Monday, February 06, 2006

Not Getting With the Program

This News.com blog post is right on the money: network execs see that The Office is the number one iTunes TV show download and then decide to schedule their Thursday night lineup around it. Um...hello? It's a popular download because the show's fans don't care about time slots. In fact, the reason I have been downloading episodes of Lost is because I can't remember when or what channel it's on and, besides, I'd much rather watch it when I feel like watching it, not when whatever network it's on tells me to watch it.

That said, there are limitations (at least at the moment) to downloading TV shows: the compression rate needed to make digital video downloadable really compromises image quality. Even on my 15-inch Powerbook, Lost doesn't look that great (lots of pixellation) and if I ever got a wide screen TV I'd hate to think how it would look if I hooked my Powerbook up to it.

But this is where DVDs come in. I recently installed a surround sound speaker system and with all the sci-fi shows/movies I like, I find that the DVD versions really take advantage of it. It would be hard (at least at the moment) to replicate this way cool experience with downloads.

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