Home Video Formats

[Sean P Kelly]

You know if the standard def (DVD) vs high def (Blu-ray) argument wasn't enough, I've now started seeing advertising for films coming out on home video saying "Now Available OnDemand (also on Blu-Ray and DVD)."

I'm curious what the commercials mean by "OnDemand". The easy definition would be OnDemand channels on digital cable, but I wonder if they are also including movie download services that are now available everywhere from Amazon to iTunes.

I also think this kind of advertising may be a result of the perceived end of physical media. However, while I do think that OnDemand services will probably replace the video rental market (I personally haven't gone to Blockbuster for about 4 years now -- though I still rent films from an independent store for my film essays for school), I also think that as long as there are people willing to buy them, there will always be a place for physical media (especially in the home video market).

What do you think?

[Bomby]

I personally have a strong distaste for OnDemand. Nearly none of the movies I actually want to see ever make it to OnDemand, and when they do, they've often been cropped to 1.33:1 (even in HD, I've seen a 2.35:1 aspect ratio get cropped to 1.78:1 to fit the 16:9 screen ratio).

Also, in case of massive hard drive failure, it's nice to have a physical copy of the media.

[CaptHayfever]

^This.
Always keep a hard copy.

And remember, "I'm-a Luigi, number one!"

[Sean P Kelly]

Yeah, that's what it all comes down to.

People are all gung-ho right now about downloading whatever they can get their hands on, but what will happen when the hard drives start crashing (especially since most, legal, methods of downloading, only allow a single download).

For the record, I've never considered purchasing videos from iTunes (though I may give digital copy a try) and most the contents of my iPod are imports from my large CD collection.