Enough already with the Blue-ray vs. HD DVD crap! Fanboys and techies everywhere are in their own private geek debate arguing which format is better than the other and which will replace the current DVD standard. Enough with the guessing and hoping. I’m here to tell you that both Blue-ray and HD DVD will lose the war. What will they lose to? Digital distribution.
Digital distribution is concept of providing information and content over the Internet. iTunes is an example of digital distribution.
People can now download music and movies from the Internet and enjoy them on their computer or iPod. So far, digital distribution of music has skyrocketed. Unfortunately, movies have not yet experienced this growth. Why? Because other than travelers, who wants to watch a movie on their computer or iPod? If only we could somehow get the movies to transfer to our TVs. Guess what, there is a way. With the release of the Xbox 360 and the new Apple TV, both Microsoft and Apple have the ability to stream content from your computer to your TV. It might not happen this year but soon movie downloads from the Internet will skyrocket. But why will digital distribution win over HD DVDs and Blue-ray? Here’s why. The benefits of digital distribution include:
- Drastic reduction costs for movie companies (no more DVDs to manufacture)
- Increased availability
- Zero format issues (all videos can be played on your computer)
- No expensive players to buy (you won’t have to spend $500 on a Blue-ray or HD DVD player)
But the best benefit would be no more format wars! Both movie companies and consumers win with digital distribution. Blue-ray and HD DVD are toast!
Subscribe now!
Well said…Digital Distribution is a very intriguing phenomenon to me. This is the precise reason Tower Records, one of the nations leading retailer of music and videos declared bankruptcy in February: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/02/09/entertainment/main599008.shtml
It’s the same reason Blockbuster is currently pouring millions into their ‘Total Access’ marketing campaign in a last stand effort to try to mend the companies fall out that almost resulted in bankruptcy just 3 months ago. They’re bailing out water as fast as they can but I’m afraid they don’t have a big enough bucket.
I wholeheartedly agree with your point here…great post.
Thanks for the compliment!
That’s a very interesting article. I like how Tower Records blames their bankruptcy on music pirating. They need to put most of the blame on bad business decision; the worst of which is relying on a brick and mortar store instead of shifting to an Internet store-front. If I were running the company, I would have made the shift three years ago.
Thanks for the link man and I hope you keep reading!
It seems that with the current technology it’ll still take a while to download a 50GB HD movie. Though I’m sure that in the future I’ll be able to do that as fast as I can say “dvd is dead.”
That’s true Hesse. Current technology still needs to evolve a little more. But I think in about 2 to 3 years time we’ll see technology come together and digital video distribution will begin to take off.