I mean, we moan, but we really don’t fret about paying $12 for a movie ticket, because we enjoy the experience. But the public hated paying $16 for a cd that they knew cost $1 to make, but they were ok paying $0.99 for the 1/16th they actually wanted. It’s as if you had to pay $120 for a 10-feature movie at the theatre.

The internet shows what a creative mind can do with the right know-how (netflix, itunes). The VOD services are all folding, but someone will get it right soon. I mean, webvans lost $300 million in startup capital, and then freshdirect does the same thing and makes a killing, all because they did it better.

But good downloadable content also won’t be ready for at least 10 years because internet speeds aren’t nearly fast enough to download 1080i movies instantly. So we’ll have to settle for the physical media for the time being.

(How many different versions I have of the original trilogy on VHS is another story altogether…)

You’re right that the big companies will be reluctant to change their business models, as they want to make more money. But keep in mind that the home video market is sagging, and there are definitely new ways for the companies to make money. If a DVD costs $19.99 now, the studio could sell access to it at the same price later. Even if the manufacturing costs are minimal, that’s still an increase in their profit margins.

And of course, there can be compromises. Like if Fox didn’t want to just give away access to people who already bought The Simpsons DVDs, they could offer a rebate of a few bucks for each DVD set that could go towards access to the new version of the content.

@meh - As much as I’d love to drop $400 on that thing, I still wouldn’t be able to watch my movies and shows on my commute.

…you could always try using this:
http://www.sonystyle.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?catalogId=10551&storeId=10151&langId=-1&productId=11038348&XID=O:sony%20400%20dvd%20changer:dg_hav_gglsrch

More importantly, they don’t like to change their business model, even if it means the chance of more money because there is also some risk. They are making good money today and that is good enough for them. I don’t think that they care much for what the consumer wants and making it cheaper for you to do all these different things is certainly not in their interest (remember manufacturing/transmission costs are trivial so you saving money means them just making less).

This applies to video games as well…anything where a scratch on the disc ruins everything.

The other “biggest problem” right now is that our current bandwidth via Cable/DSL/FIOS/whatever isn’t QUITE fast enough to store ALL of our content (movies, music, pictures, games, documents) in the “Cloud”…but we’re getting there.

What makes my plan most unrealistic is the fact that people keep shelling out for multiple copies of the same thing. If people were to stop doing that and the industry were to hurt more, they would have to focus on other ways of generating revenue. But as I said, the possibility exists for a much bigger profit margin for the studios because of all the savings with digital distribution.

Sure, no one wants to hear a commentary with no-names, but maybe a new commentary with Matthew Broderick on Ferris Bueller’s Day Off would be enough to get people to shell out a few bucks for it. And considering that recording such a track would be exceedingly cheap, it could be worthwhile.