If you purchase an on demand movie (as opposed to renting it), where exactly does it get stored?

[oldfashioned]

This really is just a curiosity question.  My STB is the QIP-7100.  If there is ever a movie a really want to have, I always prefer to have a hard copy of the movie on DVD.  If you buy a movie on demand, does it get stored on your STB like a computer file?

[CRobGauth]

No. STBs have no hard drive. But I beleive there is a way to download to your computer to watch it.

[oldfashioned]

So what I'm getting from this is that you would need a DVR to purchase and watch an on-demand movie (as opposed to renting it).  Am I right? 

[gs0b · Accepted solution]

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@questioning wrote:

So what I'm getting from this is that you would need a DVR to purchase and watch an on-demand movie (as opposed to renting it).  Am I right? 

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No.  On Demand movies remain stored on Verizon's servers.  Any STB can access On Demand, regardless of if it has DVR or not.

When you purchase a movie, you can watch it anytime you want on any of your STBs.  You can watch it from a computer from the "MyVerizon" web page.  You can download it to "digital devices" using the "FiOS Mobile" app.

You cannot get a file that save on your own.

If you want a physical copy, I suggest you purchase the BluRay.  Not only is BluRay higher quality video and audio, it's much more portable.

Enjoy.

[oldfashioned]

OK.  Now that makes sense and that's what I figured.  I will stick with my DVDs.  My DVD player still works very well and I have no intention of replacing it unless it goes. 

I am really not a fan of *not* having a physical hard copy of music on a CD or a movie on DVD.  OK, so a movie you buy "on demand" gets stored on Verizon's servers but then what happens if there is a problem with the server or if you have to stop doing business with Verizon Fios because you move to an area where only cable is available?  Then what?  At least with a hard copy, it's always mine, it's durable, it can last forever, I can watch it anytime, and I will always have it to view regardless of what kind of system I have.  I think it's a lot nicer too to have a physical collection of music and movies.  It's tangible and it makes a statement about ourselves. 

I think the quality of CD music is far superior than music that gets downloaded from Pandora and even with physical DVDs, I find they're much easier to control (with the pause and fast forwarding) on a DVD player. With an on demand movie that I rent, the pause button will only stay on for so long or if I stop the movie and come back to watching it later, I still often have to fast foward and back track to where I left off.

I'm only mentioning this because there are pros and cons to any technological innovation and I don't believe that "newer" is necessarily better.  And far as having a hard copy is concerned, think of the reasons why we back up the files on our hard drives and why even in college, I always saved my papers on the hard drive and on a floppy disk.  OK, so now we have "flash drives" but in my honest opinion, the logic of keeping a hard copy for the long haul is really still the same in the end.

It's just food for thought.   

[Torex]

If  we purchase an On Demand movie, and it remains on Verizon's servers, then the word "BUY" does not apply.

The appropriate term should be "Virtual Lease".  Because if you buy something, you own it. It is yours to keep.

If we cannot "own" what we pay for, how can it be called a 'buy"?  I would encourage Verizon's sales team to re-think their movie "selling" business.

[mdelugg]

I agree completely. I'm about to take a trip and won't have Internet access much of the time. What am I supposed to do with a movie I buy from VZ FiOS? Nothing. I'll stick with hard copies also, thank you.

PS: This is the same problem I have with storing photos and docs in "the cloud." (Any cloud). About a month ago, many FiOS routers in Manhattan were "zapped" and needed to be replaced. I spent hours with tech support until they agreed to send a tech. The guy they sent was great, knew about the problem and just replaced my fried router.  But my Internet was out for 3 days!

I need my most important docs on my machine for the NEXT time my very expensive FiOS Internet dies, or we have a blackout. None of the tech companies are hip to these problems. (There's no such thing as "always-on" Internet.)

[CRobGauth]

Some other providers have started to allow you to download DVR content (I assume they do the same for purchased VOD content).

Lets hope that Verizon will allow that sooner rather than later.

I don't know if you will be able to save to hard media as that would allow pirating.

[LawrenceC]

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