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iTunes for indie movies

J

jazztpt

Hi all!
I'm an amateur filmmaker (as in, I love it!) and website programmer. My latest project is a website where independent filmmakers can sell their films for instant download. I saw some posts about getting onto iTunes; my idea was to create a similar site that's just for independent movies.

I'd love to hear what experiences you have had selling your films on the web. No need to mention specific sites, I'm just interested in what you would want out of a site that sells your films. Do you prefer selling dvds or downloads? Do you have any complaints or kudos to share? (Again, no names, just stories!)

My site (which should beta test in June or July) will have download speeds and video quality as good as iTunes -- I figure that's a must. I'm also using a format that allows interactive features, so films could have subtitles, directors commentaries, etc. What else would you like? Do you think drm (digital rights, essentially locking the media so it can't be copied) is important or not? What do you consider fair compensation for the site and for you? Let me know your ideas....

Yours,
Anna
www.myideal.net (<-from my previous life)
PS Someone said they were hoping CD Baby would get into indie movies. I used to be a musician (I'm still with CD Baby) and as with all other musicians I love Derek to death. He is my hero. But I contacted him about this subject and it looks like he's not going that direction. It's part of why I started creating my site.
 
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Come payday, I'm pretty sure I can get the wife to buy that! DAMN. You have a fantangulous voice. I just love smooth jazz. I listen to lots of rat pack at work, much to the annoyance of my coworkers.

Oh yeah, and I prefer to own physical DVD's and CD's...I don't tend to buy music online unless it gets delivered to my door physically.
 
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I like the idea too. I'm wondering if there'd be an easy way to put these movies on DVDs like itunes puts music on CDs, that'd give you the option of having physical DVDs, although that's definitely a compression and file-size issue for downloads. Bring back the Video CDs?
 
If sites that offer downloads of films and TV shows are ever going to get over the hump, they have to start offering better quality downloads -- as in DVD quality.

Right now, the file size is ideal for iPods, but not much else.

Here's an example: Wedsnesday Night, a couple hours after "Lost" airs, the download will be available through iTunes. At the same time, pirated/much better quality versions will be popping up on P2P networks.

If these types of sites are going to survive they have to offer better quailty.

Poke
 
Poke said:
If sites that offer downloads of films and TV shows are ever going to get over the hump, they have to start offering better quality downloads -- as in DVD quality....
Poke
Click to expand...

I think it's not about quality, it's about bandwidth. The codec I'm using for my site can make dvd-quality files, but they're larger. At dvd-quality, they're about 1/10 the size of actual dvd files. But at iTunes quality, they're only 1/25 the size. That really makes a difference in how long it takes to download the files.

Codecs and bandwidth are both getting better, so I don't think we're far from the quality you're talking about.
Anna
 
The H.264 algorithm that Apple is using for their iPods (Quicktime) is really amazing.

I've used it for my short films and even at the low-end 256kb per second bandwidth, the quality is amazing (@ 320x240), even when doubled in size to 640x480 (At 128kb, the pixelization is obvious, don't use this setting). This is the closest thing that I've found to DVD-quality in a streaming media format.
 
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