I've been watching this market closely, because it's always been a ultimate of mine to be able to have movies a remote button push away.
I've found that I'm much more likely to watch a movie I want to see if I happen to see it coming on cable (with no commercials) than I am to get up, go find the DVD in my collection, and go put it in. Sad, but true: I'll record one I have in collection on my DVR, so I can avoid this activity.
So I have long been waiting for computer storage and digital film quality to find an equilibrium which would allow me to to stare digital copies of all my DVDs on a central home server that I could get to from a UI on my TV. using my remote and only my remote.
The Xbox entertainment center thing, and Apple TV has come close, but not quite where I want them to be. Now we've taken a step closer with Netflix's introduction into the market (pictured above).
Now we're definitely on the right track and it's streaming so I don't need to own the films outright. $8.99/mo gets you unlimited movies. Of course that's after paying $100 for the set-top box. But compared with Apple TVs $299 price tag, that's pretty cheap.
The only thing that bothers me about this is the reduction in visual quality. What's it look like? Being as the only DVDs I will happily get up and put in are the few Blu-Rays I have acquired so far. Is the quality on streaming movies comparable to regular digital television or is it more comparable to YouTube?
Speaking of which... who really wants to watch YouTube on their Big Screen? Anybody. I certainly don't. It's looks bad enough on the little screen (not to mention the content of most YouTube videos would hardly warrant a $299 purchase). I'm a Mac User and fan. But I'm also a slave to the free-market, and I think Apple just got spanked by Netflix.
Wait and see, I guess. But with this, we're getting closer to what we all really want: Streaming Telepathic Entertainment in 7.1 surround.
(Courtesy of AppleInsider)
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