Amazon considers DVD download service

E-tailer talks with Hollywood about allowing consumers to pay to download movies, TV shows and burn them onto DVDs.
The New York Times

The story "Amazon considers DVD download service" published March 9, 2006 at 10:50 AM is no longer available on CNET News.

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[SqlserverCode]

How long

How long will that take?
Let's say it's 4GB for the DVD that will still take a long time even with cable/DSL

http://otherthingsnow.blogspot.com/

[Zymurgist]

That depends...

If you've got an 8Mbps connection, thats about 16.5 minutes per gigabyte. A movie would be between 3.5G and 9G (you'll need a dual layer writer for some), so that's as much as 2.5 hours.

However, what's the chance you'll get an 8Mbps? In the unlikely event you end up with the full-bandwidth from your ISP (Comcast, not likely), there's not much chance that Amazon will be able to sustain too many connections like that -- unless they use P2P like BitTorrent. Fat chance convincing Hollywood that using P2P, no matter how you try to protect it, is a good idea.

[markdoiron]

How I Think of This

Okay, maybe download times seem impractically long for everyman. However, things out there on the bleeding edge aren't going to be as refined as the iTunes/iPod experience. But they point the way to the future.

I see a future where high quality video delivery is from online sources either on-demand, or a more permanent download where the buyer "owns" a license to play the video anytime he wants. That latter content is stored locally on an enormous (by today's standards) hard drive and there is no more fussing with DVDs (since Blu-Ray and HD-DVD are being still-born because of this format war over a market that doesn't offer any substantial improvement over the DVD experience).

Want to play a movie/TV show you've bought? Just select it with your remote control. Hard drive lost? Just download the content again and perhaps, pay a modest fee for the content deliver's trouble (you've already paid the copyright owner with the initial license, so he doesn't get anything from this transaction).

Fantasy? Perhaps. But it takes crude, but adventurous steps to make it happen. I applaud Amazon for taking it.

mark d.

[Earl Benser]

Might work with MPEG-4/H.264....

..... no way with current DVD format.

About time!

While I'm sure at first anything they sell will end up being crippled in some fashion w/ copy protection, at least its a move in the right direction. The only reason one cant just download a movie or tv show from the studio is the sheer stupidity the studios have shown when it comes to alternative forms of distribution. They'd cut file sharing in half over night if they sold shows and movies for a reasonable price via download.