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Blu-ray is great for home viewing on a large screen, but when you’re on the move with a laptop it’s neither practical or necessary to watch a 1080p copy of a movie. With that in mind, on the Hancock Blu-ray Sony provides a digital copy of the movie which you can transfer to your computer.
Of course, it’s not as simple as dragging a file across to your computer and flying off into the sunset to watch it. That would be too easy. Instead you must authorise your computer to play the file. To do this you need to have access to the Internet — so you might want to authorise your computer before you get on an aeroplane. Each disc comes with a code, which you can use to authorise two PCs. After that, you’ll be bang out of luck. You can also transfer a copy to your PSP, but of course, there is no iPod-ready version (tut tut Sony).
Once we’d transferred the movie — a process we found to be totally hassle-free — we had a quick look at the video it deposited on our hard drive. The quality is decent enough, not anywhere near as good as a DVD, but certainly sufficient for watching on a PSP or laptop. Sadly, the digital copy will only play on a Windows-based machine, and you’ll need Windows Media Player too, as it’s the only app that can this type of DRM protected content.
So, what do we make of the whole digital copy thing? Well, it’s nice to have the option to copy a movie to your laptop and we’re glad Sony is taking this sort of thing seriously. But, like everything the movie industry does, it feels like the company resents it, and considers it a massive favour to us filthy consumers. Take, for example, the wording that comes on the bonus DVD: “As a special gift with your recent purchase of Hancock, your DVD comes with a specially formatted digital version of the full-length movie”. That’s right folks, your £20 Blu-ray is doing YOU a favour.
Although we like the option provided by the digital copy, we wonder why Sony uses DRM. Seriously, in this day and age, anyone can download a DVD rip of any movie. Given that, why not just chuck this digital copy on the disc unprotected? This would mean Mac and Linux users could enjoy a portable copy. It’s not like people are going to pirate this relatively low quality copy instead of the DVD rips.
As Blu-ray movies go, the Hancock disc has plenty to offer. The movie looks great and there are a smattering of extras that should keep you busy for a while once you’ve finished the film. You can buy it starting today at all the usual retailers.
