Entertainment: Is the world ready for video downloads?

I read an article on Slashdot today talking about how Sony is looking to create a robust business model for legal movie downloads. They talk about charging $8 to legally download your favorite movies, as many people currently do with services like iTunes. I guess they figure now that Apple has put out a device that plays movies, the world will now want video downloads so they'd better jump on the bandwagon.

But do consumers really want to download movies? In my opinion, neither the infrastructure (i.e. gadgetry in my living room) nor the demand for such downloads are there. Let's break it down in a real-world example. Let's say Sony comes out with an extension to their mediocre Connect music store, much as Apple has done with iTunes (iTunes doesn't sell movies yet as far as I know). I come home from work and ask my wife what's on TV tonight - she says nothing's on. Ok, let's download a movie. I now need to boot up my laptop or go upstairs to my desktop PC in the office, log on, purchase the movie, and wait for it to download. I'm guessing the download would take at least 15 minutes if my bandwidth is good, but I think it's safe to say that it would probably be more like half an hour or more. Once it's done, I now need to either hook up the video and audio out of my laptop to the home theater, or buy one of the many digital streaming devices on the market today and hook it up. After all this, the picture and sound quality aren't nearly as good as watching a DVD and I've wasted a good 45 minutes of my life waiting for this massive download and stringing together various digital devices.

Now let's check out the alternatives. During the time it took to download my movie, I could have driven around the block to the store and rented a DVD that I know will play and give me a beautiful picture and 5.1 digital surround sound. Or I could have just ordered the DVD from Netflix and skipped the video store altogether.

Then there's my cable provider's on-demand system. For roughly the same price as the DVD rental, I can pick my movie and start playing it within seconds. Granted, the on-demand libraries of most cable providers are a bit more limited than the video store, but this is improving quickly. The number of available titles today is vastly greater than last year when I first signed up.

But what about the iPod phenomenon? Just about every electronics company from Apple to Samsung sells a portable media player that can play video (I see them every day on Gizmodo). So why aren't sales of these devices booming like the iPod?

iPods and other audio players sell so well because they let you take your whole music collection just about anywhere. But do you want to take your video collection everywhere? Running? Nope - you'd run into a tree. Work? Nope - you'd get fired. Car? Three words: Jaws of Life. The only time I could justify the need for portable video is when I have to sit and wait somewhere for hours at a time, like the DMV or on a long flight. Thankfully I don't need to do either of these often, so why would I spend $300 on a portable media player and then shell out 8 bucks a pop for downloaded content? I'd much sooner get a $150 portable DVD player and get instant gratification when I pop in a disc - no waiting for downloads, no waiting to sync to my device. I have to remind myself of this every time I pass all the shiny new media players at the store (that no one else is buying).

As it stands today, I don't think the world is ready for downloaded video content. A recent article on Gizmodo highlights the tendency of gadget users to discard any new technology that isn't intuitive from the get-go. I have a feeling that with the current hardware and software offerings available to consumers today, downloaded video will suffer the same fate as video and picture messaging - cool, but ultimately useless.

Games: A Gamers' Manifesto

A great article written by an enthusiastic gamer. I hope plenty of game designers and programmers read this.

Humor: The Hollywood Operating System

I came accross this while using the StumbleUpon extension for Firefox. They forgot a couple of things though:

Law enforcement agencies (and private security personnel a la Las Vegas on NBC), have access to all information on every person in the world.

The Hollywood OS requires no mouse for even the most complex programs - all operations are accomplished by furiously typing (randomly) on the keyboard.

Quote of the Day: C. S. Lewis

This is extremely relevant these days, and it's from one of my favorite authors so I had to post it:

"Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience."

- C. S. Lewis

Movies: Review: Flightplan

Not bad. The only problem I had with it was the "shocking" plot twist toward the end. I won't give it away, but it seemed like the writers thought it would have a much bigger impact than it did - it just sort of fizzled. Other than that a pretty decent film.

Bottom line: You might want to skip this one and wait for the DVD. There's plenty of other films to see in the theaters this month.

Movies: Review: Just Like Heaven

Great date movie - nice light fare for the start of the fall season. An original premise with a nice mix of comedy and romance. My wife and I both really liked it.

Bottom line: Take your significant other and get one of those seats for two.

Games: Revolution Controller Revealed

Wow, this really has the potential to be Nintendo's saving grace or a disaster worse than the Atari Jaguar. The controller basically looks like a TV remote (it's one-handed), and you really just use the one big A button, and the B button is underneath, like a trigger. Direction is controlled by moving the whole controller itself - there are sensors that detect motion on all axes as well as tilt. I'm not sure if this will be a hit, but I know I can't wait to try it out.

IGN's hands-on review of the Revolution Controller