Streaming: Movies, Media, and Instant Access Paperback – May 1, 2013

streaming sort of crept up on me. What is rRedBox?? Netflix, more than DVDs?VUDU, so much other stuff to learn about..

As impressive as Dixon's career as a film critic is, having read his book I can say that he has very little understanding of streaming media. There's more fist-shaking in here than a old man's lawn and when Dixon decries the apocalypse of new digital film, I look to the recent works of Lars von Trier and Steven McQueen as proof that no such apocalypse exists. Dixon is neither a technology insider nor a contemporary artist, and offers no valuable insight on our digital future.

Love streaming Prime!

Like it or not, the streaming of movies and music is becoming an increasingly large portion of all internet traffic. This book gives the details.Why shouldn't a person be able to pay a few dollars to stream a movie at home, when going to the theater or buying the DVD costs a lot more? At the theater, does the projectionist load a film canister on a 35mm projector and turn it on? Increasingly, the answer is no. The majority of theaters have gone to all-digital systems. The movie is downloaded from the distributor, along with an electronic code. That code can be good for just one showing, on one specific day. If the right code is not available, or if it does not work properly, then there is no showing.Fewer and fewer movies are being shot on actual film, because fewer and fewer theaters have film projectors. Unless there is an art house cinema nearby, any watching of older, or less well known, films, on actual film, is pretty much impossible. When is the last time that an older or obscure film was available at the local multi-theater megaplex? If whoever has a film copy of that older, obscure film, does not think it is lucrative enough to put it on DVD, there is little that can be done about it. Soon, the only way to watch films of any kind, will be through on-line streaming. Depending on your point of view, this is either that natural progression of technology, or it's the end of the world.What Netflix is doing to the movie business, Apple is doing to the music business, and Amazon is doing to book publishing. Amazon is now selling more Kindle copies of books than paper copies. Facebook is little more than a way to suck up people's personal information, and sell it to advertisers (Google Glass, plus new facial recognition technology, will make that much easier). Facebook has created over 80 million fake accounts. The hope is that the author, for instance, will see their account already set up, and decide to use it. For that reason, the author says that he will never post on Facebook.This is a very interesting book. For some, it may be common knowledge, but I learned a lot from it. It's non-technical, and very easy to read. It's also very much worth checking out.

Streaming movies now seems to be the conventional way this generation watches entertainment. Where will we be 5, 10 or even 20 years from now? Wheeler Winston Dixon paints us a picture of the future by reminding us of an evolution of mainstream entertainment and how we can now access classic films just at the touch of a button. Watching entertainment has never been easier if one has access to the Internet; however, while this may seem all good, this book provides a reminder that too much stimuli leads to lack of focus and as such, one might fall victim to becoming lost in an endless stream of media without end. This book does a fantastic job of capturing this point, delivering us the historical approach to streaming media and provides a basic framework for further ideas regarding the future of streaming entertainment. I recommend this book for anyone interested in film, cinematic history and media!

This book about our plugged-in society and where we're headed is extremely perceptive and well-written. Dixon paints a picture of our future world that is rather frightening but almost certainly accurate.