Are flash memory drives a viable alternative to high definition discs?
Alfred Poor, the 'HDTV Professor', has written an interesting article speculating whether high-capacity Flash drives will become a replacement for high definition optical discs.
Today, you can buy a 16 GB Flash drive for under $150, and the prices are still plummeting. This exceeds the capacity of a single layer HD DVD disc, and you can use it over and over again. Now that more and more homes have high-speed broadband Internet connections, it is practical to download HD movies and other content. Instead of waiting for Netflix or Blockbuster to mail you your next movie rental, you just pop in a Flash card and set the file to download from a rental service overnight while you sleep or during the day while you’re at work. The rental companies save on inventory and postage, and the movie you want will never be out of stock. After you watch the movie, you just download the next one, replacing the first one on your memory card. Any computer can be used to download the movie.
It's certainly an idea that could provide significant cost savings and an increased range of titles in the download rental market, but I'm not sure whether consumers are yet ready to abandon discs for films that they want to keep. If we reach a point where flash memory is at least of equivalent cost to a high definition disc, and DRM is such that users can keep films indefinitely, as per disc, then it might be viable. Downloading the same movie every time you want to watch it just isn't going to cut it right now - what if you want to watch three of your favourite movies in one night?
Another nice concept but probably some way off yet.
