Movie download options

[Kevy Baby]

I've actually put some thought into this. While iTunes et.al. pretty much put the physical delivery of music out of business (yes, there are still a lot of CD's sold, but it won't be long), I believe that it is still a while before you will see movies being delivered in this fashion because of 1) the requisite size of the movie files, and 2) ownability (I love making up words).

The second issue is going to be a tough sell. When you buy a song from iTunes, you own it (yes, there are services where you only rent your music). People want to own things. We have, for the most part, become accustomed to how to burn the downloaded music to a CD. But right now, the movie studios are being MUCH more restrictive on what can be done with their intellectual data and are not as free with the content as the music biz was.

I would say that Blue-Ray still has a 3-5 year life cycle.

[Chernabog]

Originally Posted by Kevy Baby

I would say that Blue-Ray still has a 3-5 year life cycle.

And I wonder how the video streaming will emulate things like the menu systems of the blu-ray, or picture-in-picture commentaries that go off and on with the press of a button, etc. One thing I hate about streaming video in HD is that network speeds can be spotty so often times, even with some buffer time, you get stops and starts, where you finally have to put your viewing on hold for a while until it gets enough of a buffer going.

Personally I like the boxes and the packaging of my favorite artists. It was really fun to collect those limited edition import Bjork single releases. Now, they only come in one version for the entire North America on Itunes (whee, a picture of box art) and we don't get some of what other countries get unless you just do an illegal download. When I get a broadway show, I like the fact that it comes with liner notes and the libretto. Perhaps the younger generation who grows up with no physical media won't care one way or the other, I don't know.