Blu-ray vs. 1080p Apple Downloads

[blairh]

Curious how others feel the new 1080p offerings from iTunes will compare to BD's with respect to PQ. I grew tired of renting BD's from Netflix and instead have been watching (and enjoying) HD movies from HBO and the like. Even if BD's still have the edge PQ-wise to what Apple now offers, will the gap be small enough where less people will care and people will opt for the convenience of digital downloads versus physical discs?

 

[Tyler2Tall]

Curious how others feel the new 1080p offerings from iTunes will compare to BD's with respect to PQ. I grew tired of renting BD's from Netflix and instead have been watching (and enjoying) HD movies from HBO and the like. Even if BD's still have the edge PQ-wise to what Apple now offers, will the gap be small enough where less people will care and people will opt for the convenience of digital downloads versus physical discs?

Digital Downloads will take over physicals discs until a few things happen. I think digital downloads as a supplement to Physical media is a great idea, not the digital platform isn't ready to take it over yet.

1. Bandwidth/Hard Drive size increase. The Bitrate on a Bluray disc is much higher then an iTunes Download
2. Price - I think this is a big one. Very rarely are digital downloads cheaper then physical releases. If someone is going to pay for something, wouldn't they rather have something physically?
3. Special Features - Digital downloads usually don't offer everything that is available on a bluray disc. (Commentaries, documentaries, trailers, etc.)

 

[blairh]

I'm not sure if owning something physically is all that important moving forward. We've proven already that most consumers are more than happy to ditch their CD's for digital music files. Perhaps we will do the same with movie files in the future.

The difference of course is that music files are smaller compared to say HD movie files.

I really truly think that the future of digital movie watching is going to take over any physical disc in at some point. Perhaps not any time soon, but definitely down the road.

 

[rayward]

The obstacle to cloud-based HD media is, as it always has been, bandwidth. Until enough customers with a pipe big enough to get a BD-quality movie shoved through it for near-instant viewing, hard media will still be the way most people go.