milo bloom

Meh.

I could see a premium add-on to services like Netflix to stream them early for a very small rental fee. But that's entirely too high to pay for simple early access.

rexinnih

Agreement with most/all on the thread. If I want a movie, I'll purchase a physical copy.

davidh777

I can't imagine this is going to convert a lot of physical buyers to digital purchase. It seems the better chance would be to convert digital renters to buyers. $15 is pretty ballpark for digital purchases these days (new releases Snow White and the Huntsman and Cabin in the Woods are both $15 right now on Amazon/ too lazy to go to my other computer to check itunes). I have no idea who's buying these--like everyone else here I prefer physical for that price--but apparently there is some market. I suppose there are some people who would do this to watch a few key movies early--The Avengers would have potential--but probably not many.

And speaking of Cabin in the Woods, the digital version appears to be buyable from Amazon now even though the DVD isn't till 9/18. So this isn't a new concept.

I'm broadly stereotyping, but I think a lot of digital renters are digital renters because they don't want collections.

Alan Smithee

Universal has had a number of their titles on Vudu a week or so before the discs come out- they're usually for purchase only (about $19.99) with rentals not being available until after the disc comes out. I would never buy a movie this way- they can only be watched on devices linked to my account, and they can be taken off-line at any time for any reason (Vudu already did this with their porn titles after Wal-Mart bought them out and decided to not carry them anymore- but they were nice enough to refund everyone's money.)

And despite their claims of being "HD", there is MUCH more compression visible than on a Blu-Ray disc. Admittedly it's pretty good for what it is, but no substitute.