Web movies show why DVDs sell
First, downloadable movies require high-speed Internet connections — and only about half of American households have them. That number won’t change much for years.
Agreed. Right now broadband connections are near the point where downloading a full quality rip of a DVD (8.5 GB) takes a few hours. I prefer that option instead of having to drive to the rental store. Uncompressed hi-def downloads (~50 GB) are a long way off due to lack of broadband. Comcast claims that DOCIS 3.0 will be ready soon, which may offer 50 Mbps connection speeds. Verizon’s FiOS also supports connections that fast.
Second, downloaded movies don’t include the director’s commentaries, deleted scenes, alternate endings, alternate language soundtracks or other DVD goodies. It’s just not as rich an experience.
Current downloads from iTunes don’t have these extras, but I think most consumers don’t really care. Early DVDs would load the movie right away when you popped in the disc in the player. Now, the discs are chock full of trailers for upcoming movies and other garbage that simply waste disc space. There’s nothing preventing iTunes from selling movies like a music album, with multiple files for the deleted scenes, alternate endings, etc. Digital distribution of movies may prove to be a richer experience because there isn’t a limit on how much space the release takes up.
Third, movie downloads don’t deliver the audio and video quality of DVD discs — even standard-def ones. Internet movies are compressed to download faster, which affects picture quality, and offer older, more compressed audio soundtracks than modern DVDs.
Again, this is simply due to slow broadband speeds. Another potential issue is that most consumers don’t have hundreds of gigs of free hard drive space, which would be required for storage of 1080p video.