Your Movie Collection: On A Shelf, Or On A Server?

Studios and retailers make more money when people buy DVDs rather than rent them. But DVD sales have dropped off dramatically in recent years. "Consumers are increasingly saying, 'Do I really have to own this when I can have access to it as often as I want through a rental or on demand?' " explains Crupnick, who studies the entertainment industry for the NPD Group. The studios are adapting. They're developing online services in which people pay to have Internet access to videos on servers. Most of the studios are part of a consortium -- along with retailers such as Best Buy and hardware makers such as Toshiba -- that is working to come up with specs for a system. It's called the Digital Entertainment Content Ecosystem. Disney's rival venture has a much catchier name: Keychest.