Flexplay: The DVD that self-destructs

Meh - the late aughts were already a halcyon era of bittorrent piracy. Anybody who was looking for illicitly-acquired movies was already downloading them. More convenient than going to the store and paying money anyway, and free. I think a product like this was more about capturing the dollars of people who were still renting movies. In the end, I think nearly all people who used to rent videos at rental stores ended up moving to either to "On Demand" services from cable companies, or renting via services like iTunes or Amazon. Since DiVX and Flexplay failed. A few though are still using Redbox which I think is the only real significant physical play in the movie rental game.

Daniel Pritchard

FWIW, at least for me Patreon email (including notifications) seems to have been broken for a week (they don’t even contact my mail server, nothing in my logs). I just filed a support request tonight once I realised it’d been a week, and there should have been a bunch of emails. Ewen

Ewen McNeill

Whose bright idea was it to re-release this in the late 2000s? Large hard drives and DVD drives were common in this era, so someone could spend less money on the Flexplay disc and just make a copy of it onto their computer, and retain a copy of the movie indefinitely.

Sonic the Anonymous Hedgehog

Good job! Your production value of these videos keeps getting better. I like the little gags like the toast too. Keep it up!

Jay

If these discs caught on, I wouldn't be surprised if someone released some sort of lacquer or antioxidant users could apply to prevent the oxidation. However, I'm glad they were a failure for environmental reasons. It would be different if they were compostable, like some of t he new plastics that fully decompose after a month or two in the garden compost bin.

Seán Byrne

Excellent video on a subject I never heard about here in the UK. However . . . the toast made me laugh out loud. That could become a running gag! :-)

Stephen Bell

Ooh, interesting! Sorry to beat you to the punch... though of course don't let me stop you from making your own video. They weren't released in the UK, were they? I imagine you imported a few? It's been more than 48 hours since I opened the disc and it's still the same red, so I'm guessing the "black" descriptions and sample images were all exaggerations.

Technology Connections

I bought a sealed bundle of ten of these a couple of years ago with plans to make a video about them - not one would play. Some were the same shade of red that yours is, some were more like a misty cataract colour - none went black. The misty ones never changed to any other colour and the red ones are still the same shade to this day.

Techmoan

Are you using the Newtek Video Toaster to produce your videos? ;-)

MrHammond

Same here; update received 17:46 NL (or 5:46 PM for Alec ;-)

Paul Schuur

the realisation slowly occurred to me just before you went to try the DVD that it would probably not work. I don't know what I was expecting. I thought it would explode, maybe?

Biking With Panda

I didn't get *either* notification. I also didn't see the end card on YouTube.

Microfrost

Add me to the list of people who only got the "Technology Connections updated their post" notification but not one for the original post

kalleboo

Great video - really like the toast gag... seems like the last zoom-in caused the Patreon scrolling to be clipped at the top.

Richard Thompson

Yep, I also got the update alert at 16:46 UK time, but didn't see any initial posting alert at all from Patreon.

Frank Wales

I really enjoyed the throwaway toast bit. :)

Rufo Sanchez

Same here.

Alec Jahn

I wonder if Patreon sends emails only during certain hours based on where the subscriber lives? I didn't get the email until after you'd edited the post, about 35 minutes ago.

Aaron the Tinkerer

Nope! Those are just an image I took of lights shining on a wall, and I've colored them to my liking. They've appeared from time to time.

Technology Connections

LoL @ your cameraman!

Matt Whitlock

Yup, came through 10 min ago. Did you remove your background TV's? I see wall texture...

I loved the bit with the toast. xD And I got the notification at about 9am pst

Artie

Got notification at noon Eastern. I imagine a lot of us nerds are out watching a particular movie today, tho. 😀

Darren Pierce

did not get an alert at all. i got an update though! thanks!!

Biking With Panda

Got the alert at 11:47 et

I also just got the email. Also, I don’t mind the talking head as long as there’s also s nice trinitron in frame. This goes for really any topic, honestly (also the bread joke was very good)

I only got an email that you updated your post, there was no notification when you originally posted it. Good thinking! EDIT: 3 minutes in and I have already L'ed MAO.

Dr. Bjoern Bieber

It just now emailed me about it, so maybe Patreon is slow today?

Brad Sparks

Same! :)

I got notified at 11:47am Eastern

Craig Kollai

Interesting! (Also, I got the notification just now)

Vanessa Koch-Gensiorek

FWIW, I just got a push notification and email notification from Patreon like 1 minute ago.