Let the hive mind of Engadget get that for you.
"As someone who doesn't reside in the USA, I was wondering what would be the best way to get internet for my computer in the US for a couple of weeks? If it were Europe I know I'd look for some prepaid data. Is there anything similar offered by American carriers? A MiFi or a data SIM that I can tether from would work, but I'm trying to maintain a tight budget. Help!"
Again, I just don't get it when a Blu-Ray Disc player has to resort to streaming video content from Netflix or BlockBuster?!?! Why, A Blu-Ray play on it's own just doesn't sell? I thought the whole point was to play high quality Video and Audio DISCS!!! Not stream much lower quality video and audio. Did DVD have to resort to these type of tactics? Next your going to see a Blu-Ray player with a VHS deck attached also. To me it just seems silly.
You know there *are* Blu-ray/VHS combo decks, right? ;-) http://www.engadgethd.com/2008/08/25/panasonic-intros-dmr-br360v-blu-ray-vhs-combo-player/
As for streaming, it is just a value-add. Same as with TiVo supporting download services and streaming. It gives you more flexibility. Personally I prefer Blu-ray for movies because I love the quality - video and audio. But from time to time I do download a video from Amazon VOD to my TiVo because it is cheap and/or an impulse thing. I could see using Netflix, or Blockbuster, the same way. Actually, I don't have a Netflix membership because I don't rent nearly enough movies to justify it, so Blockbuster's pay-per-view approach appeals to me more than Netflix. I'm not going to pay a monthly sub to Netflix on the off chance I actually use it that month.
As for quality, Netflix is adding HD streams (which won't even come close to Blu-ray, probably not even VUDU quality), and Blockbuster will likely add HD. Since they're downloads and not streaming, they could offer higher quality as they don't need to work in real time.
But it makes me wonder - how will it work with Blu-ray players? BD-Live players are only required to have 1GB of storage for online content, mainly as a buffer. Unless Blockbuster is going to switch to streaming like Netflix, you'd need a lot more storage. Bring your own USB hard drive?
Blockbuster and Netflix are essentially vying to install resident BD-J applications in Blu-Ray players. They might be in the firmware of some players, but most likely they're just Java apps.
I would prefer that there was a profile 2.1 enhancement which made provision for installing and running BD-J applications from local storage. It would be a natural and straightforward enhancement. Then Netflix / Blockbuster / whoever could send out a BD that offered you the choice to install the app to your player, irrespective of who made it. You wouldn't need to worry about which player supported which service - just insert a disc, install and run it from the player's menu. If you get fed up of the service, just delete it.
It wouldn't just be for streaming apps of course. Any BD-J app, be it a studio portal, a google maps browser, a browser, a weather / news aggregator, a TV listings advisor, an IMDB lookup service, a game - anything could be installed on the player. It could be a very powerful mechanism.
DrXym - I'd prefer they just standardize online downloads. Profile 2.1 could be the high level parts of HD DVD incorporated into Blu-ray (Advanced Content, etc.) It'd be an easy upgrade, and you'd get managed copy and a standardized download and standardized streaming system for free. BD-J with half a dozen third rate digital streaming standards is about the worst way of doing it, and does nothing to help create a flexible system that ultimately will allow digital purchases as well as digital rentals or subscriptions.
JBDragon - yep. It isn't easy to sell Blu-ray players at the moment. BD is a backwards format that's designed, essentially, for a world unchanged since the 1980s. It assumes people will want to visit stores to buy physical objects that represent the movies they want to watch.
But it's not the 1980s, or the 1990s, it's the 21st Century. Physical media is dying, and consumers are excited about systems that allow them to use their internet connections to watch libraries of content. HD is obviously a good thing, but it's not a compelling thing. What has proven to be compelling over the last thirty years has been increased convenience and features and anyone who produces a technology that offers slightly better quality but virtually no added convenience is not producing anything likely to be successful.
Behind it all, I think most Blu-ray manufacturers understand this. But they're screwed because the industry backed the wrong horse, so they're trying to make the best of it by incorporating the numerous proprietary streaming and download systems into their players, selling the players not as BD players but as generic "Better than DVD movie players".
Hence we have the situation thus far.