Paramount and Dreamworks drop Blu-ray in favor of HD DVD

Meh. I couldn't care about which format who chooses. All I want is one format which every company supports. I won't be buying a HD-DVD/Bluray player for a while until it's sorted.

I wouldn't care if it wasn't for the fact that I now have a PS3 and a good bunch of Blu-ray content. Its really stupid though, would wish they could just figure this shit out so we can buy movies without doubting the formats future.

Its not like it means that much anyway, soon we'll be downloading our shit instead anyway.

Quote from Mazy

Its not like it means that much anyway, soon we'll be downloading our shit instead anyway.

True that. They'll probably be the last physical formats of discs. I think everything is going to end up being digitally distributed...Actually, you can already get everything digitally now so it's only a matter of time before the physical formats become obsolete.

there will always be a need for physical content

Definitely, but I doubt that I'll be using that

I think we might be a while off truly digitally distributed content. Bear in mind that these new discs can (and do) store something in the region of 50GB. Even the fastest internet connections would take quite some time to download such a vast amount of data. I mean, I have a 24mb/s internet connection which is in the top tier of speeds in the UK (), and I'd be wincing at the prospect of a 50GB download, considering a disc would do the job immediately. And then if I delete it or need to start again, or get a new computer... oh, I need to do it again and can't just slap in a disc.

And then, even if you do download it, you'll soon realise that wireless networks are on average limited to around 54mB/s, often less depending on distance. So instead of just carrying it over to your HD-DVD player or whatever, you're looking at a 10-minute wait just for it to transfer. Sure, you could hook an ethernet cable over there between the computer and HD-DVD player which could do it in about one minute, but what the fuck.

In short, the idea of digital distribution is solid, but a number of technology issues do put a damper on the idea for the new generation of games which take up increasingly large amounts of room. Once these new disc formats hit the PC on a widespread basis and 50GB games start coming out, stuff like Steam is going to feel the burn.

There is of course also the simple, traditional fact that people like to physically own something. I do enjoy knowing that if I ever lose the data for any reason, I can just put the disc back in and reinstall it immediately.

Although not completely related, Google Video recently shut down its paid service. Guess what happened to all the videos people bought? That's right: they can't download or watch them any more, and only have a $2 Google Checkout coupon as compensation. The fact that even a giant like Google did that has given anti-digital distribution advocates some serious ammunition.

Thrik ftw

sweet!

Like Thrik said, digital downloads won't overcome Physical content for some time because it will take ages to download and above that a lot of people prefer physical content. Most internet connections in the UK are around the 1-2mb/s mark. I myself have a 1mb/s connection but only get 120kb/s maximum. So unless all the lines are upgraded 50gb/s is ridiculous.

It's nice to see one overcoming the other. This is especially amusing given Sony's comments on HD DVD becoming obsolete soon. As long as the prices for burner's come down, I'll be happy.

i think someone posted this before me, but i thought it kinda funny that whatever sony comes up with of new inventions always gets disregarded by the industries.

i wanted to post someting but i forgot..

When are dual HD-DVD and Bluray players coming out? If they do, they will be a huge hit.

If past generations are anything to go by, I'm guessing it won't be until there's reasonably widespread adoption of the existing players.

I don't about the US, but in the case of the UK the adoption seems to be around the region of 'non-existent', PS3 owners excluded.

thrik do you sit around all day absorbing knowledge through small nodes attached to your body?

thrik: human sponge

Quote from Thrik

I don't about the US, but in the case of the UK the adoption seems to be around the region of 'non-existent', PS3 owners excluded.

PS3 owners fall under the 'non-existent' catagory too!

No, but since I do work at an Internets company I absorb an amount of information with a magnitude that God himself would be envious of, which when matched with the intelligence of Jesus and Satan combined makes me a superbly knowledgeable individual.

All of you who are saying that your current internet lines won't be enough in some years when games start taking up 50 gigs. Well, I think you are forgetting the fact that odds are that internet connection speeds will also go up.

Although technology does move forward quickly, it's important to not be blinded to the reality by the future prospects.

At the moment, almost the entire UK is networked together using copper lines for its internet. Although fibre-optic lines do exist, only one ISP actually uses them, and they happen to be a bit shit.

As such, the maximum you can realistically get on a general basis in this country is around 24mb/s, and this isn't going to change any time soon. It'll involve a massive restructuring with an unbelievable budget. Note that this is megabits, not megabytes; the actual download rate would be about 2 megabytes a second.

Although some countries are better off than this sorry state of affairs, most aren't that much so. Copper lines are still relied on widely, and even the fastest consumer broadband isn't anywhere near capable of delivering a 50GB file (and this will grow again once the next storage medium arrives) in the same speed it takes to plop in a disc.

And even if you do overcome the connection hurdle, wireless networking is another obstacle as I mentioned above. A brand new generation of wireless is currently in draft format (802.11n), replacing 802.11g.

The existing technology, G, only supports around 54mb/s. The upcoming technology typically supports around 100mb/s, with a theoretically maximum of around 250mb/s that will in all likelihood never be reached. Again, we're talking about megabits here, not megabytes. The actual rate the file would transfer would be about 25 megabytes per second -- that's one long transfer for 50GB.

It's going to be difficult for digital distribution to climb over the fundamental transfer issues it faces, make no mistake. Years of wireless network development (still based on radio waves, of course) has still only gotten us to an average of 100mb/s, and internet connectivity continues to drag on.

The simple fact is that ye olde game shop is far from dead, and the simple act of buying and owning a disc will be with us for a long time.

When talking game sizes another thing to take into account is that more and more textures might be procedurally generated in the future. This will really help keeping the filesize down.