Jenn and I have been using Netflix‘s streaming service a lot recently to watch all sorts of great classic sci-fi on our TV but the whole s-video-from-the-laptop-to-the-TV-with-no-remote setup is wearing thin. Clunky setup aside, the actual streaming experience has been mostly flawless with only the occasional hiccup. That’s why we’re eagerly awaiting the arrival of our new Roku box which promises to be a much more TV-centric video streaming experience.
Anyway, the imminent arrival of our Roku box got me thinking about the death of physical media for storing and transporting movies. Gizmodo had a couple of posts this week along these lines. One noted that less than 50% of HDTV owners don’t even know what blu-ray is! These are HDTV owners who are usually the ones who know what’s up. Forget the rest of the tv-watching public squinting at their standard def 28 inchers, these are the guys with the 48″ LCDs sitting back and counting pores on John Madden’s face in glorious 1080p. Doesn’t say much for the next generation plastic disc. Minimal awareness of a new technology is one thing, but the second post is about Staples’ eye-stabbingly ridiculous plan to sell self destructing DVDs for $4.99. Can you say EPIC FAIL?
I, for one, welcome our new movie streaming overlords. Stay tuned and I’ll let you know how it goes with the Roku.
I totally agree that streaming content is the future (or at least the next step) in how we watch movies at home. And Netflix seems to be taking the right steps to survive the death of the disc, especially when compared to Blockbuster. I find Blockbuster’s plan to get customers to download movies onto their iPods at in-house kiosks pretty ridiculous. Who wants to drive somewhere to download a movie? Isn’t this why we have high-speed internet access at home? For this round: Netflix 1, Blockbuster 0.
Also, I am very much looking forward to the Roku player! I sure hope it works.