In my last post about the HD DVD vs. Blue Ray There Are No True Winners In This Format War [HD DVD vs. Blue-Ray] I didn’t mention much about my personal plan. Funny since it is likely of particular interest to those who read this blog. I will be (and have been) skipping this Blue-Ray vs. HD DVD and going right for digital download.

I’m not the only one to notice that no media at all is the next gen format. Netflix has been slowly easing us into digital downloads culminating in their unlimited movie downloads on most packages and a set top digital download box. Hulu (NBC and Fox) allows people to watch nearly commercial free (while in beta, expect commercials to increase when it is finished) first run TV shows from their PC.

The future of media is no media at all, its digital distribution. We have already laid the pipes to deliver this content do we really need a Read Only Memory of some type? Do we really need to keep poking smaller holes in foil? Hard disks are getting cheaper all the time cheap enough to use as a place to stash your collection. Even cheap enough to keep it secure from data loss with a RAID (most new motherboards support hardware RAID right out of the box huge raid diagram right).

Much more how I am currently implementing this after the fold.

How I Watch:With my current setup I have a cheap off brand 32′ LCD in the front room that can do up to 720p. The TV is hooked to my cable through which I only get a few local channels I only rarely watch for local news. The TV came with a VGA input and I acquired a 12″ VGA extension cable online for a few bucks. The cable is coiled up on the TV stand when not in use but easily reaches my chair in front of the TV to attach to the secondary video output port on the back of the laptop. This works out very well for me although I hope to build a small media center PC to dedicate to this task.What I Watch:I like to watch movies from the comfort of my home. I predict the end of movie theaters all together in the near future but that’s for another post. So I want to be able to watch movies and premium shows on my TV without leaving the house.The Legal Way:

• Netflix - As I mentioned above NetFlix is a wonderful way to go I don’t use it (currently) but have many friends that do. Allot of people don’t consider the vast amount of premium TV content available on NetFlix.
• Xbox 360 - Standard and high definition versions of new movies and shows available at prices that make me never want to go to my local rental place again.
• Hulu\OpenHulu\Joost\Knocka\And Many More - I use Hulu almost daily and it is now my primary way to watch some of my favorite shows. OpenHulu is basically a Hulu clone with all of Hulu’s content mirrored and embedded. Joost is the first Internet TV service that approached me and I have been active in it since early alpha testing. It is a wonderful piece of software (from the guys that wrote Kazza and Skype) but is lacking content (a problem that has gotten much better since its early days). Knocka is a Joost clone with even less content but is one of the only other services like joost I have actually given a good try. Many other services exist.

The Less Legal Way: (not endorsed, purely theoretical)

• Joox.net - Sites like Joox allow for DVD quality movies and shows streaming directly from the site. In most cases the video requires less than 20 seconds of buffering before it plays on my setup. The DivX web player for FireFox is solid and the site is designed well for it. You can even download the movies for playback latter if you see something but don’t have time right away to watch it.
• Warez-BB - Sites like Warez-BB are vast Internet treasure troves of movies, shows and software. This site and those like it require a slight bit higher technical savvy to keep yourself out of trouble since it would be very easy to include malicious code in with the downloads.