gizmodo.com— The end of physical video formats doesn't mean an end to format wars. In fact, once film and television content are no longer bound by physical media, we're in for the mother of all them all.
May 17, 2007View in Crawl 4
There's always going to be a large number of people who want actual physical copies of things, so there's always going to be new formats.People like to collect things, its human nature
The problem with the medium of delivery NOT being extremely relative to the final format isn't the fact that there will be an ongoing format war, it's that no one will ever adopt any of the media-free formats once the first decent one comes out. Take a look at mp3. It's been around for a VERY long time now and is technically very deficient by other audio format standards which yield much better sounding audio. It doesn't matter though because every soccer mom, emo kid, and hell, just recently I included myself in the vast numbers of people with an iPod which doesn't play back OGG, FLAC, or any of the leading alternative codecs. When are we finally going to hit the 24-bit/96kHz level on commercially viable formats.
Did you even read the article?Content == format in the near future; there will be no "fair" competition since every service will have INCOMPLETE libraries, different DRM schemes, different resolutions, incompatible players and leveraged platforms (Apple and MS).
I will absolutely hate it if movies or music are no longer available on a physical medium.Why should I pay an Internet/Cable connection "tax" just to be able to watch a movie?Another problem is the bandwidth issue. If I feel like doing so I can drive to the store, pick up 20 movies and bring them back home in under 20 minutes and they are mine to watch however many times I want. Can you download 20 feature length films in DVD quality in 20 minutes?The lack of physical medium clearly reduces consumer choice and freedom.
Ironic isn't it?It seems time and again the legal consumers get shafted by companies trying to compete with multiple formats and hardware, and the only group of individuals who have the convenience everyone desires are those that do so outside of the law, with towers filled with terabytes of 700MB movies in divx/xvid format (or 4.7 GB HD vids if my memory serves me correctly) that they stream to modded xboxes, mythTV, or modded shuttle PCs in their living rooms.It always amazes me how the warez and pirate communities have stricter, and often better, standards than the legal corporations, who have eveyrthing handed to them, as opposed to having to do all the work of breaking DRM, etc.Just like anti-piracy protection schemes on games and movies now, which only add about 10 seconds to the time it takes to rip the data, or add a small inconvenience to playing a game, but often completely lock out legitimate consumers, this strategy is doomed from the start.I remember buying Doom 3 a few years back. It was overhyped and underwhelming, but I bought it the day it came out. When I tried to run it though, it told me that I was using a virtual drive to run it and then wouldn't load. I wasn't, of course. The CD was right there in my drive. Long story short, I had to go get a crack for a game I legally paid $50 for (far too much incidentally) because a poor protection scheme broke down. As I waited for it to finally load, a part of me couldn't help but ask "Why didn't I just torrent it and save myself both the money, and the hassle?" since most game rips come with a crack already.And this isn't isolated. When Sony changed their DVD DRM scheme, many DVD players, including Sony players, simply refused to play the content, and lead to a fiasco that forced Sony to recall the DVDs and send consumers replacements. The benefit this new scheme offered was slowing down cracking of said DVDs by about 10 seconds.I remember reading a while back about a warning the MPAA had on its website about how to spot "Illegal DVDs" which has since been rewritten to portray them in a negative light. Off the top of my head, though, I recall it saying something along the lines of:- Bootleg DVDs are often being sold while the movie is still in theaters.- They lack the commercials that often accompany real products.- They are often significantly cheaper than commercial DVDsIs it any wonder that people are using to illegal content? Not only is it cheaper/free, but it's BETTER or equivalent, with the exception of quality (especially cam recordings).It's a said but true case that piracy will continue, and indeed spread, until the movie studios, the distrubutor, and the vendors get their act together and give people a simple, fully functional, usable alternative to piracy. Until then, their war drums only fan the flames of their adversary, and destroy their credibility all in one fell swoop.
spudnicMay 18, 2007
There's always going to be a large number of people who want actual physical copies of things, so there's always going to be new formats.People like to collect things, its human nature
danaramaMay 18, 2007
I thought I was sort of.
dagarMay 18, 2007
Not if your movie will only stream from the providers site using activeX in IE.
jonnyqMay 18, 2007
The premise of this article rests on the assumption that DRM will survive. DRM may or may not be gone in the near future.
egodeathMay 18, 2007
because of this article <a class="user" href="http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/bittorrent/bittorrent-entertainment-network-emerges-from-seedier-side-of-intarwebs-on-monday-239494.php">http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/bittorrent/bittorrent-entertainment-network-emerges-from-seedier-side-of-intarwebs-on-monday-239494.php</a>
dafragstaMay 18, 2007
The problem with the medium of delivery NOT being extremely relative to the final format isn't the fact that there will be an ongoing format war, it's that no one will ever adopt any of the media-free formats once the first decent one comes out. Take a look at mp3. It's been around for a VERY long time now and is technically very deficient by other audio format standards which yield much better sounding audio. It doesn't matter though because every soccer mom, emo kid, and hell, just recently I included myself in the vast numbers of people with an iPod which doesn't play back OGG, FLAC, or any of the leading alternative codecs. When are we finally going to hit the 24-bit/96kHz level on commercially viable formats.
Closed AccountMay 18, 2007
@vbr3No, you s**t all over _yourself_ with that (irrelevant and unnecessary comment); we just didn't want to see it.
Closed AccountMay 18, 2007
Did you even read the article?Content == format in the near future; there will be no "fair" competition since every service will have INCOMPLETE libraries, different DRM schemes, different resolutions, incompatible players and leveraged platforms (Apple and MS).
thefaithfulMay 18, 2007
I will absolutely hate it if movies or music are no longer available on a physical medium.Why should I pay an Internet/Cable connection "tax" just to be able to watch a movie?Another problem is the bandwidth issue. If I feel like doing so I can drive to the store, pick up 20 movies and bring them back home in under 20 minutes and they are mine to watch however many times I want. Can you download 20 feature length films in DVD quality in 20 minutes?The lack of physical medium clearly reduces consumer choice and freedom.
khyberkitsuneMay 18, 2007
This account has been closed by the user
orion682Jun 25, 2007
Ironic isn't it?It seems time and again the legal consumers get shafted by companies trying to compete with multiple formats and hardware, and the only group of individuals who have the convenience everyone desires are those that do so outside of the law, with towers filled with terabytes of 700MB movies in divx/xvid format (or 4.7 GB HD vids if my memory serves me correctly) that they stream to modded xboxes, mythTV, or modded shuttle PCs in their living rooms.It always amazes me how the warez and pirate communities have stricter, and often better, standards than the legal corporations, who have eveyrthing handed to them, as opposed to having to do all the work of breaking DRM, etc.Just like anti-piracy protection schemes on games and movies now, which only add about 10 seconds to the time it takes to rip the data, or add a small inconvenience to playing a game, but often completely lock out legitimate consumers, this strategy is doomed from the start.I remember buying Doom 3 a few years back. It was overhyped and underwhelming, but I bought it the day it came out. When I tried to run it though, it told me that I was using a virtual drive to run it and then wouldn't load. I wasn't, of course. The CD was right there in my drive. Long story short, I had to go get a crack for a game I legally paid $50 for (far too much incidentally) because a poor protection scheme broke down. As I waited for it to finally load, a part of me couldn't help but ask "Why didn't I just torrent it and save myself both the money, and the hassle?" since most game rips come with a crack already.And this isn't isolated. When Sony changed their DVD DRM scheme, many DVD players, including Sony players, simply refused to play the content, and lead to a fiasco that forced Sony to recall the DVDs and send consumers replacements. The benefit this new scheme offered was slowing down cracking of said DVDs by about 10 seconds.I remember reading a while back about a warning the MPAA had on its website about how to spot "Illegal DVDs" which has since been rewritten to portray them in a negative light. Off the top of my head, though, I recall it saying something along the lines of:- Bootleg DVDs are often being sold while the movie is still in theaters.- They lack the commercials that often accompany real products.- They are often significantly cheaper than commercial DVDsIs it any wonder that people are using to illegal content? Not only is it cheaper/free, but it's BETTER or equivalent, with the exception of quality (especially cam recordings).It's a said but true case that piracy will continue, and indeed spread, until the movie studios, the distrubutor, and the vendors get their act together and give people a simple, fully functional, usable alternative to piracy. Until then, their war drums only fan the flames of their adversary, and destroy their credibility all in one fell swoop.