online video By: -John Lustig No comments

The Bourne Ultimatum [wall1]
Originally uploaded by tctiger911

I saw The Bourne Ultimatum today. I didn't see it in a theater. I didn't rent a dvd either. I watched it online. A friend turned me on to Online Video Guide - www.ovguide.com. OVG has links to many sources of online video source sites, some obviously legal, some obviously not. I didn't look at too many. I found many recently released in theater movies listed, so I thought I would check out the quality and I was not impressed.

First of all, obviously, the video was pirated! Who knows where, but it was a recording made by someone who attending a showing of the movie in a theater. It was not bad, but it wasn't great either. If you do happen to seek out this type of online video you will probably need to check out a few different feeds until you get a decent picture.

I personally liked the divx formated version of the movie, at least the version I saw. It only had heads pop up a few times and there was only a little popcorn and candy munching in the back ground. The divx player plugin worked really well. It was not that different from windows media player or quicktime plugins except it had a full screen view that toggled easy back to the window view.

Will I purchase or rent the dvd when it comes out? Probably one or both. Will I now regularly watch pirated video online? No. Will I never do it again? Never say never, but most likely not.

I do watch TV online, but I do so through network feeds. They should start using the divx format.

I'm not ready to forgo the dvd. But when I get an s-video compatible TV I probably will make the switch. Netflix already offers a streaming option for their subscription plans. Who will need cable or satellite when you can get shows *on demand* through the Internet? Don't get me wrong, I don't believe cable or satellite are going away. But, I do think the non-live content you can get from them will be soon readily available via your internet connection. iTunes already has demonstrated that people will pay $1.99 to watch a tv show that they can watch for free. So, when the commercial tv networks figure this out, bye bye commercial broadcast.