If content distributors think they will start a digital download revolution with competing, propietary boxes they're nuts. I'm very likely to sit it out until the industry figures out a workable hardware/software standard. You'd think they'd learn something from the high-def DVD format wars, but you'd think wrong.
The only competition is between Vudu (HDX quality, best selection) and AppleTV (might sell more just because it doubles as a music player!). Blockbuster releasing a set-top box, how the hell could anyone take this seriously?
There's an open standard for digital downloads that works, is proven, integrates well with hard media, and has superb audio and video quality. It was built by a coalition of the industry with such heavyweights as Universal Pictures, Warner Bros, Disney, Microsoft, and others making it work.
Alas, Warner announced they weren't going to support it any more last January, and Toshiba - who thus far had made most of the players but had omitted most of the features necessary to make them work as STBs for the downloads side of the standard - pulled the plug in February.
Yes, I'm talking about HD DVD.
It's all fairly funny in many ways. Warner pulled support because, supposedly, it didn't want a "format war". Yet it pulled support in favor of the format that competed with - instead of embracing - online downloads. So we're stuck with a format war anyway.
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If content distributors think they will start a digital download revolution with competing, propietary boxes they're nuts. I'm very likely to sit it out until the industry figures out a workable hardware/software standard. You'd think they'd learn something from the high-def DVD format wars, but you'd think wrong.
The only competition is between Vudu (HDX quality, best selection) and AppleTV (might sell more just because it doubles as a music player!). Blockbuster releasing a set-top box, how the hell could anyone take this seriously?
streaming is not downloading
There's an open standard for digital downloads that works, is proven, integrates well with hard media, and has superb audio and video quality. It was built by a coalition of the industry with such heavyweights as Universal Pictures, Warner Bros, Disney, Microsoft, and others making it work.
Alas, Warner announced they weren't going to support it any more last January, and Toshiba - who thus far had made most of the players but had omitted most of the features necessary to make them work as STBs for the downloads side of the standard - pulled the plug in February.
Yes, I'm talking about HD DVD.
It's all fairly funny in many ways. Warner pulled support because, supposedly, it didn't want a "format war". Yet it pulled support in favor of the format that competed with - instead of embracing - online downloads. So we're stuck with a format war anyway.