"But if any single organisation is well equipped to blaze the way through this minefield, it is probably Disney."

Disney is one of the biggest mine producers. Extended copyright, worst copy protection crap (along with fox). They just release one movie every few years (and a bunch of direct to video crap side stories) and then try and resell them every 7 years.

The only thing NEW Disney will be looking for in a download format will be new ways to make you buy the same thing again and again.

We're all headed to a wonderful world of cloud computing where you will end up with all your apps / storage all online. All you will need to rely on (for the most part) will be your internet connection speed and your subscription(s) to the cloud. When you buy a new Disney "DVD" it will not require a download because it will all be hosted on the net. It will require a 'transfer' or something equivalent to your personal 'space' which you will be able to access via a login from your ps6, Personal Media Machine (Read PC at the mo), Webbook reader, webfilm watcher or whatever technology you fancy via uber fast wifi access to either your direct internet or your local fast speed intertnet hub.
But it is a little way off yet.
They need to make it hard for people to actually make their media work for their multiple devices and for the shared medium access to be preferable for average Joes like us to buy digitally something which we can currently hold in our hand.

Lets see, I never argued against dvd format.... actually I suggested an altogether alternative to the current "Print the disks, send to retailers" format. DRM is a pain in the butt, and no-one wants it. What I suggest is to open up the market a bit and create a bit more efficiency in the market is a slightly different way of distribution.

For example, instead of Best Buy, or Target, or whatever retailer, buying '000'000s of disks and then hoping that they can sell them, they negotiate for a license reseller contract. If they want, they can then put x amount of licenses on DVD/BD that they think they can sell, or if the price is right from the studio buy copies direct from them. They can then onsell licenses in a creative manner, online for those with a decent internet connection. Or develop their own network and kiosks or other method so the customer can put it direct to their ipod/PMP/Mobile phone/SD card or other portable device, with the only time to wait being the time it takes to transfer to the device. A license scheme is far more flexible than the current DVD/BD media and given more people are on the go, and want their entertainment "everywhere" flexibility.

In the end, a license should come with a DVD/BD and should your DVD/BD get damaged, you don't buy another license + Disk, just the cost of replacing the disk. Should you format your disk and lose your movies, all you need to do is download again, with little or no charge. I'm not saying that this method isn't without it's issues (what happens if you lost evidence of your license, ie the receipt) But it could make a big splash in the market and access to media easier by opening the doors to innovation (something that the MPAA etc are reticent to do)

Actually I think it's you JD and Adam who haven't thought this through. Mauller07's points are spot-on. I own a sizable blu-ray collection and I can pretty much guarantee I will never be willing to spend that kind of money on digital distribution based content. The United States has one of the poorest broadband strategies in the world and I do not see that changing any time soon. Where I live the fastest broadband connection available is 1.5mbps. Do you honestly think I want to wait a week to watch the high definition movie I just purchased while it downloads? The kind of picture quality that makes me willing to empty my wallet is simply not feasible with digital distribution. You might think that in the future faster broadband speeds will make a 25 gig download easier to swallow but you must accept that by the time that happens, the movie industry will have moved on to much larger higher density physical mediums. Visualize a 500gb "super disc". Still willing to wait?

The other concerns listed are equally valid. If there is one thing movie companies have proven without any question is that they cannot be trusted to protect the interest of their customers. As it is, publicly traded companies in the US are already willing to do what they know will damage long term viability in pursuit of short-term quarterly profits. Can you seriously say you trust these companies to ensure that your purchases will still be there for you once it becomes a financial burden for them to maintain the servers? Didn't Wal-Mart have a DRM protected digital music distribution system until not long ago?

Disney's DVD sales blues are not a result of a problem with the distribution medium but a result of Disney, in at least my case, making poor decisions that ultimately punish the customer. For example: I was collecting some of their older cartoon series as they were released on DVD in volumes. But for some reason Disney up and decided not to complete any of their series. They just stopped putting them out mid-series and they wonder why we don't trust them anymore. Stopping mid-series severely damaged the value of the collection. Customers pay for value not for product. As long as the perceived value exceeds the price then the product will sell. If they can accomplish digital distribution without damaging the value then they will succeed. To do that they would need the ability to distribute a full 1920x1080 resolution movie with no noticeable compression artifacts and absolutely no DRM limitations in under say, , the hour or so it would take me to drive to a best-buy. Does that sound likely or even possible right now? I don't even see that happening 5 to 10 years from now and by then we will likely be looking at the next iteration of high definition.

Digital distribution is an option when the price is the bottom line, but it will never replace high end physical media.

I think you haven't thought through this well enough. Much like today you go to which ever retailer you like and try and get the best price on the dvd you want, this could just as easily apply to downloads, with retailers setting up their own networks and you just go into the store with your device and purchase the digital file and download from either a local onsite server or from the retailers own network, for a modest markup of course, this is called in the world of marketing as value adding. Basically in the end what Disney is proposing is that you buy a license, you get some form of physical copy of said license and then you can "redeem" said license for a copy of the works on whatever medium you choose (with whatever value added medium you choose) This frees up the market to decide what formats are distributed. Generally speaking, if HD formats become common, the film makers will use the technology for filming because it's hard upscale older low res films/formats to new HD formats. It also might push for certain formats to become common, or force new formats to become common, anyone say "portable mpeg" or "portable video format", with devices that then show said shiny label so average joe can know that x download from x website will work with x devices. That's what is currently missing from the equation in my opinion, and when said format gets agreed to, every electronics maker will know what their device needs to be capable of for portable video to truly take off. As it is, avg joe doesn't want to know about divx (which has reasonable amount of shiny badges, but hasn't really hit the model I've suggested above), or Xvid or x.264 they just want to know that it'll work when they press play.

"Physical media will always be superior as people will want a guarantee that what they have bought is physically there and theirs.
digitally distributed media is far too prone to technological changes in too short a time in comparisson to physical media that has a longer life, making what you bought unplayable or loosing it entirely as the company went bust or what someone stored it on fails and even accidental delletion.
posted by : Mauller07"

Isn't one of the selling points of digital media that you will always, always be able to play it on the latest and newest devices, if not directly, then easily via painless transcode. Concerns about backup and data security are so very much 2005 discussions as well, how much free cloud space do you want, exactly?

I applaud Disney's direction here, provided they don't fall into a model which is DRMed to the point of idiocy and limits device portability. I will gladly pay a reasonable fee for high quality, quick availability downloadable content. How much lead-time from cinema can we expect? This will be critical, the issue with piracy is partially driven by the time frame with which material becomes available by other media.

Now, If I was someone like blockbuster, or had a Sky boxoffice like business model, I would be very concerned by this direction, but as a consumer, bring it on.

This is exactly what media digital distrubution needs as a model. The technical difficulties (ie: low bandwidth to the rest of the world) will be overcome with time. My main problem with this model is that prices for older content will not drop and higher quality versions wont become available.

The number of times i've watched Aladdin would make this well worth it :P

We don't know a Pirates Bay of the Caribbean, but we've heard on it.

Digital distribution is massivly unworkable for many people as you would never be able to get a Full Blu-ray quality movie with today pathetic internet conections and Download limits.

Just one movie and i would be left without the internet till the next month.

Physical media will always be superior as people will want a guarantee that what they have bought is physically there and theirs.

digitally distributed media is far too prone to technological changes in too short a time in comparisson to physical media that has a longer life, making what you bought unplayable or loosing it entirely as the company went bust or what someone stored it on fails and even accidental delletion.