FRED MANTEGHIAN BLOG

While we’re sitting around waiting for Blu-ray or HD-DVD high definition players and discs to hit the shelves, we can still do a little hi-def pickin’ and chosin’ on our own beyond switching hi-def channels. On Apple’s web site, you can find links to hi-def trailers that you can download and watch right now, like this one for X3. Of course, you need a home theater PC if you want to show it on your projector or hi-def set, but I was satisfied to watch it on my not too shabby IBM T42P laptop. Even though the 15” screen’s aspect ratio is an old school 1.33:1, the resolution is an eye-popping 1600 x 1200.

Although 480p is offered at the site, it’s not high-def in my book. The next choice, 720p would require a 1280 x 720 viewing plane. The larger 1080p (yes, progressive!) version overshoots my screen horizontally without so much as a “send error” dialog box. I pick the Mama Bear solution.

I spent an hour with Joe Kane at CEDIA in September, and he was touting Samsung’s new hi-definition video spooler, for lack of a better term, that could be the future of hi-definition. Not Blu-ray. Not HD-DVD. This, er, appliance could download movies over the internet into its hard drive, day and date with the movie’s release at theaters. Watch the movie twice and it expires. Renew it as often as the studio needs a cash injection which is pretty much all the time.

The point is, it’s not a bad idea. I’d rather watch Peter Jackson’s King Kong tonight at home on the Dwin DLP projector than drive through frozen slush to the megaplex to see it there. At least it is winter now and I can sneak my own (marginally) healthier snacks under my coat.

Sure, we lose the medium. It’s like the vinyl LP all over again. Bye-bye gatefold. Hello tiny CD booklet. Hasta la vista snapper case. G’day credit card statement. But we get to see the movie. Instant gratification, isn’t that what we all want? Never mind it took three years to make the movie.

But there’s an elephant in the room. Here in Smallville, a good night on the broadband will get me over 3,000 kilobits per second download speed. Tonight, it’s not so good, and I’m getting about a 1/4th of that. Still, compared to DSL customers, I’m blazing.

The 100 second 720p trailer takes 25 minutes to download. A 100 minute movie would take 42 hours. At three hours, Kong would take 100 hours to download. That’s longer than it took to get the great ape to the mainland.

The trailer looks great. The future for hi-def over the internet? Not so.