Why HD Downloads won't catch on for some time

[Canada]

A lot of people think that downloading HD content off the internet is what Microsoft want.


Reasons why this will never happen exclusivly. I say exclusivly, because I would be stupid to think this would never happen.

1. Computers are not big enough to house over 100 movies now that would be about 500 gigs. Well you can get them this big I am sure but they would be really expensive.

2. What if you get a virus and your hard drive has to be wiped. Most people would have a hard drive exclusivly for movies I know but there are people who would not. There is the potential of loosing hundreds of movies if this happens. If this happend would you have to pay to download them again.

3. There are people like my Dad who loves movies but for the most part hates computers. He would much rather go to a store and pick up a disk.

4. What about elderly people who love movies and HD but don't have a computer


My basic point is that while download might become popular down the road there will always in my opinion be physical media (media that you can hold in your hand) for the next 30 yrs or so.

[blackhawktraffic]

Good points, but honestly for the time being if I am paying for something i want the disc and the box and the whole thing. So yeah for many reasons that wont catch on for a long time.

[moweeis]

Don't forget that people have to pay for a subscription for the internet

[thunderhawk]

No, it's a little different. You just need some kind of a set-up box, be it in a computer or not. It's just video-on-demand. It's not downloaded on your computer, it's broadcasted especially for you. How many times you can view the movie, be it 5 times or unlimited times, that information lies with the provider...

But indeed, you'd need some form of an internet connection or a cable connection.

[gand41f]

They are too freaking big! Even regular DVD sized files take hours to download on my (supposed) high-speed Internet connection, and if I want to do something online in the meantime, it's going to be c..r..a..w..l..i..n..g.

enjoy
gandalf

[MOONPHASE]

who would want to do that anyways? I rather have a cover. with the cover it tells you everything you need to know about what kind of HD picture you will get, what kind of sound you will get etc. i have 1 of those on demand boxes where i can watch tv on demand and also pay about 4 or 5 bucks whatever it is to get a HD movie to watch on my HDTV but you know what i only watch the free channels so i only pay the monthly charge for having that box in my room. i get to watch channels you wont find on basic cable like anime network on demand, adult swim on demand, and plus over like 1500 other channels with basic channels as well. i can only watch certain episodes for a limited amount of time until they expire and it wont show every episode but you can watch it without commercials.

[EricJ]

Originally Posted by MOONPHASE

who would want to do that anyways? I rather have a cover. with the cover it tells you everything you need to know about what kind of HD picture you will get, what kind of sound you will get etc. i have 1 of those on demand boxes where i can watch tv on demand and also pay about 4 or 5 bucks whatever it is to get a HD movie to watch on my HDTV but you know what i only watch the free channels so i only pay the monthly charge for having that box in my room. i get to watch channels you wont find on basic cable like anime network on demand, adult swim on demand, and plus over like 1500 other channels with basic channels as well. i can only watch certain episodes for a limited amount of time until they expire and it wont show every episode but you can watch it without commercials.

Thanks to some glitch caused by plugging my basic cable directly into the set's native QAM tuner, I'm not only picking up the local HD channels, but I have 40 normally-empty channels that seem to pick up everyone else's On-Demand ordering all over the area (including their fast-forwards, rewinds, and clicking out early), at the oddest hours--

From this, I can see:
1) There's only one channel on our system that actually shows a handful of widescreen movies in HD every month (and dang "300" and "Zodiac" look good), the rest seem to be in standard-def 4:3 HBO,
2) Everyone always fast-forwards through those mandatory commercials pasted onto Cartoon Network On-Demand,
and
3) As for cable-network OD shows, there never seems to be anything On Demand that the Apple Store doesn't have already.

If this's to make me give up my DVD player--or talk me out of Blu--it's not working...

[Chris Gerhard]

I understand something will come about that will replace these little 5" shiny discs in the hearts of consumers. I just don't think I will ever be interested in whatever it is. With about a thousand of the things (CD/DVD-V/SACD/DVD-A/Blu-ray/HD DVD) in my possession and over 1,000 D-VHS recordings, mostly HD, I am just going to rock along doing the same thing I have been doing. If Blu-ray catches on, great, it is the best of the bunch, but if not, I am not changing my ways.

Chris

[frank_t]

VOD is what they are really after, and it *somewhat* works today through the likes of Comcast, though I can tell you that HD VOD is horrible looking compared an a movie off BD or even HD-DVD.

VOD represents the "itunes-ization" of video and if public perception is that it's "good enough" as people think MP3s are, then we're in trouble.

I believe studios like Paramount and Uni are interested in the high level of control VOD offers. By keeping the physical media out of our hands and not letting us keep copies locally (even digital copies), they stem the piracy tide, but more importantly, they create a new revenue stream.

What keeps VOD in check are the huge bandwidth requirements. And the way they seem to be solving that is to compress the movie more and more.

[EricJ]

Originally Posted by frank_t

VOD represents the "itunes-ization" of video and if public perception is that it's "good enough" as people think MP3s are, then we're in trouble.

I believe studios like Paramount and Uni are interested in the high level of control VOD offers. By keeping the physical media out of our hands and not letting us keep copies locally (even digital copies), they stem the piracy tide, but more importantly, they create a new revenue stream.

From "48-hr. self-erasing VHS", to DiVX, to EZ-DVD's, the one El Dorado for the studios has been the dream of an attached format where the studio still has complete control over the movie and the public has to pay royalties for every viewing, and of the public developing the same mania for buying it like hotcakes.
(They figure we would, after all, since they don't really know why DVD caught on like it did, and think we'd jump at anything, just in case--You can tell, every time they try to persuade us it's "easier than going to the video store".)

...So far, they still haven't made that one last connection as to why VHS and DVD first caught on.
Or else they do know, and are just trying to pretend they can still work around it...And as long as it's a "pride" issue for them, they'll still keep trying.

[Canada]

Originally Posted by moweeis

Don't forget that people have to pay for a subscription for the internet

good point never thought of that thanks.