JamieG Analysis

I have been amazed of late by the misguided trends that some noted speakers for digital media have been pushing of late.  (Namely On Digital Media and TWIM/This Week in Media my two favourite podcasts) The main trend here is. “Is online video such like Itunes HD at 720p quality good enough to make the need for DVD/Blue-Ray obsolete?

Strangely enough, the answer to this question, in my opinion, is Yes, 720p using H.264 at a decent bit rate is defiantly good enough for most people.

AND

Even if online distribution was equivalent quality to Blue-Ray, there will always be a need for optical distribution of media.

I will state my position on this below but before I do..

Those guilty of this FUD (Fear, uncertainty & doubt) should be ashamed.  As a technical person in film and TV, it has been one of my biggest challenges.  Stamping out FUD generated by companies and organisations with vested interests in confusing consumers.  Or in this case (ODM and TWIM), I think it is more the case of those to close to the technology getting blinded by it.

Looking at what is “Good Enought” for online distribution of video, let me bring the you back to the days of the VHS tape.  This was good enough for a long time.  This evolved into DVD.  Much better with 5.1 sound superior to dolby digital in the cinema.  Then came along Pirate/torrent content.  Better then VHS but not as good as DVD, but holding the same AC3 audio stream (If going for the 1.3gig file over the 0.7 gig file).

With HD displays being more and more common, many people are starting to favour HD content, still, this is only because they have the bandwidth/money to spare.  Otherwise they would go for whatever copy of the content they can get.

My point being here is not that sharpness does not matter, but that convenience, access and ultimately a reasonable “quality of video” to get the story across.  VHS was good enough, so really how can you argue that anything better then VHS is needed.  It’s not.  But naturally we always tend towards the better bargen/quality per dollar.  Competition will drive the quality up naturally.

I usually find those making public statements on these issues are also industry people who are used to seeing super hi-quality displays and content.  As such, having access to this quality gives them a natural feeling that general public are not willing to watch content on lesser quality systems like them.  Unfortunately, from what I have seen, this trend is reversed.

Cinemas owners, for which I have considerable contact with in my job, have voices their opinion to me that child patrons have, in recent years, dropped dramatically.  The younger generations seem to be quite happy to watch pirate content called “SCREENERS”.  Movies shot with video cameras in a cinema.  As a film and TV person, I consider this prostituting the content and refuse to watch it under any circumstances.  The youngsters don’t seem to care.  They get to see the movie first and cheaply.  What worries me the most is the cultural perception of content these youngsters are learning.

Let me move onto Optical Storage.

With online getting bigger and bigger, it is easy to see that the next step is for all our data needs to go online.  This does make some sense but really, is it completely practical?

Network access is not like the air we breathe.  It is not cheap, it is not easy.  We will always need technologies to take our data, be it digital files/photos, or our favourite videos.  There will always be those who want to store their memories on a shelf, or in a box under the bed.  There will always be a need for solid state transportable storage.

Will Blue-Ray winout over DVD?  A few years ago I had a 4mega pixal digital camera.  Now I have a 12 mega pixel camera doing RAW.  In the next few years I will be doing 24mega pixel.  Gee, how do I need Blue-Ray!!!

In real terms, Hollywood would love to get rid of DVD as soon as possible. (See reasons in my post of why Blue-ray eventually win which I predicted 8 months before it happened)  DVD has no real copy protection these days, while Blue-Ray disks are far more difficult for general consumers to duplicate.

Hollywood understands that there will always be a need for distributable media, however, if that is the case, best to try and move the public onto a media that is harder to duplicate as soon as possible.  I personally feel this is one of the paramount issues that pushed Blue-Ray over the line.

This does not stop the accessibility of pirate content online, however, it does drastically reduce a method of duplication.  The war against piracy is not about stoping it completely; it is about controlling and reducing its effectiveness.  Taking away the ability for the general consumer to rent, take home and duplicate, to Hollywood, is a major victory even if it not an effective victory.

Being involved in the technical side of film distribution has shown me that issues of reduced piracy and protection of content are of the utmost importance to Hollywood.  As such, if a technology is likely to improve the situation for Hollywood, it is most likely to happen.