ROTF via USB Stick

Paramount and Kingston team up for movies on flash memory

Sorry if its old news (i looked first) but it would be even better (and worth it) if it came on a Ravage USB stick.

Just saying, you know us fanboys...

FAIL

$30 for a non-HD copy of the movie and a memory stick that is already filled up (mostly)?

It's cheaper to buy both the BD and an empty stick.

If you could put it on Device Label Ravage, that would be awesome.

Originally Posted by Spoon And Sage is a poo. But if poos could have a heart of gold, then Sage would.

On the plus side, it'll take up very little space compared to Dvd and Blu-ray.

I'm sure the price will come down once they get out there. Lets let the market decide if an idea like this has a future.

I'm just worried about what kind of software these are going to try to force on your hard drive, in some futile attempt at anti-piracy.

People need to start getting prepared that THIS is very quickly going to become the next commonplace hardcopy (aka tangible) format for music & movies. I've worked in the music scene for almost 12 years now and this is something a lot of labels & studios have been seriously talking about, strategizing & planning over the past 1-2 years. The biggest thing that has prevented it from moving ahead full steam is that CD's & DVD's are still considered relevant formats due to how long they've been around. This is also why a lot of movie studios are not doing mass re-releases of their films on Blu-Ray - because many of them are not confident that it will be around for much longer, and anticipate it could be replaced by USB's and/or new flash cards (sized like a business card) as fast as Blu-Ray replaced HD less than 2 years ago. Plus Blu-Ray, almost by default, has been proving that people generally don't care about artwork & booklets anymore since virtually none of the releases include anything except a disc and a bare basic insert. People just want the content and will seemingly spend the same amount with or without elaborate packaging.

All in all, very interesting to see these Transformers movies continuing to be on the cusp of the 'next big thing' thanks to a savvy director and backing studio. Bay protested the lack of Blu-Ray back when TF1 was being released and it wouldn't surprise me if he had some direct involvement with making this happen with ROTF as well.

No it won't.

Because this will never take off. a new format for movies will never take hold if consumers dont support it, no matter what the companies behind it want.

Except that this is exactly what people DO want - smaller, space saving media products that are easily transportable and digitally transferable. It obviously has to go through an expected refining process (offer HD content, modern sound surround options, be compatible with cross platform devices, probably come down in cost a bit, etc.) and won't necessarily *replace* CD's or DVD's outright, but this absolutely is the next step in the world of music & movies continuing to be offered in a physically tangible form. For as many people that are buying Blu-Ray because of the better quality, for example, there's just as many doing it simply because it takes up less space. That's almost surprising, but when you look at everything else associated with these mediums (iPod's, Nano's, PSP's, etc.) along with the recent boom in digital book offerings ala Kindle, the writing has been on the wall for a while now that smaller is better when it comes virtually anything & everything that can be offered digitally.

Haha, but just to clarify, I'm not saying it's a GOOD idea. Personally I still love 'old school' CD's, DVD's & books. But I also know that time is running out for all them since I've been dealing with it firsthand via how my industry now releases its products. Then again, it's not really insider information anymore either. Walk into any store and it's clear as day what's happening and where we're going from here.

But this offers inferior sound and vision to BD, and most likely costs considerably more to manufacture, with the costs passed onto the consumer.

Hence why it's still being a refined format option and still being considered an "experimental" medium. It's not going to explode overnight since most personnel involved with it already know that if they can't do it as close to "right" as possible out of the starting gate, then don't it at all... yet. But we're close. And by "we" I mean the consumers. We're less than 1-2 years away from seeing these sorts of ultra-small / ultra-portable devices popping up everywhere *alongside* the more established traditional formats, but it'll be at least 5 years or more before they eventually overtake and/or replace them... no different than the current ratio of sales in digital music vs. CD's. Digital sales continue to increase and CD sales continue to decrease, but on paper, it hasn't overtaken yet... though it looks to by 2010.

Then of course there's the ever present "Joe Average" angle which labels & studios very much prey AND reply upon for broader sales - continuing to cater to the people who buy whatever is cheapest & convenient with no regard or care whatsoever about the technical aspects. That angle alone is pretty much the exact thing that has kept DVD's & CD's relevant in the first place, along with the few of us (mainly collectors) who are just too stubborn or paranoid to embrace a new format yet.