Disney to Begin Renting 'Self-Destructing' DVDs

Yahoo! News ^ | May 16, 2003 | Reuters

[El Conservador]

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - This disc will self-destruct in 48 hours.

That is the warning The Walt Disney Co. (NYSE:DIS - news) will issue this August when it begins to "rent" DVDs that after two days become unplayable and do not have to be returned.

Disney home video unit Buena Vista Home Entertainment will launch a pilot movie "rental" program in August that uses the self-destruction technology, the company said on Friday.

The discs stop working when a process similar to rusting makes them unreadable. The discs start off red, but when they are taken out of the package, exposure to oxygen turns the coating black and makes it impenetrable by a DVD laser.

Buena Vista hopes the technology will let it crack a wider rental market, since it can sell the DVDs in stores or almost anywhere without setting up a system to get the discs back.

The discs work perfectly for the two-day viewing window, said Flexplay Technologies, Inc., the private company which developed the technology using material from General Electric Co.(NYSE:GE - news)

The technology cannot be hacked by programmers who would want to view the disc longer because the mechanism which closes the viewing window is chemical and has nothing to do with computer technology.

However, the disc can be copied within 48 hours, since it works like any other DVD during that window.

Buena Vista did not disclose pricing plans but said the discs, dubbed EZ-D, would be available in August in select markets with recent releases including "The Recruit," "The Hot Chick," and "Signs."

[RS]

..."since it can sell the DVDs in stores or almost anywhere without setting up a system to get the discs back. "

... and you think the AOL disks are a waste of plastic ?

[netmilsmom]

Could this be cost effective at all?

[John Jorsett]

DivX 2.0

[gov_bean_ counter]

Your mission, should you chose to accept it ...

[gubamyster]

Seems like environmentalists will have a problem with this. All those plastic disks filling up the landfills and all.

[zarf]

Another "Bambi" viewer brought to you by Disney

[HuntsvilleTxVeteran]

And the dvd players that the disks are left in
over 24 hours.

[Uncle Hal]

This is a joke right?

[gov_bean_ counter]

Self-destructing DVD from the self-destructing company.

[yooper]

Would you rent one of these things? Seriously, what bonehead at Disney conjured up this idea? This is DOA, folks. Don't get one.

[Ursus arctos horribilis]

Uh, clear hair spray sealant through a air tight opening in package? This will last about long enough to find out it doesn't work.

[Cicero]

Do they think that self-destructing CDs will make people fond of Disney? Whatever the cost benefits, I fail to see how it can help their decaying public image.

[sine_nomine]

Folks, when was the last time you even thought of renting a Disney offering? I mean a recent one. Of course the Evangelical boycott did not work! Wink. They can thank God that Disney is so willing to self-destruct in front of our eyes.

[kitkat]

Years ago (at least fifteen) the video companies planned to rent tapes which could only be watched once. If you were interrupeted while watching it, and started it over again, its mechanism would click over to "2" and when you returned it you had to pay for two viewings.

Anybody hear ever hear of it?

NO?

That's what will happen to Disney's plan.

[WellsFargo94]

If it's Disney, it's got to be crap.

[thatsnotnice]

I wonder why you can't pipe the data stream to a recording device.

You could do it via a cp command, or you could do it via a video port, etc.

I have a VHS/DVD player. It won't allow copying of a lot of DVD's. Meanwhile, I have a second VHS player. I can plug "video out" to "video in" and copy any DVD they have. At least it's always worked before - that's with no computer invovled. I haven't tried that. Yet.

[cincinnati65]

Wouldn't the environmentalists have a field day with this one? Talk about your disposable diapers. And a chemical reaction? I wonder if Disney has considered the long term implications of massive amounts of these things crowding our over-flowing landfills, melting and cracking and pouring massive amounts of these chemicals into our water supply. (sarcasm/off)

[RightWhale]

Darned thing always began to smoke before I could finish reading it.

[edwin hubble]

"Would you rent one of these things? Seriously, what bonehead at Disney conjured up this idea? This is DOA, folks. Don't get one. "

I am amazed they would try this again.
An entire format of CD/DVD movies was engineered about 4 years ago (Circuit City was behind it, I think, with other backers).

Rent it and never return it. It could ONLY Be Played Once.
It was destroyed by playing.

The system had its own players (hardware boxes).

It all went down at a huge, huge loss.