fundamental flaw in downloads as replacement of physical media

[Aaron]

Downloads will replace video rentals without a doubt, but will never replace physical media.

[Driver_King]

Originally Posted by Aaron

Downloads will replace video rentals without a doubt, but will never replace physical media.

What about physical movies, like VHS, DVD, and Blu-ray? I don't think downloads will replace rentals.

[Aaron]

Originally Posted by Driver_King

What about physical movies, like VHS, DVD, and Blu-ray? I don't think downloads will replace rentals.

I prefer renting movies on iTunes rather than Blockbuster. It's like $4 for an HD iTunes rental, compared to $6 for a Blu-ray at Blockbuster. The iTunes downloads don't look that bad either, not as good as a BD, but not bad. It's easier, more convenient, and cheaper. I've got a crappy 3 meg rural DSL connection, and the movies seem to download pretty fast.

[Excalibur-king]

Originally Posted by Aaron

Downloads will replace video rentals without a doubt, but will never replace physical media.

Depends on the price.

the problem with digital downloads is that they charge way to much for what they offer.

[Marquoz]

Right now the infrastructure for video downloads just isn't there yet. You can't rent a movie with your cable company and then go on a long drive and watch it on your in seat LCD hooked up to a DVD player. Everything is still geared towards the physical media for portability.

Once there are more and better ways to be able to transport the movie that you rent in one place to others, then it might be able to take off. Regular Johnny Q Public isn't going to want to sit there and download something, then put it on a jump drive, move it to his computer, hook his computer up to his other TV, then run it through there, then have to move the jump drive to his car to be able to have his kids watch it on the way to grandmothers the next day. With a DVD, it's instantaneous gratification. We are a consumer nation with the "now now now" mentality. Fast food, drive through convenience stores, drive through daquiri shops, etc. They aren't going to want to wait for it to download or copy to be able to move the movie from one place to another.

[syncguy]

When a movie is purchased, you really purchase a license for home viewing rather than unrestricted rights to content. Therefore, in principle, you should be able to redownload if the local content is damaged. In fact it is a better proposition than physical media as you get insurance for possible accidental damages. Studios may charge a small handling fee for multiple downloads. They may include a reproducible digital copy with the HD main feature so that people can use it in portable players.

IMO, the main problem is the current limitations in available Internet capacity. A massive upgrade to Internet and local Access are needed for HD downloads and streaming for it to become a mass market application. I cannot see any business case for this kind of multi billion dollar world wide Internet upgrade at least for this time.

The telephone and cable companies will not spend unless they have a viable business in it so that content companies or a third party distributor (e.g. Microsoft) are required to foot the bill. I cannot see this happening. So I think there will be a healthy future for the blu-ray disk technology.

[Achilles3]

I like the shiny reflection of Bluray discs and I like to hold it and feel it

[Excalibur-king]

Originally Posted by Achilles3

I like the shiny reflection of Bluray discs and I like to hold it and feel it

I like that Blu-ray has scratch proof technology unlike dvds.