Monday, December 29, 2014

Video Download Blues

Dig We Must

The Cave Digger documentary movie is a tale of an independent creative artist. This post is not about the movie, but instead, about trying to get a valid download of the same.

I decided yesterday to rent a copy of the Cave Digger movie, from the Apple iTunes Store. That was a big mistake. Although the rental was only $4.99, I was mightily frustrated and bummed out when, after the download, that messages appeared saying that a certain display compatible with Digital Rights Management was necessary to view it. I had less than 24 hours to figure that out. Later, after a lot of "drilling down", I was able to submit a complaint to Apple iTunes Store. For what it's worth, maybe I'll get a chargeback to my credit card.  What pissed me off was that as far as I could see, there was no warning about the special requirements on the iTunes movie downloads page. Plus, it was difficult to locate the video file on my drive. I found it with a Spotlight search on my Mac, but to no avail, as I couldn't play it. Apple, and the iTunes bloatware made me feel technically incompetent.


I went back to bed, then later decided to look on the Amazon.com site for the same movie. There it was. I decided to splurge, and I rented it, albeit as "SD" rather than "HD". (The difference I dimly understand.) Almost immediately, Amazon asked me if I wanted to view the movie right away!. I thought that was incredibly generous, and I started to watch it, uninterruptedly.

When I checked my mail in-box, there was an email from Amazon giving me a $1 credit toward the purchase of an MP3. That, IMO, makes for a very satisfactory customer experience.


With which company would you prefer to do business? At this point I'll hold my rather extensive negative opinions of Apple. I have been a long time Apple loyalist but now I can rant on for a long time about Apple's current negative aspects.

Here's a trailer for the movie.


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