What is better, Blu-ray/HD-DVD, or a movie stored in digital format like on an ipod?

Question

I mean, in the future, is it possible to get higher quality media in disk form or in digital form like on a flash drive... I hope that made since.

Answer 1

You should be made aware that HD-DVD is no longer being manufactured, everything in HD will now be made in Blu-ray so be careful not to purchase a HD-DVD player they are trying to give them away now. the answer to question would be Blu-Ray is by far the best yet, but you must have a 1080p capable tv to utilize the picture, it will play on a lessor tv but you won't get 100% of it full effects, but it still is an owesome picture. Happy viewing

Answer 2

Right now nothing looks as good as Blu-Ray. Give it some time and eventually you will see downloaded movies look as good and then better. It is the nature of all things. The only thing holding it back is download speeds. 50 GB takes an awfull lot of time to download even at cable modem speeds.

Current iPod and Apple TV images are not even worthy of comparing to Blu-Ray.

Answer 3

I think disk is better and will always be better.  Hollywood and television network will agree and keep disks in play and in the forefront as this is the most controllable way.  Disks are already self storage, studio produced, official and backed.

I really wouldn't like loading all my movies into one basket, and then you can't take it with you.  People are fine with a library of disks.  They are not large and not too small where you can't find what you're looking for.  There will always be a market for disks.

That said, there will also be a new market for digital downloads as there already is for on-demand and such.  It just won't ever be the industry standard.

Answer 4

Your asking about digital downloads..?

Why get a disc when you can just download something as good or better...?

The problem i see with digital downloads is the worlds Internet is already slowing down... no one wants to pay for fibber optics...

Also big ISP have admitted to slowing down downloads cus it's eating into their bandwidth to much... if everyone starts downloading 40GB HD Movies like Blu-ray or HD-DVD then the world Internet will be dial-up speed all over again.

Answer 5

Downloads over "normal" internet connections are an issue for large HD movies and lossless audio (slow connections, download limits, etc), BUT what most detractors who say it will never work miss is that there are (or soon will be) other means.

XStreamHD is a satellite based system expected to come on line later this year and it will offer 1080p video and DTS-HD sound and a media server for $400.

Japan has just launched a super high speed intenet service based on a new satellite with 1.2 GB/s download speed, and while it is limited to Japan and 23 other Asian countries there is no reason a similar approach can't be followed elsewhere.

So .. in future video/audio rivaling Blu-ray will no doubt be available.

On the other hand, various forms of download/streaming video in "better than DVD/lower than Blu-ray" quality are available now (HD Cable VOD, AppleHD 2.0). And the idea of a flashdrive-based rental/purchase service has been suggested (Take the flashdrive to "Blockbuster" download the movie and take it home and transfer to your media server), as has high speed wireless services (which can run at several GB/s) to provide local download from a central server.

So ... at the moment Blu-ray/HD DVD is the more practical approach to getting 1080p uncompressed HD movies, but downloaded movies based on the "sneakernet" approach would be just as good (once the media to do the storage and transfer of 50-100 GB files are economically available).

For an interesting comparison of the video quality form Blu-ray, DVD, AppleTV (SD and HD) and HD Cable VOD see the link (caution loads many pictures so can be slow).