Because download-to-own is dead at Crunchyroll:
As Crunchyroll continues to evolve, we add new features and remove ones that don’t perform well. Recently we’ve made a decision to discontinue our Download-to-Own service, which lets users purchase DRM-free, downloadable videos of our popular shows. We believe online streaming video is the future will continue to focus on those efforts. Starting March 31, 2010, no new purchases of video downloads will be allowed. However, your existing downloads will continue to work until May 1, 2010. Please download and save your video files by May 1, 2010.
As an alternative, we offer high quality, ad-free streams through our Premium Membership service. It offers over 50% of currently airing Anime titles in Japan and thousands of catalog episodes for as little as $5/month.
Frankly, I thought they’d already discontinued it. I looked and looked for where to download what I was watching on CR, but couldn’t find the links. Maybe I’m just blind, but I figured that after “Gonzo’s mistake with Strike Witches” (Whatever that was supposed to be, I dunno) This disappointed me tremendously; I have issues with the playback hanging sometimes, so I would prefer to spend the extra money to have a quality download, with an approved translation then and there, rather than wait a day to a week. As a result, I’ve been doing very little watching on CR, and was thinking about canceling my subscription.
DTO would would have been killer for Bakamonogatari, since my copy of ep. 14 is a total botch. Alas, no luck. I think it’s been licensed though, so perhaps we’ll see it at retail soon.
