo and not Ultraviolet. While we're not done yet, it is highly unlikely that Ultraviolet will survive.

I have enough invested in the digital format that I feel like I need to accept Movies Anywhere. It's too risky not to.

Perhaps I will be proven wrong about Movies Anywhere. When it was a Disney-only service, I only had two titles. Both were free. Perhaps it won't be as bad if I have the option of buying movies that aren't made by Disney. Disney always treats entertainment as an afterthought, imposes more viewing restrictions, and charges more than any of the other studios. It should make sense that I lack familiarity with their service. Tolerable studios and even Sony are a certainty to improve Movies Anywhere, but I don't think they can improve the service to reach the experience we already have with Ultraviolet.

The bottom line here is that I feel like I am being bullied. Two companies that I can't stand right now are almost entirely responsible for pushing me into an inferior service. Ultraviolet had its share of problems, but I would much rather have those problems fixed than to be forced into a serious downgrade.