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Tiered internet would support oligarchies and monopolies more.

Imagine a world where "the studios" had to pay for all bandwidth usage twice, or suffer degraded performance. What happens to independent projects, then?

Did someone actually try to argue that raising the barrier of entry can do anything at all other than support the existing, entrenched power structures?

If you want to see an example of a series that's done in a downloadable and on a small budget but still looks good then take a look at http://www.sanctuaryforall.com/

I think it's telling that Sanctuary's About page describes the hardware and software used to create the show, but doesn't tell me what the show is, you know, about.
 
Art is about creating an emotional connection with the viewer. Maybe when the Sanctuary folks realize that's more important than "an innovative 3D computer-model tracking system live on set" they'll begin to accrue more viewers.

What a coward. You should have done without and perhaps supported those that give you what you actually want.

Dunno, but I don't put up with Apple's defective by design products, and instead watch shows that put more effort in their actual product. Although I will admit I do put up with DRM in DVDs, however my annoyance at the DVDs is mounting every time I suffer through their ads or warnings.

Easier. To play HD content from a disc I just place a disc in a player, and it's playing.

Wow, you get discs out of thin air? How'd you manage that?

To get HD content online I have to decide to buy it from somewhere (and have an internet connection to my system at the TV). Then I have to wait for it to buffer enough to start watching.

That's not "downloading", that's "streaming".

But let's try a fair comparison, then, shall we? To play HD content from a disc, I just drive out to Wall-Mart, buy a disc, bring it hope, break open the shrink wrap, put it in a player, and it's playing. Or I go on Netflix, add them to my queue, wait for them in the mail, open the package, open the disc, put it in the player, and it's playing -- and then I have to remember to mail it back afterwards.

To get HD content online, I have to decide to buy it from somewhere (just like the above), wait for it to download (a hell of a lot faster than mailing), press play, and it's playing.

And then I have to watch a greatly compressed video/audio experience that makes buying a decent HD set a waste.

It is too bad that there isn't more quality HD stuff online, then. But that's not a discussion of "easier" -- that's a discussion of "better quality" -- and high-quality stuff certainly does exist.

If I downloaded the content legally and want to share it with a friend I can't do that.

Erm, where are we talking about? There's at least one high-quality, un-DRM'd show online right now. (Exclusively online, actually.)

If I downloaded it legally I load them a hard drive (!).

Or you could just send it to them over the Internet. Or burn it to a disc -- but it can be any disc, really, even a 4 gig DVD.

If I have physical media, I just loan them a disc

Then they scratch it, and you have to buy a brand-new copy of the disc.

Online downloads? Cheap indeed but either they are (a) very cheap and the media expires shortly, or (b) actually rather expensive for the same non-portable highly compressed content I mentioned before.

Not much online right now, but there are at least some that are, again, portable and of decent quality.

probably get them faster than a torrent and cheaper than legal online HD media.

Fiber is coming. Actually, in my hometown, it's here -- 100 mbits to the home. Just did the math, and that means at most an hour and a half to download 50 gigs of data -- assuming it's a full Blu-Ray disc (most BR movies are only 25 gigs). Unless you live right next to NetFlix, or you're getting some 10 or 15 discs per day, that pretty much has you beat.

Cheap? Well, that Sanctuary link seemed reasonable, though certainly not as cheap -- but NetFlix is rental, and Sanctuary is to own. $8.75 for four episodes, which are, on average, 15 mins -- so less than $20 for a movie's worth, which is cheaper than new DVDs.

The trouble is, there isn't really anyone doing "rentals" without DRM, and they are not doing the DRM particularly well. DRM done right can actually facilitate more mobility and flexibility. I can burn Steam games to DVDs, make as many copies as I want, or I can simply download the Steam client somewhere else, login, and re-download the entire game.

But at least right now, I think there's a big window for someone who wants to "rent" DRM-free movies over the Internet. Make it cheap enough, and basically assume that a full-quality copy of it will take too much space for now, so people will only keep 5-10 movies around, if that. Do it right, and by the time the technology catches up, people will already be in the habit of buying this stuff legitimately.

Oh, one parting shot: With digital distribution, you aren't necessarily sending money to a network, to the MPAA, to Sony -- depending on how it's done, you certainly can send it straight to the people responsible.

Go watch Sanctuary. It comes with no DRM, and is a pretty decent show.

If you think my argument is bullshit, rebut it with actual information such as a plan to ensure that these internet-distributed shows will indeed actually carry subtitles.

Then present your argument better. You started off railing about how there won't be subtitles, then clarified with something like "Oh, but they can do subtitles, but I just know they won't."

As such, it seemed fairly luddite and absurd.

Now, your argument seems to be more along the lines of "I want some assurance that they'll do subtitles." And yes, but don't approach that as either being anti-Internet or specifically targeting Internet legislation. I'd look more for some option to get subtitles on any video, anywhere. Something like Captel might be a start.

Oh, by the way: This production seems to have quite a few subtitles, including English. They're fansubs, but they are in SRT format. They also seem to have Windows Media and Quicktime, which I assume means WMV9/VC1 and h.264, which also means (if you care) that you could probably play these all on Linux, using entirely native codecs.

While the bar for TV shows is a bit higher, its certainly not out of reach.

Oh, forgot to mention. This is how i view TV today, but using normal broadcasts for the distribution .. And from time to time i download something ;) ...

One show that has kicked off in the right direction is http://www.sanctuaryforall.com/ and it's only available online...

I think we'd honestly pay $5 for a 30 minute show

Currently there's Sanctuary which has 15 min webisodes (say 14 less intro, no ads, credits in pdf) which in bundles work out to about $3.30/21min content which is what you get in a 30 minute show. More like $4.50 if you want 30 mins of content, but then it's a 45-50 minute show.

This isn't on iTunes, but it is only available only on the web:
Sanctuary

http://www.sanctuaryforall.com/ is a site trying to see if they can make a new entertainment model to work: They produce "webisodes" (roughly 15 minuttes a piece) only for the website, its not for tv, its not for dvd's its for tv. If enough people buy it they'll make more - but... no subtitles, except some fans haved started to make their own and link to them in the forum.

You'd think that someone who tries to be inventive and use the internet as a new medium would take that in to cosideration, but apparently they can't be bothered.

(With their prices I doubt they'll last long anyway, but that's a differen story)

Sanctuary is trying the Internet-only approach to TV distribution. It stars Amanda Tapping (Samantha Carter from Stargate SG-1) and some other familiar faces. You can buy DRM-free 480p and 720p downloads or watch the Youtube video for free (Sanctuary Fans has a link to that).

It's a very cool show and could easily be picked up by broadcast TV if they wanted to deal with the nuisance involved. I'm hoping they're successful.