I gather that I'm not alone in my use of Mac, and my disenchantment with Windows products in general. Forcing us to use WMP to watch videos is both insulting, and poor business practice.

Agree, Disagree? Thoughts?

That's why they introduced Flash videos, which, correct me if I'm wrong, Macs support.

It's a minor annoyance annoying to have to log in every time I download a video, but meh whatever.

For those who use Dual-Monitors, the Flash stream has to be watched with no other windows open or it will sporadically go out of full screen mode if someone IM's you etc.

Pretty ------ annoying, imo.

Only new IM windows steal focus, right? Disable it. If you can't do that, just be sure to keep all your IM windows open, or put your away message on.

Lee said it best. Unfortunately, DRM is the only feasible solution for content protection right now. Apple's stuff is proprietary and Microsoft has discontinued Windows Media Player development on Mac OS X at version 9 (which doesn't support DRM), there isn't a lot we can do about that and we believe Adobe Flash is an excellent compromise that makes our content available to almost any platform.

Cheers,
~ Max

So Microsoft DRM isn´t proprietary? lol

hey too eazy, I really like your avatar. Where'd you find it?

The DRM doesn't really bother me, however some of the earlier videos after I downloaded them on windows vista I was unable to watch them and got a WMP11 error. I checked the FAQ and google and apparently the error was very common among windows vista users and there were no quick fix to it. Which meant I had to watch it while it was streaming. However the streaming would occasionally cut off and I was totally unable to the watch the videos that I paid for. Very annoying.

To be fair this hasn't happened with any of the recent videos. So meh, whatever. DRM is not the perfect solution but it's only a minor annoyance for me.

I agree, DRM is a major deal-breaker.

With all respect to Lee - I think Deuces Cracked and Pokersavvy are saying 'it' much better when it comes to the issue of drm.

With all respect to Lee - I think Deuces Cracked and Pokersavvy are saying 'it' much better when it comes to the issue of drm.

No disrespect inferred, at all. The guys at DeucesCracked (who are very smart dudes and friends of ours) do what they think is best for their business. We do what we think is best for ours. The two beautiful things about the (relatively) free market in which we exist are:

• We may both succeed - even thrive - using different models. As an analogy, note that my former employer, PokerStars, has never offered rakeback, despite plenty of demands to offer it. Full Tilt has chosen to offer rakeback in certain situations. Both companies seem to be doing quite well, thank you. There's more than one way to skin a cat.
• Either or both of our enterprises could choose to switch our model in the future. As I said in my original post, that Max so kindly quoted:

our Digital Rights Management (DRM) software is an imperfect attempt to strike the balance between protecting our intellectual property and your enjoyment of our videos.

We know it's imperfect, but right now we like it better than the alternatives. We can, and will, change if something better presents itself.

Best regards,
Lee Jones

COO, CardRunners LLC
leej@cardrunners.com

P.S. There is a Microsoft patch called TweakUI that you can use to prevent apps from auto-grabbing focus. It's intended for XP - I'm not running Vista, so I don't know if Vista has that automatically built in or what.

That's a pretty good analogy, the only thing is that PS offered a VIP system that was easily comparable to rakeback.
I love TweakUI, pretty awesome app.

I love TweakUI, pretty awesome app.

A friend and former colleague at PokerStars tells me that TweakUI does not work on Vista. Which sucks. But I imagine that some clever geek out there has produced something that will accomplish the same thing for you.

Best regards,
Lee Jones

COO, CardRunners LLC
leej@cardrunners.com

http://blog.ryantadams.com/2008/02/1...ocus-in-vista/

Embarrassingly enough, I simply typed "2p2 Avatar" into google images, and stole what is presumably someone elses avatar because I thought it was cool.

Hey Lee, thanks for the response and pointing me toward Tweak, I'll have to check it out. IM's aren't the only sporadic popups I get unfortunately so simply disabling AIM isn't much of a solution.

I do have to agree with whoever said that although PS didn't offer straight up rakeback, VIP program is damn near similar, although I appreciate the business perspective you're providing.

I hope you just understand that although I'm probably in the minority, the use of DRM and WMP to view videos makes it basically impossible for me to watch videos in a convenient setting. This is unfortunate for customers such as myself who have been with CR for two years and have come a long way with the site, so to speak.

My frustration stems from teh fact that I no longer am able to enjoy a product which I pay for with ease and convenience.

I guess I'll have to do the work and hopefully figure out how to get these videos functioning.

yeah i can see why u would be pretty frustrated in this situation
flash videos could perhaps be improved if u were able to stop programs from stealing its focus but is there nothing like DRM for the mac? there must be something u would have thought?

edit: also i tried the link in the post above and my registry value was already set to that as default
and i know aim still pops up so ;p sorta useless post probably fixing something else

anyway im also open to solutions on how to keep the aim convo windows minimised and stop them stealing focus when they pop

It's the way Adobe Flash is designed, we can't really change that on our end as far as I know. Mac OS X doesn't offer anything with content protection for third party use.

I just did a quick search on Google and found that.

Personally, I use a super old version of AIM with DeadAIM, and one of the features is exactly that: open new windows minimized and do not steal focus.

wow

maybe im wrong here but, dont microsoft (or other?) charge you some kind of license fee for using DRM? would be worth developing if thats the case

Thanks dude!

I'm not sure i like using the standard AIM client too much, atm i use trillian and not sure if this will work with that but w/e ill check it anyway!

The reasons for using DRM, in theory, are fair enough. With that being said, DRM is ridiculously easy to remove so therefore those who wish to, or those who seek to, are going to do it anyway so they may as well scrap DRM altogether

This is me.

I would like to sign up, i would like to watch the videos, I am happy to pay. Unfortunately were I to do so, I'd be limited to viewing the videos in my office, on a noisy as hell overpowered Windows computer, on a monitor designed for playing poker, not watching videos, listening on a pair of cheapo speakers only connected so I can hear the sound effects pokerStars emits. less than ideal.

With a DRM free product, I can watch from a more comfortable chair, on a system designed for watching video. Having experienced video delivered in this manner, it is not tempting to go back - I haven't watched more than 5 minutes of video from one DR encumbered training site I subscribe to, since I experiences a DRM free alternative.

And this, QFT.

I know just how trivial it is to relieve content of this unnecessary restriction, but it is not something i would do - in this market, we vote with out $$$, and if I were to sign up I'd be giving the impression that DRM was fine by me, when it really is not.

I am often stunned that "content providers", actually believe this, and I can honestly say I do not understand.

There is no "protection of intellectual property" to be had. Honest people pay, thieves steal. Simple.

The idea that everyone would cancel their memberships and start bootlegging your vids if you stopped using DRM, I just don't think it could possibly happen - I expect you would in fact get a load of new sign-ups, from all manner of people.


Who knows, I could be wrong and however unlikely Deuces Cracked and PokerSavvyPlus may go busto because they don't use DRM - I don't think so, but you can never be sure... and in that regard they win *again* if they do go bust, we are not left with invalid license and other such problems, the content we paid for is still of use.

Whatever, long rambling post and I didn't even rant about the "evils" of DRM Either way, drop the DRM and +1 subscriber here

Indeed - I think it shows a lack of faith in their own product that they feel their customer base is simply going to fall away if drm is removed.

A training site today should be about more than just the videos. Certainly it's the most important part, but is CRs target audience really people who'll care so much about $30 that they'll go hunting for pirated videos and miss out on the benefits and convenience of of a training site to save a few bucks?

They've lost my business (my subscription ran out yesterday) - not because of the cost or quality of their videos, but because convenience and flexibility is one of the main issues for me. With a full time job, that involves both a long commute and a fair amount of travelling, being able to watch videos whenever, whereever and however I want (which basically means on my iPod) is an important factor.

Also, I'm an honest person who have no problem paying for the stuff I use/want. I don't download pirated music, movies or software. However, it seriously annoys me that the fact that I want to be honest means I have to jump through hoops and suffer limitations on how I can use prodcuts while people who do not care about being honest can get the same products free with none of the limitations I have to accept.

DRM does little more than punish legit customers while rewarding the people stealing the same products.

Ok, guys don't you think complaining about DRM is really nitpicking it? Cmon now.

Yeah it's a little annoying to have verify everytime you watch a video but don't you think this is a really minor annoyance for the product that cardrunners is putting out? CR is putting out a great product for a relatively miniscule price. CR was the first of it's kind in online training sites and they've been successful in building their business with this model, so I can't see how it will change anytime soon.

I actually feel kinda sheepish for complaining about CR in the past since it's been such a big part of my poker success and for being relatively cheap but I did have to speak out as I really didn't like the direction that CR was going. Now it looks like they are listening to what their members have to say and I've been pretty happy. To me complaining about DRM is really nitpicking it now. Just my opinion if you ask me.

No. DRM is evil and only hurts legit customers while doing nothing to prevent pirates from ripping and distributing the files.

No, I don't think it is. If you're in a situation where you have a lot of free time to watch the videos in an environment where you have a (preferably windows) computer with an internet connection, then it may not be a big hassle.

If you don't though, having DRM free content helps you a ton because you can be so much more flexible with how and when you watch stuff.

The quality of the product isn't really the issue here though. The fact is that today there are other sites that are putting out content that is at least as good as what CR is currently producing and they're doing it cheaper and drm free.