Digital downloads cant find its feet

[Blu-dock Saint]

Nice read, points out some truths that FUDers fail to point out all the time. Of course all of us here pretty much know what this article is saying.

http://www.homemediamagazine.com/hig...-dollars-14428

[nycomet]

Also, Apple TV is turning out to be a dismal failure. There was an article in Business Week and online recently at The Motley Fool web site. Not enough content, PQ is not that great. Limited HD movie downloads. Oh well.

[andyman1970]

Nice article, but I have to disagree that Blu-ray wouldn't replace DVD. In time it will because HD is what the market trend is now and eventually consumers are going to want to get the full benefit from their $1000.00 TV sets and investing in a $200.00 BD player would be worth it.

Also, according to this article it sounds like Netflix is losing money on streaming via broadband and it will eventually have to raise rates or drop the option.

[shooter3295]

I have a Samsung BD-P2500 BD player. It streams Netflix movies. The quality of the stream depends on the speed of your internet service,....faster equaling BETTER. It has the capability of HD with the last firmware update. Since I only have a 1.5k DSL package,....the quality is not quite HD,.......but it is most certainly a lot better than SD DVD. I intend on upgrading the DSL speed. It should improve to HD quality then. As far as I am concerned,....this is awesome,....so far,...it's running flawlessly,.....and right now,....is included in my normal Netflix account,......at no extra charge.

[Dynamo of Eternia]

Originally Posted by shooter3295

I have a Samsung BD-P2500 BD player. It streams Netflix movies. The quality of the stream depends on the speed of your internet service,....faster equaling BETTER. It has the capability of HD with the last firmware update. Since I only have a 1.5k DSL package,....the quality is not quite HD,.......but it is most certainly a lot better than SD DVD. I intend on upgrading the DSL speed. It should improve to HD quality then. As far as I am concerned,....this is awesome,....so far,...it's running flawlessly,.....and right now,....is included in my normal Netflix account,......at no extra charge.

Why..... do you.... keep typing.... like this?

[atomik kinder]

“They have to be leaving out the cable and satellite industries to get to that kind of conclusion,” said independent analyst Rob Enderle. “We are likely to see a number of reports like this as the Blu-ray marketing organization works to counter the perception that BD simply ramped too late and still hasn’t hit critical price points.”

There is our old friend Rob Enderle again not believing that BD is doing as well as it is. Just wondering if the numbers include all VOD and Downloads, HD as well as SD? If it does that shows that BD is doing really well comparatively.

[FinalEvangelion]

LOL at some of the comments. Some of them are MS/HD DVD fanboys praising DD although it's been around for years.

BD is doing great for the kind of resistance in place. Xbox fanboys/Bad economy/"small" differece from DVDs/ VoD and DD, etc.

I just think lower prices on software needs to happen like everyone says. I'm sure that will happen in time.

[phantompwr]

Originally Posted by shooter3295

I have a Samsung BD-P2500 BD player. It streams Netflix movies. The quality of the stream depends on the speed of your internet service,....faster equaling BETTER. It has the capability of HD with the last firmware update. Since I only have a 1.5k DSL package,....the quality is not quite HD,.......but it is most certainly a lot better than SD DVD. I intend on upgrading the DSL speed. It should improve to HD quality then. As far as I am concerned,....this is awesome,....so far,...it's running flawlessly,.....and right now,....is included in my normal Netflix account,......at no extra charge.

I have seen the quality of Netflix streaming, even at maximum bandwidth it still looks worse than DVD and no surround sound? It might be nice to have the convenience for a movie I don't really care about, but I'm not going to invest in a player and a monthly fee just yet after what I have seen.

[BluFann]

It really comes down to the fact that most consumers simply don't have the equiptment and bandwith to make digital downloads even an option. Not to mention, that even under perfect conditions, it's not even close in terms of quality. I actually have a pretty good setup and have streamed netflix, hulu, etc. through my media center to my tv... The convenience is unquestionably nice, but the quality just isn't there to make it a viable substitute to Blu-ray. In the end, there will still be a market for packaged goods, no matter how widespread digital downloads become.

[skyfire2261]

Hmm since when are projections facts?

Anyhoo the way i see it Digital Distribution will come into it's own and I fully support it. Blu-ray will no doubt continue to succed and thats great, i have no problem renting but I will never buy another movie (disc based that is) again.

DD has it's hurdles to face just like blu-ray did. hopefully that plan from President Obama to help the telecommunications industry will get the speeds DD needs to everyone.

AppleTV is no failure it just isn't getting the Support that Apple should have been putting place to make it better. Apple decided to make a phone instead.
Given Apples plans with the iPhone they clearly want to go DD more then anything so i think AppleTV will get it's share of attention when Apple feels like it.

[dadkins]

I'm getting close to the ability, speed wise, to download or stream almost anything... but it's the DRM and user allowed practices that are/will be hosed.

I can bring my BDs to your house and we can watch them fine.
Dragging a HDD that has really pissy files that require WMP and/or licenses is - dumb.

[kdn1221]

Simple facts:

1) The cost of digital delivery of any movie/program have the potential to go up because once the services that provide this media think that they have a market, they will want more money and will charge for the usage repeatedly.

2) The cost of a BD will drop like that of a DVD over time. The reason is that the cost of producing BDs will decrease as the volume demand go up. Once a factory is built, it's just a matter of cranking out as many units as can be sold.

3) I would not be surprised if someone comes out with a portable BD player for traveling. Portable DVD players currently exist, it's not hard to image the possibility of portable BD players.

When the cost of a BD isn't that much more than downloads or streaming or VOD, it will hard to beat the quality that's on the BD. Also, you can't stream while you're traveling but you may be able to take your BD with you on a trip.

[supersix4]

Originally Posted by kdn1221

Simple facts:

1) The cost of digital delivery of any movie/program have the potential to go up because once the services that provide this media think that they have a market, they will want more money and will charge for the usage repeatedly.

2) The cost of a BD will drop like that of a DVD over time. The reason is that the cost of producing BDs will decrease as the volume demand go up. Once a factory is built, it's just a matter of cranking out as many units as can be sold.

3) I would not be surprised if someone comes out with a portable BD player for traveling. Portable DVD players currently exist, it's not hard to image the possibility of portable BD players.

When the cost of a BD isn't that much more than downloads or streaming or VOD, it will hard to beat the quality that's on the BD. Also, you can't stream while you're traveling but you may be able to take your BD with you on a trip.

and add on that half the country(usa) doesn't have an Internet connection better then 768kbps... lmao they are going to download a 20-50gb movie please, and then add onto that release day when batman 5 or 6 comes out and 2 million+ people would try to download it at the same time... It wouldn't ever work

Originally Posted by FinalEvangelion

LOL at some of the comments. Some of them are MS/HD DVD fanboys praising DD although it's been around for years.

BD is doing great for the kind of resistance in place. Xbox fanboys/...

I'd be shocked if 3% of xbox users went online and did "fanboy" posting. But thats a nice generalization

[MOONPHASE]

Originally Posted by supersix4

and add on that half the country(usa) doesn't have an Internet connection better then 768kbps... lmao they are going to download a 20-50gb movie please, and then add onto that release day when batman 5 or 6 comes out and 2 million+ people would try to download it at the same time... It wouldn't ever work

well if that day came you would see every forum complaining about the downloading time for those Batman movies. they will say stuff like oh yeah it took me 24 hours to download Batman 5

[supersix4]

Originally Posted by MOONPHASE

well if that day came you would see every forum complaining about the downloading time for those Batman movies. they will say stuff like oh yeah it took me 24 hours to download Batman 5

lol it would probly take me an 1-3hrs on a 30gb connection w/ that many people trying to dl it... not to mention if isp's start charging bandwidth hogs... i'd never own another movie if thats where it went .

[ronp10]

I get Digital Downloads from time to time but it will never replace/stop me from buying physical media.

[Anthony P]

Why..... do you.... keep typing.... like this?

lol, to show where the facts are missing from his post

[Movie-Grrl]

Originally Posted by shooter3295

I have a Samsung BD-P2500 BD player. It streams Netflix movies. The quality of the stream depends on the speed of your internet service,....faster equaling BETTER. It has the capability of HD with the last firmware update. Since I only have a 1.5k DSL package,....the quality is not quite HD,.......but it is most certainly a lot better than SD DVD. I intend on upgrading the DSL speed. It should improve to HD quality then. As far as I am concerned,....this is awesome,....so far,...it's running flawlessly,.....and right now,....is included in my normal Netflix account,......at no extra charge.

Download speed shouldn't have any effect upon picture quality. It just determines how long it takes to build enough buffer before you can start watching. Obviously a HiFef movie file will be bigger and cumbersome to stream with a slow download service. So faster doesn't=better, faster=faster.

[wormraper]

Originally Posted by Movie-Grrl

Download speed shouldn't have any effect upon picture quality. It just determines how long it takes to build enough buffer before you can start watching. Obviously a HiFef movie file will be bigger and cumbersome to stream with a slow download service. So faster doesn't=better, faster=faster.

what they do though is give you better quality (aka bigger files with more bitrate) for faster speed. so you don't have to buffer they decrease the quality of the film (smaller file size) if your internet connection is slower , lame but it's what they do

[Anthony P]

Download speed shouldn't have any effect upon picture quality. It just determines how long it takes to build enough buffer before you can start watching. Obviously a HiFef movie file will be bigger and cumbersome to stream with a slow download service. So faster doesn't=better, faster=faster.

yes and no. If you are talking none streaming (pre-DL to watch) then you are right, but if it is streaming, you are wrong. No one wants to click play and wait 2 hours to start watching. Streaming that takes more then a couple of minutes to start is way too long. BD is 48mbps if someone wants to stream BD quality if you have >48mbps you don't need much buffer, but if it is around 24mbps (dependable) then you would need to buffer 1/2 the movie+ and it will take as long as the movie (i.e. for 90 minute movie you would need to buffer for 90 minutes and then start playing)