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General information: the website blog

Besides information about each film (see following section: Information on films) Dissidenz stands out from other websites because you can also find general editorials about art and culture. Some of this information is on the homepage but most of it is in a special section called BLOG, which is in the upper navigation bar (at the top of the screen):





When you click on BLOG, a new page appears with different sections: FOCUS, PICK OF THE WEEK (section in which directors, producers, actors, technicians, artists etc. write about a favorite film as well as their career and upcoming projects) and many others. All the articles are archived and can be consulted anytime. The website blog is updated every week.

Information on films

what type(s) of films?

On Dissidenz, you’ll find feature films, short films, TV films, documentaries, artist videos and clips from all over the world, all genres and all periods.
The titles presented are available for sale in one form or another (see section How to watch the films) and always reflect our editorial line. The website does not aim to include everything. Dissidenz makes sure it offers works it considers essential as well as demanding works and those hard or impossible to find in traditional sales networks.
You can search for a film by sliding your mouse over the FILMS section in the main navigation bar (just under the bar of scrolling images):





You can do a search by alphabetical order (from A to Z), by director, by genre (click on this section to bring up the different genres), by label and by theme or keyword.

what type(s) of information?

Our aim is to offer as much information possible for each film listed on the website: synopsis, cast, crew, technical info, director’s biography and filmography. Where possible, we also include production notes, interviews and press reviews.
All this information is on the page of the film selected:





Click on the tab that interests you: SYNOPSIS, ABOUT THE FILM, TECHNICAL INFO, PRESS REVIEWS. The section USER COMMENTS is a register of comments left by Internauts.
In some cases, there are free videos (preview trailers, extracts, interviews footage, presentations, etc.), related blogs and special extras (books, soundtrack CDs, etc.).





Free videos can also be selected by category in the section FREE VIDEOS on the main navigation bar (just under the scrolling image bar):

how to do a search?

You can do a search at any time by entering a title, name or keyword in the “Search” box in the upper right hand corner of the screen, in the main navigation bar (just under the scrolling image bar). We will select all the programs using this title, name or keyword in the credits (director, screenplay writer, actor, producer, etc.) or keywords related to the program.

how to be kept up-to-date?

There are several ways of being kept up-to-date on new programs or a particular film or subject:
- you can sign up for the Dissidenz newsletter and receive information every week (new programs, events, main articles from the website blog).





In this section, if you wish, you can also sign up for partners’ newsletters and be kept up on their news.
- you can subscribe to the website blog and be informed when a new article or folder is posted.
- you can subscribe to blogs for films or directors that interest you (if they exist), via the same procedure as for the WEBSITE BLOG.





- you can subscribe to a syndication feed, on this website or on the blogs concerned. For more information on syndication feeds, click here.

A means of watching the films

All the titles offered on Dissidenz are available either on DVD or VOD.

on DVD

The DVDs offered may come from France or other countries when French editions do not exist or are different (in terms of master quality or bonuses). When DVDs come from foreign countries, they are imports and the customer is invited to:
- check that his/her DVD player can read DVDs from a zone other than zone 2 (European zone).
- check that his/her DVD player and television can read NTSC (in France, most equipment under ten years old is multi-standard and can read NTSC –for computers, it is not an issue).

on VOD

A way of getting these film circulating

How do we give visibility to films with the reputation of being “difficult” in the eyes of a market that favors blockbusters?
> for individuals: recommend the film, express your opinion, give the film to others
Tools are available to do this:
- invite a friend to watch the film (RECOMMEND TO A FRIEND in the film page)





- express your opinion (USER COMMENTS in the film page)





- give the film to others (see the section Buying on Dissidenz)
> for directors and producers: extend the film’s lifespan by adding to the film’s editorial section, by updating information and news on the film in real time and by dialoging with Internauts.
To promote a film that does not have a Hollywood or big time celebrity cast, it is essential to give the public as much information as possible. Whether or not the film has been released in theaters, whether or not a program has been screened on television, whether or not a video has been published, to give the film a long lifespan, it is important to post all information directly or indirectly concerning the film so it never stops being topical.
Tools are available to those who make and know about films: at least one section ABOUT THE FILM (that can contain production notes, interviews, etc.) and ideally FREE VIDEOS or animation of a related blog or even an editorial space. To find out more, contact us.
> for independent sales outlets: offer these films for sale on DVD.
If you are an independent sales outlet and have trouble getting some titles on DVD from the usual wholesalers or the distributors themselves, Dissidenz can be your supplier. Check out our PROFESSIONALS section (at the top of the upper navigation bar, just next to HELP) to open an account and find out about terms.

DVDs, CDs, books, etc.

Simply follow these steps:

1- Search and select the products you are interested in, either in the section STORE (on the far right of the main navigation bar), in the section FILMS, or by doing a search in the search box (to the left of the STORE section).





Once you reach the film page of the product you are interested in, click on the order button of the chosen product.





A window opens to confirm that your order has been registered. You can then either continue browsing (“Continue browsing”) or finish your order and start payment (“Checkout”) If you continue your visit, you can check your cart at any time by clicking on “My cart”) in MY DISSIDENZ section in the top right hand corner of the screen.





2- By clicking on “Checkout” all your purchases are displayed. You can cancel one or several items or increase their number.





By choosing the delivery country and type of delivery, you can simulate delivery costs.





If you have a promotional claim code, this is when you need to enter it in the appropriate box.





You can then either “validate your order” or “continue browsing” and display your cart by clicking on “my cart” (see above).





3- You then come to the identification stage. If you are not yet registered, you will need to create a Dissidenz account to allow us to manage your preferences (including delivery addresses and order follow-up) and begin secure payment of your purchases.





4- After filling out the registration form, you come to the order summary page.
At this stage, you may still change your order by clicking twice on “Back.”





Otherwise, click on “Validate your order.”

5- Choose a means of payment (see section How to pay on Dissidenz). Once your payment has been completed, you come to a page confirming your order with a summary of delivery details of your order (to know more about delivery terms, see article 7 of Terms and Conditions)
From here on, you may follow your orders and manage your preferences by going to “My dissidenz” and checking in.

Special subscriptions

On Dissidenz, subscribing means buying a DVD that does not yet exist but that may come into existence if the number of subscriptions reaches the level required to finance its production. Only payment by bank card via the secure bank server (see article 9 of Terms and Conditions) is accepted. The customer’s bank card is only debited at the end of the subscription period announced on the website (i.e. 60 days at most after the start of subscriptions) and only if the required number of subscriptions is reached. If so, the DVD edition is launched and the customer is informed by e-mail of the projected delivery date of the DVD he/she has ordered.
If, however, the number of subscriptions does not reach the required number, the customer’s bank card will not be debited and the transaction will be eliminated from the bank server.
The list of subscriptions available can be found in the STORE section.
The purchasing process of a subscription is similar to that of a DVD.

Immaterial products

- VOD
The procedure is the same as for the purchase of a DVD, CD, book, etc. except for the order confirmation stage (step 5), which has a “delivery” page for your products with downloading links.
For more details about VOD, click here.
- Gift certificates
A gift certificate allows you to make a friend happy at any time without getting it wrong! As soon as your payment is validated, your friend receives an e-mail with his/her gift certificate and a personal message from you.

[Example of the message received by the recipient:


For you, from Dissidenz.com.

We are delighted to send you this gift certificate. You can use it on our website www.dissidenz.com to buy any item in our catalog (DVDs, CDs, books, etc. or video on demand).

This gift certificate was sent to you by the person named above.

DO NOT ERASE THIS MESSAGE! You will need the gift certificate code to place your order.

*********************
For: Julien
Amount: 50 euros
From: Mathieu
Message: blablabla.

Gift certificate code: AP1234567
Valid until 01/12/2007

Using your gift certificate is a piece of cake:
- Visit our website: www.dissidenz.com.
- Select your items and add them to your cart.
- When you display your cart, enter the gift certificate code in the ‘”promotional claim code” box. This accesses your gift certificate credit.

Important: enter the gift certificate code as written in the e-mail you received.
Please note: for payments using gift certificates, if the amount of the gift certificate does not cover the cost of the order, you must pay the balance using a credit card.]

By bank card: CB, Visa, Mastercard, American Express

Accepted bank cards are: CB, Visa, Mastercard, American Express. Payment is secure in SSL mode (see article 9 of Terms and Conditions to find out more about secure payment). When filling out the required payment form, there are two ways of checking that the pages are protected: > The symbols [Symboles] in the bottom right hand corner of your screen indicate that your transaction is secure. You can fill out your form with complete confidence. (To display them, check you have clicked on Display/State bar in your navigator). > Click on one of the payment pages then click on “Properties.” The URL address displayed will start with “https” or “s” meaning “secured”.

By checks or transfers (DVDs, CDs, books, etc. only).

These means of payment are only valid for DVDs, CDs, books, etc.

Pre-paid packages (VOD only)

Payment by pre-paid packages is accepted when the customer has purchased a pre-paid package beforehand among those offered in the section STORE > Pre-paid packages and he/she has sufficient credit in his/her pre-paid account for the purchase of the chosen program(s).
Payment by pre-paid package is only valid for the purchase of video on demand programs. If the amount remaining on the pre-paid account is insufficient, you may top up your account with amounts offered on the website (see section “Pre-paid packages”). The balance remaining before the account was topped up will be added to the amount acquired.
You may consult the state of your pre-paid package at any time in the section “my account”, accessible from all pages in the website in MY DISSIDENZ, in the top right hand corner of the screen.
Purchase of a pre-paid package can only be done by credit card.
Purchase of a pre-paid package is final and cannot be refunded under any circumstances.

Gift certificates

If you have received a gift certificate by e-mail, you can use it on the website to pay for your purchases by entering the promotional claim code in the appropriate box once your cart is displayed. If the amount of the gift certificate does not cover the order, you must pay the balance by bank card.

What is Downloading? What is VOD?

Downloading is the transmission of a file through the Internet from one computer system to another. From the Internet user's point-of-view, to download a file is to request it from another computer (or from a Web page on another computer) and to bring it onto his home computer.
Video on Demand (VOD) services allow viewers to download content either to a set top box or their computer with a large subset of VCR functionality including pause, fast forward, fast rewind, slow forward, slow rewind, jump to previous/future frame etc. These features come as standard along with software for content, session, administration and security management (DRM for Digital Rights Management).

One should distinguish between Pay Content and Free or Promotional Content. If Free Content is not allowed by the rights holders then it is ILLEGAL CONTENT or PIRACY.

Piracy, or sharing files illegally on Internet, is not only an offense punishable by law, but it is also an infringement on artistic creation, intellectual property and royalties: by pirating a movie, you deny the author, the producer and the entire line of production and distribution their rightful income and thus contribute to the gradual disappearance of art-house films and other movies that require financial risks to be made –most often independent cinema.
Supporting artistic creation, and allowing it to exist and to last, means buying legally, whether it’s a DVD, a CD, or a downloadable film or album.

Minimum System Requirements

Dissidenz is best viewed with Mozilla Firefox, which you can download for free here.

To download or view videos on Dissidenz.com, minimum system requirements are:

DivX for Windows:
- Windows XP/2000/Vista (32-bit)
- 128MB RAM
- Pentium III 733Mhz CPU or equivalent for DivX Home Theater profile video,
Pentium IV 2.4Ghz CPU or equivalent for DivX High Definition profile video
- Graphics card with 32MB of RAM or more and supporting 24-bit color or better for DivX Home Theater profile video, Graphics card with 64MB of RAM or more and supporting 24-bit color or better for DivX High Definition profile video
- 24-bit color is recommended for best video quality
- Screen resolution of at least 800x600 recommended for DivX Home Theater profile video, Screen resolution of at least 1024x768 recommended for DivX High Definition profile video
- DirectX 7-compatible sound card supporting 2 audio channels (stereo) sampled at 16-bit/44.1Khz or better, DirectX 9 or higher
- 600 MB available hard drive space
- Broadband Network Connection (512 kbps or higher)
- Internet Explorer 6, FireFox 1.5
- DivXplayer or VLC (for Free Content)
To download Pay Content, you must install DivX Player:
Click here to download DivX for Windows.

DivX for MAC:
- Mac OS X 10.4 or later
- 500 MHz G4 or faster
- Graphics card with 32MB of RAM or more and supporting 24-bit color or better for DivX Home Theater profile video, Graphics card with 64MB of RAM or more and supporting 24-bit color or better for DivX High Definition profile video
- 24-bit color is recommended for best video quality
- Screen resolution of at least 800x600 recommended for DivX Home Theater profile video, Screen resolution of at least 1024x768 recommended for DivX High Definition profile video
- DirectX 7-compatible sound card supporting 2 audio channels (stereo) sampled at 16-bit/44.1Khz or better, DirectX 9 or higher
- 800 MB available hard drive space
- Broadband Network Connection (512 kbps or higher)
- FireFox 1.5 or Safari 2.0+
- DivXplayer or VLC (for Free Content)
To download Pay Content, you must install DivX Player:
Click here to download DivX for Mac.

How to download a film on Dissidenz?

INSTALLATION OF THE DIVX PLAYER
To view a free video quickly and simply, without creating a DivX account, you can download DivX Webplayer here:
- You’re a PC user: click here
- You’re a MAC user: click here
You can also use a player such as VLC.

IF YOU WISH YOU TO DOWNLOAD PAY CONTENT, we recommend you download the following file, which will enable you to view free videos as well:
- If you’re a PC user: click here
to download DivX for Windows then choose to Execute the file, otherwise Save it on your Desktop then Run the .exe file at the end of the installation process by double-clicking it. Follow then the instructions below.
- If you’re a MAC user (OS X 10.4 or later required): click here
to download DivX for Mac then double-click the "DivInstaller.dmg" file at the end of the installation process. Follow then the instructions below.

You will need then to create a DivX account:
Please check: http://support.divx.com/cgi-bin/divx.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=1780