Buzz Out Loud Lounge: Who Else Is Skipping The DVD Format Wars In Favor Of HD Downloads?
If it took that long...
by minimalist - 2/11/08 7:02 AM In reply to: you are right on by chrisemcleodBlu-ray would be having a fire sale just like HD-DVD. The BDA is not going to sit around for 7 years to wait for something to happen.
No smart businessperson is going to wait for a product to be really profitable for 7 years. They will find a way to make it happen or yank the product. Look at Apple TV....
Well to me..
by Nicholas Buenk - 2/11/08 4:21 PM In reply to: you are right on by chrisemcleodDifference between DVD and HD is perhaps more than VHS vs DVD!
But I've noticed that many people don't share that view, hence I think this apathy is a major barrier to the success of blu ray (won't even bother to mention HD-DVD it's dead).
HD is a real advantage
by Nicholas Buenk - 2/11/08 4:20 PM In reply to: so much of what was available by minimalistBut then I hear people like Molly who should be quite familiar with it, seeming to not care much. I dunno, there's real apathy about quality out there. Not everyone seems to see the advantages.
I Admit
by chrisemcleod - 2/12/08 2:55 AM In reply to: HD is a real advantage by Nicholas BuenkI Don't See The Advantages Either. Aside From Clarity, What Advantages Do You See Over Downloads?
quality and (eventually) selection
by minimalist - 2/12/08 6:00 AM In reply to: I Admit by chrisemcleodQuality:
I have only rented 2 Xbox marketplace HD movies but neither looked particularly "HD" to me. And although we have yet to see the quality of Apple's HD downloads, the regular def iTunes movies (which comprise the vast majority of available content on that service) look even worse than the than the xbox rentals on my 46" lcd. It looks fine for an iPhone or a laptop or a 20 inch monitor. Spread it over 40-46 inches and it looks grainy and compressed.
Selection:
There has not been a single on-demand or downloadable service that had a selection that can come anywhere near what you can get on DVD. iTunes looks like it might have a chance if (and that's a big IF) the Apple TV takes off, but in order for this to happen mass numbers of people to go buy a piece of specialty hardware just to rent movies. The fragmented market of video on demand and and digital downloads means there is no one-stop shopping for movies.
Industry wide standards change all this. All studios big and small feel comfortable adopting a standard supported by a large number of manufacturers ...which is why you can get almost any movie ever made on DVD... hundreds of thousands as opposed to 1 or 2 thousand. I think this kind of wide spread adoption has a much better chance of happening on a format like Blu-ray.
Unless Apple, Microsoft, Vudu, Amazon, Comcast, Verizon, Sony and all the digital players can come together and agree upon a download standard that is flexible enough for consumers and works with a variety of manufacturers hardware. But given these companies refusal to cooperate thus far do you really think that is going to happen anytime soon?
i see the
by chrisemcleod - 2/12/08 6:40 AM In reply to: quality and (eventually) selection by minimalistcurrent advantages of Blu Ray over current downloads (and as you know, I'm willing to forgo those advantages in favor of download convenience). However, what I was refering to earlier was the other poster mentioning Molly not seeing enough of an advantage of watching something in HD to actualy do Blu Ray. That's what I meant about not seeing the advantages to Blu Ray either. I don't really see that big of a need to have everything in HD. I would love it, sure, but not necessarily enough to run out and buy a whole new DVD player.
As to the standardization of download format, yes, you are completely correct about there needing to be a standard. However, in the meantime, I know where I can get the different shows I want and how I am currently forced to watch them. For example, Tivo didn't catch the last episode of Lost for some reason, so we sat down on the couch and watched the episode on the laptop.
Granted, grandma's not gonna do that, but for us right now, we are able to make it work.
It will be certainly great when (in 7-10 years) everything will be available via my Tivo! 
Great discussion
no one "needed" a DVD player in 1998 either
by minimalist - 2/12/08 7:25 AM In reply to: i see the by chrisemcleodWhen DVD players were 400 dollars and DVD’s were 30-50 dollars each and the rental sections at most video places were only 10 feet long I am sure there were a lot of people who didn’t feel the need to buy into them in 1998 either. (The first one came out in 1996 and was uber-expensive just like the first HD players)
I think “needs” change with increased accessibility, increased selection and mass market price points. The day Blu-ray discs routinely sell for 15-20 bucks at Best Buy and the players go for 150 dollars I think a lot more people might feel it worthwhile to pick a player up. Especially if their existing DVD player needs replacing.
The problem is.....
by Nicholas Buenk - 2/12/08 10:29 AM In reply to: quality and (eventually) selection by minimalistMost downloads these days are just 720p.....
If you've ever watched quicktime 1080p movie trailers on apples site.... like say
http://www.apple.com/quicktime/guide/hd/
http://www.apple.com/trailers/imax/imaxdeepsea3d/hd/
This sort of quality can be done with h264 for about 10GB for a 2 hour video. And you can blu-ray rips in this codec on the internet already.... on some.... types of sites.
I do not think that there has to really be that much quality loss for downloads at all if they're at least of this codec and size.
just because they can, doesn't mean they will
by minimalist - 2/12/08 11:55 AM In reply to: The problem is..... by Nicholas BuenkI have no doubt that downloadable HD content has the POTENTIAL look as good as physical HD media. The question is WILL it use that potential or will the cable companies and e-tailers go the cheap route and use highly compressed downloads to maximize profit and keep the public happy with short download times?
And then there is still the selection problem which so many people forget when singing the praises of downloadable content. And this problem can’t really be remedied until a clear winner in the downloadable arena emerges and content providers feel its safe convert their entire catalogs to the new format. Admittedly, Blu-ray doesn’t have much selection now, but as it emerges this year as the next generation disc format it will be a lot further along the road to “industry standard” than any download format currently being offered.
Apple probably does have the best chance of resolving at least some the selection issue because it has such a large existing user base. But I am not convinced video will play out the same way that audio did for Apple. iPods became popular because people already had the content in the form of CD’s that could be easily ripped. If people couldn’t had to buy their music from iTunes and iTunes only (which is essentially what you have to do for video) I doubt Apple would be the success story it is today.
Go Apple TV!
by G Fitz - 2/11/08 10:19 AM In reply to: Who Else Is Skipping The DVD Format Wars In Favor Of HD Downloads? by chrisemcleodAs soon as I heard about HD content being available for rent on iTunes and with the ability of renting from your couch with the Apple TV, I don't care who wins the format war.
I went out and bought an Apple TV, and am eagerly awaiting the update.
This war is colder than the cold war
by jarturof - 2/11/08 10:26 AM In reply to: Who Else Is Skipping The DVD Format Wars In Favor Of HD Downloads? by chrisemcleodIt is the most sad format war ever, DVD still rules, common users didn't care about HD in video formats, because even though DVD is not in HD it looks great on a LCD HD TV.
I'm not considering any format at all, I'm staying with DVD (easy to rip) and I don't consider the downloads either, too much time to download a movie, I prefer pay per view or streaming, I have a DSL 2mb connection with Prodigy, and I think it is only useful for music downloading, not video, until I have 100mb connection I'll consider downloading.
Hooked on HD
by PressAnyKey - 2/12/08 12:23 PM In reply to: This war is colder than the cold war by jarturofAlthough HD-DVD is dead it gave me a taste of how good HD can be. My player also upsamples standard DVD but it's just not the same. Hopefully Blu-Ray will come out with a cheap player that runs all the different revisions of the format. Until then I am going to rent all the HD-DVD's I can from Netflix.
Sucks picking the wrong horse but at least the player only cost me $90.
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