Another good article why HDTV downloads will not be popular for around 5 years.

[HDTV1080P]

Another good article why HDTV downloads will not be popular for around 5 years.
http://www.tvpredictions.com/microsoft070507.htm

[CptGreedle]

With that and the $1 billion MS says it will take to fix all the messed up 360's, it's a suprise more people don't do a 180 and exchange it for a PS3.
Seriously tho, CNN says that XBOX 360 is screwing up BIG time, huge numbers of consoles are breaking. MS can't keep up and they are afraid it is going to hurt their sales.

[Sylin]

Let's not turn this into a "bash Microsoft/Xbox 360" thread, please.

The point of the article (which is poorly written and lacks substance so it isn't a great reference piece) is that HD downloads aren't yet a viable delivery service. Hence why people still buy DVD's and adopt new physical media tech like Blu-ray because the infrastructure for IP media isn't practical for the masses yet. Despite all the advances in broadband speed and tech, delivery for HD-quality content via IP is ridiculously slow because the file sizes are enormous and most people don't have the hardware or bandwidth to support it.

MS has a great MODEL in their XBox Live service... but so does Amazon/TiVo with Unbox, and Comcast with their HD-VOD. Unfortunately the tech just isn't quite there yet, but all of these companies (despite what reservations you have about their business practices) should be lauded for trailblazing. That's how progress happens.

Sometime in the next 10 years, we'll see companies like Netflix and Blockbuster go out of business, or start their own download services. Physical media will start to go away, and all content will transition to digital delivery/storage methods. It's already beginning... it just isn't perfected, and consumers have a hard time latching on to anything that isn't cheap, widespread and, well, perfected.

I, for one, still enjoy owning and having the physical DVD in my hand... but once the technology is there, I don't see why we'll need discs anymore.

[RichiPuppy]

They say they downloaded 400,000 south park episodes, but those were free so they can't really be a reference to the downloading market. All I know is that me and all my friends who collect movies won't be buying downloaded movies until all other medias disappear.

[CptGreedle]

And yet Apple says that you can download HD quality videos from iTunes and start watching it within 1 minute. Why? Cause it keeps downloading in the background.
But I do agree, the technology isn't really there yet. Mainly bacause Apple compresses the video, plus it is only 720, not 1080 as of right now (but no details on future plans), and a lot of homes still don't run broadband internet (sadly). Plus it does bog down systems and servers until network technology catches up. However, I hear that many movie theaters are planning (no date released from what I heard but I could be wrong) to eventually set up a streaming system where the films you see in the theaters will be streamed using an encoded signal and then projected in the theater all live. But that seems far-fetched for today's tech to me.
I am sure Netflix will start a download service, and probably others like Blockbuster as well. The name of the game is Adapt or Die.
Yes, it is nice to have a physical copy of your movies. But many people used to say the same thing about music, and now most people use MP3 players, or download music to their comp from iTunes or similar other services. So I am sure someday, people will not worry about having a hard copy of it except as backup.
I really didn't mean to bash MS (although it is true that I don't like them one bit). It is only relevant because they support HD-DVD and not Blu-ray. Besides, I never said MS is screwed up, or directly bashed them! I said that they messed up the 360's and even admitted it, and now have to fix it. It is causing them a lot of money and frustration, and I know this kind of thing always frustrates users. I doubt many existing 360 owners would just drop it and switch to PS3, but new users might be swayed away from the 360 due to the recent set back. Yes I hate MS, but this is one of the rare posts where I didn't attack them while mentioning their name.
Look, they admit that they messed up and now there is some wierd error on most (well, they said "too many") of the systems, so I think it might hurt their sales, and possibly bring more people to PS3, hense to Blu-ray.

[CptGreedle]

ps.. down with microsoft :P

j/k