The Winner didn't Win
Blu-Ray may have beaten HD-DVD, but it's rapidly becoming obsolete itself:
On Monday, for example, the Korean television maker LG Electronics plans to announce a new line of high-definition televisions that connect directly to the Internet with no set-top box required. The televisions will be able to play movies and television shows from online video-on-demand services, including Netflix.
My friend Mike was showing me the streaming capabilities of Netflix via his XBox the other day, and it looked pretty compelling. Why buy another player and a bunch of disks when you can just stream?
Comments
[Caligula] January 5, 2009 9:12:18.231
You're assuming both (a) always-on, and (b) can save.
Always-On...
[ James Robertson] January 5, 2009 10:14:51.462
Comment by James Robertson
I think Always-On is a pretty safe bet for any home based setup now. As to saving, not necessarily. I want to listen to music repeatedly; most movies I'm happy watching them once.
[Thierry] January 5, 2009 10:59:02.169
Around here the only choices are dialup, Satellite or Wireless Broadband. The two last ones are not that fast and have cap at 5gb/month.
I do not know the exact numbers for broadband penetration in (U.S.) rurual areas, but streaming is not going to be an option for a while here...
No 1080p = dead to me
[Dr. Kenneth Noisewater] January 5, 2009 13:17:34.833
Frankly, from what I've seen, online video is pants because: * no 1080p24 content yet AFAIK (iTunes and XBMarketplace are 720p) * streaming = sucks if you have flaky connections (COMCAST?!) * DRM = pain in the neck to migrate/upgrade (say if you get a new XBox or AppleTV) * the kicker: TOO EXPENSIVE (except possibly for netflix).. HD rentals should not be more than $2/day, SD no more than $1/day...