Seagate CEO Says Digital Distribution is the Wave of the Future

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On Blu-ray's meaningless victory over HD-DVD: "Blu-Ray versus HD: Well maybe Blu-Ray won, but it's a meaningless victory. ... Because guess what: People are going to download everything."

http://blog.wired.com/business/2008/01/wired-video-sea.html

I don't agree but we shall see.

Well, in a small way this is already happening if you consider the capabilities of TiVo and DVR recorders. I'm sure it will only get more vast in the future, but certainly not take away from the market of buying discs and players. It's just going to add a different choice, more than anything.

Of course this would be good news to him. The HDD industry stands to make alot of money from downloads.

I think going forward over the next few years, movie downloads to HD will definitely take a bite from conventional rentals if offered at a comparable price and quality.

I think people like having something in their hand when they spend $20 for media. Buying music online has gained a little more popularity, but people would still rather buy it on a cd and import the music when they feel like it. People just figure "hey I could download this music for free or I could pay money to do it..." Same goes for movies and I fear that its just going to promote piracy even more.

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I think going forward over the next few years, movie downloads to HD will definitely take a bite from conventional rentals if offered at a comparable price and quality.

I'd have to agree Hawk. Since Netflix has made a move in downstreaming movies direct (lame selection as of now but I'm sure it will get better), I can only assume they probably have plans for HD download rental. I think it would be a good move for a well known rental company (Netflix, Blockbuster, etc.) to jump on that bandwagon, mainly because it would be less confusion to the consumer and probably a very small extra fee, if any. I mean, do you want to pay a brand new rental download company an extra $30 a month or pay an extra few dollars on an account you already have? So, IMO, I'm hoping the current rental giants are considering the idea.

Its perfect for renting, however there could be some drawbacks for owning unless its like the xbox live service (there could be others. I've only ever bought tv shows and rented online through xbox live). Once you buy the movie you can download it over and over under the same account. That way if you or someone else accidentally deletes a movie or theres a power surge and your player dies you can still download your movies again.

[Post edited by Soapflake on Jan 29, 2008]

And plus perhaps the unprotected copyable version of movies will become the standard in the future on Blu-ray, like this:

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"In a high-def first, the 'Hitman' Blu-ray will also come with a bonus second DVD disc, which contains a standard-definition Digital Copy of the movie, enabling viewers to watch it on portable devices, such as a PC, iPod or iPhone."

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That way if you or someone else accidentally deletes a movie or theres a power surge and your player dies you can still download your movies again.

And that would suck royal because what if you had 200+ movies? The saving-the-day option would certainly have to be a backup, detachable storage drive, otherwise there'd be a crap load of weekends getting all that material back.

The issues makes me realize that direct downstream may be a better option. Imagine a place where every movie known to man was available in a library for you to pick from. Select what you want and watch it within seconds. No losing anything to worry about, just as long as the rental company stays in business for life.

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The issues makes me realize that direct downstream may be a better option. Imagine a place where every movie known to man was available in a library for you to pick from.

SWEET!

Tease!