fundamental flaw in downloads as replacement of physical media

[zor]

There are about a dozen reasons why downloads will not work. But here's one that I can expand on that people often talk about. Hard drive crashes. Digitally storing all one's movies on a single hard drive (or, for the most part, an array), introduces a single point of failure for your entire movie collection. You could have a backup hard drive assuming any DRM would allow it, but even then you would just be having two single points of failure. Whereas, with BDs -- say you have a collection of 100 films -- if a failure occurs, it will be for a single disc, 99% of your collection will be safe and you just need to repurchase that single movie.

The only advantage is physical space, assuming you store backup hard drives raw. But once physical media evolves to things resembling tiny USB flash sticks, digital downloads would have lost all their appeal.

[SS316SRV]

I actually hear that HD DVD is better.

[stockstar1138]

Originally Posted by SS316SRV

I actually hear that HD DVD is better.

i would rather have hd dvd than downloads.

[arush5268d]

Originally Posted by SS316SRV

I actually hear that HD DVD is better.

Yup. They have a 15gb capacity. Impressive!

[stockstar1138]

Originally Posted by arush5268d

Yup. They have a 15gb capacity. Impressive!

not defending hd dvd, but saying they had a 15GB capacity is like saying blu-ray only has a 25GB capacity.

While 30GB isn't enough for pristine high bit rate video w/lossless audio w/extras, 30GB was certainly enough to give you a much better presnetation than if we had 10GB compressed to hell downloads and I could have lived with 30GB movies and certainly would have taken them over downloads.

My biggest fear with HD DVD winning, wasn't being limited to a 30GB disc, it was knowing that the minute blu-ray was knocked off, MS would have turned on and attacked HD DVD and tried to kill off HD DVD too, so downloads would have been the future.

[The Big Blue]

[TheTenth]

not even saying that Microsoft X360 downloads are 720p with DVD like bitrate, I think the files are about 10-15 Gb which already must take 5+ hours to download

[blu2]

Originally Posted by zor

There are about a dozen reasons why downloads will not work. But here's one that I can expand on that people often talk about. Hard drive crashes. Digitally storing all one's movies on a single hard drive (or, for the most part, an array), introduces a single point of failure for your entire movie collection. You could have a backup hard drive assuming any DRM would allow it, but even then you would just be having two single points of failure. Whereas, with BDs -- say you have a collection of 100 films -- if a failure occurs, it will be for a single disc, 99% of your collection will be safe and you just need to repurchase that single movie.

There's lots of ways around this problem.

When you purchase a download, the provider allows you to re-download the same title again as needed, e.g. in the event of a failed drive, etc. I've purchased online music where the provider allows you to re-download the same song for example. As another example, Sony allows you to re-download a game you've previously purchased via the playstation network.

Ultimately purchased movies could also be on a network drive (VOD-like). Watch a movie from your cable provider HD-VOD and "purchase" the right to watch it as many more times as you like.

Why debate downloads? Blu Ray is not going anywhere and can co-exist with the download market. They are not mutually exclusive.

[Excalibur-king]

Originally Posted by stockstar1138

i would rather have hd dvd than downloads.

More people know about hd dvd then downloads actually.

[atomik kinder]

Originally Posted by blu2

There's lots of ways around this problem.

When you purchase a download, the provider allows you to re-download the same title again as needed, e.g. in the event of a failed drive, etc. I've purchased online music where the provider allows you to re-download the same song for example. As another example, Sony allows you to re-download a game you've previously purchased via the playstation network.
Ultimately purchased movies could also be on a network drive (VOD-like). Watch a movie from your cable provider HD-VOD and "purchase" the right to watch it as many more times as you like.

Why debate downloads? Blu Ray is not going anywhere and can co-exist with the download market. They are not mutually exclusive.

iTunes doesn't.

[Aaron]

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

[blu2]

Originally Posted by atomik kinder

iTunes doesn't.

But they could. Hence not a fundamental flaw.

There's lots of things wrong with how downloads are commonly implemented today - not all of them are technical barriers, just poor/immature implementations.

[zor]

Even allowing for redownloads does not eliminate fundamental flaw. First, I don't think any company will allow for unlimited redownloads. Second, even if they do, what happens if that company goes out of business! Third, even if they don't go out of business and somehow you just know they won't, what if your account gets hacked -- that is also a single point of failure. Instead of having it rest with a hd crash, it now rests with the security of your account. So at best it just adds one additional single pt of failure and with a backup (assuming you can make one) another additional one, for three total. All three could fail. Whereas with physical media, it is not possible for even 10% of a 400 movie collection to arbitrarily fail. For theft, you can get insurance whereas that doesn't exist for stolen/compromised accounts!

[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.

[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

[KayaM]

Originally Posted by The Big Blue

...and then?

[supersix4]

Originally Posted by TheTenth

not even saying that Microsoft X360 downloads are 720p with DVD like bitrate, I think the files are about 10-15 Gb which already must take 5+ hours to download

they are like 5-7 I belive and thank god they let you play while its downloading I never pay extra if I rent/buy shows as 720p isn't blu-ray so im not paying extra

Originally Posted by syncguy

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.

adding to that im sure they wouldn't let you go hog wild with their bandwidth