High definition's future is via the Internet, claims NetStreams CEO
Whilst on a daily basis we're wrapped up in whether Blu-ray or HD DVD will win the disc format war, the bigger picture is HD via the web.
CEO of NetStreams, Herman Cardenas, said that the future of home entertainment will be streamed via the Internet, and it's for precisely that reason that the big names (Microsoft, Apple, Sony, to name but three) are clamouring to get systems in place to stream their content into consumers' homes.
This trend will eventually lead to a reduction in the amount of 'black boxes' consumers have in their homes - they'll probably just have a TV and speakers able to handle all the audio and video decoding required to watch streamed content.
He mentioned companies like Amazon that are investing heavily in Internet 'storage farms' that can be leased to customers and allow them to maintain their digital media online.
It's a concept that's probably on its way, though I think it will be a while before consumers commit their films and music totally to the Net, and access it via their broadband connection. That connection needs to improve rapidly before such a vision can become a reality.
We all know that HD DVD and Blu-ray aren't the end of the road for storage and media distribution formats, and our current notion of high definition is already being superseded. I think we'll be using small shiny discs for a while to come yet.
I'm inclined to agree with him. We're already seeing tentative steps into online movie distribution (Microsoft with the Xbox 360, Apple with iTunes/iPod and Apple TV, various online companies like Amazon and Netflix, and it's likely that Sony will do something with the PS3), and since if the high def formats ever take over it's going to take a few years at least, by that time Internet connections will be more than fast enough to handle multi-gig downloads.
Posted by: Olly | March 8, 2007 6:24 PM