+++
title = "Popcorn Time"
lang = "en"
[taxonomies]
tags = ["film", "popcorn time"]
[extra]
author = "harald"
+++
{% figure(img="Popcorn_Time_logo.png") %}
The Popcorn Time mascot
{% end %}
Lately I've been trying out [Popcorn Time]. I know it's hardly news anymore,
but I'm one of those who like to pay for the movies I watch, so I've been
looking a bit around for what alternatives I have. So far, given my prefered
platforms and a requirement that the solution needs to be playable using [Free
and Open Source] software, I've really only had one choice: [Vimeo].
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I like Vimeo, there's a lot of really great independent film makers out there
who make films that are both interesting and well made. Through Vimeo's
video-on-demand service they have a chance to screen their films for a price
they set themselves – and you know that at least part of the money reach the
film makers. The service is quite good, and I will definitely keep using it.
Pretty much everything else requires proprietary software that isn't even
available for my systems (read _Microsoft Silverlight_.) That's a no go. I'm _not_
going to install a closed source proprietary software from a vendor that is
known to [cooperate] with the authorities of hostile nations
just to watch movies. I'm not _that_ stupid.
So I've read about Popcorn Time, but shrugged it off, as I would rather like a
solution where I can give back to the film makers. Until one day, I decided to
try...
It does have it's problems. The search is not very good. I would like to search
on films by country, by director, by actors etc, but it seems it only provides
search by title. Also given their own claim that they have everything, I think
the selection of movies is rather thin. They have the most mainstream stuff,
but there's quite a few of my favourite movies I have not been able to find
there yet. Third, for less popular movies the download rate may be wildly
varying, which gives a frustrating viewer experience when the move halts
altogether for extended periods of time.
That said, when it works, damn how it works! Compared to the commercial
offerings that have jerky playback with occationally severe coding artifacts,
Popcorn Time provides really smooth playback, much better image quality and
crisper sound. If you love movies, I really see no other alternatives coming
even close to this.[^1]
My question is: _Why hasn't the movie industry looked into this?_
The code is licensed under [GPLv3], which means the movie studio who first
decides to try this model has a good and working codebase to start off with
when they decides to make their own offering. The catch? Any software derived
from Popcorn Time must also be free and open source.
But this is actually an advantage! You'll get a community of people that would
help you develop the software, you just need to provide the movies and a way to
pay for them. Given that Popcorn Time is based on the [BitTorrent]
protocol, it even means that everyone watching films is also helping you
distribute it. So you'll even save on bandwith costs compared to the
traditional video-on-demand solutions of today. Popular movies will practically
host themselves, less popular ones may have to be served more directly.
Give us a way to pay for the movies, provide enough server bandwith that we can
watch even the less popular movies without trouble, and fix the crappy search
and we should have a winner.
Please!
[^1]: I've sometimes paid for movies on other services, just to end up watching
them on Popcorn Time because the experience is so much better!
[cooperate]: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/aug/23/nsa-prism-costs-tech-companies-paid
[Popcorn Time]: http://popcorn-time.se/
[Free and Open Source]: http://www.fsf.org/about/what-is-free-software
[Vimeo]: https://vimeo.com
[GPLv3]: http://www.gnu.org/licenses/quick-guide-gplv3.html
[BitTorrent]: http://www.bittorrent.org/beps/bep_0003.html
