Archive for July, 2008:
400GB Blu-ray disc?
Long ago, before the HD-DVD and Blu-ray formats were even on the market, I predicted Blu-ray would be the eventual format winner. It seemed like a no-brainer as the Playstation 3 was going to ship with a Blu-ray drive. Those with long memories may recall that the Playstation 2 helped launch another disc format, the DVD. In fact, when DVDs first came out, rental chains such as Blockbuster stocked them in the video game aisle, as very few people had stand-alone players yet.
Now that Blu-ray is the clear format winner, there are still several hurdles before the format is actually profitable for Sony and their partners. For one thing, you need a high-definition TV to see any benefits from Blu-ray and not everyone has upgraded yet. Secondly, not everyone feels there’s enough improvement from DVDs to Blu-rays to justify the cost of upgrading their players and movie libraries. Third, Blu-ray is still competing with another high-def format that I think will eventually win in this new format war: high-def digital downloads.
With cable providers and video game consoles both offering on-demands high-def movies purchases and rentals at the click of a button, is the attraction of owning a physical disc enough to make Blu-ray a success? Will a generation trained on buying constant downloads such as ringtones and games for cell phones and other devices have a problem doing the same for their living room television?
I think in the short term, there is still a place for Blu-ray as a storage media if nothing else. 50 gigs of space on a single-layer disc and 100 gigs on a double-layer is nothing to sneeze at. Until 100 gig flash drives are $10 a pop, Blu-ray is a much cheaper format for storing massive amounts of data. Pioneer’s claim that they’ve created a 400GB, 16-layer, possibly Blu-ray compatible disc is even more promising. Downloads are great but people will always want to make backups of their data, and we seem to have more and more personal data every year as cameras, camcorders, and other digital devices become more and more affordable.
I have a Playstation 3 and so far I think I’ve spent more money downloading content from the PS3 store than on actual discs, although I have rented several Blu-rays from Blockbuster. As an old school video game collector, I never though I’d latch onto the download concept, as I love buying and trading actual physical games, and yet I’ve spent $100+ on game downloads for my Wii at $5-10 a pop. If a child of 80’s console gaming and colleting like myself can learn to appreciate game downloads, anyone can.
UK file pirates to face the music
It was announced today that British ISPs will begin sending out warning letters to their customers who share copyrighted files on the Internet. Besides the privacy concerns with this, it’s doubtful that it will stem the tide of online piracy. Pirates have always been about ten steps ahead of media companies when it comes to sharing copyrighted files.
Also, I believe the media companies are missing out on a huge opportunity when it comes to online file sharing. Most of what people trade online these days are TV shows, the most popular of which are recent (aired within the last 24 hours) shows. The networks would be better off creating their own torrents of these shows complete with commercials and seeding the episodes themselves. I think if there was a legal alternative for downloading a TV show you’ve missed for free, most bit torrent users would take advantage of it.
The other option would be streaming the shows with commercials as Hulu does. While many people prefer downloads at the moment, I think streaming on-demand content may actually be the future. I’d like to see a day when I can watch any TV show ever made, streaming over my cable or Internet connection onto my television on demand. Whether this will cost a flat monthly rate, a per download fee, or be free and advertiser supported is up to the market to decide.
Hopefully, the TV networks won’t make the same mistake the music industry made and go after their core demographic with lawsuits and alienate them. There will always be pirates. You don’t eliminate piracy through lawsuits. You make it less attractive by providing easily attainable legal alternatives.
Jul 24 – Britain’s six biggest Internet providers have agreed a plan to send warning letters to those suspected of illegal file-sharing.
ISPs had previously argued they were mere conduits and not responsible for content.
But they agreed to the deal after the British government said it would impose legislation if they did not work to curb illegal file-sharing.
Reuters Technology Correspondent Matt Cowan reports.
Roadside America
Roadside America is a guide to offbeat tourist attractions, which you can search by attraction name, town, or state. Visitors to the site can add their own info and photos about local oddities. I was a bit disappointed to find that there are very few listings for the Indianapolis area and many of those are duplicates. We have a lot of weird and wacky places, people and things in Indiana, so if you know of some, please visit this site and add them.
