What's the deal wit the release??

Nope, not even close. The bit-rate on a Blu-Ray movie exceeds a downloaded or streamed version by a large margin. This allows for a crisper picture, better colors, less artifacts and color banding in low light scenes. Both may be in 1080p but a much better quality image is to be found on a physical copy. The bitrate for something like xbox live marketplace 1080p is around 6 or 7 mbps. Netflix is closer to 8mbps for their 1080p streams. A Blu-Ray is usually between 25 and 35 mbps. I don't believe that digital versions offer the superior audio either (like DTS-HD master audio.)

Don't get me wrong, the movies on digital marketplaces look decent given the size of the files, however "decent" is not good enough if I'm buying the movie. Actually paying money for just a digital copy of a movie is like paying Larry off the street to give you a disc with a theater rip. You may get it early, but you are paying a premium for crap.

 

I've now watched "Into Darkness" on my Blu Ray player via Amazon Instant Stream. Mighty good stuff. It's the #1 movie on iTunes now.

 

I will agree with you on this point. Hard Drive space isn't going to be an issue with cloud services. A quality broadband connection and data caps however are a big issue. Not everyone has a good high speed connection, and people running into data cap limits is also a reality.

Portability of media and DRM is also a huge issue for me. Say I do purchase Star Trek into Darkness digitally on iTunes right now. It's 24.99 and in order to actually play my purchased HD movie, my computer and monitor must be connected by an HDMI cable. Otherwise my legally purchased HD movie only plays in SD or not at all. (I do have my monitors connected by HDMI, but not everyone does) Yes, I can put it on my iPhone or my iPad and have a portable version, great. I can also input the code for a digital version that is usually included with movies these days, or just rip the Blu-Ray and do the same thing. I have an Apple TV, but it's the 720p version so even then I'm not getting the "quality" that I paid 25 bucks for.

What if I want to go to a friends place so we can watch the movie together? I have a version on my iPad, but wait, he has no Apple TV...bummer. Oh wait! I can bring my Apple TV over and watch it. Nope, he's cheap and only pays for a 1.5 megabit connection. I guess I could bring the Apple TV and a copy on my iPhone/iPad and airplay it. Damn, his router was installed near the electrical panel in the basement and the wireless connection is crap, but he doesn't care because it's still good enough for his blazingly slow 1.5 megabit connection....guess that's out too. I could take a laptop or my tower over there with a copy of the movie and connect via HDMI, but that's just too annoying, plus iTunes on Windows plays like crap.

Or I could take the disc over there, pop it in his Blu-Ray player and just watch the damn movie. There are just too many limitations on what I can do with a DRM'ed digital only copy of the movie. Yes, it may come out early on digital, but that hook is not enough for me to sacrifice on audio/video quality and convenience.

 

I have no problem with those who prefer a downlaod, and the convenience thereof. But you're really kidding yourself by claiming the quality is on a par with Blu-ray. Beyond the easily discernible naked eye superior picture, what about the sound? An iTunes download does not come with DTS HD Master Audio/Dolby True HD etc - for some of us with premium sound systems this is VERY important.

If I want a copy on my iPad, I can rip the BD and create my own digital version in any format (DRM free) at a quality/file size ratio of my own choosing. With my TV Star Trek box sets, I do rip the episodes completely uncompresed for playback on media players. If DS9/VOY are eventually released on BD, total storage space for ALL Trek, including the movies, will be around 6TB. All this, and I still have the BD's I can take to a mate's house - and fall back on at any time.

 

Thanks. Assumed we'd be getting it the same day as the US. Odd, but never mind.

 

Yeah, we're getting the digital release and disc release the same day, no early options for us.

 

The iTunes release contains a bonus version of the movie that plays on your computer. It's a live commentary with behind the scenes footage and on screen illustrations. What's especially neat about it is that it's the IMAX version of the movie, so the aspect ratio shifts. This is probably the only way to see the large format version.