A Japanese media firm, Tsutaya TV, is allowing interested Japanese consumers the chance to download apparently 1080i-quality video from such American studios as Warner Brothers, Paramount, NBC Universal and Walt Disney Co., in order to burn them to recordable Blu-ray discs (which typically carry 1080p content).
A trial run of downloading a two-hour feature film ("No Country for Old Men") in HD took less than half an hour via fiber—compared to two hours with ADSL—according to the tech Web site AV Watch. However, for now only stereo audio is available with downloads—not 5.1 surround sound.
HD downloads are configured through the acTVila-based service, a Japanese TV portal. Tsutaya TV began providing SD full-length movie downloads last spring.
