I am in the video production industry and have been working with HDV (High Def Video) for a couple years now. Until this past month, when I bought a Blu-Ray burner, the only way to send that content to clients was via external harddrive. (Since I did mostly post production work, they wanted things in raw formats anyway).

I have a couple clients that want work done in HDV for christmas even though most people don't have a Blu-Ray or HD-DVD player yet and there is going to be that nasty format war in the next year or two. I keep telling my clients, when they ask blu-ray or HD-DVD (as in what should they buy) neither because I believe that HD content is going to be delivered over broadband over services like iTunes. We're already seeing that with TV shows. I buy season passes to Battlestar Galactica, SG-1, and Atlantis since I don't get Sci-Fi at my apartment. Is it as clear and bright as watching over digital cable? No, but it looks good enough for my tastes on my 23" Apple Cinema HD display. Plus I can download it to my video iPod and watch when I want too. Like at the laudramat waiting for clothes to dry.

I've heard rumors of a Mac Mini like device dubbed "iTV" being developed by Apple. Considering that's a Mac Mini with front row remote now and HDMI output adaptor....

Anyway, that's my thoughts.

And on the topic, I'm doing a fan based 3D animated "webisode" series for this next summer that is being designed specifically for the iPod video/itunes format. Good idea or comments, thoughts?

ture man...

The problem is that not everyone has fast enough Internet connection to be able to distribute it over the Internet, and in Britain, which is a "developed" country, there is quite a large amount of people who don't have broadband. I only have a 512kb connection. (The fastest I can get)

Having said that, there is quite a lot of content being distributed over the Internet, like games via Direct2Drive, so you are quite probably right that things with be distributed via the net in the end, but we will still see things on hard copies for a while yet.

I was saying the same thing, but the more I got to thinking and seeing how things were going in the industry, the more I got to thinking that electronic distribution is going to be the future. After all, you only have to produce 1 copy that can be distributed thousands of times with the only variable cost being bandwidth. (which compared to discs and shipping...)

Personally, I'm not an iTunes fan, so if you're going to make a web series (which I fully support), I recommend you trying to diversify it a bit. Make it available elsewhere (i.e. YouTube or some such, unless you are planning on making it a pay-per-view sort of thing).

Correct me if I am wrong but doesn't a Hi Def disk hold something like to 20GB. I don't know what some peoples connections are like but that seems like a lot to download. Plus you have the issue of Hard drive space, unless these work something like the current download rentals

I still think it will be some time before we see hd content over the internet, not many people have that much bandwidth on their conections, but it definitely seems to be the future for it, just as the mp3. Digital seems to be replaceing all analog and physical data.

In many of my production and communication media classes we've discussed how televisions and computers are getting more similar and integrated everyday. I wouldn't doubt that Apple is making an "iTV" or whatever was discussed.....because if you think about it, we're almost there. They sell television shows on iTunes and now you can buy episodes and watch them on your computer. Internet movie rental sites are beginning to find ways to rent movies strictly through the computer instead of just regular mail.

It's amazing to think that the internet is the future of content distribution, but it's happening. More news is being reported on it at up-to-date speeds. You have access to a whole world that inhabits so much more than normal T.V. or radio. Political campaigns are working with the internet more often, businesses are realizing you don't need a big office building......just an online domain, and the television will soon be internet ready. You'll see. It's weird to think about that.

I think media is definitely starting to adapt to the possibilities of the internet... on the radio the other day, I heard about a new advertising strategy that's starting up. First a company will spend $50,000 or less (fairly cheap, considering) to make several videos that appear to be homemade and then distribute them via Youtube and other services. Most of them don't catch on, but once one does, they can then incorporate the video into a traditional advertising campaign on TV. The original video doesn't involve any product at all, so nobody realizes that its part of an advertisement, but once they see the commercial on TV, the audience theoretically going to associate that awesome "viral video" they found with something to go out and buy. If you saw the "bride cuts off all her hair" thing a few weeks ago, that was apparently a viral video for Unilever... this iTV thing is just another way companies are using the differences between the web and traditional media to their advantage, I guess.