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The HD format war is still going on. Some say it’s over because Blu-ray has better backers, but others are suggesting neither will win and HD Downloads are the way forward. I have my doubts of seeing this as a mass media solution in the next 10 years.
The format of choice is not going to be decided completely until the general public, those that can’t set up wireless networks or re-wire a house by themselves, take to it. For HD Downloads it's just not going to happen. For a format to have really been successful you need general consumer sales. Unless someone comes up with an affordable mass storage solution with really easy access to downloads and failsafe ability to keep them once they've bought them, then downloading will still be in the hands of the PC owners and more technical among us.
Sure, selling to the technically minded still equates to a lot of people buying the format, but not the mass public audience it needs. Rental may well be affected by downloads, which I would welcome and would be far more of a possibility, given limited storage space and the ease at which downloads can be made to expire after a specific time. But the general public always want something physical for their money over something less tangible and this, coupled with ease of use, will prevent HD downloads from being the next generation (ie within the next 10 years) format of choice.
Saying that, for the enthusiast it creates wonderful opportunities, and I’m far from against it as long as there are backups in place to retrieve your software should it go missing. Think of a single mass storage box in a cupboard somewhere hidden away. A wireless (or wired) connection to your TV and a decent menu means never having to hunt around for a DVD case again and thousands of films at the touch of a button, including all the extras normally found on the physical discs. Obviously, a less legal version of that is possible now. Pick up a terabyte hard disk with networking functions and place it on a network with a PC one end and reader for the TV on the other. Copy your DVDs and High Def content to the drive (formatting with a decent codec) and you have a similar system. There are even some good front ends you can pick up to compliment it.
A compromise in the future might be for stores to stock cards with codes for films on, just scan the card when you get home and the film is downloaded. The card could even come in a nice box, solving the physical issue, but this again would need to wait for decent sized storage at an affordable price and foolproof setup and use for the general public. Maybe in a couple of generations we’ll see this format truly take hold, but by then we may well be in the era of Ultra-high Definition (the first mass market Ultra-HDTVs are estimated for 20 years time) and who knows what else!
The format of choice is not going to be decided completely until the general public, those that can’t set up wireless networks or re-wire a house by themselves, take to it. For HD Downloads it's just not going to happen. For a format to have really been successful you need general consumer sales. Unless someone comes up with an affordable mass storage solution with really easy access to downloads and failsafe ability to keep them once they've bought them, then downloading will still be in the hands of the PC owners and more technical among us.
Sure, selling to the technically minded still equates to a lot of people buying the format, but not the mass public audience it needs. Rental may well be affected by downloads, which I would welcome and would be far more of a possibility, given limited storage space and the ease at which downloads can be made to expire after a specific time. But the general public always want something physical for their money over something less tangible and this, coupled with ease of use, will prevent HD downloads from being the next generation (ie within the next 10 years) format of choice.
Saying that, for the enthusiast it creates wonderful opportunities, and I’m far from against it as long as there are backups in place to retrieve your software should it go missing. Think of a single mass storage box in a cupboard somewhere hidden away. A wireless (or wired) connection to your TV and a decent menu means never having to hunt around for a DVD case again and thousands of films at the touch of a button, including all the extras normally found on the physical discs. Obviously, a less legal version of that is possible now. Pick up a terabyte hard disk with networking functions and place it on a network with a PC one end and reader for the TV on the other. Copy your DVDs and High Def content to the drive (formatting with a decent codec) and you have a similar system. There are even some good front ends you can pick up to compliment it.
A compromise in the future might be for stores to stock cards with codes for films on, just scan the card when you get home and the film is downloaded. The card could even come in a nice box, solving the physical issue, but this again would need to wait for decent sized storage at an affordable price and foolproof setup and use for the general public. Maybe in a couple of generations we’ll see this format truly take hold, but by then we may well be in the era of Ultra-high Definition (the first mass market Ultra-HDTVs are estimated for 20 years time) and who knows what else!
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The HD format war is still going on. Some say it’s over because Blu-ray has better backers, but others are suggesting neither will win and HD Downloads are the way forward. I have my doubts of seeing this as a mass media solution in the next 10 years.
The format of choice is not going to be decided completely until the general public, those that can’t set up wireless networks or re-wire a house by themselves, take to it. For HD Downloads it's just not going to happen. For a format to have really been successful you need general consumer sales. Unless someone comes up with an affordable mass storage solution with really easy access to downloads and failsafe ability to keep them once they've bought them, then downloading will still be in the hands of the PC owners and more technical among us.
Sure, selling to the technically minded still equates to a lot of people buying the format, but not the mass public audience it needs. Rental may well be affected by downloads, which I would welcome and would be far more of a possibility, given limited storage space and the ease at which downloads can be made to expire after a specific time. But the general public always want something physical for their money over something less tangible and this, coupled with ease of use, will prevent HD downloads from being the next generation (ie within the next 10 years) format of choice.
Saying that, for the enthusiast it creates wonderful opportunities, and I’m far from against it as long as there are backups in place to retrieve your software should it go missing. Think of a single mass storage box in a cupboard somewhere hidden away. A wireless (or wired) connection to your TV and a decent menu means never having to hunt around for a DVD case again and thousands of films at the touch of a button, including all the extras normally found on the physical discs. Obviously, a less legal version of that is possible now. Pick up a terabyte hard disk with networking functions and place it on a network with a PC one end and reader for the TV on the other. Copy your DVDs and High Def content to the drive (formatting with a decent codec) and you have a similar system. There are even some good front ends you can pick up to compliment it.
A compromise in the future might be for stores to stock cards with codes for films on, just scan the card when you get home and the film is downloaded. The card could even come in a nice box, solving the physical issue, but this again would need to wait for decent sized storage at an affordable price and foolproof setup and use for the general public. Maybe in a couple of generations we’ll see this format truly take hold, but by then we may well be in the era of Ultra-high Definition (the first mass market Ultra-HDTVs are estimated for 20 years time) and who knows what else!
The format of choice is not going to be decided completely until the general public, those that can’t set up wireless networks or re-wire a house by themselves, take to it. For HD Downloads it's just not going to happen. For a format to have really been successful you need general consumer sales. Unless someone comes up with an affordable mass storage solution with really easy access to downloads and failsafe ability to keep them once they've bought them, then downloading will still be in the hands of the PC owners and more technical among us.
Sure, selling to the technically minded still equates to a lot of people buying the format, but not the mass public audience it needs. Rental may well be affected by downloads, which I would welcome and would be far more of a possibility, given limited storage space and the ease at which downloads can be made to expire after a specific time. But the general public always want something physical for their money over something less tangible and this, coupled with ease of use, will prevent HD downloads from being the next generation (ie within the next 10 years) format of choice.
Saying that, for the enthusiast it creates wonderful opportunities, and I’m far from against it as long as there are backups in place to retrieve your software should it go missing. Think of a single mass storage box in a cupboard somewhere hidden away. A wireless (or wired) connection to your TV and a decent menu means never having to hunt around for a DVD case again and thousands of films at the touch of a button, including all the extras normally found on the physical discs. Obviously, a less legal version of that is possible now. Pick up a terabyte hard disk with networking functions and place it on a network with a PC one end and reader for the TV on the other. Copy your DVDs and High Def content to the drive (formatting with a decent codec) and you have a similar system. There are even some good front ends you can pick up to compliment it.
A compromise in the future might be for stores to stock cards with codes for films on, just scan the card when you get home and the film is downloaded. The card could even come in a nice box, solving the physical issue, but this again would need to wait for decent sized storage at an affordable price and foolproof setup and use for the general public. Maybe in a couple of generations we’ll see this format truly take hold, but by then we may well be in the era of Ultra-high Definition (the first mass market Ultra-HDTVs are estimated for 20 years time) and who knows what else!