Comments on: Legal Anime Download Service Review: ADV Universe

By: Fool

Fool — Thu, 02 Aug 2007 23:28:59 +0000

I’m pissed off…

The error message fooled me so I tried entering my credit card info in IE instead of Firefox. I’m being billed for 50 bucks for 5 orders of 2 episodes. I’m pissed off. ~_~;;;;; Oh well, I’m the fool… I should’ve known. Of course, it is pending and I sent them SEVERAL emails and even called them to no avail. XD I’m so stupid… at least I have the money to cover this and not worry about it.

By: har

har — Sat, 10 Mar 2007 18:33:14 +0000

So you played Le Chevalier D’Eon in VLC and got Gankutsuou. Cool.

By: kevn57

kevn57 — Mon, 05 Mar 2007 19:55:37 +0000

@Hung I also think that they should offer all of the 1st episodes for free. I have no idea why they wouldn’t do this.

Wasn’t it the ADV exec that said “If you quit watching an anime after watching only one episode, you should find another hobby” Which I kind of agree with some shows take a bit to get rolling. How many people quit after the first Suzumiya Haruhi episode I wonder? A show that I absolutely love but had me scratching my head after that first one.

By: Hung

Hung — Mon, 05 Mar 2007 19:42:50 +0000

I do agree that the DRM sucks. The ADV Bucks thing would be enough to convince me to pay for these downloads (since your purchase sort of goes to buying the dvd) but until they get those other issues I mentioned taken care of, I can’t really recommend ADV Universe.

I also think that they should offer all of the 1st episodes for free. I have no idea why they wouldn’t do this.

By: kevn57

kevn57 — Mon, 05 Mar 2007 19:33:37 +0000

I’ll never buy it unless I can burn it to DVD and play it on my standalone DVD player with Japanese audio and English subtitles, the fan subs work great on my 46″ TV. DRM is really a dumb way to go, especially if a show has already been released on fan subs why pay for something restrictive if the free version is already DRM unrestricted. Just wait for the DVD to come out and support the company that way.

I feel the same way about downloading American TV shows like Battlestar Galatica, I’d love to pay $1.99 and download it legally but I’m not paying for something that is crippled by DRM when I can get it uncrippled for free. DRM sucks and I won’t support it. Every time some one buys a DRM product they are supporting DRM indirectly. Sorry for DRM rant.

By: Kyle Korleski

Kyle Korleski — Mon, 05 Mar 2007 10:22:59 +0000

It’s so funny to see how fucked up some people’s DRM schemes are.

By: suguru

suguru — Mon, 05 Mar 2007 06:26:29 +0000

Dub-only just kills it for me…but if they offered subbed versions, and if we lived in a world with no fansubs–I might be tempted to buy the first episode or two of a series from a service like this rather than wait for Netflix. But realistically, I can watch the fansubs to tell if I like a series or not, and that’s how I decide if I’ll buy the DVDs.

I can’t see this service replacing buying DVDs either–I don’t care about the packaging, but doing the math it’s just not sufficiently cheaper for me to pick a downloadable DRM’d version over just buying the physical DVD. Especially when I know DVDs are a proven standard I’ll still be able to play 10-20 years from now, while the 2007 iteration of Windows DRM is a different story. If they brought it down to $1.99 per episode I might put more thought into it.

By: Adun

Adun — Mon, 05 Mar 2007 02:33:36 +0000

Well it is a start but I think ADV need to consider in the fact that fansubs can be near of a higher quality. I’m not up to date on the DRM technology but I think ADV have to consider the use of other technologies which will support dual-audio. Although $4.99 is a cheap price to pay, I’d rather spend that little extra and get a product that has dual audio. Also the watermarking is indeed annoying.

By: Seth

Seth — Mon, 05 Mar 2007 02:22:30 +0000

I have a suspicion the licensing contracts are going to get in the way of American anime companies providing downloads in a nice DRM-free way.

The ADV bucks system sounds interesting. I’m pretty solidly in the school of thought that giving away digital episodes would not hurt DVD sales. This is about the closest anybody has tried, but with DRM, dub-only (well that might or might not matter), and slow download speeds…yeah not good.

Thanks for the reporting!