Die Hard DVD will include electronic copy

News

Mark Sutton October 16, 11:10am

Portable player users will no longer have to pay twice to watch media

20th Century Fox is rumoured to announce today that it will include an electronic copy of the latest Die Hard release with special edition DVDs. The file will be compatible with computers and all portable video players and will be digital right managements free, potentially meaning the file can be transferred easily from one PC to another. It is still unclear how Fox will prevent the files, which will soon be available on many of their titles, from becoming widely available for download.

"This may be the killer app, where you have physical media that allows you to have a big-screen experience and at the same time move the file around to other devices and have a great experience there as well," said Mike Dunn, worldwide president of 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment, the studio's home-video division.

"The industry has sold nearly 12 billion DVDs to date, and the release of 'Live Free or Die Hard' is the first one that allows consumers to move their content to other devices," Dunn said.

A 16 digit serial code will be supplied with each digital copy, which can be entered on either the users hard drive or their portable media player, however the player must be equip with Microsoft's PlayForSure software, available on mp3 models from Archos, Toshiba, RCA, Creative Labs, Dell and Samsung.

This is the first time an additional transferable copy of a movie has ever been included on a DVD.