What kind of internet connection do you have at your home?

I have verizon fios fiber optic. It is way too expensive 50 bucks a month just for the internet. Also the promised 20 megs per second is most likely a stretch we really only get 10 to 15 max.

Connection speed and download speed are entirely different things even on a fiber optic line the best is usually for downloading a file 3-5 megabites per second and maxes out at ten.

Unless you have direct downloading no amount of download speed will help the files go faster. Torrents still are notoriously slow and pathetic. legal or illegal it does not matter a dual layer dvd could take a week.

The service dude claimed you could get 50 megs per sec is you pay 150.00 a month, but as he said unless you are running some kind of server that is overkill.

Unlike comcast they don't throw in the virus software and internet protection. They cost extra.

I bought norton because there was no way in hell i was paying another 50 just to protect my computer and internet every month.

This is where i think the studios ideas of downloading HD movies have to be joking. A blu ray film is 50 gigs. If it takes about for hours for a 4-9 gig file even over studio websites how can they claim instant access in the future to such content It would take a day or 2 even at the fastest speeds to download a file that big.

We are at least 5 or 10 years away from that being viable even for the most wealthy internet users. Nevermind the areas that do not get cable internet or fiber optic in this country or worldwide.

Janskeet said:

I don't know what the data transfer rate to watch movies in real time is but for a 20 Mb connection you maybe close to watching standard DVD movies in real time with little or no lag. I'm looking forward to the time when you can watch movies online because I hate renting them, they're always scratched, it's too expensive to buy every movie you watch, and the red box only carries movies from like up to a year ago. A lot of people are starting to post movies on youtube and the quality sucks but at least it is free and with my 4.7/640 DSL I can watch youtube videos in standard quality with no lag.

20 Mb is more than enough for a SD DVD with no lag.  DVD maxes out around 10 Mbps.  Blu-ray maxes out at 40.  It's not going to be 5 to 10 years for the technology to catch up.  Maybe 5 years tops.

If the studios do start offering HD streaming video, you can bet your ass that they'll have huge pipes serving the content.  Think multiple 10 Gb connections.  There's no other way they could serve that amount of data in a reasonable fashion.  And that's assuming the studios are even the ones that do the setup.  It's far more likely that the studios will make deals with Verizon, TimeWarner, and Comcast to serve HD movies over that existing infrastructure.  We already have HD on demand for movies that are PPV and Netflix has a set top box that you can use to stream those rentals right to your TV now too.

I dream of the day when I can watch a brand new movie (I mean brand new in theaters) directly either from my cable box or from a Netflix (or similar) account.  I'd be willing to pay about $5-$10 to be able to do that.  That way I wouldn't have to worry about a baby sitter, some dork on a cell phone, or anything else.  I could watch from the comfort of my couch.

Verizons FiOS is definitely capped right now.  Fiber can easily reach speeds over 1 Gb.  As the Internet backbone infrastructure is upgraded, your speed will slowly be increased.

Janskeet said:

I'm looking forward to the time when you can watch movies online because I hate renting them, they're always scratched, it's too expensive to buy every movie you watch, and the red box only carries movies from like up to a year ago.

Wait no longer, that time is here! Just ask the MPAA.

Yeah, I think the glory days of renting movies ended with the demise of the VHS. I used to rent movies all the time back then, though some really old movies would be worn out and have lines though them, but were still watchable. DVD on the other hand... well... I remember I kept getting free rentals at this one place because every time I'd rent a movie from them it would freeze somewhere between the middle and the end and they give me a voucher for a free rental to make up for it. I kept trying over and over again, and just about every movie I'd get from them I'd end up having to skip a couple of chapters in order to get past the unreadable parts. I eventually threw the my last voucher away. IMHO renting DVDs has always been a huge pain in the rear end and not worth it. I miss the good old glory days when I could go into my video rental store and find just about any movie ever released on home video, mine for three days for the small fee of $1.00. I used to watch so many really great old movies that will probably never see a DVD release.

It's probably not adults that are treating the DVDs badly.  It's the kids of those adults.  Have you ever seen a child pick up a reflective disc and handle it?  They aren't kind to them at all.  They usually pick it up, handle it a bit, then fling it across the room.  And that's assuming that when they picked it up that they didn't scrape it across the floor first (kids tend to take movies out of players and toss them on the floor).  That's also exactly why I don't let my son handle any of the movies.  If he wants to watch something, I get it and put it in the player or I bring it up on the HTPC.