Last week, The New York Times published an article titled “Web Movies Show Why DVD’s sell.” CNet’s News.com posted an article covering the exact opposite position - “Digital Downloads will be Blu-Ray’s Downfall.” Which one is right?

Bandwidth is the biggest challenge to digital downloads. Quite simply, not everyone has a fast enough Internet connection to make high-def content a reasonable download. Another less serious issue is the lack of tangibility of a downloaded product, however this issue will pass in time for movies and TV shows just like it has with music. A commenter at News.com brought up the issue of gift giving, but this can be overcome with gift cards for a specific download like iTunes and Starbucks do today.

Will downloads kill Blu-ray? Not right away. Downloadable content is the next step, but the infrastructure just isn’t there to support widespread adoption. Consumers in cities will be the first to adopt as they will be the first to have the bandwidth. The videophiles will need to see 1080p available before they will adopt downloads over Blu-ray — currently the major download shops only support 720p. It’ll be a while before downloads replace Blu-ray, at least 5 years. Until then, enjoy your Sony owned HD market.

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