I agree, but I refuse to go 100% digital when the quality sucks like it does.
Netflix's streaming catalogue is bad...like really bad, and I don't intend on paying $15-$20 for an HD version on iTunes when I can get the same thing for the same price on Blu-Ray.
Yes, I'm tired of the shitty menus and load times, but until they find a way to reproduce Blu-Ray quality in a digital format, it's a price I'm willing to pay.
Of course, Blu-Ray is digital. What it really comes down to is that 1) existing broadband in the US is too pissweak to stream anything even resembling the 40Mb/s Blu-Ray datarate; and more importantly 2) nobody cares. I mean, I care — I spent a good part of my life's blood (metaphorically speaking) getting those iTunes HD versions to look as good as 3Mb/s of H.264 can, and I can't watch HD TV programming, let alone SD without griping about quality; but for the average consumer, convenience (1.5Mb/s < SD basic profile H.264 streamed from Netflix) trumps all.
Netflix's streaming catalogue is bad...like really bad, and I don't intend on paying $15-$20 for an HD version on iTunes when I can get the same thing for the same price on Blu-Ray.
Yes, I'm tired of the shitty menus and load times, but until they find a way to reproduce Blu-Ray quality in a digital format, it's a price I'm willing to pay.
Still, great piece by Marco.