Re: Another speed bump for mass market adoption of Blu-Ray?

Doug Jacobs wrote:
godslabrat@xxxxxxxxx wrote:

I checked iTunes. They don't have it. I checked Amazon Unbox.
Nope. I checked my cable company's VOD/PPV service. Nope. I don't
have a 360 or a PS3, but at this point, I was feeling pretty stupid
for even trying. I had already expended ten times the amount of
energy it would have taken me to just Netflix the movie, which
completely defeats the whole "effortless" selling point of downloads.
CONTENT RULES ALL, people. If a guy like me, who actually wants to
spend a decent chunk of change watching B-movies, cult favorites, or
y'know, ANYTHING BESIDES THE LATEST STUFF THAT JUST CAME OUT can't
catch a break with downloads, then we'll go right back to discs. It's
that simple. Yeah, I'm sure that someone's going to say, "But, Aaron,
the studios will step up their game and make the selection better."
Well, that's spiffy, but the point I'll come back to is "Yeah, but DVD
is there *NOW*, and BluRay is on track to match DVD as time goes on."
Why give up two co-operating and proven technologies that give me what
I want in the best possible quality, for a bunch of competing set-top
boxes trying to sell (er, I mean, "rent") me hyper-compressed
downloads?


You've hit the nail on the head here.

Some years ago, there was an ad campaign for AT&T (I think it was) about VOD which featured a harried businessman checking into a hotel and asking if they had any movies to rent. The clerk responded that they had every movie ever made, to which the businessman responds "how'd they do that?"

Anyways, THAT should be the real goal of these streaming, digital download, or VOD type services. Their strength should be in having every obscure film (and TV series!) ever released - not just the newest hits that are being touted at the local Target for $15.99... After all, digital storage is cheap - and getting cheaper all the time. This would solve the "out of print" problem to some extent. You could at least still WATCH that content, even if it was only for a few days.

The main problem is, all that downloadable material, WITH customer-playback ability (or, as the cable ads say, "You're in control--You can fast-forward *and* rewind!") have to come from somewhere...
And even given the future Neato Vaporware that usually turns up in the discussion, server size usually dicatates that only a *few* movies are going to be available--Which, as we've seen, usually means This Month's DVD/HBO licensees, overexposed "default" family or action titles we've already seen a hundred times, or other such condescending delusions of what studios think real viewers watch.

And anyone who regularly rents movies under their own power knows, a majority of experienced Netflix'ers prefer movies that DON'T show up this month on HBO...In looking for something we haven't already seen in theaters, if that, we'd rather look up a Criterion, or catch up on our Lost reruns, or engage in any other actual expression of cinematic curiosity that doesn't have to have Will Smith in it.

So, the biggest speed bump to downloads is what it's always been:
Smart People watching movies that they want to see, instead of Gullible Idiots who think it's "neat" that they don't have to go to Blockbuster.

Derek Janssen (darn those Smart People for ruining everything!)
ejanss1@xxxxxxxxxxx
.

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