Obsolete?

[rumplestiltskin]

Just wondering if all of this ("this" being the whole enchilada of ripping and burning) is about to become obsolete and an activity that is, frankly, useless and worthless.

With the move to digital downloads (a la iTunes Store - music, TV, and movies), especially over the last few months since the release of the video iPod, and the recent announcements by Google and Yahoo about delivering DL'd movies (and Apple will be announcing this on Tuesday, of course), are we simply wasting our time even dealing with discs?

Since I received my 30GB video iPod, I am watching movies and TV (legitimately procured and converted) through my iPod over an AV cable to my TV. No more discs.

A 2 mour movie is about 500MB-800MB (depending on the nature of the content - action/adventure/sciFi seems to require a higher bitrate).

I'm not being a troll here; merely trying to start an interesting discussion and some reflection about where we think the industry is heading (relative to our requirements).

Have at it.

Thanks

[yoda313]

I prefer quality physical medium to drm downloads.

[redwudz]

I imagine there will still be people backing up Blu-Ray discs and HDTV for a few years to come. The hobby likely won't go away, but just change.

BTW, this isn't 'Latest News', moving you.

[lordsmurf]

iTunes video downloads are crap. The Apple H.264 codec sucks. The videos are optimized for tiny ass iPod screens. There are a/v lock problems. The codecs are demanding on computers, even "fast" systems well into the 2-3Ghz range. Quicktime 7 soiftware is horrible, and DRM is a pain in the butt, like having your nuts in a noose.

XVID and DIVX downloads look like crap, and they suffer audio/video lock problems.

Ripping and burning worthless? For most people, always was worthless. If you want something, buy it. If you have a rare DVD or something expensive to replace, or a disc that tends to get a lot of use, that's really the only legitimate and sensible reason to backup a disc, which I don't see happening more than a few times a month.

But video is larger than people that merely watch tv, or copy the work of others. Many of us create our own content, so downloads are totally outside our realm of video.

[edDV]

iTunes video downloads are crap. The Apple H.264 codec sucks. The videos are optimized for tiny ass iPod screens. There are a/v lock problems. The codecs are demanding on computers, even "fast" systems well into the 2-3Ghz range. Quicktime 7 soiftware is horrible, and DRM is a pain in the butt, like having your nuts in a noose.

XVID and DIVX downloads look like crap, and they suffer audio/video lock problems.

Ripping and burning worthless? For most people, always was worthless. If you want something, buy it. If you have a rare DVD or something expensive to replace, or a disc that tends to get a lot of use, that's really the only legitimate and sensible reason to backup a disc, which I don't see happening more than a few times a month.

But video is larger than people that merely watch tv, or copy the work of others. Many of us create our own content, so downloads are totally outside our realm of video.

I just can't imagine people being satisfied watching movies or TV series for that matter on a 2-3" screen. Maybe some of us are evolving with microscope eyes.

[Noahtuck]

I just can't imagine people being satisfied watching movies or TV series for that matter on a 2-3" screen. Maybe some of us are evolving with microscope eyes.

Or a 2 hour movie compressed to 500-800mb then on a 27"-54" T.V. from an Ipod or any medium

Since I received my 30GB video iPod, I am watching movies and TV (legitimately procured and converted) through my iPod over an AV cable to my TV. No more discs.

A 2 mour movie is about 500MB-800MB (depending on the nature of the content - action/adventure/sciFi seems to require a higher bitrate).

[edDV]

I just can't imagine people being satisfied watching movies or TV series for that matter on a 2-3" screen. Maybe some of us are evolving with microscope eyes.

Or a 2 hour movie compressed to 500-800mb then on a 27"-54" T.V. from an Ipod or any medium

Since I received my 30GB video iPod, I am watching movies and TV (legitimately procured and converted) through my iPod over an AV cable to my TV. No more discs.

A 2 mour movie is about 500MB-800MB (depending on the nature of the content - action/adventure/sciFi seems to require a higher bitrate).

A properly encoded SDTV H.264 video can look OK at ~2-3Mb/s but that isn't what is being offered.