HD-DVD vs Blu? no the downloading camp !

When the Blu-ray camp won the high-definition format war, there are many published aricles about what's will it be in the future. "Did Blu-ray camp actually win the war?" - was the question. Yes but ... The conclusion which I tend to also agree is "for how long". The days of physical storage media are numbered. More and more videos are be downloaded via the internet every day. Optical media may not be only choice for the current and next generation consumers.

Harddisk space are getting so much cheaper. A few years ago we are still paying $1 for 1MB of space, to day we are paying less than $1 for 1GB, in no time it will be 1TB. Just like the way the PC industries moved from 5 1/4 inches disc with 1.2MB space to 1.44 3.5inches magnetic diskette to 700MB CD-ROM to 4.2GB DVD to 25GB Blu-ray for portable storage. Non-removable disk space also increased at a very fast rate. Beside better compression has allowed more virtual data to be squeeze into less physical space.

Today a ripped DVD video can be squashed to 700MB CDROM thanks to Xvid avi format. Well as compared earlier, I really don't see that much difference between the actual compressed and uncompressed videos. Especially so if you are chasing a TV series. The best part about this technology is now downloading it from the internet is possible in a much shorter time.

When I was younger, I was using 9.6Kbps modem to connect to BBS bulletin boards. For simple x86 dos games to GIF picture files. With the same technology we advanced to 56Kbps dialup speed. Then the next switch I jumped to 1Mbps cable internet. I was given free upgrade year after year, 2,4,6Mbps. Now I planned to downgrade back to 1Mpbs, simply because I do not need such high speed.

Now if you take a Xvid 1.5hrs video at 700MB at 1Mbps it's going to take roughly700 x 10Mb / 60s = 117 minutes = 2hrs at best.However experience tells me that this will never be the case. I see that at best it will be 25KB/s = 466 minutes = 8hrs
So realistically, if you leave it to download overnight you will get your file tomorrow. However, if this is a more popular file, another technology call peer-to-peer is here to help. It's indeed possible to get up to 100 KB/s using P2P.

Here comes the question, will you download something from the internet and transfer this to your DVD player to watch or will you watch it on your computer. Again the answer is simple: people want to watch it on the TV if possible. Hence solution like DLNA, wireless, Media Centre PC comes about. The reason why these solutions are still not so popular is because they are too expensive and complicated. An average joe will not spend this amount of money if he knows of the solution in the first place.

Recently, I went down to Sim Lim square, I founded a 3.5" USB harddisk enclosure (IDE/SATA) with Video output (supporting Xvid) at only $80. I almost bought it but when I return the shop keeper was out for lunch. Although similar networking product are also avaible they are at a higher price right now. E.g. the DVICO media player, at least $300 without harddisk.

Some one predicted that finally the CE companies will win the consumers over, but until then the IT maker especially from Taiwan and Korea, will be pumping out more and more of such equipments.