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Taken from a cute play on words of the iconic phrase from Star Wars, “may the force be with you,” today’s unofficial holiday brings a little burst of joy to the nerd community. Lucasfilm has taken advantage of the hype to announce more details on the long awaited release of the complete saga on Blu-Ray.

I’ve been checking on the official May the 4th website all day, viewing all the picture previews. I can’t wait to get the new set and see all the films in full, high definition glory. Imagine all the bonus content!

It’s a growing battle: Discs vs. Downloads.

According to NPD entertainment research, discs are still ahead of the game when it comes to home media viewing — but it won’t stay that way forever. The days of physical media are limited. Stephen McGill from Microsoft even went so far as to say that “Blu-Ray is going to be passed by as a format. People have moved through from DVDs to digital downloads and digital streaming…. So, who needs Blu-ray?”

Kaz Hirai from Sony says, “To think everything will be downloaded in two years, three years or even ten years from now is taking it a little bit to the extreme.” There are two sides to this argument.

1. Physical media will be around as long as the generation that used it is still alive (case in point: my great grandmother prefers VHS).
2. The mainstream style of home media viewing could lean in the favor of digital downloads quicker than people think. Just look at how much computers have developed. In 1977 Ken Olson of Digital Equipment Corp. said “There is no reason anyone would want a computer in their home.” At the exact same time, Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak were working on a project that would impact the future immensely with Apple, Inc.

No one can deny that digital media downloads are becoming more and more popular. But there are still some reasons for sticking with disc. Some people argue that quality is better, you can bring it anywhere and borrow them from friends, and what about the special features? These are all concepts that digital downloads will have to address sooner or later.

Click after the break for the top sources of digital media download and streaming.

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Last week, Sony announced they will no longer manufacture 3.5″ floppy disks, signaling the nail in the coffin for this antiquated technology.  You mean they were still making those things?  I don’t even own a computer with an “A drive” anymore.  1.44 MB of space doesn’t get you far these days.  As a matter of fact, at my rummage sale last summer, I couldn’t even sell an 8MB compact flash card.  While I don’t think this news story will ruffle anyone’s feathers, it does give us an opportunity to wander down memory lane and remember life in the “old days”…

FLASHBACK:  Summer 1993:  Our family gets a shiny new Compaq 486 PC (that’s pre-pentium, folks), to replace our well-loved Commodore 64.  Time to install Microsoft Office (some crazy new program that’s supposed to be way better than Word Perfect).  The installation package came with TWENTY-FIVE floppy disks.  Being the youngest of 6 kids, naturally it was my job to baby-sit the computer all day long, feeding it disk after disk in 20 minute intervals.  To make things interesting, the Compaq engineers thought it would be a good idea to place the eject button right next to the power button.  All went smoothly until disc 17, when I absent-mindedly pushed the wrong button.  5 hours wasted.  Thanks floppy disks!

Today, that program would fit 1000 times over on a standard blu-ray disc, and install in about 25 seconds.  Despite this perspective, I’m sure we would still complain that it wasn’t fast enough.

As a lifetime fan, I was very excited about Disney’s The Princess and the Frog coming out.  I am somewhat of an art snob, and am fairly particular about animation.  The new graphics coming out, while pretty cool from a graphic-computer point, just don’t do it for me artistically.  I prefer the hand-drawn look, the rich colors, the uneven, natural shading.  Watching a “real” Disney movie makes me happy and at peace, and takes me back to when I was a little girl.

However, a Disney movie must be more than just visual.  For the experience to be complete it must touch on both vision and hearing.  The music and the singing must be present, and done well to guide you smoothly through the scenes. In this, I must say, they succeeded rather nicely.  The voices of the cast are fantastic.  Each character’s voice has a unique personality.  The inflections are exaggerated and just perfect; be it a more general southern accent, one from New Orleans, or the most fascinating Cajun dialect.

I thoroughly enjoyed watching this movie, so much so that I will be purchasing this today on Blu-ray.  The art was beautiful, the music and voices fantastic, and the story so enjoyable and relevant to today.  Everything was done to perfection [as if I would accept anything less.]  To top it off, I was able to see this movie at a small little theater in Cedarburg, Wisconsin.  The Rivoli is a small hometown theater that plays just one movie per week.  I took my son to see this and would not trade the experience of sitting in a [packed] movie theater with an audience of mostly squeely and excited children.  I can’t wait until the next one!