Sore Loser? Bill Gates Declares Downloads Are the Future, Not Hi-Def DVD

[Bligmerk]

So, now you can see where this sudden shift to "Digital downloadz iz duh futurez, notz duh Blur-rayz" zombie mantra is coming from. Make no mistake, M$ has been the puppet master and Toshiba the puppet in this "war". Some people keep saying M$ has no stake in HD-DVD or even cares, yet they are the central pillar propping it up. There is no real argument, digital downloads are the future, but not the immediate future. There are loads of efforts to make it happen but they are scattered all over everywhere right now plus the technology infrastructure is just not there presently. It's really kind of laughable Gates is using XFLop Dead as an example for digital downloads (and there are now swarms of the zombie army spreading on the Interwebz to mindlessly repeat this brain-washed mantra). The XFLop Dead "HD" digital download is 720p, pretty highly compressed, there isn't any place to store the video and so on and so on. But the braindead zombie army does not care, the Puppet Master has given his commands.

Sore Loser? Bill Gates Declares Downloads Are the Future, Not Hi-Def DVD
Jan 8th 2008

Warner Brothers' decision to side with Blu-Ray has caused early HD-DVD adopters to feel like losers while Blu-Ray supporters are gleefully congratulating themselves for their great foresight. On the assumption that the format wars are actually over -- not everybody agrees -- you might think this would be the final nail in the coffin for Bill Gates. He's already halfway out the door at HD-DVD backer Microsoft, but multi-billionaire Bill has always been a positive thinker.

When USA Today asked for his reaction, he replied in part: "HD DVD did well over the holidays. The other trend we're seeing is that direct download over broadband - I think the greatest example of that is XBox Live - (is) becoming an important choice. Over time, that will be the dominant way that people get their movies."

Is he trying to say everybody loses? I think he's just acknowledging that high-def DVD is only a stopgap measure. The format wars may or may not have fostered innovation and lower hardware prices, but the elephant in the room has been downloading over broadband, an idea whose time has finally (apparently) come. In addition to XBox Live, Netflix recently announced a deal with LG for a new download box, Apple is talking about renting movies through iTunes, Sony is hinting they'll roll out something similar to XBox Live for the Playstation 3 this year, and so on and so on.

Why does this matter for movie fans? Beyond the obvious, if you have an interest in non-blockbusters and don't live in one of a handful of big cities, movie downloading holds the prospect of opening up the playing field to smaller distributors and independent filmmakers. Right now we tend to look down on films that go straight to DVD (or iTunes), but if Radiohead can make a success of a completely independent release structure, why can't filmmakers?
http://www.cinematical.com/2008/01/08/sore-loser-bill-gates-declares-downloads-are-the-future-not-hi/

[P51-SN95]

While I agree that downloads are the future, just not the immediate future.

You will always need a hard copy on disc offered as well as a digital copy.
Too many people don't even have access to high speed internet yet, let alone internet connections fast enough/cheap enough to make them worth while.

EDIT: I wrote my response before I even read you're post... seems like we are in agreement :mrgreen:

[C64isStillTheBest]

Bill Gates has been riding the coat tails of 1very good business decision for over 20 years and the uninformed think he is a "technological genius". He almost missed the Internet and if it wasn't for unscrupolous business practices, deemed ILLEGAL in both the US and the EU, his company would never be the behemoth it is today. No other company, except the old IBM, has been responsible for limiting technological innovation. So, no, digital downloads are years, if not decades, away. More than 80% of the world lacks broadband, and the current infrastructure is not as good. What the heck happened to IPv6 anyway????

[kuku]

Well considering that the value of plastic far far cheaper then the value of a scaling infrastructures...Gates needs to go back to school for a few classes haha.

It's the future? Sure, near future, that's laughable.

There are ways to lower the bandwidth. Such as audio. You only need one audio stream, as oppose to the the many options on a disc. You theoretically only need to the core movie and none of the extras too.

And finally theoretically, your compression scheme gets better the more powerful you computer becomes.

But in the end. Plastic is pennies... and miles of cabling far exceeds that.

It's no different from the flying car model, where the cost of a single possible flying car exceeds thousands of regular car that probably won't shave much time off your commute.

What's after BD is unsure, but BD/ HD-DVD has no enemies
in the download world for at least 5 years, and by then economics of scale will live it another 5-10yrs, and usually by the ending point, more then enough to justify it's worth.

[mrnagy88]

Hmm, just as books are still around after the internet provided online text, movies will remain a main contributor to our video collections, probably for the forseeable future.

In the words of Ridley Scott "Buying a DVD is like buying a book." in that you can sit down and watch it, pause it, resume, re-watch a scene, etc.

It's not like all the libraries just closed when the internet came out...

Plus, now you're getting your main feature on the disc, and through your player you can get additional content online, so gives more reason to buy the BD-ROM and not download the video online, especially for the movies you really like.

What he should have done was something to make the HD-DVD add-on purchasers feel better...

[grcswoosh]

Well, my realtor says that vacation spots on the moon are the future, but I haven't signed up yet.

[j1994]

I prefer a collection to a thumbnail on a screen.
Bill Gates is a sore loser. HDDVD never really had a chance of winning after blu-ray came along and I bet Bill knew that. It will take years before digital downloads spread, and I wont download them. Mostly because my internet is too slow.

[bubano]

Bill is right, we will download them, but when? It is technically already possible, but the average consumer will not see this in many years.

[coyotetu]

Yeah, sorry Bill. I'm not interested in renting HD movies. Not when I can buy during a sale and get a hard copy for merely twice as much, that I can watch at my own leisure, as many times as I want.

[grcswoosh]

Yeah, sorry Bill. I'm not interested in renting HD movies. Not when I can buy during a sale and get a hard copy for merely twice as much, that I can watch at my own leisure, as many times as I want.

Don't forget the extra features and functionality you get with a disc. As I have said before OnDemand is very cool and convenient but compared to having the actual disc, it sucks!

[dackingdog]

The TRUTH has finally been revealed. This whole mantra from
Microsoft that they believe in hd-dvd & they believe it's better
for the average consumer was all total nonsense from the start.

Sorry Microsoft, but i never fell 4 it. Just too bad all the rest of the
bot sheep followed ur propaganda to their slaughter .

If digial downloads is the future, & all the 360 zealots say they don't
care about blu-ray if it's the winner in the mainstream's view,
then why bother with hd-dvd in the 1st place.

Then isn't digital downloads better than HD-DVD.

U can all thank Microsoft for meddling in the format war when they
don't really give a care, the format war is between Sony vs. Toshiba.
U can also thank greedy Toshiba for starting a format war+ not
learning from Sony's betamax flop.

All my past & present comments are not aimed at film enthusiast who
have both formats, your $$$ more power to you!

[D0nni3]

It is plain to see that downloads are the future some of you are speculating 10 years or so i could agree on that the main problem i see of having it now is storage space sure it's quite cheap these days but if i was to download all my movie collection of 150 + dvd's and 10 blu-ray movies i'd be swapping hard drives to watch a film thats not on the one for gaming

so at this moment in time not a chance.

Bill Gates is a fool but a good spin artist no manager or PR representative will come out and say hey we screwed up he will keep twisting this and twisting it till your average joe will say hey he's right not alot we can do about that

[PsychoBadBoy]

Maybe downloads are the future, but certainly not anytime soon...especially since I still like to own hard copies of my movies, games, etc.

[coyotetu]

Don't forget the extra features and functionality you get with a disc. As I have said before OnDemand is very cool and convenient but compared to having the actual disc, it sucks!I was going to add that in as well, but it seemed a bit redundant, and I haven't really done the research to make those claims. Besides, the only feature I care about that are more than likely absent in VoD is lossless audio.

[skulpt]

It's kind of silly. I mean of course digital downloads are the future, but not now in high def. And does MS have the hardware to support 20+gbs of data per movie? The 20gb 360 probably couldn't even store 1 HD movie that meets the quality (compression quality). The PS3 doesn't have the storage for it right now, the Elite 360 doesn't. For this to be viable, both consoles should have a 500gb HD at least. In other words, you should at least be able to store more than 10 movies without sacrificing quality due to compression.

Brian

[DayWalker]

well... he's right. They are the future...

But when? 5? 10 years from now?
Until then.... the future is Blu? :cool:

[Kamakzie]

Michael Bay was right I guess..

[Bligmerk]

The issue has always been about long term high capacity storage at a cheap price and portability, not data throughput. Sure, mass storage like hard drives and flash memory has increased greatly and the cost has dived. But the last time I looked, a terabyte hard drive is about $400 and a few hundred gigabyte flash memory is over a $1000. Then you would have to look at using those as write-once long term storage memory. A lot of Blu-ray movies are over 30GB now just for the movie, with higher bit rate encoding and lossless audio. So, even with a 1TB hard drive, if you round up to a 50GB Blu-ray movie with extras, that means you can store 20 movies. Then that is it, that hard drive has to be put on the shelf and you have to get another one. If you could get the movies free, then that is almost a 1-to-1 cost, using a $400 hard drive to store 20 movies or buying 20 Blu-ray movies at $20 each. The chances of getting all the movies for free plus the bandwidth and time to do that really tips the scales in favor of a physical long term ,reliable, cheap physical storage medium. Sure, once again, holographic optical discs are the future but they are still the distant future, not the near future -- at the least, the affordable near future. Maybe we need to define the future as that -- the affordable near future, not the distant money-is-no-limit future.

[TH3 GAM3]

I really prefer a collection so when companies doesn't make Blu-Ray Disc anymore, maybe I'll think about downloading.

[Beodude123]

Digital distribution is certainly in the making, but I really think it will only be good for rentals right now. Purchasing a movie online, and storing it on a HDD doesn't really work for me, and I think a lot of people will agree. Renting and streaming a movie is one thing. You don't need to worry about keeping it somewhere on your computer, eating up a ton of space. I don't want to have to buy movies for $10 or $15 a piece, and need a $500 terrastation to hold my movies.

[bubano]

Remember the DVD took over the VHS for some years ago. I still uses my VHS, must say I don't buy any tapes anymore though.

[kuku]

I think Billy is just sore that he saw the same things but never jumped on the ball, and now tries to claim glory to premade bases.

Apple did the digital media living room before MS, with the i-stuff(zunehahah)

Google did the online OS networking before MS(your .net was just bloated and closed..if only you made the effort...)

[Bligmerk]

It's started. I started seeing this last night on other sites but it is starting in AVS Forum now. The zombie armies have been given their marching orders and are now flooding the Interwebz like the zombies in Resident Evil Extinction trying to get into the Hive.

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=12737537#post12737537
Are some members trying to Kill blu-ray in favor of Downloads?
I'm going to leave names out of this, with respect to forum rules, but it looks very clear to me that certain, consistently vocal HD DVD supporters/insiders are spreading FUD about blu-ray, even though it is clear that the tide has turned. One insider has even, overtly mentioned downloads in his more recent posts as the obvious choice going forward.

It now appears that the theories that Microsoft may have been playing Toshiba and the HD DVD Group all along, could turn out to be true.

Personally I could see myself doing some downloading, but I certainly do not want HDM to go away as Microsoft surely does.

Hopefully we will no longer be duped by the postings of these thinly-veiled, HDM Assassins!

[sonyfan6]

I figured that I should share this article here, which rebutes Bill Gates claim.

http://blogs.pcworld.com/staffblog/archives/006219.html


Tuesday, January 08, 2008 10:30 AM PT Posted by Melissa Perenson
Why Movies Sold on Disc Still Matter

LAS VEGAS -- Over the course of the past couple of years, as the Blu-ray Disc vs. HD DVD smack down continued, I've often seen postulating in the press and among the public that neither disc format is going to matter in the future.

Admittedly, no one can say with certainty that these formats--most likely Blu-ray, in light of Warner's recent exclusivity announcement--will match the success of their predecessor, DVD. No question DVD is a tough act to follow: the format is widely considered the most successful consumer electronics format ever launched.

The reality is that, based on where we are today, the demand for packaged media--and devices to play them--appears quite healthy. The Digital Entertainment Group, which exists to promote the video industry, highlighted some industry numbers at its annual event that underscore why movie studios and hardware manufacturers both care about finding the high-def successor to DVD.

The DVD category alone was responsible for $45 billion in spending worldwide, according to DEG data. DVD and high-definition packaged media numbers, in terms of dollars, were also impressive: $300 million in high-def disc sales, and $23 billion in disc software sales in 2007.

"The buying and renting of packaged media remains a core choice for consumers," says the group's executive director, Amy Jo Smith. In the future, "digital delivery promises additional options, but we believe packaged media will continue to co-exist [with downloads]."

This, ladies and gentlemen, illustrates why the industry is rallying around a disc-based format for high-definition content. Not to mention the impact of the spending we consumers do on growing our personal DVD movie libraries.

Next stop, high-definition discs anyone? Who's ready to take that plunge?

See PC World's ongoing coverage of the Consumer Electronics Show at our CES InfoCenter.

[se7enthsign]

Doesn't this kind of declaration only serve to bury HD-DVD further? With something like this coming from Gates, one would think that Microsoft may be getting ready to abandon ship and leave Toshiba to drown.

As for digital distribution, I doubt it. It will be the future, but not the near future. There is still a large percentage of the population that doesn't bother with computers or video game consoles. A lot of people still don't even understand what "download" means. Most importantly, before you can start SELLING downloaded music and movies, you gotta figure out how to stop people from getting it for free! MP3's and Ipods have been around forever but people are still buying CDs.

[kuku]

Gates is just trying to sell it's XBL movie services thinking it can be the next itunes...

As fine as the only one offering HD, it's still quite crappy, and apple has more incentive for people to buy it then xbl.

at least ipods and now touches, phones and nanos can buy dl SD movies that has a good space footprint. And transfer them.

those 20gig, and worse off, no gig 360s are even worse. A lot of smoke and mirrors.

[Carl]

Downloads wont be the norm for years yet. Like music - sure a lot of people do download music for on the go, but a hell of a lto of people (including myself) still prefer buying CDs. Because we actually have a hard copy of it. Downloading is fine if you dont care about that. But also if you get sick of it you cant sell it, which is greatly annoying. This would be even more annoying for full length movies because they cost a lot more (and also take up a lot more space).

I dont think downloads will be the norm for at least another decade. Even when it starts to become popular, lots of people will still prefer to have the movie on disc, like music.

[hisame]

Please, first the people who have internet access fast enough for HD stream are people who live in big cities FGS. <br />
Second it's more expensive to go download, simply because you get charge for...

[admartian]

Hmm, just as books are still around after the internet provided online text, movies will remain a main contributor to our video collections, probably for the forseeable future.

In the words of Ridley Scott "Buying a DVD is like buying a book." in that you can sit down and watch it, pause it, resume, re-watch a scene, etc.

It's not like all the libraries just closed when the internet came out...

Plus, now you're getting your main feature on the disc, and through your player you can get additional content online, so gives more reason to buy the BD-ROM and not download the video online, especially for the movies you really like.

What he should have done was something to make the HD-DVD add-on purchasers feel better...


Well considering that the value of plastic far far cheaper then the value of a scaling infrastructures...Gates needs to go back to school for a few classes haha.

It's the future? Sure, near future, that's laughable.

There are ways to lower the bandwidth. Such as audio. You only need one audio stream, as oppose to the the many options on a disc. You theoretically only need to the core movie and none of the extras too.

And finally theoretically, your compression scheme gets better the more powerful you computer becomes.

But in the end. Plastic is pennies... and miles of cabling far exceeds that.

It's no different from the flying car model, where the cost of a single possible flying car exceeds thousands of regular car that probably won't shave much time off your commute.

What's after BD is unsure, but BD/ HD-DVD has no enemies
in the download world for at least 5 years, and by then economics of scale will live it another 5-10yrs, and usually by the ending point, more then enough to justify it's worth.


Bill Gates has been riding the coat tails of 1very good business decision for over 20 years and the uninformed think he is a "technological genius". He almost missed the Internet and if it wasn't for unscrupolous business practices, deemed ILLEGAL in both the US and the EU, his company would never be the behemoth it is today. No other company, except the old IBM, has been responsible for limiting technological innovation. So, no, digital downloads are years, if not decades, away. More than 80% of the world lacks broadband, and the current infrastructure is not as good. What the heck happened to IPv6 anyway????


While I agree that downloads are the future, just not the immediate future.

You will always need a hard copy on disc offered as well as a digital copy.
Too many people don't even have access to high speed internet yet, let alone internet connections fast enough/cheap enough to make them worth while.

EDIT: I wrote my response before I even read you're post... seems like we are in agreement :mrgreen:


The issue has always been about long term high capacity storage at a cheap price and portability, not data throughput. Sure, mass storage like hard drives and flash memory has increased greatly and the cost has dived. But the last time I looked, a terabyte hard drive is about $400 and a few hundred gigabyte flash memory is over a $1000. Then you would have to look at using those as write-once long term storage memory. A lot of Blu-ray movies are over 30GB now just for the movie, with higher bit rate encoding and lossless audio. So, even with a 1TB hard drive, if you round up to a 50GB Blu-ray movie with extras, that means you can store 20 movies. Then that is it, that hard drive has to be put on the shelf and you have to get another one. If you could get the movies free, then that is almost a 1-to-1 cost, using a $400 hard drive to store 20 movies or buying 20 Blu-ray movies at $20 each. The chances of getting all the movies for free plus the bandwidth and time to do that really tips the scales in favor of a physical long term ,reliable, cheap physical storage medium. Sure, once again, holographic optical discs are the future but they are still the distant future, not the near future -- at the least, the affordable near future. Maybe we need to define the future as that -- the affordable near future, not the distant money-is-no-limit future.


well... he's right. They are the future...

But when? 5? 10 years from now?
Until then.... the future is Blu? :cool:


It's kind of silly. I mean of course digital downloads are the future, but not now in high def. And does MS have the hardware to support 20+gbs of data per movie? The 20gb 360 probably couldn't even store 1 HD movie that meets the quality (compression quality). The PS3 doesn't have the storage for it right now, the Elite 360 doesn't. For this to be viable, both consoles should have a 500gb HD at least. In other words, you should at least be able to store more than 10 movies without sacrificing quality due to compression.

Brian


Digital distribution is certainly in the making, but I really think it will only be good for rentals right now. Purchasing a movie online, and storing it on a HDD doesn't really work for me, and I think a lot of people will agree. Renting and streaming a movie is one thing. You don't need to worry about keeping it somewhere on your computer, eating up a ton of space. I don't want to have to buy movies for $10 or $15 a piece, and need a $500 terrastation to hold my movies.

All great ideas and points guys. Just be prepared that the "rebuttals' and evangelists will be showing up soon... ;)

Personally, I don't see it coming in the near future either. Especially since when the majority of boradband users, do not ahve the adequate speed to watch streaming 'SD' movies, let alone HD! Heck I struggle to watch some YouTube once in a while.

People have to remember that not every; scratch that; not a whole lot of countries or even places/regions in countries have fast enough broadband, or "comfortable" broadband that most of you Americans (to be fair,most of the faster download speeds being touted here are from the States). So unless Bill wants to cater to I don't know, less than 1 or even 2 million customers (and that's being overly generous).

Yes, perhaps in the future it is near undeniable that digital downloads is the way - but I don't see it happening at least in the next 10 - 30 years quite frankly.

[majinvegita]

Digital Downloads? future? what??

What was this guy smoking when he said that?

Let's see, I have downloaded many movies online. But the movies you download off torrents are just the movies themselves, all the extra's are stripped, the quality is toned down, the extra audio options such as 5.1, 7.1 etc. are toned down to nothing as well. People still download xvid movies that are only 700mb in size, and the quality isn't that great, its not HD either. Pirated HD movies don't even get much attention because even after all the stripping and toning down, the videos are at least 4 - 6gb in size, some even more.

So, if downloading was to become the standard, they would first have to make faster internet service available and at an affordable price, not $99 bux, more like $29.99 or 39.99 or something. The bandwidth would have to increase, 100gb / month is NOTHING. Movie prices would have to be significantly cheaper via download, otherwise its pointless.

Most people, most of the world will be happy with Blu-Ray for time to come. Even hardcore HD fans will prefer discs over downloads. Who the heck wants 720p? not HD fans. People want the full 1080P resolutions, and that is only viable through discs for now.

Downloads? 5 - 10 years later, for now, Blu-Ray is the choice.

[the gaming legend]

whilst It won't be here for at least 8 years for mainstream, if they only share videos through xbox's then it'll never take off. I wouldn't buy an xbox unless it got all of my favourite ps3 games, which is unlikely because sony make a few of them. That wipes out some of the market straight away.

[NAJC]

He is right in saying that digital download are for the FUTURE, but not the PRESENT. There is an obvious problem with making that a reality now, as bandwidth size isn't good enoguh, and better compression of the files would need to take place for this method to become a possibility. We probably won't see this method take off, mainstream until the next generation of consoles, which should be about 2010-1015 (probably closer to 2015). As to whether or not Bill Gates is a sore loser, I think that he most definitely is, the timing is just about right, Warner Bros. join bl-ray, which adds more misery to their poor sales, and makes the format almost doomed to fail!

[TheSkeptik]

Bill Gates has been riding the coat tails of 1very good business decision for over 20 years and the uninformed think he is a "technological genius". He almost missed the Internet and if it wasn't for unscrupolous business practices, deemed ILLEGAL in both the US and the EU, his company would never be the behemoth it is today. No other company, except the old IBM, has been responsible for limiting technological innovation. So, no, digital downloads are years, if not decades, away. More than 80% of the world lacks broadband, and the current infrastructure is not as good. What the heck happened to IPv6 anyway????
Actually digital downloads are now. I am doing it, a lot of people are doing it. Sure I still buy hard copies once in a while but not very often anymore. I usually just rent movies because I rarely want to watch a movie more than once anyway, the ones I do I buy right out. I have so many movies and games right now that I have little space to keep them. That is why I like downloading for the most part. Its a space saver.

[justsayin]

This has nothing to do with being a sore loser. Bill has alway said that digital downloads are the future. I tend to think that they are farther out than he seems to, but that is just me. Internet speeds are not going to be fast enough for a while, and the right business model has not surfaced. HD downloads available now look great, but not as good as either disc format.

Digital distribution is in its infancy. It hasn't even "killed" CD yet let alone HD discs. I still think the biggest "threat" to HD discs is still DVD. There are a whole lot of people that think that DVD, especially upscaled DVD, is just fine quality wise.

[sonyfan6]

I still think the biggest "threat" to HD discs is still DVD. There are a whole lot of people that think that DVD, especially upscaled DVD, is just fine quality wise.

There are a lot of people who said the same thing about VHS/DVD. As players/media get cheaper and hdtv market penetration increases people will buy into blu-ray. They may not go out and replace their current films immediately (I only recently got rid of my VHS tapes) but over time the change will happen.

[Saigon]

well he is right downloads are the future...and thats it...the future...once things start getting under center...downloading will be ok...and that in itself will take a while...yes i know netflix is teaming up with another company to bring in home downloading but it will not be hd...it will be scaled to hd...but not true hd...but when the hd films start coming out...i bet they will make peaople upgrade...

someone tell me...are the xbl movie downloads hd or scaled to hd...

[DmiteXXi]

What the heck happened to IPv6 anyway????
IPv6 is gaining alot of momentum and heavily supported in cisco IOS.

I still dont think HD downloads is happening anytime soon.

[Graham]

eDistribution of media such as music and video IS the future, so how is Billy-boy a sore loser? For a start, his personal fortune alone is enough to prove he's no loser, but that's going off-topic.

It may not be the immediate future, but most of us now have huge MP3 collections on our computers, consoles, iPods, on portable drives, with those backed up to DVD... That was unheard of a few years ago. If you wanted music, you went to a shop and bought a CD. If you wanted to listen to that music, you put it into something capable of playing CDs. Things are different now, and most people I know either download all of their music, or rip their CDs to MP3 immediately.

With video, it's getting there. YouTube is a good start for streaming video, but the quality could be better. That's where downloads come in, like those on Xbox Live. OK, so generally speaking, internet bandwidth isn't quite there yet, and storage capacities are not as big as they could be for storing video, certainly HD material. However, most things now ship wth Hard Drives in them, from TVs to stand-alone PVRs, games consoles, media players... It's not such a huge step to think that eventually, throw-away media like CD and Blu-ray won't be needed, or wanted.

A couple of people I know have gone totally mass-storage mad, and while they still have players, they are secondary to the many TB of storage they have for all of the music, movies, photos etc. that they stream all over their house. It's all possible now, but that level of commitment is not for the faint hearted, and won't be mainstream for a good while, but it will get there.

So no, Bill Gates is not a sore loser in that respect...he's absolutely right.

[TheSkeptik]

I have 300, planet earth, and superbad (christmas present) on BD. I really don't notice a big difference from bd to regular dvd on a lot of movies. Unless it is a high action and cgi flick dvd will do. A lot of movies aren't worth an extra 10 dollars for BD. 300 didn't impress me much, but Planet Earth is AMAZING. If I wasn't a video game junkee there is no possible way I would buy a blu-ray player. Its simply not worth the cash at the moment and the majority of the world are thinking the same thing.

[hisame]

The fact is disk media will never die.
In 10 years time they might get 4Mb/s to general public all around the world.
By then we are already looking at 4K home theater.
Frankly any hardcore AV fan knows that you won't want any moive even in H264 to have a bit rate below 25Mb/s.
In 4K I want my moive at 50Mb/s + even with very good codec.

Disk media market will reduce as download grows.
But it will takes years and disk medi still won't die even download become mean stream.
I meant we still use CD now,itune has been with us for over 4 years.

[sonyfan6]

someone tell me...are the xbl movie downloads hd or scaled to hd...

Who knows. Microsoft is very secretive about that (usually because they are scaled).

[justsayin]

There are a lot of people who said the same thing about VHS/DVD. As players/media get cheaper and hdtv market penetration increases people will buy into blu-ray. They may not go out and replace their current films immediately (I only recently got rid of my VHS tapes) but over time the change will happen.

DVD had more advantages over VHS than BR has, and the difference in quality was obvious to anyone. People are often surprised when I tell them that my upscaled DVDs aren't true HD. When the difference is pointed out, most can see it but think it's not that big of a deal.

I am not predicting doom and gloom here. I just think it is possible that BR might remain a niche market. The high quality audio formats did, and they were clearly superior as well.

[HiX]

Digital downloads for Hi-def movies is the future? Bill Gates is obviously not a visionary. Sure, it will be in like what? 10-20 years? In the meantime(or within the next 5 years), hard copy disc will still be king. Here's why:

1. Download speeds aren't fast enough for a quick download.
2. People are not patient in getting something that they can and should get physically.
3. The sense of ownership of a physical item is greater than owning a digital file.
4. The extra investment needed for storing movies.
5. The idea of not being able to watch your movies without bringing the whole disk drive(copy-protected).

[.RAID3N.]

While I agree that downloads are the future, just not the immediate future.

You will always need a hard copy on disc offered as well as a digital copy.
Too many people don't even have access to high speed internet yet, let alone internet connections fast enough/cheap enough to make them worth while.

EDIT: I wrote my response before I even read you're post... seems like we are in agreement :mrgreen:

Agreed. I mean how many people don't even have a DVD player right now?! Well I guess nobody that would like a new movie. But beside that, how many people even want digital downloads? Its been posted numerous times about how people still want a copy. They like having a collection. If and when digital downloads becomes the "norm", I'm still going to want to buy a hard copy.

[SillyHatMafia]

Not for quite a while. It's gonna suck downloading huge 10GB + HD movies for most of us. I'd rahter have the DVD, case, etc

[BakaMaster]

While I agree that downloads are the future, just not the immediate future.

You will always need a hard copy on disc offered as well as a digital copy.
Too many people don't even have access to high speed internet yet, let alone internet connections fast enough/cheap enough to make them worth while.

EDIT: I wrote my response before I even read you're post... seems like we are in agreement :mrgreen:

Downside ..... what if people who dose collection of movies dosnt have Internet or computer ??
My friend mom collect movies w/e she got time and dont have a computer or Internet for that matter. Wouldnt this drop a bomb shell for those people like her ??

Paying for Computer $$
Paying for Internet $$
Paying for Download Movies $$


Not for quite a while. It's gonna suck downloading huge 10GB + HD movies for most of us. I'd rahter have the DVD, case, etc

Same here i feel more comfortable having the case, book, w/e special stuff comes along. Same with games as well.

[se7enthsign]

It may not be the immediate future, but most of us now have huge MP3 collections on our computers, consoles, iPods, on portable drives, with those backed up to DVD... That was unheard of a few years ago. If you wanted music, you went to a shop and bought a CD. If you wanted to listen to that music, you put it into something capable of playing CDs. Things are different now, and most people I know either download all of their music, or rip their CDs to MP3 immediately.
I also have tons of digital movies, music etc... I know several people who do, but I don't know anyone who actually pays to DOWNLOAD the media. The majority of media I own is ripped from purchased CDs and DVDs that I bought or borrowed from friends. Actually, If I like a band or group, I will buy ALL of their albums, rip the CDs and make 1 big MP3 CD as well as use the files on other devices. I have never touched Napster, Itunes or any of that stuff. A lot of people also use torrents and other illegal methods to obtain media as well. Before anyone can make money off of digital distribution, someone will have to figure out how to protect it.



However, most things now ship wth Hard Drives in them, from TVs to stand-alone PVRs, games consoles, media players... It's not such a huge step to think that eventually, throw-away media like CD and Blu-ray won't be needed, or wanted.
If you've ever had a hard drive crash, then you know that optical discs will ALWAYS have a place in this world. I don't mind replacing a scratched or broken CD, but when a hard drive fails and all of your stuff is on it, you will learn new and exciting ways to link different curse words together.


A couple of people I know have gone totally mass-storage mad, and while they still have players, they are secondary to the many TB of storage they have for all of the music, movies, photos etc. that they stream all over their house. It's all possible now, but that level of commitment is not for the faint hearted, and won't be mainstream for a good while, but it will get there.
I do think that digital downloads are the future, but it will never replace tangible media. Not in 5 years, not in 35 years, not ever. Even if it is just a flash drive, you will always need some sort of backup for your media.

[dackingdog]

To everyone that believes digital download is the solution.Good luck!

Try convincing mainstream why downloading films stripped of extras
is better. Dvd's selling point against cassette tapes were extras, not
just quality. Try convincing mainstream why that extra $20,$30,-$60
bump per monthly services is feasibly sense. You might go for it.

Once hd players drop to less than $150, & further down, which film
studios want anyways they'll drop dvd's especially new releases. Why?

Studios see big $$$ to be made on hd films. Their next CASH COW.

But then again, i just met a guy at the library who commented while
browsing dvd's say "why pay for films when u can get it for free on tv
& at the library."

Good luck trying to convince mainstream to pay more to upgrade online
cause blu-ray will drop down in prices like dvd's, cd's, tapes while online
services & goods will increase to upgrade.

About 10 yrs. or less till maximum download service to fully materialise
then another 10 yrs or less for mainstream to adopt it worldwide.

[the_End]

It's to bad Bill that I hate digital downloading movies so uh no. Having a collection (the disc itself) is a lot better then having everything stored on a hard drive. Not to mention when that hard drive dies you would have to download everything all over again which would be a pain in the ass.

[Vulgotha]

Future? Sure.

Will MS be the one's to do it? Quite hardly, and I most sincerely doubt it. Unless they throw out some fricken' amazing software with Windows Xen (or w\e) come 5 years, I think other companies (ala Apple with iTunes) will do it.

So, future? Sure. But how long? Probably years. MS's future? Doubt it.

[Graham]

I also have tons of digital movies, music etc... I know several people who do, but I don't know anyone who actually pays to DOWNLOAD the media. The majority of media I own is ripped from purchased CDs and DVDs that I bought or borrowed from friends. Actually, If I like a band or group, I will buy ALL of their albums, rip the CDs and make 1 big MP3 CD as well as use the files on other devices. I have never touched Napster, Itunes or any of that stuff. A lot of people also use torrents and other illegal methods to obtain media as well. Before anyone can make money off of digital distribution, someone will have to figure out how to protect it
What, protect it in the same what that DVDs and CDs are protected?! I admit, digital distribution does make it a bit easier for people to illegally obtain stuff, but the fact is, people are generally honest, or they aren't. OK, so I'm not going to tell you I legitimately own 100% of the music in my collection, because I don't, but most of it is either off my own CDs, paid downloads (yes, I've paid for downloads, as have plenty of others I know), and stuff I've borrowed off friends - much like yourself. There are plenty of times where I've wanted a CD, but only for a few of the tracks. Either I obtain it illegally, or, I do the right thing and use something like iTunes to get only the tracks I'm interested in. That way, everyone's a winner. Of course, I'll remove any protection afterwards so I can transfer it around, but that's fine by my standards! Herein lies the problem - if it can be heard through speakers, it can be recorded onto something else. Stopping music from being copied is practically impossible at the moment, and I can't see that changing any time soon. If somebody does not want to pay for it, they won't. Simple as that.


If you've ever had a hard drive crash, then you know that optical discs will ALWAYS have a place in this world. I don't mind replacing a scratched or broken CD, but when a hard drive fails and all of your stuff is on it, you will learn new and exciting ways to link different curse words together.

I do think that digital downloads are the future, but it will never replace tangible media. Not in 5 years, not in 35 years, not ever. Even if it is just a flash drive, you will always need some sort of backup for your media.
Oh yes, I've been on the unfortunate receiving end of a hard drive that decided to just die on me! Not nice, as it sounds like you know all too well :) I was fortunate enough to have most stuff backed up, but not all of it, which was/is a real pain.

They way I look at things, CDs (or optical media in general) can be viewed in one of two ways:

1. As a means to buy music/software/movies etc.
2. As a means to back things up and move things around

While I absolutely 100% agree that some form of tangible, small form-factor media will be required for backing things up and transfering stuff, optical media is no longer the only consumer option. Solid state storage is getting cheaper and cheaper, and it won't be long before we all have thumb-sized cards that have our entire music collections on them, all safely backed up. When it comes to longevity, no storage solution is bullet-proof, and it's something we all need to pay attention to as more and more of our stuff is held "en mass".

However, as a means to distribute paid-for content, I really do think that the concept of individually packaged boxes being sold in stores is becoming less and less appealing. Most people order on-line now for convenience and the cheaper prices - it's not such a huge step to imagine either downloading a movie, or going to a store with your solid-state card and hooking it up to a machine which copies movies onto it. The infrastructure and basic security would all need ironing out, but I've got hundreds and hundreds of CD cases and a large number of DVD/Blu-ray cases that I've no room for or inclination to look at.

Just reading other posts here...the justifiaction for people wanting DVDs because of the extras might have been true at the time, but now I just see them as a waste of space and money. I hate the extras, and I hate having to pay for them when all I want is a copy of the movie. I can't imagine ever wanting to buy a 5 disc special edition of a movie!! They should be separated so that people who want the extras have to pay for them, where others who just want the film can pay for that on its own. Doing this digitally would be MUCH easier. It's like I said with music - most of the time, I don't want a full album. It's a logistical impossibility for the manufacturers to produce multiple versions of a CD with different permutations of tracks on them, so everybody is forced to pay for everything on one CD. With digital distribution, you can choose the tracks you want. With movies, you could choose just the movie, or the extras, or both. At the end of the day, it's all about offering choice to the consumer and giving them better value for money. I'd rather pay £5 for 5 tracks I like, than £10 for 10 tracks where I only like half of them.

Like it or not, format wars as we know them will not be so much of a problem in the future. I'm sure they will be there in some capacity, but players will be capable of supporting all kinds of formats (like my TViX), and media will be stored as playable files on something that can be written to and erased. Yep, backup will be an issue, but I'm sure that future media players will handle that by the use of raid arrays and redundancy in the hardware. 10 years is a long time folks! Go back that far and compare what we had then to what we have now - the same speculation was being battered around then!

[hisame]

A lot of you fail to relise in 5 years time BR will be same price as DVD.
Since DVD has no place to drop in price, when BR has plenty.
The difference between VHS and DVD quality wise is far smaller then DVD to BR.
HDTV 1080p 1920×1080 16:09 2,073,600
DVD NTSC (non-square pixels) 720×480 4:3 or 16:9 345,600
DVD PAL (non-square pixels) 720×576 4:3 or 16:9 414,720
VCR PAL 240×576 4:3 138,240
VCR NTSC 240×480 4:3 115,200
BR has 5 times more pixel then DVD, when DVD barly has 3 time more pixel then VHS.
Another advantage DVD has over VHS was size.
Humm maybe BDA should standard their disk to triple layer 9CM.
They did get the package to nearly half the volume.
The last advantage DVD over VHS is dualbility.
Frankly BR is much more dualble then DVD, especially in recording media.

[IWAO]

Sorry Bill,but I'm not ready to kill....my use of discs...old dude:lol:

[deniled]

I feel as though digital downloads will not become popular for a very long long time. It has to be almost perfect and flawless for me to use something like that.

I see a movie I want to watch, I will have to login-purchase it, begin the download of all that HD content then begin to watch the movie. Now the HD large movie has taken up my HD space along with all the other movies I downloaded. Now I am deleting movies off my HD drive to make room for other things making me lose my movies.

Oh well I could always send the movie to a external hard drive or something to save it right? And pass it along to all my friends no way- something will need to be implemented security wise to prevent this.

However after this is all said and done, I could just pop a disc in right and also just carry it to a friends house or on a road trip.

[Z1NR0]

Future? Sure.

Will MS be the one's to do it? Quite hardly, and I most sincerely doubt it. Unless they throw out some fricken' amazing software with Windows Xen (or w\e) come 5 years, I think other companies (ala Apple with iTunes) will do it.

So, future? Sure. But how long? Probably years. MS's future? Doubt it.

This is exactly what i was thinking. Honestly, if MS lost the HD DVD "war", who's to say that they will be the one to win the "download war?"

The competitors i see in the "download war" are (at the least) Sony and Apple.

MS.....instead of even thinking about the download war, why don't you try to make a new OS that will cost over 1000$ and convince every1 to buy? :DD

[Acid_1]

HD downloads = the flying car. i'll believe it when i see it.

[swordfish64]

For starters, when I pay for a movie from cable on demand or 360 for that matter, they disappear from the dvr/harddrive after 24 or so hours, if I want to watch again, I have to pay to play. I have 10 blu-ray discs, and over a hundred DVD's, and for years NONE of them have disappeared 24 hours after watching them, and I can watch them anytime I want, any place I want. If my daughter wants to watch a dvd on her portable player, or on her grandma's TV, she can easily take the disc with her, and now with scratch resistant blu-ray discs there is an added layer of durability.
Secondly, there will always be a demand for blu-ray writeable media as 50-200 gb discs are a phenomenal and cost effective way of backing up data. I feel sorry for those who have had harddrive crashes and have lost all their data they've been collecting over a long period of time.
Thirdly, Full 1080p, HD/PCM/Lossless Audio, Language options, subtitle options, Extras up the yin/yang, BD Live internet interactivity, mini games for the kids and for the kids in us, Picture in picture commentary is available for Blu-ray discs today.
Call me when downloads are anything but super compressed shells of their Blu-ray masters.
Also, call me when CD's/newspapers/books/magazines are no longer multi-billion dollar markets and have been replaced by the internet and downloads.
Fourthly, definitely call me when the flying car rolls out and shuts down the need for ground transport 8)

[mrnagy88]

or think of it this way:
Downloads are not in competition with Blu-Ray or HD-DVD, they are in competition with the rental shops :-p bye bye blockbuster in 5 years time...

[Bligmerk]

well he is right downloads are the future...and thats it...the future...once things start getting under center...downloading will be ok...and that in itself will take a while...yes i know netflix is teaming up with another company to bring in home downloading but it will not be hd...it will be scaled to hd...but not true hd...but when the hd films start coming out...i bet they will make peaople upgrade...

someone tell me...are the xbl movie downloads hd or scaled to hd...

The "HD" ones are 720p VC-1. They are rented for a 14 day period before the DRM locks you out but it stays on the hard drive. Once you play it, you have 24 hours to watch it as many times you want before the DRM kicks in and you are locked out. It still stays on your hard drive. It might have changed, but before, it required downloading the whole movie before being watchable. This is over Xbox Dead transfer speeds, meaning several hours for the download. Some people, depending on their bandwidth have spent days downloading one movie. In case you haven't heard, Xbox Dead was down (sometimes completely, sometimes intermittently) over the whole holiday break. Now, there is news that it is down again. This is for a $50 a year subscription fee to get that kind of "service". Yep, this is going to kill Blu-ray.... Remember, this in comparison to Netflix where you can have any two movies out at a time (DVD or Blu-ray 1080p with extras), as many per month you can fit in, play as many times you want as long as you want with no DRM kicking in, for $15 per month.

[Eaz-TK]

They are the future but im sure people are still going to want a hard copy of what they have bought

[davbere]

HD video downloads are a growing market and option of the future.
It will not replace optical media for various reasons. It will cut into potential profit margins of other distribution methods but there is plenty of room for it in the consumer market.
If anything is hurt I would suspect it to be video rental stores

Optical media is and will be a profitable distibution method for many years to come. This is why certain companies are fighting so hard to come out with the winning HD optical format and future successor to DVD.

Is MS unhappy it might not be aboard for the royalties of the HD optcal disc ?
Sure, but MS like most companies has divirsified its assets into other possible returns such as download services and for MS part video codecs which are used amongst all delivery options and services.

[kopinux]

wireless = accessible, if fast internet would still be in cables, digital downloads would be for the selected few. ubuntu's shipIt(where they ship ubuntu cd via mail for free) has the answer why digital downloads is still years away.

and if digital downloads comes, it is the death of windows, since you would be running your OS for free in the internet like i think google predicted.

[SillyHatMafia]

I personally dont want to download HD movies. I wnt to own the disc.

[swordfish64]

Blockbuster online also rents BD movies. For 20 bucks a month I get three BD/DVD movies sent to my house by mail, I can then take the physical discs back to the store 2 minutes away from my house, and exchange them for any three BD/DVD movies at the store, go home with three BD rentals and watch them while I wait for another two days for my next three movies to come in the mail. Now I've got six movies rented at home, in FULL quality not some washed out shell of a movie.
As I said before, call me when HD downloads have full 1080p and full hd/lossless PCM audio and all of the extras, until then, Blockbuster/Netflix/even Cable on Demand, and my trusty BD/DVD collection and local retailers will provide all the QUALITY content I desire.

[Potassium]

If digital download is the impending future, ie. it'll become dominant within 360's life cycle, then there's no point for current HD disc formats to exist. I just wish Bill Gates would do everybody a favor by dumping his sock puppet Toshiba into the trash bin. He knows very well that HD-DVD can't win because he firmly believe it's not the future and will be obsoleted by digital download very soon.

[Redrider]

This was Microsoft's game from the beginning, now they are confirming thier real intension's for this market to the masses. :rolleyes:

[-Deadpool-]

Downloads may be the future, but I still prefer the fact that I have a disc/case etc.. in hand and on deck at all times over the digitally stored/downloaded idea. I guess I'm a sucker for what I can see and touch and having a 'library' of movies.. then there's the issue of watching it around the house and reliance on home networking/storage etc..

[schultz576]

sure its the future but i cant see this happening for another 15 years atleast. there is just so many factors that come to play. like someone said earlier in this thread, digital downloads havnt even drowned out CDs yet so how the hell are they going to drown out HD.

atm download speeds and caps are far too small. i live in Aus and i know our connections arent that great atm but im still sitting on 20Gb a month with 512kb/s and we can barely afford this. that isnt even one HD movie a month. to open up this market completely in order to take over BR discs there would need to be that offer of cheaper internet, and MUCH faster speeds with MUCH bigger download caps. and it cant just be in the US it needs to be made global or it wont work.

even that said i find it much better to have a collection with a player hooked up to the TV already and to just watch the straight from there. with downloads there is just not that space to store everything where will all these hard drives to hold the movies be coming from? it would be a very expensive form for the average family whereas they could just go for the cheaper option which is much more reliable in physical form.

[-Deadpool-]

atm download speeds and caps are far too small. i live in Aus and i know our connections arent that great atm but im still sitting on 20Gb a month with 512kb/s and we can barely afford this. that isnt even one HD movie a month. to open up this market completely in order to take over BR discs there would need to be that offer of cheaper internet, and MUCH faster speeds with MUCH bigger download caps. and it cant just be in the US it needs to be made global or it wont work.

Another good point! 18GB (8Mbps) connection here.. and its the fastest we can get. I'd only be able to download a couple movies a month. At the moment I'm buying ~5 DVD's and probably 3-5 Blu a month on average.. doesn't add up.

Though you can be guaranteed Australia would be miles behind with the release of digital downloading anyway... :p

[schultz576]

Another good point! 18GB (8Mbps) connection here.. and its the fastest we can get. I'd only be able to download a couple movies a month. At the moment I'm buying ~5 DVD's and probably 3-5 Blu a month on average.. doesn't add up.

Though you can be guaranteed Australia would be miles behind with the release of digital downloading anyway... :p

exactly, i cant get the 8mgps where i am but even that is only new it just shows how far behind we are, but i was looking into asia and japan was the only country really ahead of us too(by miles tho) so uve got a whole continent too far behind for this kind of thing, im not sure what its like elsewhere but the way things are going its just not really financialy or practically possible in the near future.

[SuperSJ-PS3]

Ooh, let me buy your vudu box or your netflix box for $500 to $1,000 so that I could rent your movies at $5.99 a pop. I'm so looking for this great deal and let me get started by calling up the cable company to get a fast internet for $60 a month. I can't hardly wait...

So this is really cheap right? o_O

[Scott64]

I also like owning a real copy of something. The real, pressed disc, the cover art, case candy, and being able to bring it anywhere I want when I want. Even if there isn't an internet connection available.

I would think if digital distribution were to hit it big anywhere in the near future, satellite providers would have a huge advantage. They already have the means to deliver to almost anyone regardless of location without the need for an ISP for a middleman.

[arcticreaver]

it's bill gates, what do you people think he would say?

[bubano]

Its Bill alright. He just found out that live.search or what its called did not work as planned also. So he bought the company Fast's search engine. Will this help?

So if you don't manage to solve it yourself, then buy the competitor. ;)

[BrandonCGS]

Lol..Yeah, they are the future..in 2020-30 :mrgreen:

[BlitZ9200]

Digital downloading has been around since the begining of the internet. But now that we can pay for it, its considered the next generation of media distribution.

What happens if you want to bring the movie to a friends house? your screwed, unless you want to unhook your system and lug it over (you think they would let you put the movie on any old portable hard drive?)

I wish he would step down already and finish his 'angel campaign'.

[bubano]

In 2037 you can internet your home tv over to your neighbour. So it will work. :p

[The Sith]

The future is now. There are sevaral movies that are in hi-def you can download onto the 360.

[bubano]

Full length movies in 1080p?

[Sufi]

Total digital distribution relevant to this generation? No.

[hisame]

Have you guy saw the MS IPTV solusion "Xbox 360 Mediaroom".
They are getting 20 company around the world in 18 countries to provide the service.
And yes MS won't give a single buck to help putting the IPTV structure.
Basically they are just a set top box provider.
They provide you the software to run your service on their 360 set top box.
So that's how MS's big Download Future, let other build their empire.

[davbere]

Have you guy saw the MS IPTV solusion "Xbox 360 Mediaroom".
They are getting 20 company around the world in 18 countries to provide the service.
And yes MS won't give a single buck to help putting the IPTV structure.
Basically they are just a set top box provider.
They provide you the software to run your service on their 360 set top box.
So that's how MS's big Download Future, let other build their empire.

Interesting.
Knowing how to benefit from the work of others has been one of MS's strengths and reasons for it's success.

[Graham]

HD downloads = the flying car. i'll believe it when i see it.
Well, I've just been witness to the equivalent of a flying car, because Xbox 360 has HD downloads right now, and I've just downloaded a 1080p movie trailer... Honestly, how can you imply that HD downloads are a fantasy? Is it because they are huge files taking up lots of space? Is it because they take a long time to download? Only a few years ago, I was lucky to be able to download a single music track in 5 minutes. Now, it's more like 5 seconds and less. These days, on a typical "up to 8meg" connection, you can download the equivalent of a DVD movie in a few hours. A single layer 1080p Blu-ray movie can be downloaded in less than a day. I hardly call that "the future". OK, storage capacity for keeping lots of 25GB files is not quite there yet for the average consumer, nor is the backup and recovery associated with that. However, if you are so inclined, HD movie downloads are there for the picking if you know where to look, right now.

It might take a long time for it to become mainstream, but as internet speeds increase and storage capacities increase, it won't be that long before you'll be able to download a 25GB movie faster than you could watch it in real-time.

[gerrylum]

HD downloads will never become mainstream as long as we still have threads that have a 56k warning in the title.

[360DiedOnMe]

not any time soon, knowing bill gates though he will probably steal more ideas from someone else. :) hahaha

[Dr.Drake]

This was their plan all along. Support HD-DVD as long as possible to slow Blu-ray's market gain, then dump it and promote digital downloads. I really hate these guys. From their crappy software to their disgusting business ethics, they are the epitome of cut throat.

[The Sith]

This was their plan all along. Support HD-DVD as long as possible to slow Blu-ray's market gain, then dump it and promote digital downloads. I really hate these guys. From their crappy software to their disgusting business ethics, they are the epitome of cut throat.

well this is business...everyone does it even in corporate america. Ive seen it with my own eyes. People cut there co-workers throat for there personal gains.

[ATC]

HD downloads will never become mainstream as long as we still have threads that have a 56k warning in the title.

Ain't that the truth. Good one.

[Morganator]

I could care less about E-Distribution. Until I have my 20PB drive with read, write and seek times 10x the speed of current day drives that cost less than half of current day drives, internet speeds fast enough for me to be able to download full 1080p movies with 7.1 Uncompressed PCM in at a speed where it only take 5 minutes, I'm saying no to E-Distribution. Also, the movies have to be a reasonable price and I have to have a lifetime warranty on the movies for me to even consider. None of these fees where I pay for each viewing. As far as Microsoft is concerned, I really don't want them having anything to do with the entertainment industry as they're just looking to ruin it like the OS market.

[Bligmerk]

Well, I've just been witness to the equivalent of a flying car, because Xbox 360 has HD downloads right now, and I've just downloaded a 1080p movie trailer... Honestly, how can you imply that HD downloads are a fantasy? Is it
Why are some people talking about flying cars like they are something in the future? Flying cars are over 60 years old and everybody has one by now, right? Yeah, I agree the 360 semi-HD download IS the equivalent of a flying car.

1946 Aerocar
http://inventorspot.com/files/images/Flying%20car--taylor%20aerocar%20restored.img_assist_custom.jpg
1947 Convair
http://farm1.static.flickr.com/33/52134050_e25fccb659.jpg
1946 Hall
http://blog.modernmechanix.com/mags/qf/c/PopularScience/4-1946/xlg_flying_car.jpg
1919 Curtis Autoplane
http://davidszondy.com/future/Flight/autoplane02.jpg