HD in the Clouds: A Streaming State of the Union

[Attebery]

HD in the Clouds: A Streaming State of the Union:
http://www.highdefdigest.com/news/sh...the_Union/7126

[Attebery]

As a lifelong movie collector, I'm curious to see the discussion on this topic. My doubts about these options ever fully replacing media-based formats have always come from the following questions:

1.) What about folks who don't want to pay every time they want to watch a movie, but want to be sure it is ALWAYS available when they want to watch it? Anybody remember DIVX? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_Video_Express

2.) What about people like my father, who likes to collect movies, but lives on a farm in the middle of Oklahoma, where he'll probably never be able to get high speed internet? BD Live causes him enough grief already.

Do you think people will ever fully abandon tangible media? Will this remain a situation where there are two complementary ways of watching and owning movies?

[nmcmahan52]

i just don't think it's realistic that streaming will completely take over, the dips in quality i get all the time no matter what device i'm watching on (ps3, 360, roku) make physical media still #1 in my mind

bad thing is, a lot of people don't care, they'll just pay their $8 for netflix and not worry about quality of the stream, convenience is key to them, that being said i watch a ton of stuff through netflix/hulu just for that convenience factor but i still prefer a bd

[pim69]

A couple of thoughts on this:

1. All of these products are severely crippled in Canada due to licensing red tape and the CRTC sticking their nose in and killing our options for entertainment. There is just not enough content for those products available here to be useful in the slightest right now.

2. ISPs (which are also Television providers) know of the potential competition from streaming sources, so have implemented widespread bandwidth caps, with severe penalties for going over your monthly maximum bandwidth (up to $50), and the cap is very unreasonable unless you are paying $100+ monthly with most ISPs. I don't understand how this is not monopolistic behaviour, when in most cities there is only one cable provider, and one phone company, whose internet infrastructure was partially subsidized by the government to be established. Even if there were some great products out there with low-compression 1080p HD audio streams, nobody could afford to use them here.

I don't understand how everyone is convinced that HD streaming is the future, when so many companies are actively suppressing it. It's an obvious potentially great direction to go, with benefits of ease of use, not worrying about backup of data or personal storage space, and fast access to new content. The problem is, half of the industry is pushing it, while the other half is trying to force you not to use it (or pay insane amounts).

[shadowkt]

I use Netflix a majority of the time for older content. The surprisingly broad selection of HD content makes it a welcome alternative to cable TV. I also use hulu plus for newer broadcast shows, although I wish they could get CBS on board. I've been using Vudu for newer releases mainly because of coupons included with blu rays I've purchased at Walmart.

I do remember DIVX. I remember the salesman at Circuit City trying to sell me on the benefits of the format. By the time he ended his sales pitch even he seemed to know format was doomed. Another format I recall was the time sensitive DVDs that literally couldn't be played after 48 hours. Circle K used to sell them. I never purchased one myself because at $4.99 it seemed like both a rip off and another piece of plastic that would end up in a landfill.

I have really embraced streaming. But I'm still a collector at heart. I like having a hard copy that solely belongs to me. I like knowing that when I'm playing a disc that I won't have to worry about bandwidth issues.

[mojo16]

A few initial thoughts (great article, by the way!).

Despite what some others have said in this thread already, streaming IS the future. The dominant mechanism for content delivery of digital media will be streaming from "the cloud" for all kinds of things - movies, shows, music, photos, radio. The caveat is that we're nowhere near having streaming completely supplant physical media (nor should we be). As another poster mentioned, convenience is king but it's also not everything. Quality is also important as evidenced by the slow adoption rate of streaming. Companies like Netflix and Vudu constantly have to improve, adapt, and retain a competitive advantage, which has resulted in benefits in quality and selection to the end consumer.

Streaming quality will also continue to increase as Internet speeds become faster and more accessible. When we can all have affordable access to 100 mb/s speeds, our options and quality thereof will obviously be much better. As the Canadian reviewer mentioned, access needs to be improved especially in places outside the US, Europe, and Japan. However, there will always be a place for physical media for various reasons, not the least of which is the psychological gratification of feeling like you really own something when it's tangible.

The author also raised an interesting question - what about folks who don't want to pay for a movie every time they watch a movie, but want to be sure it's always available? I've wondered about that myself. I think it would be great if there was some kind of analogous service to the storage lockers we're seeing for music (and other types of files) becoming popular right now. Think Google Music, Amazon Cloud Drive/Player, iCloud, etc. Wouldn't it be great if you could burn your Blu-rays or DVDs and upload/match them to storage space you can lease or purchase from Google or Amazon?

[Palmer]

Great thoughts guys. Also, I'm sorry to hear about how expensive it is in Canada.

I know most of the HDD readers are collectors and the sense of ownership is really about having a thing, but I think that 'physical object required' for ownership is more of a 20th century (and older) philosophy. For example, MP3s appeared (as did free Napster) when I was in college, thanks to the increased availability of broadband internet (and ever increasing hard drive space) in the late 90s. Now, there's an entire generation of teenagers and soon-to-be teens who have never purchased a CD (aka, the physical copy of music). Or look at email... the most reliable email I've ever had is GMail, b/c it's not on my computer (and save for a few screw ups on their end recently) can't get deleted if my hard drive crashes...and can be accessed anywhere, etc.

Obivously, HD video / uncompressed audio requires MUCH more bandwidth -- so much so that it's limited to physical media in its purest consumer and professional applications -- than music, but the question here about streaming isn't IF, but rather WHEN...

How long will it take before everyone can buy a piece of content one time (or rent it, or sign up for a subscription service akin to your cable company or Netflix or Hulu), and then watch it whenever or where ever they want? It's possible this will never happen, but unlikely, given the seeds of the this growing technology, as seen in the currently available services.

I think the big mystery is who will be providing access to the content...will it be the cable and phono companies...the content creators themselves...will Canadian broadband ever become affordable...?

Heck, we might not even call it "Streaming" or "Digital Downloads" as this technology evolves (how long did people call records "gramophones"?). Who really knows.

I sure am glad that we have Blu-ray right now, though personally I'd much rather not have shelves and shelves of movies overflowing in my living room...I'd rather just press a few buttons, wave my hand, and have BD-quality (or better!) HD instantly start playing.

[CaptainArcher]

All of that aside, Blu-ray won't be king forever. Gone are the days where the masses would migrate from one format to the next (VHS to Laserdics to DVD to Blu-ray); we live in a world where platform and format are secondary to Content.

The masses migrated to Laserdisc? Also, the masses aren't migrating to Blu Ray from DVD because functionally they are too similar.

[Bouncy X]

8 hours for an HD download on PS3? daaaamn. i am very surprised. i've never done HD, always download SD from them and it only takes 20-30mins to download a full movie, often less, so i'm shocked at the big difference in time between formats.

i also use netflix a lot (again, only SD) and i gotta say i'm pretty impressed with the quality. its oviously not 100% perfect but its near dvd quality. the writer did mention the tv size might be an issue, i have a 47inch tv so i imagine they meant HUGE tvs or projectors.

as for the whole streaming vs. physical copy argument....i'll always prefer physical, i only use streaming to rent movies, i'd never buy any that way. i just rent them and if i like it enough, i then buy the blu-ray. sure shelf space does become an issue but i just prefer owning the actual thing plus its not like i have 1000s of movies like some people. i'm pretty picky with what i buy. lol

and i'm in Canada as well so yes, the cap issue with providers is annoying. but i gotta say that even with my 60GB a month cap for my speed, its more than enough. i can easily watch 20-30 movies a month or more if i chose to. now of course, i'm not a big downloader for music or anything. my internet connection is only used for browsing and the the times i download xbox/ps3 extra content. i dont game online either. so i do have more GB to spare you can say. lol

but yes, the cap thing is definately stupid. my provider does let you monitor your bandwith usage so thats nice of them. but i can imagine how many less tech savvy people dont know about any of that and started downloading like crazy once netflix arrived here only to get their first bill after.....damn. lol

[Palmer]

All of that aside, Blu-ray won't be king forever. Gone are the days where the masses would migrate from one format to the next (VHS to Laserdics to DVD to Blu-ray); we live in a world where platform and format are secondary to Content.

The masses migrated to Laserdisc? Also, the masses aren't migrating to Blu Ray from DVD because functionally they are too similar.

I misspoke about Laserdisc...in an early draft, I was attempting to cobble together a sentence more about dueling formats, which included mention of betamax, laserdisc, and HD-DVD, and mistakenly left in Laserdisc when revising.

And of course the masses are turning to Blu-ray. We hit a 26% adoption rate late last year, which is officially the beginning of mass market appeal (according to those who measure such things), and it's only going to continue as more HDTVs sell and BD player prices drop.

[Attebery]

I misspoke about Laserdisc...in an early draft, I was attempting to cobble together a sentence more about dueling formats, which included mention of betamax, laserdisc, and HD-DVD, and mistakenly left in Laserdisc when revising.

And of course the masses are turning to Blu-ray. We hit a 26% adoption rate late last year, which is officially the beginning of mass market appeal (according to those who measure such things), and it's only going to continue as more HDTVs sell and BD player prices drop.

I actually added Laserdisc while I was editing Palmer's article.

The masses didn't migrate, but I'll tell ya what, I had a nice long run in high school where I used Laserdisc and realized VHS was utter crap.

[Attebery]

Anyone here ever downloaded a Kindle book, only to have it disappear when something came up over copyright or licensing? That's what I fear will happen with any movie if I don't have a physical copy. Call me irrational or old, but I just can't get that out of my head until a system comes along that totally reassures me that my movies will never disappear or be censored and they'll always be on hand without requiring a fee each time i want to watch a scene. A recent massive iTunes library failure also convinced me a month or so ago to get my albums as $10 CDs whenever possible, so if the library and the backup library fail, I still have my good old discs to fall back on. I guess the year or so age difference between me and Palmer has locked me into an old man way of thinking.

[jmerr]

I currently just do physical media, no streaming for me. I have a DVR to capture favorite shows, and have lots of Blu-rays I haven't even watched yet and probably won't stream until I do.

[Palmer]

I actually added Laserdisc while I was editing Palmer's article.

The masses didn't migrate, but I'll tell ya what, I had a nice long run in high school where I used Laserdisc and realized VHS was utter crap.

Hahaha.

Also, regarding your fears. Those are certainly credible fears, and I have them too... I backup relentlessly, and I still buy CDs, if only b/c iTunes encodes are crap and I like to have a better quality mp3 (though obviously, audiophiles would cringe at me even using mp3).

There's always going to be a chance of loss (homes burn down too), but the future will be, perhaps, like Drop Box, if anyone's ever used that. Basically, it's a service where it syncs up your computer files on every device you own, and keeps a copy online. So, if i write a document on my laptop, there is a copy of it on my actual hard drive, another copy is instantly backed up on line (and every time you hit save), and whenever I start up my desktop or work computer, another copy is "pushed" to those devices.

Right now, my Drop Box account is limited to 2GB (and therefore, no media files) b/c I'm a cheap bastard, but I think this particular form of backup is fantastic. Because your files are everywhere....it's not just local...and not just streaming...a situation where, hopefully, the perfect storm of all your computers (DVRs, etc) and the online media dying at the same time. I'm excited to learn more about iCloud as well.

[jakeneff]

Since no one else has mentioned it yet, I'll switch gears to say I have and use MLB.tv on my PS3 (and occasionally PC). The quality is pretty good, especially for only $100 per year. Considering it's only 720P my only real complaint about the PQ are the fairly consistent artifacts, but it's definitely HD, and I'm not as picky about baseball resolution as I am my movies and TV shows. The interface is very nice -- lots of options (e.g. choice of video and audio feed, even radio synced w/ video) like simple game-to-game switching, a full calendar of games via which you can easily jump to an archived game. You can even automatically have the scores hidden if you start a game late.

It's easily worth the annual cost if you watch any amount of baseball other than what's on locally. I don't see it happening any time soon, but I would be overjoyed if the NBA and NFL created a similar PS3 app. I could finally get rid of DirecTV.