Steve Jobs - Blu-ray has won the format war but again who cares

[Zeus]

Speaking to CNBC's Jim Goldman, Steve Jobs admitted that clearly Blu-ray has won the format war and trounced over its HD-DVD rival. But like Bill Gates and other executives, Jobs remarked that in the new world order of instant online movie rentals, no one will care about what format is where as technology can move so fast.



Also, don't underestimate the power of the new iTunes movie rental service either. I asked Jobs whether this meant the format war between Blu-ray and HD-DVD was over, with Apple the big winner. Clearly, he said, Blu-ray won, but in the new world order of instant online movie rentals, in HD, no one will care about what format is where. Funny how fast tech can move.


News Source: <A href="http://www.cnbc.com/id/22673034" target="_blank">CNBC</a>

[felixm477]

lets see Steve,Bill, random other high profile execs all are aiming at downloads, i say bluray will have a year or so in the spotlight before downloads are in everyones eyes.

[Salmon-Face]

Are my parents, people who love films but don't use computers, ever going to buy their films online?

I think NOT.

[slioslai]

yeah maybe Blu-ray won over HD-DVD. But thats mostly because the studios were bribed. But saying your download solution is better than both of them is nuts. Physical media is not dead. I can watch them how many times I want instead of your "you have 24 hours, then it's gone" approach.

[KuCo87]

Yeah ofc...I guess he would have said something else if HDDVD had won...

[Kwastie]

but apple supports Blu-Ray.. they even considering putting it in the new MacBook Pro and as Extentsion for the new Macbook Air:confused:

[Raist3d]

yeah maybe Blu-ray won over HD-DVD. But thats mostly because the studios were bribed. But saying your download solution is better than both of them is nuts. Physical media is not dead. I can watch them how many times I want instead of your "you have 24 hours, then it's gone" approach.

Studios were bribed? According to who? And HD DVD never bribed them either? (think think Paramount/Dreamworks).

- Raist

[cokemusic1]

lets see Steve,Bill, random other high profile execs all are aiming at downloads, i say bluray will have a year or so in the spotlight before downloads are in everyones eyes.

I'd say that your incorrect , digital downloads are 3-7 years away from acheiving any significant success , they deffinetley won't be troubling the phsical media market for a long time.

Even when/if digitial downloads take over , ther'd still be a huge market for physical media , I for one would prefer to see and feel the movies,games I buy as opposed to storing them on a hard drive.

[lokii]

With the way DRM is done these days who would want just digital downloads.

I much prefer something physical for my money, i dont think blu ray has anything to worry about from digital dloads for a long time yet.

[totaleclipse_05]

All talk.

Digital downloads still have a LONG time before they become mainstream.

[alkalinetrio]

digital downloads. what a load of bull.

People will always prefer a tangible format. Digital downloads have been here for years. It's called piracy. Why would you pay for movies and music to download, when you can download them already for free.

If i buy a movie or game i like to own the disc. That way when i've finished, you can sell it, lend it, take it round a mates house etc. Digital downloads are going a to be a DRM nightmare coming from the makers of Vista (we all know how they tried going about that... enforcing DRM upon us, spying on us, and even worse stop your system functioning properly if you didn't pay for their licenses!

Digital Downloading is the biggest load of rubbish ever!!!!

[starter15]

i dont know about you guys, but my internet provider only allows me 20gb download and 5gb upload a month. Therefore, I will not be downloading any HD media. Much rather own it on BluRay

[Rockman_Joey]

With the way DRM is done these days who would want just digital downloads.

I much prefer something physical for my money, i dont think blu ray has anything to worry about from digital dloads for a long time yet.

I prefer it too. Though I have 170+ Physical Games I have bought for PSone, PS2, PS3, NDS, PSP, PC, Xbox 360, GBA, Sega Saturn, Mega CD and Dreamcast, I like the fact I can get them on physical form. It is because with digital downloads I can either lose the data to a virus, get corrupted etc whilst with Blu Ray having a protective layer, it keeps physical data lasting ages in great condition.

[ace741]

These guys are on crack. Movie downloads going to take over? Yeah right. I'm curious as to how they are going to deliver HD movies over the average joes internet connection. A ripped HD movie is what, at least 9 Gigs? Granted my internet connection is 6Mbps, but it will still take me 4-5 hours to download that. They must have to do some serious compression to say a consumer can watch a movie 30 seconds after they start the movie. And while this movie is being downloaded, that means the home network is going to be pegged and regular surfing on the web is going to be unbareable.

[nwo504]

lol@digital downloads.



Most people download movies already.(for free)

[removes stains]

My broadband states that its 5mbps but you know the cable company never allows that.

God internet is slow in this country. America sucks

Yup Steve your right it is funny how fast tech can move.

[cokemusic1]

lol@digital downloads.



Most people download movies already.(for free)

I'm not sure about everyone downloading movies for free lol but Digitial downloads could further open the floodgates for piracy , Music and Movies are on the decline in terms of profitablity and Digitial Downloads might be the last nail in the coffin.

[grd94533]

The only way movie downloads will ever really kick off is if all the movies industries start providing free internet. They would also need to provide a affordable media device that can store all the movies you buy. Even still I would rather have my collection on physical discs. The only thing that is going to kill Blu Ray now would be the HVD.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holographic_Versatile_Disc

[d_winchy]

cd sales have declined dramatically over the last ten years.
you all say you'd prefer a physical object, so i assume you all have all of your music on cds as opposed to a hard drive?

[Salmon-Face]

The only way movie downloads will ever really kick off is if all the movies industries start providing free internet. They would also need to provide a affordable media device that can store all the movies you buy. Even still I would rather have my collection on physical discs. The only thing that is going to kill Blu Ray now would be the HVD.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holographic_Versatile_Disc

"Holographic drives are projected to initially cost around US$15,000, and a single disc around US$120–180."

Ok so we thought Blu-Ray was initially expensive...

[Ravenheart]

cd sales have declined dramatically over the last ten years.
you all say you'd prefer a physical object, so i assume you all have all of your music on cds as opposed to a hard drive?
The CD is a dying format, not to say dead since there are still music CDs out there. But its one thing to store 20 mp3s (say 10MBs per song) and its quite another to store three 25GB movies (75GB total) isn't it?

[danight]

dvd has won the media war! But i am renting mr hancock off xbox live in a few hours :p. Its raining and im to lazy to goto the movie store and rent it.
Im really starting to like this DD stuff even though it is cheaper to rent a dvd (but then you gotta worry about late fees).

[panzival]

i dont know about you guys, but my internet provider only allows me 20gb download and 5gb upload a month. Therefore, I will not be downloading any HD media. Much rather own it on BluRay

Well I have no limit (And if i do, I've never hit that limit). But ya, no way they'll replace physical media. It would take like a week to download a blu-ray movie, plus once it is finished downloading, you only have 24 hours to watch it (Which is shorter then the time it took to download it).

[Reset]

why do people always assume digital downloads are gonna be through ur current internet connection. look at cable TV and SAT. they can send you high def video instantly. Think about on demand, then think if on demand was combined with a DVR like hardrive system to save ur content too. digital distribution is gonna be integrated with set top boxes in the future, not downloaded through ur PC (even though that will be one way as well). look at how microsoft is investing in IP tv, IPTV set top boxes with hard drive to store purchases is what microsoft is thinking. not downloading movies on the computer.

[danight]

Well I have no limit (And if i do, I've never hit that limit). But ya, no way they'll replace physical media. It would take like a week to download a blu-ray movie, plus once it is finished downloading, you only have 24 hours to watch it (Which is shorter then the time it took to download it).

On xbox live you dont have to wait for the movie to finish dl`ing. It has to dl like 10% then you can watch as you dl. You will be done dl`ing before you get to the end.

[panzival]

On xbox live you dont have to wait for the movie to finish dl`ing. It has to dl like 50% then you can watch as you dl. You will be done dl`ing before you get to the end.

I wasn't talking about PS3. But you can also start watching the movie anytime while it's downloading. Seriously go playing you Xbox (if you can). All you do is troll every single PS3 related post.


why do people always assume digital downloads are gonna be through ur current internet connection. look at cable TV and SAT. they can send you high def video instantly. Think about on demand, then think if on demand was combined with a DVR like hardrive system to save ur content too. digital distribution is gonna be integrated with set top boxes in the future, not downloaded through ur PC (even though that will be one way as well). look at how microsoft is investing in IP tv, IPTV set top boxes with hard drive to store purchases is what microsoft is thinking. not downloading movies on the computer.

Hard drives aren't big enough. I have a 500gb hardrive which can hold about 500 normal dvds. I don't know the size of blu-rays, but I know that there at least 10x larger then dvds. So that means 50 hd movies, instead of 500 sd movies. Digital downloads are the future, but not until internet speeds and hard drives get bigger.

[Reset]

true, not till hard drives are bigger. but that is not that far off. I can store 55 hours of HD video on my dish network DVR. so thats about 25 movies (actually more) on the hard drive at any time. digital downloads will most likeley use a method where everything you puchase is cataloged and can be redownloaded farley fast. and you keep what you want to watch at any moment on the hard drive.

[sigma8]

I think downloads will take over for rentals.. But not for ownership..

I think Steve is probably sharp enough to have perceived that, look at his original plans for selling movies, tv shows, and the like over iTunes.. It's been "ok", but he can't get all the studios on board for that due to too many conflicts of interest, also there are quality issues..

And even his "HD" content is only 720p, not 1080p. Downloadable media is going to have compromises. Although, right now there is poor "infrastructure" for HD downloads....AND bluray for that matter. Not enough bandwidth to go around, nor enough bluray players....heck, nor enough HDTVs.

[krawhitham]

500 million not only bought Sony a win for Blu-Ray but is also got Time Warner to test out a new pricing structure for internet customers

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080117/media_nm/timewarner_internet_dc

They are going to charge you based on how much you download, it will be hard for movies on demand to win if the user has to A) pay for the movie without having a physical copy and B) have to pay twice for the same product because of bandwidth fees

[modojojo]

Jobs Is good at what he does, but he's missing the mark with that statement. I don't see Apple Tv flying off the shelves at all. Everyone I know with ipod(and It's quite a few people)does not buy movies or video off of iTunes. They either rip there own dvd's or download Tv series for free. I know 8 people with 360's and live accts no one downloads movies or video.

[panzival]

true, not till hard drives are bigger. but that is not that far off. I can store 55 hours of HD video on my dish network DVR. so thats about 25 movies (actually more) on the hard drive at any time. digital downloads will most likeley use a method where everything you puchase is cataloged and can be redownloaded farley fast. and you keep what you want to watch at any moment on the hard drive.

Better idea, imo (if this would actually work, i'm not to sure if it would), is to stream the videos from servers, like the PS3 does with movies. This would give you instant access to you movies and no need to download. All that would be required is a internet connection.

[IJTF_Cinder]

When will these stupid fucks realize digital downloads WILL NOT FLY?

1: Hard drive space per GB is still too expensive, with drives not being large enough.

2: Internet speeds in the largest markets are pathetic and overpriced (See US, Canada and the majority of Europe)

3: Alot of people want PHYSICAL COPIES. Seriously, if my 1TB Hard Drive I keep all my movies on died, I'd be PISSED, even if I could download them all again at no cost.

4: Idiots like Gates and Jobs, want to force people to keep downloaded content on the machine it was provided to. They're already doing this in some manner with their hardware. DRM is GHEY.

Oh and Blu-Ray beating HD-DVD will never mean anything, DVD is still the best choice for oh so many reasons. You need to break the PC market with writable media to win, and who the hell would buy a 25GB BD-R for $25 when you can buy 25x4.7GB DVD-R for $10 for quality media? Nobody I know with the minute amount of brains it takes to burn a DVD.

[d_winchy]

The CD is a dying format, not to say dead since there are still music CDs out there. But its one thing to store 20 mp3s (say 10MBs per song) and its quite another to store three 25GB movies (75GB total) isn't it?

yeah, but i'm saying in ten years time it will probably be the same.
75gb isn't that huge, you could fit three of them onto one 80gb zune or an ipod.
hard drives are getting bigger and cheaper and compression is always getting better. and internet speeds are improving.

in ten years i wouldn't be surprised..

and who is to say they have to be HD? the majority of people don't own a hd tv. i do and i'd still be happy if i could download 4-8gb movies onto a hard drive.

[buddha]

Most people still should prefer physical media because its just more valuable .
I still can sell a movie disc after i dont want it anymore but cant sell my file on the hdd. By the way it looks good to have a movie collection in the shelf u can watch the cover and have something u can hold in ur hand :p

[madagoknee]

the only way i can see digital downloads beating physical media is if it finally becomes cheaper to own digital media.i just dont understand why companies dont charge cheaper for digital media when they cut costs due to no packaging ,recordable media, etc.As it stands now I can buy a digital download off of itunes that will look good on my ipod but like crap on my tv or I can get a physical disc and rip it for play on a portable media player should I choose to. With physcial media you have more choices....only one i see winning with digital distribution are the cable companies since so extra hardware is needed

[grd94533]

IHard drives aren't big enough. I have a 500gb hardrive which can hold about 500 normal dvds. I don't know the size of blu-rays, but I know that there at least 10x larger then dvds. So that means 50 hd movies, instead of 500 sd movies. Digital downloads are the future, but not until internet speeds and hard drives get bigger.

500GB will not hold 500 DVDs unless DVDs were only 1GB each. DVD has 4.7GB and 8.5GB for dual layer so it's more like 106 movies for Single Layer and 58 movies Dual Layer. HD DVD and Blu Ray would only be about 10 movies. This is what I have stored on my hard drive so far

BLOOD DIAMOND 22.6GB
DANTE'S PEAK 22.3
DRAGON HEART 20.2
KING KONG 27.4
POSEIDON 18.3
THE MATRIX 24.1
TRANSFORMERS 26.0
DIE HARD 34.9

TOTAL 194.9GB

Now unless you're talking about xvid or something then you could but it would be a compressed format and not nearly as good. I also have these movies in .avi format and they only take up a total of 6.3GB. But no way would I own them in that quality, and no way I'm going to download 194.9GB worth of data.

[panzival]

500GB will not hold 500 DVDs unless DVDs were only 1GB each. DVD has 4.7GB and 8.5GB for dual layer so it's more like 106 movies for Single Layer and 58 movies Dual Layer. HD DVD and Blu Ray would only be about 10 movies. This is what I have stored on my hard drive so far

BLOOD DIAMOND 22.6GB
DANTE'S PEAK 22.3
DRAGON HEART 20.2
KING KONG 27.4
POSEIDON 18.3
THE MATRIX 24.1
TRANSFORMERS 26.0
DIE HARD 34.9

TOTAL 194.9GB

Now unless you're talking about xvid or something then you could but it would be a compressed format and not nearly as good. I also have these movies in .avi format and they only take up a total of 6.3GB. But no way would I own them in that quality, and no way I'm going to download 194.9GB worth of data.

Actually yes, I was talking about Xvid/Divx. Although I had no idea about the HD movies, just guessed. So far I have 12 movies and they take a total of 8.39 gbs. BTW, I'm guessing all those features take up the rest of the gbs on a dvd as my movies are dvd quality.

[mjg562]

digital downloading for music is a success but for movie (hd quality), its totally bs.

before steve and bill say this crap on their mouth, how many people they think that has fast connection on U.S. not too many subscribe to fastest isp yet(eg: vz fios, t1-3, cable). i think this two geeks assume that us, consumers, has t3 connection in our house like them that can dl 2-4gb in 5-10 minutes. ( they think movie file size and music file size are the same, which can be dled for seconds.. LMAO)

the only way to make this digital downloading for movie success if only isp provider give us decent price for the fastest net connection. however, this reality wont come true unless isp give us cheap connection but blazing fast internet connection to dl movies from apple or m$ that are gb(s). to make this short, unless majority of people only have average dl speed, they will much prefer buying a 1-5 physical media on store for 10 mins than dl a damn digital movie which can take them hours to dl one movie only.

anyway, this news make me laugh.:D

[sens8]

Has anyone heard of RatDVD? Pffft!
ratDVD takes a full featured DVD movie and puts it into a highly compressed .ratDVD container format file - while preserving all the features of the original DVD. To under 2GB usually around 1GB. :)
The developer claims he has developed his own patents free codec (unlike XviD, H.264 etc.) to do the DVD shrinking. No quality lost.

[felixm477]

Are my parents, people who love films but don't use computers, ever going to buy their films online?

I think NOT.

parents dont really get counted when you talk about the "future" its usually what kids,teens,and "tweenies" go for. besides i dont know a household that doesnt own a pc.

[hughhowey]

Digital Downloads will never dominante. People want a sense of ownership, and unless you have a few terabytes of HD space, you won't own these movies for long.

What will eventually replace optical discs is streaming content. Which will require faster internet connections over the "last mile", and a good DRM technology.

Imagine that all the movies you "own" are stored on servers by the media company of your choice. When you purchase a movie, or music, nothing moves anywhere. It stays on their servers, where the data is safe. And you can access it from anywhere in the world. One password brings up your profile on your TV, your cell-phone, your computer, your console, your car, everything. And at any moment you can scroll through all the movies, music, books, comics, TV shows, etc... that you own, choose one, and it starts streaming immediately to you.

Production costs would be low enough that the "rights" to ownership for a movies could be $3-$5, and you would own it for life. There could be recommendation programs and review systems. An entire community around your likes and dislikes. THIS is the future.


What Gates and Jobs have done so far is laughable. WMP is the worst media program I have ever seen. Nothing about it is above average. Codec support is pathetic. And Media Center is worse than the free competitors out there.

And iTunes is crap. Locked into a single store, with bad codec support, and horrible DRM. I would never be caught dead with an iPod or using iTunes. So these two guys can't talk about what the "future" is. Their visions of the future naturally include them raping you guys and taking your money. My idea is that the producers of the media (artists, writers, directors, actors, and the little guys), will find a way (Internets) to give us, the consumers, complete choice, freedom and value. And then we can put the peddlers out of business for good and stop the long process of getting rich for doing almost nothing.


(full disclosure: I am a capitalist, and support profits, but any capitalist should put efficiency above all else, and middle-men are wasteful when not needed)

[felixm477]

cd sales have declined dramatically over the last ten years.
you all say you'd prefer a physical object, so i assume you all have all of your music on cds as opposed to a hard drive?

i think Steve is in his right to claim this, look at itunes everyone and their mother knows about it, its sales are big despite the drm'ing and everyone owns an ipod and i seriously doubt everyone sits there and rips their entire cd collection to the ipod. I work 9-5 every day and i dont have time to be running to a music store or filling out credit card and shipping information when i want something i load up itunes and click a button and my song is there or my movie. people seem to be underestimating the power of lazyness. sure everyone wants to own a hard copy but the perk of sitting at home doing nothing outweighs even that, and who wants to own a copy when your just going to watch a movie 1 or 2 times or if you hate the movie guess what your out $20-30 and now have a coaster. most broadband provideres are expected to roll out 10x the speed have now withing 08 so things will soon change, given 2 years or so i think broadband will be fast enough for movie downloads so bluray will have 2 years or so in the limelight.

[sens8]

Yeah I was really pissed that I only have 24hrs to watch the movie I rented from itunes..So I took actions into my own hands...its passed 24hrs now its been 48hrs..and its still viewable. :) Freak & movie erases from either your itunes, or if you have it on your iphone or ipod. PFFT! If they gave me 3 days. I would not been as pissed.

[felixm477]

I wasn't talking about PS3. But you can also start watching the movie anytime while it's downloading. Seriously go playing you Xbox (if you can). All you do is troll every single PS3 related post.



Hard drives aren't big enough. I have a 500gb hardrive which can hold about 500 normal dvds. I don't know the size of blu-rays, but I know that there at least 10x larger then dvds. So that means 50 hd movies, instead of 500 sd movies. Digital downloads are the future, but not until internet speeds and hard drives get bigger.

i dont see how your post was ps3 enough to make him pick yours out, if anything all u mentioned was 24 hours to delete a movie download and that sounds more like live which is probably why he mentioned its "stream while you download" feature netflix also does this i believe. as for bluray movies keep in mind they are as uncompressed as possible and also carry extra content. ive seen avi files with various compression do HD on a full move at no more than 1-2 gigs and they look just as good. just because a bluray disc is 50gigs doesnt mean everything on it is 50gigs. also as mentioned earlier keep in mind everyone aposing this is talking about what we have NOW when downloads 2 or 3 years from now will be using hardware that isnt even invented yet and internet speeds will be much different. technology develops faster and faster by the day.

[kmoed]

When will these stupid fucks realize digital downloads WILL NOT FLY?

1: Hard drive space per GB is still too expensive, with drives not being large enough.

2: Internet speeds in the largest markets are pathetic and overpriced (See US, Canada and the majority of Europe)

3: Alot of people want PHYSICAL COPIES. Seriously, if my 1TB Hard Drive I keep all my movies on died, I'd be PISSED, even if I could download them all again at no cost.

4: Idiots like Gates and Jobs, want to force people to keep downloaded content on the machine it was provided to. They're already doing this in some manner with their hardware. DRM is GHEY.

Oh and Blu-Ray beating HD-DVD will never mean anything, DVD is still the best choice for oh so many reasons. You need to break the PC market with writable media to win, and who the hell would buy a 25GB BD-R for $25 when you can buy 25x4.7GB DVD-R for $10 for quality media? Nobody I know with the minute amount of brains it takes to burn a DVD.

Blue Ray's already dead.

Itunes and music have already shown the industry what they can do with digital content, It's only just begun at this point but it wont take long to develop, There will be more then Apple and MS provided HD content and there will be services that offer content to downloaded that you will OWN.

It's just a matter of time, but as we all know technology does not take 10-15 years any more to come to fruition. 2- 3 years max, we will also see HD content go beyond 1080p resolutions within this time, which is another reason physical media will never last, it cant evolve fast enough.

[borbeatss]

Studios were bribed? According to who? And HD DVD never bribed them either? (think think Paramount/Dreamworks).

- Raist

They were bribed man, Blue-Ray had NOTHING better on HD-DVD, cept MAYBE a bit of sound. Sony and Panasonic bribed the **** out of people. How else would they get people to jump on board? Because they have a superior product? I think not.

[mjg562]

They were bribed man, Blue-Ray had NOTHING better on HD-DVD, cept MAYBE a bit of sound. Sony and Panasonic bribed the **** out of people. How else would they get people to jump on board? Because they have a superior product? I think not.

lmao. dude both party, hd dvd and bluray, bribed film companies. :cool: so you cant say hd dvd did not. theres a so obvious news about hddvd camp bribed one major company to get in their side. this is business you got to bribe to be on top.

anyway, this format war should now end because consumers are the ones suffering from this shts. consumer cant decide which one to stick with... hd dvd or blueray player.

[MicroNut]

Its an apple and oranges comparison.
They wont necessarily compete with each other.
Removable or static media compliments the idea of down loadable content.
One certainly does not trump the other.
Sore losers just trying to spread the FUD

[izz]

Its an apple and oranges comparison.
They wont necessarily compete with each other.
Removable or static media compliments the idea of down loadable content.
One certainly does not trump the other.
Sore losers just trying to spread the FUD

are you sure? itune is killing cd sales. same idea applies to bd.. physical medium will be replaced by downloadable contents.. the question is how soon will that happen.

[MicroNut]

are you sure? itune is killing cd sales. same idea applies to bd..
Music and Movies
Apples and Oranges
MP3 killed the CD (Poor marketing just helped)

physical medium will be replaced by downloadable contents.. the question is how soon will that happen.

No, it wont and not for a long time.

They are two completely different distribution channels.
They will exists side by side and compliment the other.

Like DVD "maybe" Blu-Ray will be the next static media standard for the next 15 years or so.
Don't need the internet to watch a HD movie when its on disk.
But it, own it, sell it, take it anywhere.

Down loadable HD content will take time... literally.
Use it when you don't want to own the disc.
Requires the internet wherever you are.
Needs blazingly fast network access: Internet2 or something similarly fast maybe like FiOS.
or Hope that Comcast really does have speed to spare.

[Scorpion3]

Are my parents, people who love films but don't use computers, ever going to buy their films online?

I think NOT.

And you believe that your parents will shell out 400 bucks for a BD player? lol. Your logic made sense, to an extent.

[Mikeyy]

lets see Steve,Bill, random other high profile execs all are aiming at downloads, i say bluray will have a year or so in the spotlight before downloads are in everyones eyes.

Why dont you google the bandwidth cap epidemic.

WHAT IF? Digital downloads means Im going to have to choose between games or movies, cant have both, because My familily is HUGE on movies, I own 3000+ dvds, My Bandwith would be gone..

What if? The future of digital downloads doesnt make me smile when corperate greed always wins.

You need to think of that.

[hjason]

did any of you see CES on g4?

comcast has announced and demonstrated a new internet for digital downloading of hd movies.
it is the fastest internet around. it downloaded a hd movie in 2 and a half minutes.

it was spiderman 3.

so it is not impossible it is just not in every home.
and about the hard drive space has anyone heard of a 1tb hard drive?

well they are out and even bigger then that.

granted they are a little expensive still but they are out.

http://www.pricewatch.com/hard_removable_drives/sata_1tb.htm

http://www.pricewatch.com/hard_removable_drives/usb_2tb.htm

[Flipinnrthcount]

i dont know about you guys, but my internet provider only allows me 20gb download and 5gb upload a month. Therefore, I will not be downloading any HD media. Much rather own it on BluRay

I agree, well not specifically blu-ray but on a physical disk nonetheless. My ISP caps me at 40 gig down a month.