[opendtv] Re: NeTVs Really Are the 'Next Big Thing'
- From: Tom Barry <trbarry@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Thu, 01 Apr 2010 20:12:03 -0400
I'm not always the representative consumer but I think it is much more
than just an issue of how else are you going to store your movies.
For me it became an issue of whether I wanted to store them at all. It
was a phenomenon I first recognized a few years ago when I found that if
there was practically any movie I really wanted to see then I could
probably just go get it at blockbuster. Once that was backed up by the
possibility of downloading it, legally or illegally, I decided that I no
longer even cared to keep my own movie collection.
Maybe 10 years ago when HDTV was novel I started recording movies and
saving them to increasingly cheaper hard drives. And for awhile I even
supplemented those with some hidef downloads. But for the last few
years I've been gradually cannibalizing those spare drives for other
computer related purposes and no longer really even have a movie collection.
Plus when blu ray came out with the draconian copy protection schemes I
wasn't willing to have any sort of faith I'd be able to play BD's on a
computer in the future anyway, legally, since my projector does not have
HDMI inputs and the various "analog sunsets" are approaching. And I'm
not a fan of the various types of phone home DRM that seems to be
increasingly involved to get authorized updates to things to keep them
playing.
All in all that means I have never bought a BD player and, except for a
couple of specialty Tai Chi videos, have not purchased a DVD in a few
years now. And none of that is really because I've found a better way
to save movies but instead because I just stopped collecting them. If
you know they are all available somewhere anyway why go to the trouble
of storing them?
I don't know if other consumers are starting to feel at all the same
way. Maybe it's just me.
- Tom
Olivier Houot wrote:
> "Vudu, another purveyor of HD movies and TV programs over broadband, was
> recently acquired by Wal-Mart as the retail giant shifts its focus away
> from packaged DVD sales to downloads and streaming."
>
>
> I am always doubtful regarding this recurring view of the upcoming
> obsolescence of optical media due to broadband.
>
> Where are you supposed to keep all the valuable contents you have paid
> for? On hard disks ? Not a technology you can trust, in my opinion.
>
> For reliability , nothing can beat a substrate that retains information
> passively, with no electronics at all, just by virtue of small holes
> etched into a substrate. So the downloaded contents should logically end
> on optical disks, after all.
>
> Of course, for temporary rental of movies, i have no problem with the
> broadband option. But for movies you really want to own...Or any kind of
> family archives, for that matter.
>
> One recent french report dealing with reliability of consumer data
> medias recommended the way of the Century disc. Not the one from
> Mitsubishi, mind you. They appear to have stolen the name and applied it
> to a product that is clearly a joke in comparison to the original.
>
> The original was created by Digipress, now part of Plasmon OMS. One of
> the option is a disk of hardened glass with no metal at all, that can be
> read by a modified reader. Just as in Thomson's short-lived videodisc
> format of 1980, they have also studied the possibility of having data on
> both sides and reading either one by just refocusing the laser through
> the transparent substrate.
>
> I don't think the product is in great shape commercially right now, but
> at least the technology exists. And you can imagine how long such a
> recording could last physically (logical obsolescence is another
> matter).
>
>
>
>
>
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