DRM in LuLa videos

[Christopher Sanderson]

At our request, Purple have now stripped the DRM from Luminous Landscape's standalone download videos.

Videos downloaded within a subscription still contain DRM but videos that are purchased as standalone files are DRM-free, allowing them to be played on any media player.

The videos are either .mov or .mp4 format.

If you already have downloaded video files that contain DRM and wish to re-download DRM-free files, you will need to delete the existing files. Click on the video's icon in the Luminous Landscape app and choose 'remove media files'.

The process of purchasing and downloading video content remains the same - with one important upcoming improvement*. Essentially, the files will download to the same location as before but they will be unprotected. Customers wishing to download the files to an alternate drive should follow the simple instructions laid out here.

To copy or reveal the downloaded video files, open the Luminous Landscape app; click the gear icon at top right and select "Copy media to mobile device". In the resulting window, click "open folder" next to the video package required and you will be taken to the media folder so that files may either be opened there in the app of your choice or copied to another location.

*From Jan 1 on, after purchase, customers will receive a direct link to download the DRM-free video files in the "thank-you" page and email receipt. Previous purchasers will need to re-download the DRM-free videos and proceed as described above.

[Rick Popham]

Wow!  Thanks Chris!  This is a nice Christmas present.

Best through the Holidays and the New Year

Rick

[francois]

That's all good!

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year.

[Nigel Johnson]

Chris,

Just a shame that I decided to support the site by buying a subscription, despite having bought most of the videos offered before the change, and therefore can only benefit from this welcome change by paying extra to buy any new videos outside my subscription. I feel that I have wasted my money by trying to support the LL site.

EDIT: I have received a prompt reply from Chris, see next message but one, and am dealing with the matter via personal messages. I would like to compliment Chris and LL on their level of customer service.

Like many others I find that the Purple player does not perform satisfactorily on my iPad (only plays part of videos, has no ability to search or filter, etc) and that the streaming player in the IPad's browser won't remember my password or recognise my email address as valid to allow me to reset the password (despite it being copied from the Player in Safari on the Mac!). Conversely I am able to stream non-DRM videos such as my old LL ones to my iPad over wifi, using Air Video, but have no acceptable means of viewing the DRM videos on the iPad.

Despite the excellent content I cannot recommend that anyone should purchase a subscription to the downright awful experience supplied using the Purple Player.

Sincerely,
Nigel

PS I have checked all the help topics and FAQs available and none seem to affect my ability to successfully use Purple Player.

[kaelaria]

Very good guys!  Almost there, just don't screw subscribers and I think you are back to a great solution!  Merry Christmas!

[Christopher Sanderson]

...I feel that I have wasted my money by trying to support the LL site....
Despite the excellent content I cannot recommend that anyone should purchase a subscription to the downright awful experience supplied using the Purple Player.

I am very sorry you feel this way.
There is always the option to ask for a refund or go through the help process with Purple to get the videos playing properly.
Another alternative is to 'switch out' your subscription for the equivalent value in stand-alone videos.

Please feel free to contact me on any of these options.

Chris

[Nigel Johnson]

Chris,

Thank you for your prompt response. I will send you a personal message and have edited my original message.

Regards,
Nigel

[Christopher Sanderson]

Here is a screen shot and note of the new 'Thank-You' page and receipt that customers receive after purchase of a standalone video.

Chris

[Philip Weber]

Chris - A big shout out with much appreciation for your assistance yesterday (a major holiday no less!). Nancy at PP was helpful as well and I now have all three of the new videos in MP4, in file locations of my choosing, and no unwanted app/player stuff to deal with.

With all that behind, keep the videos coming as I always learn something from the LL videos and enjoy seeing areas that I haven't been to yet (some, most likely, I'll never get to without winning the lottery). The quality is always fantastic and I really appreciate all that you and the rest of the LuLa team do for photographers like me.

Wishing everyone at LuLa a wonderful New Year!

Phil 

[Michael Mährlein]

Happy new year!

I downloaded the Ctein and the Palouse files again (after January 1st, 2014), but it is not possible for me to open the files in Quicktime player (Mavericks, current version). The error is that QuickTime Player cannot open the file. I tried it also with VLC without success.

Please can you help me?

Best regards, Michael

[Christopher Sanderson]

Please send a note via the Purple help system to Grace Fioravanti giving her the email used for purchase.

She will provide you with direct links as she has for a couple of others.

I think this may happen until we clear the backlog of customers who purchased before DRM was removed.

[Michael Mährlein]

Hallo Chris,
thank you very much for your reply. A few minutes ago I send my request to Grace. I hope that I will hear from her soon.

Best regards, Michael

[Christopher Sanderson]

I hope that I will hear from her soon.

...you may have to wait until Monday.

[Michael Mährlein]

... no problem ;-)

[mrcmrc]

Chris,
just to say that the DRM removal from LL's videos is a good thing, thank you for this.

I've contacted the Purple customer support in order to get the Ctein video DRM free (because deleting it and re-downloading still give me the DRM version) and they give me the link to it. Very nice.

So thank you again for this decision.

Best,
- Marco.

[Manoli]

See my full posting in the thread on the new video offer. I strongly disagree with the current practice that videos that we separately purchase, and own, are dependent upon a proprietary player …  As I noted in my other posting:  "However, the new format leaves something to be desired. The videos that are purchased to be owned only play using a proprietary player. They will not play as regular QuickTime movies. (At least they won't play when clicked on using my Mac.)  ..

I'm really not sure what you're bellyaching about. I purchased the latest 'rangefinder' video. It downloaded as a zip /mp4 file(s) and plays perfectly with Quicktime, VLC etc. (and on a Mac) Where is the DRM you're complaining about ?

Frankly, one post would probably be sufficient, two smacks of finicky excess.

[alan a]

I removed my two posts from both threads.  Based on the above report that the purchased files play fine, as standalone files, I did some investigating.  I purchased LR5 on December 18.  It appears that the DRM was removed after that, about one week later, based on the first post in this thread.  

I will redownload the LR5 files as well as purchase one more.  I assume that they will play fine and not require the proprietary player, as reported above.

Follow-up -- as reported above, simply downloading the files again doesn't work.  If you have DRM files, you need to contact customer service for the links to the MP4 files, which play fine in standard video players.  So my earlier posts, both of which were removed, were erroneous, as I was using the DRM files that were downloaded one week before DRM was removed. 

Many thanks to Chris and LL for resolving this problem, and for insuring that separate purchases of files that we own do not require a proprietary player.