discs V.S. downloads - Blu-ray Forum

DavePS3 · 01-18-2007, 06:48 PM

At CES, there was a lot of discussion debating whether or not downloadable HD movies would drown out both Blu-Ray and HD-DVD. I don't see that happening personally but what do all of you think?

Amon37 · 01-18-2007, 07:27 PM

Then what? I would have to burn it to a disc? Plus my DSL isn't that fast and it would take a long time to download 5GB's let alone 10-20

phranctoast · 01-18-2007, 07:36 PM

Im sure it will happen, in the near future but it wont replace anything. It will be similar to music downloads, were a cd still exist, but you have the other option. One thing for sure needs to happen , and thats larger HDD space. When TB drives are cheap this may be an option.
Not to many people watch a movie on the go which is different than listening to music. Thats why the ipod is so popular. It will be a nice feature, but I cant see it taking off like music downloads did. People like to own their media.

The only thing I can see happening (and being successful) is a subscription based, all you can download in a month type thing. It will be streaming only to avoid people burning it, and will probably be available through the cable company and require a new dvr type box.

Garconis · 01-18-2007, 07:43 PM

I'm sure more people have a TV capable of displaying 1080p than a PC monitor capable of that. Most monitors still only go up to 1280x1024. Some are 1600x1200, but thats still not the full 1920 width. Sure some PCs can hook up to your 1080p HDTV, but many current PCs in homes still aren't too capable of playing a full 1080p movie, without some sort of lagging.

Sure, the downloads will be cheaper (if not a free in some ways) compared to the discs, but I think for a while the discs will surely have more customers than downloads.

I personally havent bought a DVD in years, since they're so easy to obtain via computer. *ahem* But with Bluray, its a whole new story, due to the massive file sizes for HD content.

GoldenRedux · 01-18-2007, 07:45 PM

The first thing that would need to happen is widespread deployment of super-highspeed broadband services like FIOS, which I don't see happening anytime soon. There are still huge numbers of people still using dial-up. Cable isn't fast enough, and fibre isn't widespread enough. The optical formats, the way I see it, have at least another 10 to 12 years of total domination HD video distribution.

scott1256ca · 01-18-2007, 09:45 PM

Hard drives are already upto 750G. That is enough to hold 30 movies. And if you go low cost, then disk storage would be about $7 per 25G movie. Certainly less than the cost of a BD disk now. Or I could split them and write to SL dvd, which would cost about $1 per 25G movie. Biggest problem is download time. A movie that size would take me several hours to download, and I'm paying more than $30/mo. for my high speed connection. I have no use for a higher speed, unless I want to download faster, then I'm looking at another $10 per month.

I think the first thing to happen would be the provider will start to compress the movies more to reduce download time, which will degrade the video quality, in which case I might as well just get them on PPV.

What is the download model going to be? Buy and keep forever, or will you only have a certain period of time to watch them?

01-18-2007, 06:48 PM	#1
DavePS3 Blu-ray Guru Member since:Jan 2007 Location:Toronto Home Theater Gallery:56 Blu-ray reviews:1 Trading Score:1	discs V.S. downloads At CES, there was a lot of discussion debating whether or not downloadable HD movies would drown out both Blu-Ray and HD-DVD. I don't see that happening personally but what do all of you think?

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01-18-2007, 07:27 PM	#2
Amon37 Power Member Member since:Jan 2007 Location:USA,Arizona PSNetwork: Amon37	Then what? I would have to burn it to a disc? Plus my DSL isn't that fast and it would take a long time to download 5GB's let alone 10-20

01-18-2007, 07:36 PM	#3
phranctoast Power Member Member since:Aug 2006 Location:Long Island, NY;psn:phranctoast Blu-ray collection:78	Im sure it will happen, in the near future but it wont replace anything. It will be similar to music downloads, were a cd still exist, but you have the other option. One thing for sure needs to happen , and thats larger HDD space. When TB drives are cheap this may be an option. Not to many people watch a movie on the go which is different than listening to music. Thats why the ipod is so popular. It will be a nice feature, but I cant see it taking off like music downloads did. People like to own their media. The only thing I can see happening (and being successful) is a subscription based, all you can download in a month type thing. It will be streaming only to avoid people burning it, and will probably be available through the cable company and require a new dvr type box.

01-18-2007, 07:43 PM	#4
Garconis Active Member Member since:Jan 2007 Location:NY Home Theater Gallery:1 Blu-ray collection:126 Blu-ray reviews:7 Trading Score:18	I'm sure more people have a TV capable of displaying 1080p than a PC monitor capable of that. Most monitors still only go up to 1280x1024. Some are 1600x1200, but thats still not the full 1920 width. Sure some PCs can hook up to your 1080p HDTV, but many current PCs in homes still aren't too capable of playing a full 1080p movie, without some sort of lagging. Sure, the downloads will be cheaper (if not a free in some ways) compared to the discs, but I think for a while the discs will surely have more customers than downloads. I personally havent bought a DVD in years, since they're so easy to obtain via computer. ahem But with Bluray, its a whole new story, due to the massive file sizes for HD content.

01-18-2007, 07:45 PM	#5
GoldenRedux Power Member Member since:Sep 2006 Blu-ray reviews:1	The first thing that would need to happen is widespread deployment of super-highspeed broadband services like FIOS, which I don't see happening anytime soon. There are still huge numbers of people still using dial-up. Cable isn't fast enough, and fibre isn't widespread enough. The optical formats, the way I see it, have at least another 10 to 12 years of total domination HD video distribution.

01-18-2007, 09:45 PM	#6
scott1256ca Active Member Member since:Oct 2006	Hard drives are already upto 750G. That is enough to hold 30 movies. And if you go low cost, then disk storage would be about $7 per 25G movie. Certainly less than the cost of a BD disk now. Or I could split them and write to SL dvd, which would cost about $1 per 25G movie. Biggest problem is download time. A movie that size would take me several hours to download, and I'm paying more than $30/mo. for my high speed connection. I have no use for a higher speed, unless I want to download faster, then I'm looking at another $10 per month. I think the first thing to happen would be the provider will start to compress the movies more to reduce download time, which will degrade the video quality, in which case I might as well just get them on PPV. What is the download model going to be? Buy and keep forever, or will you only have a certain period of time to watch them?

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