High Definition discs or download movies

[EvolutionCherry]

Download films? NO!

[unreal1080p]

Originally Posted by Ex Accountant

The possibility of downloads as a viable replacement for blu-ray/hd-dvd seems extremely minute at this time. Maybe in 10 years?

Not even in 10 years. In 10 years, standalone Blu-Ray players will be in everyone's homes and the cheapest models will sell for 29.99$ at Wal-Mart. Blu-Ray movies will be everywhere and the average price will be like today's average DVD price --> under 15$. In 10 years, the PS3 will be 100 million strong and will sell for 99$ or less. Downloads will always be more complicated and require more effort (dedicated HTPC or set top box + broadband internet) and the infrastructure for downloads will always cost more money. You cannot lend/swap movies with friends with downloads. We have been hearing about how the "Digital Home" is here for the past 10 years and it has'nt happened... neither will movie downloads in 10 years.

Until the majority of North American homes have broadband internet in their living rooms as well as at least one "connected" device capable of downloading movies, downloads will remain a Microsoft induced pipe dream.
Even when the conditions above are met, downloads will always provide less audio/video quality then disc media.

Downloads will NOT replace disc media. They will be an alternate source of revenue for the Studios just like PPV, and VOD but they won't replace physical media. One day downloads might overtake physical media in popularity... but that probably won't happen until the second half of the 21st century (IMHO). In 40 or so years, the next evolution in TV, Super High Vision http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Super_Hi-Vision will probably become a reality in North American homes but that format will also require a disc based format as the files will be so ridiculously big that there won't be a choice in the matter.

[RC-Bruin]

Download HD movies? Forget it.

I have a hard time with the connection for my AT&T Yahoo DSL and Router just looking at static pages. Something is always wrong.

[projectryan]

download movie ..I have to wait for the movie to finish download and I have to worry about storage space either on harddrive or CD. There is also a downside on this... so if you choose to download the movie rather than buying CD.. You have to cash out more cash for your monthly internet payment because you have to upgrade your bandwidth for future movies that may go over 20gig. i.e. Anime movies or CGI movies.

HD disc.. Go to store..pay Go Home.. watch.. when done place it with my other movie collection. If no more space.. just add another shelves or place the old movie in a shoe box and labeled.

[SGRSBSKIER]

The overall price for downloading HD movies would be much more than physical media.

Downloads:
Fastest internet - higher monthly fee than if you don't download movies
Storage - once filled need to buy another one
Movies - same price

Physical Media:
Player - one time price
Movies - same

[Robmx]

They remind me of cables " video on demand " service. I asked a friend about the XBOX live movies and he said he's tried three and they stream and he said they are perfect 720p resolution, so I asked if its a good as Blu-ray since he has PS3 and he said he can't answer that since he's tv is 720p/1080i.

He said u own it for 24 hrs for 7.99, sounds like crap to me ! Most people buy movies they really like and want to watch more then once !

[StilettoViper]

I see more drawbacks to downloading HD content than pro's at this point in time.. #1 If you were to store HD content, it takes quite a bit of disk space. If you buy it and want to keep a collection it will run into many many terabytes of data. Right now that is not cost friendly to the average consumer. HD movies arent your average MP3's. #2 HD media will require pretty much everyone to need FIOS quality bandwidth. The infrastructure just isnt available to EVERY home right now and won't be for some time. With Blu-Ray EVERYONE can enjoy it especially as prices come down. Streaming HD media/downloads, etc is at least 7-8 years away IMO. By then the infrastructure and storage requirements may be within reason of actual acceptance. That's plenty of time for a HDM format to run it's course, just like DVD.

[dahoover]

There is no way I will ever download movies over Blu-Ray. I like having the hard copy and I think it would be much more expensive than Blu-Ray.

[Manco]

**** DOWNLOADS

Nuff said.

[docjan_uk]

I'm interested in download, but also in Blu-ray.

We're talking about patterns of behaviour over the lifespan of this coming format, which is going to exist in some form till 2020-2025.

So yeah, I'm interested in download.

Oh, and if the time comes where downloads outstrip BD quality, there won't be competition for me (I'll just burn it onto BD if it will fit )

[crunchywyte]

The whole VOD argument is for the stubborn Red Ants that don't want to admit defeat and so have joined the VOD front....we stomped DUD, we'll stomp them too...this one is even easier

for example some Red Ant was arguing about this on another forum and from what I could see, this would be the choice

720p 3.9GB download of 3:10 to Yuma(probably DD sound)

or

your very own BD at 1080/24p(if you have 24p) and 7.1 PCM


Gee I wonder....?

[StilettoViper]

People are all about convienence. Downloading MP3's is convienent rather than buying a whole CD. Most people I talk to hardly ever buy CD's anymore but there is more to it than that. The possibility of people downloading movies is there but the infrastructure and technical road-blocks are still quite large compared to the music world. It's comming though and technology will advance to allow for it to be convenient to download over time. I personally like to be able to touch the product i buy especially a movie....something about getting the packaging and all is nice but I think the avg joe could care less sometimes.....

[miked924]

Music is one thing but I'll never download movies. I need a physical case and disc

[rodgerse]

downloads are free, discs aren't, so whats the question?.Downloads now are good enough to be better than buying anything, so how much better Bl is is irrelevant.

[maximiza]

I will say it again

Disk media will never die, you can't ebay a download or lend a download to a friend. Also if you look at old vinyl records and 8 tracks there are still collectors for them. A download is the ultimate ripoff, it is like all windows OS, you have a license to use it but never really own it. Screw any more ideas like that for the future.

What about when you give a coupon for a movie download as a gift, yeah sure they will wipe there buts with that coupon!!!! what sort of gift is a movie download coupon? with a stupid bow on a piece of paper. Sorry bud but with your bandwith only.

[StilettoViper]

Originally Posted by miked924

Music is one thing but I'll never download movies. I need a physical case and disc

You arent thinking of future possibilities. Everything will be media center driven and live on a central server on home networks. It will be accessible from all TV's with your remote and will function just like a DVD/HDM does now with extra's and everything. It won't be any different except you don't own the packaging or a disk. All that is possible. CD Cases and movie cases will be a thing of the past. It's just technology advancement. That's the way it goes. It may or may not happen but is certainly possible. You might not want it but eventually you may have to accept it like an old farmer eventually had to accept indoor plumbing.

[rodgerse]

Originally Posted by maximiza

I will say it again

Disk media will never die, you can't ebay a download or lend a download to a friend. Also if you look at old vinyl records and 8 tracks there are still collectors for them. A download is the ultimate ripoff, it is like all windows OS, you have a license to use it but never really own it. Screw any more ideas like that for the future.

so having a physical storage medium for the content is still quit practical, but you don't deny that binary transfer is the best method of dilevery and viewing for content.a physical, portable device to store it on is just secondary, but I guess it won't die.

[unreal1080p]

Originally Posted by StilettoViper

You arent thinking of future possibilities. Everything will be media center driven and live on a central server on home networks. It will be accessible from all TV's with your remote and will function just like a DVD/HDM does now with extra's and everything. It won't be any different except you don't own the packaging or a disk. All that is possible. CD Cases and movie cases will be a thing of the past. It's just technology advancement. That's the way it goes. It may or may not happen but is certainly possible. You might not want it but eventually you may have to accept it like an old farmer eventually had to accept indoor plumbing.

People need portability with their music collection... NOT so with their movie collection. You would need a U-Haul to carry along with you 100 000 songs vs. a tiny Ipod. There is NO debate that for music, the MAJORITY will opt for downloads and IF one day higher quality music downloads are made available (on par with SACD and DVD-Audio) then it will be the TOTALITY of the population that will download their music and the physical media for music will dissapear.

People do NOT lend their music to others (at least most don't)
People also mostly do NOT sell their music once they have listened to it a couple of times... they usually keep it forever (unlike movies which are often sold once viewed...especially expensive TV box sets). THIS is why downloads is the present and future for Music but not movies.

Even in scenarios of whole house distribution of movie content (like Kaleidascape for example) the physical media remains and acts like a backup. THIS is the future of movies: you buy the physical media and then install a copy on the server and put the physical media away for safe keeping and/or lending to friends and family. Not very many people will be able to afford whole house distribution of movies... even though wireless HDMI may help lower the costs of such endeavours.

[The Don]

I would consider downloading older movies in HD if the transfer wasn't much better on Blu....

of course...if the Blu version has lossless or anything in the ballpark...well, downloads can go blank themselves...

[maximiza]

Originally Posted by rodgerse

so having a physical storage medium for the content is still quit practical, but you don't deny that binary transfer is the best method of dilevery and viewing for content.a physical, portable device to store it on is just secondary, but I guess it won't die.

I see that it might be easier but to store 500 movies you are going to need a server with like raid 4. The coolling and power requirements are going to be out of hand.