Video Rentals & Downloads Will Be the Future

Over the years, we’ve embraced numerous video formats, most of those being an abandoned child from Sony. Digital downloads are no different, but this time around it’s a 3-way battle, one that won’t be easily won.

There are many factors preventing digital downloads from taking a foothold amongst consumers on the scale that VHS and DVD have. The issue of backing up, storage capacity, and even download speeds are the big 3 problems affecting widespread adoption.

Nonetheless, Apple is putting into motion what is needed to propel digital downloads to the masses through the use of rentals. Renting a movie solves the problems of worrying about storage and backing up your data. The main demographic are those interested in only viewing a movie once and being done with it, but the low price point makes it feasible to buy that movie again at a later date to watch with friends or if you’re feeling a bit nostalgic.

However, it will be a long time before digital downloads themselves replace physical formats. It’s feasible to retain a physical copy over a digital copy for cost reasons and compatibility. There is a lot of muck over what you can and can’t do with a downloaded video, and the same goes for physical media, but the latter can be ripped bypassing the DRM. Even then, CDs are still compatible with today’s High Definition players and the number of formats each can play are numerous.

The same cannot be said for digital downloads. The iPhone and iPod are very, very limited about what kind of format they can play. Other handheld devices aren’t as picky, but the restrictions are still there. This causes confusion amongst consumers since there is no unified format for everything. Manufacturers can agree to support one but that doesn’t mean content creators will.

Digital downloads have a huge advantage over physical media though. It’s much easier to download a movie and watch it versus going out and renting it, but that is not all Apple’s doing. Even Netflix, the king of mail out rentals, is moving to online distribution. To put it on equal footing with physical media, HD downloads are starting to crop up. While the resolution and quality vary greatly between the two, it’s the first step for HD downloads.