Movie Downloads: Get Real

Fellow Portfolio blogger Tim Swanson writes about Warner Bros. soon testing -- again -- the idea of offering downloads of a movie the same day it's released on DVD. Not willing to take many chances, WB decided to do this with a movie hardly anyone has heard about or ever seen, Billy Bob Thornton's The Astronaut Farmer.

It's frustrating to watch the studios struggle with this, trying to protect varying interests -- including not offending Wal-Mart, which sells vast numbers of physical DVDs.

Here's the bottom line, from experience:

Movie downloads right through the TV -- from the likes of Verizon FiOS (which I have) or Comcast -- totally ROCK. It's easy, user-friendly, convenient. I'd do it all the time except for its one fatal flaw: the selection stinks -- because studios are afraid to release too many movies this way.

Movie downloads via the Net generally suck. Once you have them, it's fine -- if you want to watch on your laptop. But the process of downloading is still painful for most people. It works a little better through a Media Center-type PC hooked to a big flat-panel screen, but I'd guess that about 0.2% of the population has such a set-up.

DVDs by mail, a la Netflix, is the best temporary solution. Physical video stores are doomed. Buying DVDs really makes no sense, unless it's a movie you know you'll watch over and over (in our house: Airplane!), or you plan to trade the on Peerflix.

Really can't figure out what the studios are waiting for.

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