Blu Tide Continues to Turn: Porn Studios Ready to Abandon HD-DVD?

[Sir Terrence the Terrible]

lol




Agreed, but I am looking at the format war as being very long term as it will take years for a new standard to emerge. I don't expect usage limitations to be a long term issue - just take the recent trend towards non-DRM tracks on i-tunes... most likely the studios will just charge premiums for content without limitations....

This format war is pretty much through now. Before the end of the year all the studio will be selling movies on bluray disc. I can tell you right now and this is a fact. Paramount is going neutral SOONER than you think. Universal may not make a move until the fall, but Paramount has essentially gotten out of its exclusive clause with the Warner move.

You will not see MOVIE content without DRM for a long while. The studio are much too deep in a piracy mindset, that I believe the trend will be toward more DRM than less. Consider the fact that BR disc are locked down with already compromised AACS, uncracked BD+, and BD watermark. The studio are just too paranoid about releasing content unlock. Unlike music, the value of film has a very long life.

Right now Apple TV may only be a rental site for HD and hence just like VOD or PPV but I suspect they will move towards actual sales just as they do with music.

It will be quite a while before the sales of downloads becomes feasible. Unlike a disc, downloads cannot be transferred between devices even after it is sold. You can play a bluray disc on any bluray player. Secondly the business stinks right now, as Google, Walmart and another download business(cannot remember the name) have all closed or gone under trying to sell downloads. A feasible business model just is not there, especially as long as discs are being sold. Remember, the culture has been buy and own since the late nineties. It isn't going to change in two years. It is going to be a while before the average person is going to be comfortable paying for downloaded non physical files.

Also, Expiration dates are only for rentals, so it won't be an issue with purchased content...

Yes, but non portability will be an issue.

Seriously though, you should keep in mind one other factor when talking about storage - downloaded content is not limited to the apple tv unit... it has wireless access to your computer and network storage devices.... so you can add as much storage as you want... And in-line with my long term theme, storage becomes less of an issue each year as hard-drives get larger and cheaper....

This really is not where the culture is at. Survey after survey the Hollywood studios have conducted shows that the public is still attached to the disc for its convience. You pull it out of the case, put it into the player, and press play. The public is not ready to maintian alot of primary drives and backup drives to keep their collections managed. Putting a Bluray disc on a shelf is much more manageable to most folks at this moment. This will change in the future as young people(who use computers from birth) become adults and bring the culture shift with them. We are just not at that threshold just yet.

[Ajani]

..... Putting a Bluray disc on a shelf is much more manageable to most folks at this moment. This will change in the future as young people(who use computers from birth) become adults and bring the culture shift with them. We are just not at that threshold just yet.

Agreed.... I expect the sale of discs to continue for many years... but eventually downloads will win out...

Also.... I'm not sure how important Blu Ray conquering HD-DVD actually will be... I still see this war much like the SACD vs DVD-A war.... pretty much going nowhere... Both SACD and DVD-A have become niche market products and neither are likely to ever replace the redbook CD as the optical disc standard.... Even if Blu Ray totally annihilates HD-DVD this year, I doubt it will be able to overtake traditional DVDs as the new standard (not unless it manages to sell both players and discs at the exact same price as standard dvds)....