Are DVD’s Going the Way of The Video Cassette?

According to Josuha Freed of the Associated Press, DVD movies Are poised to follow music onto the Internet and to avoid the hurt that was felt with downloaded music retailers such as Wal-Mart have launched their own download movie sites. Retailers are concerned about this new technology because they have traditionally been able to use DVD sales to get customers into the store where they typically buy other items and since new DVDs are released each week there is always a reason for customers to return. Additionally, for stores like Best Buy and Circuit City DVDs are often an impulse buy rather than one those customers must contemplate like computers or TVs.

On a positive note for Consumers both DVDs and music CDs have seen a decrease in cost as especially music CDs have seen a rapid decrease in sales. According to Andrew Hargreaves of Pacific Crest Securities, DVDs would have seen a greater decline if it had not been for the recording and release of a number of TV serials, which are not down loadable, but the decline would likely be as great as it was for CDs in the future.

Out of the retailers who are selling DVD downloads Wal-Mart is at the head of the pack selling 3,000 movie downloads in the first month and Blockbuster according to Karen Raskopf, says the movie rental chain will join the download frenzy by the end of the year. However, all retailers admit that online movie downloads have a long way to go because their compressed files can be a hundred times larger than an individual song and a full length movie could take as long as an hour and a half to download even with a high speed connection. Another issue for the consumer who buys a downloadable movie is that they are often not burnable to a DVD and so the cost of something that must be stored and viewed on a computer may not be feasible. Poor Quality of the download is another point of contention among those who have taken advantage of this service.

One company, Amazon.com, seems to have come up with a possible solution to some of these issues, however, by offering downloadable movies that can be sent straight to your TIVO, and Microsoft Corp.’s Xbox. Evan Wilson, who covers entertainment companies at Pacific Crest, says that the movie and television companies will eventually have all of their offering available at the click of a button. If this is the case I cannot help but wonder when this new technology will make this generation’s children laugh at the thought of having to drive to the store to pick up a piece of plastic to put in a machine in order to view a movie.  

[tags]DVD Movies, Downloadable movies, Wal-Mart downloadable services, Blockbuster, Circuit City, Best Buy, Music CDs,[/tags]