Could Warner Bros. Abandon HD DVD in 2008?

[kennyt]

Originally Posted by Robinson_A

I for one am all for direct movie downloads. Ever since I switched my SD material to a hard drive only server system my enjoyment of said content as only improved with the added convenience.

You said it all right there Andrew!

I have been saying both formats are doomed as they don't increase convenience, and I too only see either real time streaming downloads or a buffered HD based system to be the winner. Now the only problem is how will these new 'formats' play out? Will the studios license them for your use themselves? Will the cable co. providing your cable do it in VOD type service? Will they do it over the Internet?

So you are very right also stating there will always be something to argue about.....

[akbungle]

Originally Posted by kennyt

You said it all right there Andrew!

I have been saying both formats are doomed as they don't increase convenience, and I too only see either real time streaming downloads or a buffered HD based system to be the winner. Now the only problem is how will these new 'formats' play out? Will the studios license them for your use themselves? Will the cable co. providing your cable do it in VOD type service? Will they do it over the Internet?

So you are very right also stating there will always be something to argue about.....

I find this talk by Mods at a High end forum so strange. So you are O.K. with heavily compressed 1080P that looks just a tad better than current HD cable and ,unless I'm mistaken, standard, vanilla, lossy Dolby Digital? I think a lot people around here need to stand back and really think about this. I personally have not spent thousands of dollars on A/V equipment to settle for Dolby Digital.
Also I'm sure their will be a few download places that don't compromise quality but look at the equivalent in the music downloads and you will see you are spending more than you would for the physical media and that is just plain stupid.

[kennyt]

Originally Posted by akbungle

I find this talk by Mods at a High end forum so strange. So you are O.K. with heavily compressed 1080P that looks just a tad better than current HD cable and ,unless I'm mistaken, standard, vanilla, lossy Dolby Digital? I think a lot people around here need to stand back and really think about this. I personally have not spent thousands of dollars on A/V equipment to settle for Dolby Digital.

akbungle,

I have over six figures in my gear and of course want the best sound possible. I was not inferring that the first round of these new formats will be as good as current Blu-ray or HD DVD players, but as I said, when we see the next leap in Internet bandwidth and can stream 1080p with uncompressed audio (which has been my stance all along) both formats will die and I still stand by this.

The recent announcements are a huge step in the right direction, and are in fact far earlier than even I had predicted. Soon you WILL be able to stream everything you currently get from either HD format and more, directly to your system, and that is the Holy Grail I seek.

The only thing that might keep hard media in the loop would be if the resolution jumps again to 1440p as predicted and the bandwidth again becomes restrictive.