I wasn't figuring a decision would be made in the next year but in 3 yrs i see blu-ray as the winner for the sheer fact it can hold more. Easily fit 4 movies on a blu-ray(50 gig).
Netflix will be a huge one when they decide what to go with (largest movie renter in the USA). But in reality how far away are we from having a central home entertainment system where you can just download movies to your tv and not even worry about breakable media. In 5 yrs none of this could matter.
Would we be there by now if the MPAA didn't torpedo every attempt to do so.
There's been an ongoing lawsuit for years where a dvd player company wanted to copy the dvd to its harddrive. That way you could just play any movie off of it and store your dvds (so that they didn't break or take up tons of shelf space). The MPAA using a provision in the DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act) has been fighting tooth and nail against it.
Our media is backwards because of these guys trying to maintain an outdated business model and extort cash from honest consumers while maintaining a virtual monopoly over their IP. It's things like this that make me angry at Sony.
And on the subject of downloadable movies, there was a company that was trying it. Of course, if
Ma Bell AT&T and a few others get their way, they'll soon be throttling exactly that sort of content unless you pay a premium.
The US is in _bad_ need of thoughtful legislation, but I think the few senators who actually understand the issue are either in the pocketbooks of big businesses already or are too few in number/lack the support of their voter base to do much.
