The eventual demise of all DVD formats has been a constant theme over the last couple of years. Many people are predicting that Blu-ray has left it’s run to late for anyone to care.
Online DVD retailer EzyDVD seem to agree. They are in the process of launching a new site that will allow users to download their movies to either rent or buy. A site to watch I think.
Check out http://www.ezydownload.com.au for more information
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I’d use the service if I could rent for under $5.00 and the file size was around 700mb (which from my experience in the XVID/DIVX world will look ok on the average TV set.
For a movie I want to own however, I can’t see myself considering anything other than a Blu-ray disc. Call me old fashioned but there’s something about having the disc and the cover, etc that I’m not prepared to give up just yet.
Well, we can figure it out. On the EzyDownload website they say: “You can start watching the movie in minutes with a 2 Mbps connection or eat dinner and watch afterwards with a slower one”.
So let’s assume an average data rate of 2 megabits per second. That’s 2048 kilobits. There needs to be some audio and there needs to be some video. Assume a 320 kilobit AC3 audio track, which leaves 1,728 kilobits for the video. This is all quite low bit rate so assume a PAL standard definition, anamorphic encoding using AVC or VC-1. (In fact, they may just go for stereo audio at an average bit rate of 192 kilobits to give the video more room.)
2048 kilobits a second is 256 kilobytes per second. Say the video is 90 minutes long, that’s 5,400 seconds. So that’s 1,382,400 kilobytes, which is 1,350 megabytes, which is about 1.3 gigabytes.
AVC and VC-1 are good, but really they’re only about twice as good as MPEG2. I query EzyDownload’s quality for standard definition content. An average bit rate range you see for a standard definition DVD or for over the air digital TV is around 6.5 - 7 megabit MPEG2 video with anywhere from 192 megabit MP2 audio track to a 448 kilobit AC3 audio track (or both MP2 and AC3 audio tracks broadcast together for some programs).
I’d say EzyDownload needs to encode content at around 3 to 3.5 megabits per second to give you quality similar to standard definition DVD or OTA digital video and audio. However, EzyDownload is no doubt aimed squarely at “good enough” so they probably don’t care.
At E3, Microsoft and Sony detailed their online video plans. Sony’s video service is live in North America now. Australia to get it in “2009″:
Microsoft has partnered with Netflix to expand their existing video service:
But Microsoft’s video service isn’t available in Australia either and the drawback of the Netflix partnership is you must pay Microsoft the subscription for XBox Live Gold and have a Netflix account. If you happen to already be paying for both I suppose it’s a convenience. In contrast, access to all features of Playstation Network is free so you only be pay for the content.
Both PSN and XBox Live have many, many users already. EzyDownload will struggle in that face of that, assuming these services ever launch here.
It’s interesting that as part of their promotion of the site they’re giving away a device that will turn into their direct competitor quite soon:
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080626-sonys-claim-for-living-room-supremacy-ps3-video-downloads.html
The unfortunate thing about the video download business so far is that the end user utility of the content simply sucks:
1. Distribution of content can be costly for the end user (which EzyDownload claims to solve by partnering with ISPs, which won’t include every ISP).
2. You have to figure out how to store it. Ten 40 gigabyte titles would take up an inconvenient 100 gigabytes *more* storage than I happen to have available in the computer I’m using at the moment.
3. The Digital Rights Management applied is stupidly restrictive. There have been many instances of content services simply ceasing to exist and hence all access to content you paid for suddenly vanishes in a puff of DRM enforcement logic (Google Video, Microsoft Music, and friends).
4. Once bought, downloadable content instantly has no value. You can’t trade it for other titles, you can’t lend it to friends, you can’t watch it at a friend’s house, you can’t resell it.
As a consequence of points 1 and 2, the video and audio quality is low to keep the file size down.
As a consequence of the particular DRM scheme and format they choose, EzyDownload’s content may be:
1. Incompatible with other video devices
2. Impossible to back up
3. Not streamable to other devices, so you have to watch it on your computer as opposed to streaming over DLNA it to your PS3 connected to the TV in your living room.
So, I guess we’ll see what they come up with. I could see such a service succeeding for video rentals. The model for rentals is not so different from pay per view or pay TV. But for ownership, the challenge is to meet the quality and flexibility of disc based content. Personally, I think they’re going to fall a long way short.