Why UltraViolet is a failure.

I bought yet another blu-ray movie with one of those "redeem your digital copy" cards inside. I usually ignore them, but this time I thought, why not? UltraViolet seems to be a thing now; it stood up to the test of time. My optical media isn't going to last forever, so I might as well get my moneys worth!

To start, I searched for an iOS app that plays UltraViolet movies. No such thing. There are apps that supposedly connect with UltraViolet to redeem the purchases, which allow you to then stream or download from a digital retailer, such as Flixter, Vudu, or M-GO.

Fair enough, let's start with Flixter. Netflix? Nope, that was Quickster. Whatever, this one's owned by Time Warner. How are the reviews? Four and a half stars! Great! Oh... no, it doesn't actually play movies. Scroll down. Flixter Video! One and a half stars?! Okay, maybe the reviewers were a little harsh. Nope! Most of the complaints are about not being able to play movies offline, or not being able to play movies at all. Not going to bother with this one.

Moving on: Vudu. Same story.

M-GO. Good reviews. Nice interface. Setting up an account was pretty easy. Okay, now I have to set up an UltraViolet account, too. Now I have to link it to the M-GO account, which is done by entering my UltraViolet credentials on M-GO's site. Not very secure, but whatever – it's not like my UltraViolet account has got anything to steal. Linked!

Finally! Let's add those movies! Enter the redemption code on UltraViolet's site. Choose your digital retailer: Flixter or Vudu. That's it. Try another movie code? Same story. Enter the code directly on M-GO? Doesn't work, of course.

Dear Time Warner and Walmart and all the movie studios that made a deal with these decrepit spawn of digital hell: let me recap my situation. I wasn't entirely happy with how Apple handled things, what with their DRM and being restricted to their ecosystem to watch any of my purchased movies. Honestly, it was mostly a matter of principle, because I was actually able to play those movies on all of my devices. The only real issue was "if I ever switch to Android", which of course doesn't support iTunes purchases. Instead, I now have these mysterious UltraViolet digital... somethings. These somethings have zero chance of being played back on any of my media devices.