Don’t Throw Away Your DVD’s Just Yet
I know some people who are getting rid of their DVD movies they have purchased and also buying online “cloud” based versions of new movies they want own.
While I completely “get it” and fully understand the complications of owning, storing and periodically moving all of one’s “stuff”, cloud based streaming video is not always the answer.
We have an Amazon Prime membership that gives us lots of benefits including lots of movies and TV shows we can stream for free.
And remember that Amazon is one of the premier web hosting services for data and even video, a service they sell to other businesses.
Streaming Interruptions (Yes, Take That Both Ways)
Recently I have had problems just streaming some 40 minute shows where it seems like Amazon is streaming as many interruptions as they are scenes.
I constantly have to refresh my browser and then click the resume button, then wait some more to finish viewing.
And lest you think it’s my internet connection (12Mbps down, 1.5 up), a 2 hour Netflix movie had no trouble just before that.
Not only is it frustrating, but it’s an even bigger time waster than watching the program in the first place. Now, sometimes a DVD will screw up, especially if you let someone with sticky fingers handle it, but by and large it plays perfectly.
And unlike Amazon’s video streaming, your high definition DVD or Blue Ray doesn’t periodically “downshift” to a grainier image because of throughput problems.
Remember this about cloud computing not only when streaming video entertainment, but also when deciding what data of your own or your business to put “in the cloud”. The cloud is a great place for backups but I am less than thrilled with it for data I want to be:
- always available
- available at full speed
Here’s another screenshot of Amazon streaming video making me wait…again (and notice the grainy image – it’s a show advertised as being “HD”):
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