"The Grid"

[cktb2793]

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/new...cle3689881.ece

Coming soon: superfast internet

THE internet could soon be made obsolete. The scientists who pioneered it have now built a lightning-fast replacement capable of downloading entire feature films within seconds.

At speeds about 10,000 times faster than a typical broadband connection, “the grid” will be able to send the entire Rolling Stones back catalogue from Britain to Japan in less than two seconds.

The latest spin-off from Cern, the particle physics centre that created the web, the grid could also provide the kind of power needed to transmit holographic images; allow instant online gaming with hundreds of thousands of players; and offer high-definition video telephony for the price of a local call.

David Britton, professor of physics at Glasgow University and a leading figure in the grid project, believes grid technologies could “revolutionise” society. “With this kind of computing power, future generations will have the ability to collaborate and communicate in ways older people like me cannot even imagine,” he said.

The power of the grid will become apparent this summer after what scientists at Cern have termed their “red button” day - the switching-on of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), the new particle accelerator built to probe the origin of the universe. The grid will be activated at the same time to capture the data it generates.

One of the most potent is so-called dynamic switching, which creates a dedicated channel for internet users trying to download large volumes of data such as films. In theory this would give a standard desktop computer the ability to download a movie in five seconds rather than the current three hours or so.

[JasonR]

That title is deceptive. I thought one of these was coming after my collection.

[Quad]

The article states..

“It will lead to what’s known as cloud computing, where people keep all their information online and access it from anywhere,” he said."

I still think consumers will want some sort of a portable copy, whether on BD or eventually on something that will store a whole library of films, not just a few movies, and that is a ways off from the looks of it.

[Sylin]

There's only 1 problem with transfer speeds of this magnitude: current RAM and hard drive technology can't process it that fast! Even solid state drives would have difficulty keeping up.

The guy interviewed in the article also points out that "future generations" would enjoy this. We probably won't see this as a commodity in our lifetime.

[dakota81]

I'll embrace it when it comes here. But until that time, I will buy Blu-ray. And I have this feeling I'll still be buying Blu-rays ten years from now.

[TheRealBob]

It's incredibly foolish to wait for things like this, as they tend to take longer than anticipated. Enjoy Blu-ray now, and if it's superseded by something else eventually, then move to that if you want at that time. But deferring technology purchases because something better allegedly is coming "soon" usually just ends up wasting your time.

[buckshot]

so this is either skynet, brainiac, or creating a black hole that will swallow ou galaxy. good times.

way to go engalnd. woot woot

[Sling]

Originally Posted by buckshot

so this is either skynet, brainiac, or creating a black hole that will swallow ou galaxy. good times.

We are all doomed lol..

[LOTR07]

This is probably why we keep hearing about the Movie downloads becoming popular. They mention downloading movies a few times in the article. Very interesting..............

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,347212,00.html

[tron3]

I only glanced at this article, but the question remains. Are down loaded movies for "keepers" or "renters"? My guess is on renters. In which case, this serves a different market segment. No threat to blu-ray

Even IF this was a technology where you can keep the movie and play it all that you want, how does a non-physical format compete with a physical format? Answer, very slowly.

We need to stop comparing how music .mp3's changed the music industry. So did the invention of the LP, the 8-track, the cassette, and CD. These are two different tiers of entertainment, albeit, related.

I am not moving my pc to the living room any time soon to watch a movie. Nor do I think millions of people want to wait for the computer to boot to watch a movie over this vast grid of high speed entertainment.

I can see blu-ray boxes with networkable ports doing this for us, but many people probably have a mental block about taking the family pc and clobbering the hard drive with movies, making it useless for much else.

If God snapped his fingers and changed the internet overnight to "the grid" the issue remains of the TENS OF MILLIONS of PC's which can not handle the capacity of movies, let alone handle the bandwidth. My PC can support 10/100/1000 mbit speeds, but I doubt I'll experience 1000 mbit any time soon.

Everyone is predicting an economic downturn for the later part of the year and it is already happening. This will curtail the launch of any new technology. Fortunately, blu-ray already has its foot in the door.

[camper]

I think "The Grid" will definitely move us to a network based culture, and at the speed they're talking definitely make a run for the hard-copy content. HOWEVER, we're years away from that, and it won't be partly viable until Blu Ray is near the end anyway.

Even then, there will need to be hard media. There will always have to be a product to leave the store with, no matter what.

~Camper

[LOTR07]

Originally Posted by camper

I think "The Grid" will definitely move us to a network based culture, and at the speed they're talking definitely make a run for the hard-copy content. HOWEVER, we're years away from that, and it won't be partly viable until Blu Ray is near the end anyway.

Even then, there will need to be hard media. There will always have to be a product to leave the store with, no matter what.

~Camper

Originally Posted by tron3

I only glanced at this article, but the question remains. Are down loaded movies for "keepers" or "renters"? My guess is on renters. In which case, this serves a different market segment. No threat to blu-ray

Even IF this was a technology where you can keep the movie and play it all that you want, how does a non-physical format compete with a physical format? Answer, very slowly.

We need to stop comparing how music .mp3's changed the music industry. So did the invention of the LP, the 8-track, the cassette, and CD. These are two different tiers of entertainment, albeit, related.

I am not moving my pc to the living room any time soon to watch a movie. Nor do I think millions of people want to wait for the computer to boot to watch a movie over this vast grid of high speed entertainment.

I can see blu-ray boxes with networkable ports doing this for us, but many people probably have a mental block about taking the family pc and clobbering the hard drive with movies, making it useless for much else.

If God snapped his fingers and changed the internet overnight to "the grid" the issue remains of the TENS OF MILLIONS of PC's which can not handle the capacity of movies, let alone handle the bandwidth. My PC can support 10/100/1000 mbit speeds, but I doubt I'll experience 1000 mbit any time soon.

Everyone is predicting an economic downturn for the later part of the year and it is already happening. This will curtail the launch of any new technology. Fortunately, blu-ray already has its foot in the door.

granted the article also states that it would not be avaiable for consumer use anytime soon. The entire worlds computers would have to change and everything be intergrated which will not happen smoothly or effectively for the general public. This is why I/we can sit back and enjoy our Blu for many years to come.....

[tron3]

Originally Posted by camper

...
Even then, there will need to be hard media. There will always have to be a product to leave the store with, no matter what.

~Camper

While I tend to agree, the whole music industry keeps getting thrown in our face. The .mp3 generation wants to keep all their eggs in one basket. I saw this a lot in my time at Radio Shack. At the time memory capacities where still relatively small. I could not believe how many people wanted a device which could hold ALL THEIR MUSIC.

In every case I tried to warn them about putting all their eggs in one basket. Most of them kind of blew me off. I now recall a person or two who came in the store crying their hard drive died and they lost all their music. It's called "back up" people, and you should learn to do it!

If we allow the pc to become the new media center, you never know what the provider software is doing to your machine. Sony's rootkit being a poorly executed example of that.

These people already have certain rights that prevent us from doing certain things with the media we bought and paid for. With their "software upgrades" we might find we can no longer play our own media because it is all controlled by the provider. Free entertainment will become a thing of the past.

While the older folks scoff at this ever happening, government and business know that young people accept things they grew up with. In 20 years time young people will think there is no such thing as free tv, no such thing as free music, and still believe Al Gore is the father of the internet.

The future of entertainment is one of constantly paying money to be entertained, then how is this an improvement?

[camper]

Originally Posted by tron3

While I tend to agree, the whole music industry keeps getting thrown in our face. The .mp3 generation wants to keep all their eggs in one basket. I saw this a lot in my time at Radio Shack. At the time memory capacities where still relatively small. I could not believe how many people wanted a device which could hold ALL THEIR MUSIC.

You can still walk into Best Buy today, and buy a CD. Even with iTunes, Zune Marketplace, Amazon, Walmart, Napster, et al you can still buy the latest releases on CD--10 years after the MP3 caught on like wildfire at the colleges. (I worked at one then - I had a 20 gig drive filled thanks to the students. It has since crashed; all has turned to vapor).

I've bought dozens of songs for my MP3 player, and only from sites that allow you to re-download in case it does crap out. These are usually singles, but I was never that big of a music buff anyway.

Until you can rip a movie on a portable device without losing quality in as little time as a song, media for films has no worries. An hour to put a movie on my Zune? (With compression, ripping from disc, etc) That's not worth it to me, especially on a 2 inch screen.

~Camper

[ixlegitballinxl]

i tried the netflix streaming movies....takes a few minutes to start....then its smooth sailing.....movie selection was horrible....dl content...definitely for renters

[vladittude0583]

All I have to say is, thank the Physicists for most of the technologies we have taken for granted for they are the real scientists of the world!!!

[DetroitSportsFan]

https://forum.blu-ray.com/showthread...highlight=grid

[JTK]

So how many decades do you all figure before the rest of us actually ever see something like this?

[JTK]

Originally Posted by DetroitSportsFan

https://forum.blu-ray.com/showthread...highlight=grid

I'll say it here, too: How many decades do you all figure will go by before we all ever actually see something like this?

[xtop]

i love pipe dreams, they always sound so cool