sweet its good to see that 1080p on demand is finally available

its nice but, i don't really think it's true 1080p when i looked at it very carefully. but who cares..

I checked thru the first 5 pages of this thread, so forgive me if this has not been mentioned.

This is with surround sound, right? Well there's surround sound as in Dolby Digital and DTS, and there's surround sound as in True HD DD and HD DTS and Lossless sound codecs. Big difference. Not only do these sound codecs sound much better, assuming you have a modern amp, but I am pretty sure they are HDMI 1.3a or higher dependent. 360's have HDMI 1.2 so you will be restricted to DVD quality sound.

Also, much has been discussed about the bitrate already. Suffice to say, the modern codecs on Blu-ray like H.264 and VC-1 (an MS made codec) are pretty well pushing the limits of compression. VC-1 is better for more compressed bit-rates. H.264 at a high bit rate is meant to look better. Of course, they are variable.

At the end of the day, the higher the bit-rate, the better the quality, especially in fast moving scenes. VOD will not deliver BD quality for years but for your average Joe, they see the marketing, "HD" and assume. A bit like high megapixels marketing when it comes to Digi cameras. Compare an SLR pic at 4mp to a point and shoot at 12mp, and I bet you the SLR will kill it. Why? one, compression, two - optics.

If you are pedantic about quality, stick to BD. If you are not and don't mind that model of DRM, then go VOD. Personally, I prefer to physical media and the quality :), but that's just me. I think VOD has it's place too.

Why is this the future? and why is this new?

As you said before, there's a case of "see once or twice and forget" consumption where the digital distribution quality is just good enough and the convenience makes up for its deficits. That's also the case for porno consumption, I suspect.

This is not the whole market for movies though. I could accept to see, say, Tropic Thunder at a lower quality or needing a cumbersome download because I would only watch it once. But I want the best picture and sound quality I can get when I watch "2001, a space odissey" or "Blade Runner" or "Dark City" because I will watch them again and again, rewatch particular scenes with the lights off and the sound system well tuned, whip them out to discuss something with friends at any time.

I think we'll see the two kinds of digital format work in parallel, aligned with the two types of fruition, and not an integral replacement.

LOL, I think the Porn industry likes to use the "angles" feature to max effect. Something probably better suited to BD and it's on the fly authoring capability. J.

Whether it'll be far from Bluray quality (1080p is not everything), or it will take ages to download and take a lot of space on hard drives.

In both case, bluray still has a bright future ahead.

I never buy movies I only rent, so this is ideal when I want to watch something in HD now. (I don't even have to go out and rent it)...

This is my logic, and you'll find it too perfect to counter.

Uncharted 2 looks OMFG awesomez!!!!

Uncharted 2 IQ is lower than VOD services.

Therefore VOD is OMFG awesomez!!!!!!

bluray res is still much better, 360 only upconverts to 1080p, there is a hugh difference in actual 1080p, so dont get me wrong they will still look good, about how hd looks on comcast, direct tv, dish network, they are 720p and 1080i, if you are use to watching real bluray movies at real time 1080p you will be disapointed. the ps3 you can buy and rent hd movies for a long time now, they also have bluray to, ps3 will give you real time 1080p.