4 ms·
802.11g or n is faster than most consumer Internet connections. Nobody's suggesting streaming HD movies over the cell network... yet. Blu-ray discs are 25-50GB
by chroma 16y ago
802.11g or n is faster than most consumer Internet connections. Nobody's suggesting streaming HD movies over the cell network... yet.
Blu-ray discs are 25-50GB, but they contain lots of stuff besides the movie (bonus material and other stuff). Dropping extra features, using newer codecs, and slightly decreasing encoding quality can pare a 720p movie down to 5-6GB. Over a 20Mbit connection, that's a 30-40 minute download. Definitely streamable.
In fact Apple, Netflix, and Amazon all do this already. They sacrifice some quality compared to blu-ray, but unlike blu-ray, you don't have to transport a physical disc to your home. Even though blu-ray is higher quality, you have to ship discs or travel to a store to get them. Video on demand is so much more convenient, and the quality is only going to get better as connection speeds and codecs improve.
- alextgordon 16y agoOver a 20Mbit connection, that's a 30-40 minute download. Definitely streamable. Unless you're in Korea, 20Mbit connections are far from commonplace. And in many countries download caps are the norm, which would preclude watching more than a handful of movies a month.
- chroma 16y agoI used 20Mbit in the example because that's what I have. I'm on Comcast, which has a soft cap of 250GB/month. I'd have to watch a movie every day to get close to their limit. A 10Mbit connection would double the download time to 60-80 minutes, which is still fast enough to stream.
- alextgordon 16y agoHere in the UK there's a large variance, but caps start at 10GB and those in the region of 40GB are commonplace (there is also a good selection of unlimited providers). And IIRC the average connection speed is 5Mbps, but again many people have 2Mbps or slower. International internet infrastructure has a long way to go before optical media is anywhere near irrelevant.