CrunchGear

Let’s see, we got blue-ray, HD-DVD, EVD (enhanced versatile disc) and now the option to skip all this format war BS and simply download the movie. It is about time somebody realized that the format war has nothing to do with format but more to do with distribution models.

Jon

A great deal for movie-watchers instead of being forced to pick a ’side’ when it comes to media (unless you have one huge glob-of-a-beast that plays everything). I know - as a Comcast subscriber - that I’d rather just press a few buttons than have to shuffle my way down to the video store, pick out a movie that may or may not be in stock.

Probably helps that I don’t own one of the three formats that Jon mentioned above. :D

I think this service will profit even more if Comcast decided to allow the customer to purchase the actual DVD at the end of the film for a price of $16. That way, Comcast gets the benefit of distributing movies and concurrently selling DVDs conveniently.

If only Comcast could convince movie distributors to allow them to release the film a week or two before the actually DVD is released.

Amit

The bigger question if these will be in HD or not.

I still prefer netflix.. The quality of an original widescreen DVD over a cable or directv movie (non HD) is worth it.

Better yet, why not give customers the option to pay an extra amount after watching a movie to add it to their Comcast library - a selection of purchased movies that you can watch any time On Demand - physical media is played out.

A friend and I built an HTPC and recorded his 350+ DVDs onto the 2 TBs of storage so that we would never have to move from the couch again. The MyMovies plugin for Media Center gives us that warm fuzzy Blockbuster feeling without ever having to leave the house.

Comcast should mimic it.

Andrew,
Thats a great idea. People can just burn their own DVDs if they want and Comcast has zero costs.

Let’s team up and start take over these big companies =)

Amit

An interesting thing about services like OnDemand is that they show that it’s feasible, bandwidth-wise, to stream video with rewinding, pausing and all, to a cable box. What this means is that it seems possible to provide PVR-like access to all television content, possibly for cheaper (on both ends) than doing it with a special box. Quite possibly the only reason it’s not done that way at this point is that cable companies would then be liable for distributing the content that way, and at the least they’d have to forcibly prevent skipping commercials.

My cable box has the PVR capabilities. I am always recording shows and skipping the commercials, however its annoying because I always super fast forward through them and have to come back and end up watching super speed commercials 5 times. It obviously does not have an auto commercial skipping feature.

Amit

Interesting, too bad Comcast is the only cable provider in my area and they are too expensive for my tastes. $59.99 a month for a standard package? No thanks. Comcast needs some real competition to keep prices down and improve content.

@Anthony

Comcast is the easiest company ever to talk down and get better deals from. Do a quick search on any site like fatwallet or slickdeals for the lowdown, but the gist of it is to bring up competitors like DSL/Satellite providers and get in touch with their retention program. I had their digital silver package at anywhere from 19.99~39.99/month WITH a HD DVR during my time in their subscription area (now I’m cable free - only watch DVDs).

To stay on topic - Comcast needs to speed up the whole OnDemand system - I don’t know if other DVRs suffered from the problem but the Microsoft version in the Seattle test area (are they still “testing” this? anyone?) was horribly laggy. People want instant gratification and Comcast wasn’t delivering on that end as early as last year.

(I noticed you said they are the only game in town just now, but still worth a try. Surprsing that there isnt a DSL competitor at least)