Colin Dunstan
06-14-2004, 11:28 AM
According to NYT (http://www.nytimes.com/2004/06/14/technology/14real.html), Digital media company RealNetworks Inc. and Starz Encore Group launched an online flat-rate movie download service in the US this Monday. The service costs $12.95/mth. and will give access to currently hundred movies, including titles such as "Finding Nemo" and "Pirates of the Caribbean".
What makes me wonder is the quality of those downloads. Reuters mentions a 20-minute download time for each movie, which seems way too small to download a high-quality file that would be similar to DVD quality (a DVD encoded in XviD or DivX is still around 700 MB, and I believe most users won't be able to download such a big file in 20 minutes).
What makes me wonder is the quality of those downloads. Reuters mentions a 20-minute download time for each movie, which seems way too small to download a high-quality file that would be similar to DVD quality (a DVD encoded in XviD or DivX is still around 700 MB, and I believe most users won't be able to download such a big file in 20 minutes).