CFF at uvdemystified

[tsken02]

I see the site was updated to show CFF has been delayed. Jim Taylor is a UV insider working at DECE.
http://www.uvdemystified.com/uvfaq.html#1.7

All UltraViolet launches so far have been "phase 1" with only streaming and proprietary downloads. The second phase, with interoperable downloads using the UltraViolet Common File Format and UltraViolet players, has been delayed until the first half of 2014.

The first phase provides the account and Library system but focuses on streaming access. The second phase adds shareable downloads for UltraViolet players, and will begin when UltraViolet files and players become available in the market. UltraViolet rights purchased in phase 1 will automatically extend to downloads in phase 2.

[Walter-S_North_Carolina]

Re: CFF at uvdemystified

Tsken02,

Thank you for bringing this link to the forum. I read the whole FAQ.

I did not know that Neustar is the back end platform. This is the same company who facilitates linking a given telephone number to an SS7 point code on the national telephone network. Let's say your business wants a better deal on their telephone bill. When they sign a contract with a new telephone company, it is Neustar that "ports" the phone number(s) to the new phone company's SS7 point code. They do this by owning the universal rights to the telecommunication bible, know as the LERG.

Neustar is a company beyond reproach. To learn the UV system runs on Neustar was a surprise.

There was also a helpful metric I discovered while reading. In the seven months between 4/2013 and 11/2013, UV added about two million accounts. This equates to roughly 300,000 new accounts per month or ten thousand new accounts per day. As I understand it, this is in line with projections and if the projections continue to hold, the pace is expected to increase in the coming months.

[echopulse]

Re: CFF at uvdemystified

But the projections were 800,000 to 1 million new accounts per month! We discussed this at length. Also your math is a little bit off. There were 12 million accounts in April, and 15 Million accounts in Sept. That's 750k new accounts per month.

[Walter-S_North_Carolina]

Re: CFF at uvdemystified

But the projections were 800,000 to 1 million new accounts per month! We discussed this at length. Also your math is a little bit off. There were 12 million accounts in April, and 15 Million accounts in Sept. That's 750k new accounts per month.

Well, the number of user accounts has been hard to find. The few mentions of it on the record have been scares and in my opinion it warrants the source be considered when there is a discrepancy. The FAQ is authored by Jim Taylor, Head of Technology & Product Development, DECE / UV. His numbers seem like a solid source and equate to about ten thousand new accounts per day.

It has been several months since I looked at the projection numbers, but I believe 300,000 per month was the low end of the projections and the expectation was an increase in monthly numbers as time progressed. I do admit that it has been a while since I looked at the projections.

I do think you will agree, ten thousand new accounts per day by any measure is a successful growth trajectory. That is a little more then one person opening a new account every second of every day.

[echopulse]

Re: CFF at uvdemystified

It was the CEO of Warner Bros. that said there was 15 million accounts in Sept. In the history section of the UltraViolet wikipedia entry I have added sources for each of the entries that I can find. I think you'll find it to be accurate. If not, please help me fix it.

[Walter-S_North_Carolina]

Re: CFF at uvdemystified

Perhaps the media quoted the CEO of Warner correctly.

Perhaps the CEO of Warner was correct.

Perhaps Jim Taylor, Head of Technology & Product Development, DECE is correct.

I do not have any desire to put in the effort to definitively resolve a he said she said situation. Generally, I find the information from Mr. Taylor to be a more reliable source since every work day he is apart of the system in question for eight plus hours. However, it is rather a moot point in my book.

It is clear by any batch of numbers used that UV is expirencing rapid growth and acceptance. I think this is the important point.

BTW, I read the Wiki article you authored on the UV Wiki and wanted to congratulate you on a good bit of work. It comes across as objective and well researched.

[tsken02]

Re: CFF at uvdemystified

Here's another statement that CFF is on the way:
http://www.twice.com/articletype/new...studios/109327

The ?consumer launch of CFF approaches, and encoding has started,? said Mark Teitell, GM of the Digital Entertainment Content Ecosystem (DECE) alliance. DECE designed and built the UltraViolet service and operates it.

[Walter-S_North_Carolina]

Re: CFF at uvdemystified

Here's another statement that CFF is on the way:
http://www.twice.com/articletype/new...studios/109327

I have now been rightly educated on the uses and benefits of UV CFF. I still am lacking motivation to use the technology in any form.

For an example; during the holidays, our two sons, my wife, and myself viewed NetFlix, Amazon Prime, and Vudu quite a bit. I dare say one of our three televisions were on watching through the entire ten days (minus several family outings). Our DSL internet did not falter at all. Programming was readily available from simply streaming over the DSL internet link.

I am a technology professional. My graduate degree is in Information Technology. I have two decades continuous work experience in the industry. I could easily download CFF movies for local playback. When I was done with all that effort, I would have an entertainment client server setup in my home which would require several terabytes of hdd storage and a good bit of administration time.

I have zero motivation to do this when instead I could just press "play" on the remote and let the streaming provider take care of the hassle for me.

That is just me though. I know others are looking forward to portable UV files.

[Speedaddict81]

Re: CFF at uvdemystified

I have now been rightly educated on the uses and benefits of UV CFF. I still am lacking motivation to use the technology in any form.

For an example; during the holidays, our two sons, my wife, and myself viewed NetFlix, Amazon Prime, and Vudu quite a bit. I dare say one of our three televisions were on watching through the entire ten days (minus several family outings). Our DSL internet did not falter at all. Programming was readily available from simply streaming over the DSL internet link.

I am a technology professional. My graduate degree is in Information Technology. I have two decades continuous work experience in the industry. I could easily download CFF movies for local playback. When I was done with all that effort, I would have an entertainment client server setup in my home which would require several terabytes of hdd storage and a good bit of administration time.

I have zero motivation to do this when instead I could just press "play" on the remote and let the streaming provider take care of the hassle for me.

That is just me though. I know others are looking forward to portable UV files.

What even a non-believer (or planned non-user) can get from CFF is encoding done by the studio, which should allow streaming providers access to the same initial encode, hopefully with the correct aspect ratio and highest feasibile quality. If I can download the HDX title I own and it is in the correct AR and high quality, that should light a fire under Vudu to fix their version if it is poor quality or in the incorrect AR.

It is too soon to tell how the .uvu files will integrate with current media integration big-timers like PLeX or XBMC, but they will most likely work fine in WMC. I am still looking for the pinnacle of integration between my ripped titles (Disney), bluray rentals, and soon, CFF. I'm hoping the PS3 will fill the spot, though I doubt it will handle CFF stored on a network any better than a MP4 container. Only time will tell.

[huskerbear]

Re: CFF at uvdemystified

I have now been rightly educated on the uses and benefits of UV CFF. I still am lacking motivation to use the technology in any form.

For an example; during the holidays, our two sons, my wife, and myself viewed NetFlix, Amazon Prime, and Vudu quite a bit. I dare say one of our three televisions were on watching through the entire ten days (minus several family outings). Our DSL internet did not falter at all. Programming was readily available from simply streaming over the DSL internet link.

I am a technology professional. My graduate degree is in Information Technology. I have two decades continuous work experience in the industry. I could easily download CFF movies for local playback. When I was done with all that effort, I would have an entertainment client server setup in my home which would require several terabytes of hdd storage and a good bit of administration time.

I have zero motivation to do this when instead I could just press "play" on the remote and let the streaming provider take care of the hassle for me.

That is just me though. I know others are looking forward to portable UV files.

+1

I only download maybe 1% of the UV movies I own (+- 500) I don't see the need. What I do see is the word download, come up in advertising, and in message forums. It has been my guess this is because of all the itunes users who have seemingly been trained that you "download" these digital copies. I never used itunes but I think that is the only way that system worked for a long time?

[Walter-S_North_Carolina]

Re: CFF at uvdemystified

I'm hoping the PS3 will fill the spot, though I doubt it will handle CFF stored on a network any better than a MP4 container. Only time will tell.

Case in point. PS4 = no DLNA. Why?

Is it because they rushed a half baked console to the market and Sony simply did not have time to incorporate the code?

Nope. Sony is a CE company. It is simple. The marketing need for DLNA on the PS4 had limited market value and as such, did not make it into the rev. one code.

Instead, they know everyone is going to be watching their stuff via streaming providers.

The market value of media playback via client server setups has passed to cloud streaming, since the consumer has a much more turn key environment to access their media that way.

I do not want to suggest CFF will not help to bolster significantly the UV brand. I think it will. I just do not think most people will end up using it via a PLEX server in their homes. That model has sort of fallen by the wayside in the CE market.

As for our Disney libraries, I am pinning my hopes on their joining DECE instead of using PLEX to bring my UV titles onto a DLNA client server setup or via iTunes/AppleTV. I am hoping soon to put a bullet in the head of my legacy home LAN media playback setup, not trying to add to it.

[BlakkMajik3000]

Re: CFF at uvdemystified

Case in point. PS4 = no DLNA. Why?

Is it because they rushed a half baked console to the market and Sony simply did not have time to incorporate the code?

Nope. Sony is a CE company. It is simple. The marketing need for DLNA on the PS4 had limited market value and as such, did not make it into the rev. one code.

Instead, they know everyone is going to be watching their stuff via streaming providers.

The market value of media playback via client server setups has passed to cloud streaming, since the consumer has a much more turn key environment to access their media that way.

I do not want to suggest CFF will not help to bolster significantly the UV brand. I think it will. I just do not think most people will end up using it via a PLEX server in their homes. That model has sort of fallen by the wayside in the CE market.

As for our Disney libraries, I am pinning my hopes on their joining DECE instead of using PLEX to bring my UV titles onto a DLNA client server setup or via iTunes/AppleTV. I am hoping soon to put a bullet in the head of my legacy home LAN media playback setup, not trying to add to it.

Sony's main objective with the PS4 was a gaming machine. And in that regard, they have succeeded. This console generation, it was Microsoft that decided to make the "center of the living room" play.

The negative response to the lack of DLNA/MP3 support during the initial rollout is well-documented. While the majority of PS3 users probably never thought twice about this capability, there is a very vocal minority that was quite obviously miffed by it's omission. It does not bother me personally, as I do not use the DLNA capabilities of the PS3 much. Now that Chromecast supports Plex, I hardly use anything other than that.

I don't mind streaming from the internet. If I did, I would not have converted 90% (excluding MGM/Disney titles and other random non-UV titles) of my collection when the D2D program started.

Given the option, I would rather download and watch off-line, than constantly worry if I'm going to hit my bandwidth cap for the month because I'm watching more movies than usual. When it comes to movies I own, I view UV as a way to have an on-line backup, not my primary viewing mechanism.

My problem right now, that hopefully the CFF will resolve, is all downloads are proprietary to the service, tied to a device and cannot be moved around.

[echopulse]

Re: CFF at uvdemystified

I completely agree. If there was no CFF planned then I wouldn't have converted my movies at all. Streaming services are simply not good enough to satisfy my craving for movies.

[Speedaddict81]

Re: CFF at uvdemystified

I completely agree. If there was no CFF planned then I wouldn't have converted my movies at all. Streaming services are simply not good enough to satisfy my craving for movies.

My decision to do mine would have been much more difficult were CFF not in the works.

[Walter-S_North_Carolina]

Re: CFF at uvdemystified

..., there is a very vocal minority that was quite obviously miffed by it's omission.

exactly my point. DLNA is a nitch app the PS4 rollout felt little market need to respond to. Instead, day one there were NetFlix, Amazon, and Vudu apps ready to go in anticipation of the streaming requirements of the market.

It is just a case where a CE company confirmed that the market has moved away from DLNA to streaming, making the CFF launch only of interest to a small market segment. At one time, it was the primary way to view digital media in a home.

Now, it has fallen to niche status. Overly vocal or not.