Live Free or Rent From iTunes?
Tonight we rented “Live Free or Die Hard” from iTunes. This is the first time we’ve rented a movie online and I must say I’m pretty impressed with how iTunes handles it. Considering the file was 1.51GB, I was amazed how quickly we could start watching it. The quality was excellent and the price isn’t really too bad, either - although I’d rather it be about a dollar cheaper, but it’s not too outrageous as it is, I guess.
Physical media will soon be archaic. While the quality on an HD disc is much higher than anything you can legally download (AFAIK), I’m not convinced that it’s enough better to matter for me or consumers en masse. Right now the best Blu-ray player (in terms of being future-proof-ish) is probably the PS3 which still goes for around $400. The cheapest AppleTV is $229, and with it you can download 720p HD movie rentals from iTunes almost instantly while never having to leave the couch - not to mention the TV show selections and automatic integration with iTunes.
Heck, without a box at all I can download rentals to my Mac (like we did tonight) and hook it up to our 1080p TV via DVI. From the distance of the couch, even an ordinary DVD-quality movie looks good enough to fully enjoy. While I very much like watching 1080p trailers in native resolution on the TV for kicks, it doesn’t fundamentally change what I’m seeing in the end.
I think that the only thing that could alter this situation would be a new form of filmmaking that results in an end product that simply doesn’t work without being presented in high resolution HD. I have a hard time imagining what such a thing would look like or be like to experience, but I have a feeling that it should be possible. The closest example of this that I can think of now is the TV show Lost which frequently hides fun clues and other interesting things in tiny places only visible to viewers using HD (and often only if you pause in just the right spots) - but they are using HD as gravy and not the main dish. It isn’t an integral part of the experience of watching Lost. If someone could find a compelling way to require the resolution that HD provides, it’d change the game completely.
In the end, there is no satisfying concluding paragraph. Bummer for you. 