Inference Regarding Planned Future Digital Downloads

[JJ]

I was mulling over the subject whilst stuck on my commute home yesterday, and I got to thinking - exactly how does the plan for Digital Downloads work? I mean, there are a few points I was going over that didn't register upstairs, and I thought to myself I need them answered, so let's give it a try here.

How big would a movie download file be? If eventually all that is available are downloads, then for those enthusiasts of films - those of us with hundreds and thousands invested in Sound and Video equipment, will the quality still be there? The prospect of downloading a 50 GB file from the internet seems a bit folly - wouldn't it require massive hard drive space to store them? Space that not everybody would have?

And if what I have read that they are temporary, and that you pay, say $10 for a 14-day period as in XBox Live - is true, then that is incredulous. How could that be justified?

I don't see a future in which downloads could work, unless I've horribly missed something - I mean, with such enormous files, servers would crash, ISPs would be backed up, deer would roam the streets, and the world would come to an end. Not everyone has high speed internet too.

Did I miss something?