seamus_aran Posted February 24, 2008 Posted February 24, 2008 I still say that the government should set up their own shop. Let us buy movies/music from it. No DRM. Roll out really fast broadband so its possible to download HD movies quickly.
Raining_again Posted February 24, 2008 Posted February 24, 2008 I don't think there will ever be one without the other. Downloads and blu-ray don't need to "compete" really. Some like one, some like the other.
McPhee Posted February 24, 2008 Posted February 24, 2008 looking at the music market, I tend to buy albums over iTunes on an pulse. I want a track, I buy that track. If it impresses me enough then I might even "complete the album". I still buy CDs, but I tend to browse for them and pick up any bargains I find in HMV. I don't go looking for anything specific because of its in stock it usualy tends to be more expensive. interestingly I never buy CDs from places like play.com any more. Having to wait for the thing to come in the post is so damn inconvenient! Anyway, on to my point. I could see the movie market working in the same way. Downloads will soak up the majority of sales, especially with tv episodes. Disk formats will fill more of a bargains/impulse buys criteria. Then again I do miss having the actual CDs, and I will pay a little extra to get them. Maybe people who buy a lot of DVDs feel the same?
Slaggis Posted February 24, 2008 Posted February 24, 2008 I just don't see the movie market going the same way as music has. For one, a single is about 4-5mb, whereas an HD movie will be about 15GB (at least). For a huge amount of years to come, most of us unless we have access to cable will not be able to download things fast enough. When it's possible, I see it overtaking but until then there's no way in hell. I buy lots of DVD's, and I like having the box/disk or whatever. I don't think I'd completely trust the internet always working etc, what happens when it's down, or the download goes up shit creek? I downlod both movies and music illegally, but unlike music, with movies I always go out and buy the dvd. It just feels nice to have a hard copy of it, and I'm able to lend it out to other people, sell it on ebay if I get bored of it etc.
Cube Posted February 24, 2008 Posted February 24, 2008 I don't think I'd completely trust the internet always working etc, what happens when it's down, or the download goes up shit creek? What happens if a disk gets scratched to hell, is sold out when you try to buy it or gets lost in the post?
Slaggis Posted February 24, 2008 Posted February 24, 2008 What happens if a disk gets scratched to hell, is sold out when you try to buy it or gets lost in the post? If a disk gets scratched thats the users own fault, and they should take more care of there stuff. Sold out? There's masses of shops, both online and in the highstreet, there's always a place to buy something. What happens if to many people try and download the same movie at once and it becomes unavailable? Lost in the post? Umm, that just doesn't come into it. That's not caused everyone to stop using letters and only use email instead, it's not stopped people buying things on the internet. No-one even thinks about that because it rarely happens. Every question can be answered with another question, so at the moment I think it's obvious downloads will not be taking over for a while. When there is a significant advantage to using downloads, thats when people will start to take notice.
That Guy Posted February 24, 2008 Posted February 24, 2008 You can't lend out GW.You can't play GW on a different Xbox. You can't sell GW. You can't trade in GW. The list is endless. What I meant was how people sort of accept small games as downloadable but don't like the idea of bigger games as being downloadable.
Emasher Posted February 24, 2008 Author Posted February 24, 2008 DD will take over disks and it could be sooner than you think. Saying that blu-ray and DD aren't competing would be like saying The wii and the xbox aren't competing. The wii offers more innovative and higher quality (at least first party) games and new ideas, the xbox offers prettier graphics and a better online service. Its the same with DD and BD. DD offers convenience, BD offers better picture quality.
Slaggis Posted February 24, 2008 Posted February 24, 2008 DD will take over disks and it could be sooner than you think. Saying that blu-ray and DD aren't competing would be like saying The wii and the xbox aren't competing. The wii offers more innovative and higher quality (at least first party) games and new ideas, the xbox offers prettier graphics and a better online service. Its the same with DD and BD. DD offers convenience, BD offers better picture quality. There you go, you sort of stabbed your self in the foot by using that example. The xbox 360 and the Wii are both different and both are co-existing in the same market. Yes, one is selling more, but the other is still a close second. I see the same thing happening here. Both will co-exist and eventually DVD will be left behind. (Though that will be a long way in the future).
Slaggis Posted February 24, 2008 Posted February 24, 2008 Replace the word xbox with PS3. Why? The PS3 is still selling, and it's sales are beginning to increase. Things can co-exist with each other. And as I said, the xbox 360 and Wii are both different, so are able to compete. They both have their advatanges and disadvantages. It's not like HD-DVD vs Bluray, because they were basically the same and either one could have eventually won. Downloads and Physcial media are different enough to be able to co-exist. I can see myself (in years to come when everyone has a fast enough connection) both downloading movies and still buying them. You just don't seem to be taking the internet speed into account here. I'm not going to plan what I want to watch a day in advance just so I can download it when I could just pop down to my local renting store and be back in the space of 20 minutes. The internet speed is going to take a hell of a long time, in the UK anyway, to get to a good enough speed to download something that big (In the UK anyway, and for people that don't live in large cities). Usage limits will be a massive obstacle too.
Emasher Posted February 24, 2008 Author Posted February 24, 2008 In north america we have faster internet speeds, even outside of cities. I'm not just talking about the UK here.
Slaggis Posted February 24, 2008 Posted February 24, 2008 In north america we have faster internet speeds, even outside of cities. I'm not just talking about the UK here. Neither am I, but seeing as I live in the UK I used that example. Well if you have the speeds, why isn't it already hugely popular over there? (I'm not trying to be sarky, though it might sound it).
Emasher Posted February 24, 2008 Author Posted February 24, 2008 Because there isn't a good service out yet in Canada, and iTunes movie rentals have just come out in the states. The movie sales in iTunes are already hugely popular their.
Slaggis Posted February 24, 2008 Posted February 24, 2008 Because there isn't a good service out yet in Canada, and iTunes movie rentals have just come out in the states. The movie sales in iTunes are already hugely popular their. Well, they were popular at first, but movie sales were (well, 6 months ago anyway) slowing down. I just don't see how on earth you think downloads will take over. Co-exist, yes. Takeover, are you out of your mind?
Emasher Posted February 24, 2008 Author Posted February 24, 2008 TBH I can't imagine optical media will be very popular in 5 years. Remember how once apple started not putting floppy drives into Macs other companies followed them. Now with the Macbook Air not having a floppy drive, its a sign that optical media is getting old.
Shino Posted February 24, 2008 Posted February 24, 2008 I'm not saying you are but you always base your facts on Apple.
Cube Posted February 25, 2008 Posted February 25, 2008 TBH I can't imagine optical media will be very popular in 5 years. Remember how once apple started not putting floppy drives into Macs other companies followed them. Now with the Macbook Air not having a floppy drive, its a sign that optical media is getting old. No Floppy drives made sense. No DVD drive on the Macbook Air is just so Apple can rip people off by selling expensive laptops with no features.
Emasher Posted February 25, 2008 Author Posted February 25, 2008 No Floppy drives made sense. No DVD drive on the Macbook Air is just so Apple can rip people off by selling expensive laptops with no features. No features? Its for business travelers. It has everything they would need. Business travelers don't need firewire, they barely would use optical drives they don't need too much power on the go (as it is meant not to be your primary computer) and where can you plug into ethernet while on the go? Internet connections will get faster. Just because your internet speeds are crap in the UK doesn't mean the rest of the world doesn't have that fast of a connection. Most people under 15 today don't care about having a physical product they just want to be able to watch the movie.
Shino Posted February 25, 2008 Posted February 25, 2008 No features? Its for business travelers. It has everything they would need. Business travelers don't need firewire, they barely would use optical drives they don't need too much power on the go (as it is meant not to be your primary computer) and where can you plug into ethernet while on the go? You are completely brainwashed. Internet connections will get faster. Just because your internet speeds are crap in the UK doesn't mean the rest of the world doesn't have that fast of a connection. Most people under 15 today don't care about having a physical product they just want to be able to watch the movie. They will get faster, Blu-ray is already here. If speeds aren't good enough in the UK imagine the rest of the world. Most people under 15 have to drop their balls before they can have a saying. You forget that before all this crap, people already had set-top boxes with video on demand, and yet people like DVDs.
McPhee Posted February 25, 2008 Posted February 25, 2008 TBH I can't imagine optical media will be very popular in 5 years. Remember how once apple started not putting floppy drives into Macs other companies followed them. Now with the Macbook Air not having a floppy drive, its a sign that optical media is getting old. FDDs got removed because they were obsolete. Apple removed the optical drive from the Air becuase it would make the unit quite a bit thicker. The two are completely different. I can see optical drives getting removed eventually, but theres a lot of life left in them yet
Sanchez Posted February 25, 2008 Posted February 25, 2008 Internet speeds here aren't shit, just expensive. And capped.(ISP's in the US and Canada are starting to cap connections as well). Most of the country can get 8Mb now, in a couple of years most of the country should be getting 24mb down, a good percentage can already. Cable is well on the way to 100mb down. Still, when you only have 40GB to spend a month, that can go away very quickly. Hell, I could probably use 20GB with normal browsing (incl youtube etc). Still, the telco's seem to be finally falling into the trap the last generation set for them by not upgrading the backbone internet lines. At the moment we simply couldn't handle the type of load DD would entail.
Noodleman Posted February 26, 2008 Posted February 26, 2008 You have to live within a mile of the telephone exchange to get 8mb DSL. So no most of the country cant get it.
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