@wiistation

because back then storage connection speed and other element were an issue... today they are not in most cases... so the VOD offer starts to be more interesting than actually buy a blu ray...... and you are naming netflix.... they have a VOD offer so if it wasn't a interesting support I doubt they would develop it..... don't forget that it is interesting for the company itself in that... they don't need to ship anything... they don't risk to have damage disc lost or stolen goods etc....


@dragonlord

you are fulling yourself... you'll never equal the quality of a direct download of information in perfect condition from an HDD to another HDD with an optical disc like a DVD or a blu ray disc.... that's complete heresy

Well that's good to hear, but it's only a first step.

For me personally, I decided long ago to skip the entire Blu-ray/HD DVD thing and wait for HD downloads. I can use dvds for another 5 years if need be.

How long is it going to be before Blu Ray has a chance to overtake DVD? Three, or four years maybe? It will be quite some time. By then, all these issues with movie downloads that you guys are talking about should be taken care of. It is very likely that downloads will be viable competition by the time that Blu Ray is about ready to really take off.

""VOD is the future everybody knows that.... and 50 mbps is not a dream come on... I hope having full optical connection in my city in france by the end of 2010.... so if the french can do it... at least all the most important country on that market should be able to do it....""

==> not "if the french can do it"
but
"if I can do it"

and I say it to you :

it is not because YOU can do it that everybody can do it.

Lol, maybe true if it was possible, but it's not for now...so I'm not "fooling" myself. Tell me where I can download true, uncompressed 1080p resolution movies and download 7.1 dolby uncompressed audio?

It's not available yet, so yes, I was right. Blu-ray is higher quality than downloads for the forseeable future.

And for those that think that a TB is large enough storage...think again. Hell, I'd have 20 damn 1TB hard drives filled by the end of this year! Screw that.

720p doesn't look as good as 1080p on a 60" tv. I can tell a big difference...maybe people with tv's under 40"s can't...but I don't have any tv's that small in my house except for my kitchen.

endimion, how many of those downloaded movies are actually legit movies? As far as I know, almost every movie download service is a rental, not a purchase.

I've said it in other forums, and I'll say it here. VOD will replace Blockbuster. But it won't replace physical media, at least not for a long time. Even if broadband speeds aren't an issue, there are still tons of people who want to purchase physical media. It gives a much better sense of ownership.

Too much fanboy in here. Look at Itunes as a model. It is put a serious dent in physical media sales for music. Period. No matter how you look at it, the days of walking into a music store for a CD are numbered as pretty much every home PC sold these days has at least a CD burner if not a DVD burner.

Video will follow. Soon. As long as I can download a movie to watch and keep it long enough to go back to it if I want -- say a couple of weeks or so -- I'll be interested in D/L the movie. If I want to keep it, I want the option to burn it and keep it. That, of course, will require some DRM facility...

As mentioned above, this thread isn't about MS. The 360 isn't capable of beating blu-ray on it's own. Media Center (or similar media management software), plus high-speed internet, plus available content do have the ability to kill or seriously dent the growth of HD physical media sales. Those that don't believe this is in the very near term are delusional.

Not today.  But HDTV's are pretty much the only thing you can purchase going forward.  See my grandma's 1987 TV has to stop working sometime :).  And when Blu Ray players drop below $100 I can absolutely see my family giving our grandma one as a gift. 

 My dad can still only get dial up or nothing in his area.  And with the recession money is fast drying up at the governmental level to upgrade our network to the point where 15-30 min HD downloads can occur.  I'm sure some places have it, I'm just saying it will be more than 5 years till that will be the norm.

 What's more likely, your grandma purchasinging an HDTV with Blu-Ray player.. or your grandma purchasing HDTV with Highspeed internet that she can then download a HD movie onto her whatever box and then stream the rest live to hear TV?