OT: Dr. Who

[Fairlight]

On Tue, Jul 27, 2010 at 07:29:05AM -0400, Walter Vaughan may or may not
have proven themselves an utter git by pronouncing:
> Brian K. White wrote:
>
> >(top post for john since I have a one line reply yet want to quote the
> >entire message deliberately)
> >
> >Oh man I so agree on all points....
> >
>
> A whole new generation however would never purchase physical medium
> like a DVD That's what keeps going though my mind. The rules they are a
> changing...

I don't want to say never, but as long as iTunes clings to their DRM, I'm
far, far (99.999%) less likely to even attempt to use iTunes as opposed to
buying CDs or DVDs, even if it's only a matter of principle.

Not that DVDs have no DRM.  Of course, every scheme is broken in a matter
of days.  But you can use your disc at 20 different players if you want, as
long as you have your disc, without checking with Sony, MGM, etc., before
you try to play it at a new location. iTunes, no so much--you get 'n'
computers, and after that you have to start deauthorising and authorising.

There are some things people will (grudgingly) accept in their software
that they will not accept in their A/V media.

To my knowledge, you can't export iTunes music to anything other than an
iPod/Touch/Pad, so that's a non-starter if you have a device that doesn't
speak their proprietary DRM scheme.  At least DVDs use industry standards,
even if individual vendors use proprietary structural protection (i.e.,
ArCCoS) as well as CSS.

Then there's video, specifically.  Namely, the size of the files.
Broadband penetration continues to suck massively in this country.  Our
speeds are, by and large, flagging compared to many other countries.  Even
the UK has a more progressive broadband infrastructure build-out plan,
including to rural areas.  Don't even try to compare us with South Korea.
The fact is, video file downloading is a bit painful on a standard 1.5/256
DSL line.  If the line is in an area with crappy infrastructure and doesn't
perform at full capacity, it's that much worse.  Cable and DSL aren't
always options.  Satellite has its own inherent problems.  (Satellite
would be the -last- thing I'd try, as the inherent latency due to bouncing
signals to/from LEO would make gaming virtually impossible.)

Sure, the market is shifting.  My DSL has been performing at about 60% of
its 1.5mbit rating for a couple years due to crappy infrastructure, and I
-still- get all my games and software via digital download.  It just takes
longer.  But downloading even a 17GB game -once- is a lot different than
trying to download five to ten seasons of a television show for marathon
watching.  Even on some cable plans, that's stretching it--and many have
bandwidth caps, especially non-domestically.  In fact, the US is one of the
few countries with a tendency to not be capped/metered, and we still have
companies that do so.

That, and if -all- video started being streamed, chances are the major
backbones in place right now would melt under the load.  They've been built
out, but they're still not equipped to deal with more than 'x' amount of
traffic before exhibiting problems.

It's going to be a while before everything goes digital distribution in
this country--or any other, for that matter.

And frankly, I know -many- people to whom I've recommended digital
distribution (Steam, Direct2Drive, Impulse, et al) for software, and they
refuse to adopt it, saying they want physical copies, period, the end.  Not
all of them are older folks, either.

Physical media distribution is far from dead.

mark->
-- 
Audio panton, cogito singularis,