4Flix.Net Provides Hundreds of DRM-Free Movies and Television Shows Online
By NEWS RELEASE |
January 7th, 2006
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4Flix.Net has announced a new video download service that delivers hundreds of feature-length movies, TV shows, independent films and other video content over the Internet for playback on Macintosh, Windows, and the video iPod without cumbersome Digital Rights Management (DRM) restrictions.
4Flix.Net is not the first online movie download service — various Hollywood studios-backed sites have been offering films over the Internet for some time now.
But it is one of the first commercial sites to provide downloadable video files free of Digital Rights Management (DRM) encoding designed to limit consumers’ use of the downloaded files. Many DRM schemes are “Windows-only”, whereas digital media content from 4Flix.Net is compatible with Macintosh, Windows, Unix, the video iPod and Apple’s upcoming media-savvy Mac Mini.
“Everyone in this industry is familiar with the phrase ‘Content is king’, and yet there is a shortage of convenient, portable, DRM-free video” says Dave Holst, founder of 4Flix.Net. “As other cyber-rights advocates have pointed out, there really is no market demand for DRM. Nobody woke up this morning and thought: ‘I wish there were more restrictions in place so that I could do LESS with the media I buy.’ Our service helps to break the ‘content logjam’ by providing consumers with control over their digital media, enabling them to watch whatever, whenever and wherever they want, WITHOUT the inherent hassles of DRM limitations.”
4Flix.Net visitors have instant access to hundreds of movie and TV show selections, all priced at $1.99 or less. Customers may immediately download their purchases to their computers and then move the files freely between viewing devices, including portable media players like the video iPod and living room-based media centers such as the new media-savvy Mac Mini, providing unlimited viewing options for family enjoyment. The service is currently available for broadband subscribers worldwide at www.4Flix.Net
Launched in November 2005, 4Flix.Net served up free holiday video downloads to nearly 20,000 visitors from 80+ countries worldwide throughout the month of December, allowing consumers to sample the sites’ high-quality, multi-pass encoded AVC/H.264 media while loading up their new video iPods. This advanced video compression codec allows for high resolution at lower bitrates, which enables smaller filesizes with superior quality. Besides the video iPod, the DRM-free media files are cross-platform and play on any Mac or PC with Apple’s free Quicktime 7 installed.
A selection of shorter titles are available for download at no cost, and visitors can also subscribe to a free Video Podcast featuring regularly updated short films. The 4Flix.Net Video Podcast is also accessible directly from Apple’s iTunes Music Store by searching in Podcasts for “4Flix.Net”.
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While the current catalog offering is nothing to brag about (in fact, it’s filled with pre-1940’s films that are now apart of the Public Domain), 4Flix.Net has the potential to be the eMusic of Video (referring to buying music DRM-free in high quality MP3 audio). It takes a lot of guts and effort to pull something like this off and be successful. Good luck!
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Message to 4Flix:
You guys should let people download the FREE videos without having to register all their personal information (or at least pass on the address and phone number part until one is ready to make a credit card purchase). It’s quite a turn-off.
Alexander,
Thanks for the feedback.
We actually do have some newer titles online, such as a movie from 1989 starring Rutger Hauer (Escape from Sobibor) and the 1964 movie Zulu starring Michael Caine. And several of the older titles are true classics, with over a dozen listed in the book “1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die”. Everyone’s heard of Alfred Hitchcock, Francis Ford Coppola, Michael Caine, John Wayne, Bob Hope, Fred Astaire, and Frank Sinatra. So don’t knock the content til you’ve tried it.
Plus we are working with several independent studios to secure distribution of their titles as well. We do believe we have what it takes to be the eMusic of video, and we’ve got the site up and running to prove that.
As far as the FREE downloads, things are purposely set up so that users need to create an account to check out with them. They get free videos, and when they want to come back to purchase one, their account is ready to go. We do offer completely free video downloads via our Video Podcast that only require an email address for signup, for those concerned about providing their information.
Thanks for posting our press release, it is greatly appreciated!
=Dave H.
http://www.4flix.net