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PostPosted: Sat May 28, 2011 1:51 pm 
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Posts: 6140
I wonder what's the best way to watch High Def content ??
What I mean what's the most economic way, assuming High Def content is really High Def.

1) Blue Ray discs: We know, it costs around $ 25 for a 2-4 hour content.
Or, you can rent a Blue Ray for $5-8 for 1-2 days (add cost of driving too).

2) Direct To Home Dish network or Cable-vision etc: You pay the monthly fee or "Pay Per View". I assume, it costs around $ 50 pm plus pay per view content.

3) Receive HD content thru Internet: Assuming HD content stream available for free, you still have to pay for the signal traffic that may cost you 'an arm and a leg'. Can you imagine watching a 50 GB High Def movie and then paying for receiving this 50 GB signal that you received. These days, Internet providers give you a limited GBs, e.g. $ 45 pm for 25 GB pm plus you pay $ 5 for each additional GB. Or, you get a plan for $ 60 or $ 70 and get a 100 or even 200 GB plan (200 GB means only 4 High Def movies). Or, you buy an unlimited plan, for which you pay upwards of $ 100 pm.

The same applies to regular un-compressed DVD movies (7 GB on average). Or, you can watch Youtube low quality content for almost negligible Bytes.

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Based on this, it looks like, Blue Ray discs at $ 25 each, or cable/ DTH streaming of HD is the cheapest option.

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Question: How do they count Internet GB usage ??
For Exampole, you start watching a 50 GB High Def movie and then you stop watching it after just 19 min. Most likely, in these 10 min, full 50 GB has Downloaded on your PC/ TV and so you are on the hook paying for full 50 GB ??


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PostPosted: Sat May 28, 2011 3:03 pm 
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Joined: Fri Oct 23, 2009 8:07 pm
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Location: Saginaw, Michigan
I have to say that its gotta be the blu-ray for me..

I can rent my blu-rays from the local RedBox (a minute walk away) for $1.50. Even the blu-rays that I buy, I usually sell off the accompanying DVD and Digital Copy on the day of the release and as a result, the net cost of the blu-ray for me is sometimes free or I make money from buying the blu-ray combo pack, or at the worst I have to spend just about $1-2 out of my pocket. It is pretty rare for a blu-ray movie release in the U.S. not to have a combo pack release (except the older catalog titles). Also, you have the element of reproducibility with the blu-rays (if you own the blu-ray you can replay it any number of times). Throw in the Blu-ray 3D content (non-existent on streaming channels) and the HD 5.1 or even the HD 7.1 soundtrack on some blu-rays (as against regular DVD-quality audio, at best, over the other options), I think you have yourselves a winner. I am sure that most people would agree that the audio is an important aspect of the cinematic viewing experience. Finally, there is the satisfaction of actually being able to physically hold a product in your hand (with the original packaging, cover art, slipcover, etc.) and put it on display in your collection (incidentally stamping your ownership over the content), which cannot be said of all the other options.

DTH, CableVision, 'Pay per view' - Expensive options

Thankfully, my ISP doesn't cap my data download limit and I pay a fixed monthly rate for the service regardless of however much I download. But, I find the whole process too tedious (and I am sure that many people would also protest against the copyright infringements if you aren't streaming from a legitimate site) to be worth my while.

But having said that, with the speed at which we've been seeing new announcements in the HD market almost every day, I wouldn't be surprised if my answer changes in the near-future.


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