Next-gen DVD battle already becoming irrelevant
Posted
Jan 08 2008, 03:19 PM
by
Kim Peterson
The Blu-ray and HD-DVD folks can bicker all they want about whose next-generation format is going to win. Comcast and other companies are laying plans now that could make that battle irrelevant.
Comcast today announced "Project Infinity," a grandiose name for a plan to make 1,000 high-def movies and TV shows available each month by the end of this year. By 2009, Comcast wants to offer 6,000 movies on demand -- half in HD.
Comcast will also begin rolling out ultra-high-speed Internet that allegedly allows you to download a high-def copy of a movie like "Batman Begins" in four minutes. I say "allegedly" because downloads in real life never seem to happen as fast as promised.
Comcast has much to do before Project Infinity materializes. The company only has 300 videos in its current on-demand service and hasn't even begun approaching TV networks or movie studios about its new plans. But the company is smartly getting the technology in place first.
Netflix is also lining up on-demand offerings, and announced a deal with LG to develop a set-top box that will stream movies over the Internet to high-def TVs. Although the last thing we need is yet another set-top box, this idea has potential and could end the DVD-by-mail system that Netflix pioneered.
Microsoft has lined up with the HD-DVD camp, but Bill Gates recently said he thinks digital downloads are going to eclipse the Blu-ray/HD-DVD war. "I think the real competitor in the long run is digital download," he told Reuters. "Just like in music, it's going to be the biggest of the three."
The company is quickly expanding its library of high-definition video on demand through its Xbox Live online service.
Consumer electronics experts think that next-generation DVD is a "temporary format" anyway, according to the WSJ, that will only last until a superior technology takes root. They agree that online movie distribution will dominate in the future.
So the Blu-ray and HD-DVD camps can go ahead and shell out hundreds of millions of dollars to buy the allegiance of movie studios. Many consumers are wisely sitting out this war, waiting for the dust to settle before buying a high-def player. And in the end, they may find both formats unnecessary.
Disclosure: I don't own shares of any companies mentioned in this post.
