But after seeing the news about ADV digital downloads, and a quick visit to ADV’s website. I feel that I have to make some brief comments now.

1. First of all let me give my congratulations to ADV for jumping on the digital download bandwagon.

2. Where’s the subtitled downloads, I spent a lot of money on anime and I only view subtitled anime, so as it stands I won’t be purchasing any of the downloads for now.

3. DRM, I agree that the industry needs to protect it’s investments but the earth is quaking under all content owners feet right now. Even though I’m a older fan I own a desktop with HDMI output, A laptop, several portable media players, and any format that keeps me from transfering my media files between platforms I won’t be buying anytime soon. I don’t care how the industry IDs their products as long as I can use it on any platform in my household with having to jump through hoops.

4. Quality, one of the reasons I still buy Cd’s is because of the quality issue, I can buy the CD and then rip the tracks into MP3 files at 320kbs then I can play these files with confidence in the quality of files on and platform in my household. With everything related to video switching to HD and many anime programs available in HD format where’s my HD download options. Many anime such as AIR are available in Japan in HD format, I’m willing to pay more for a download in 720P, 1080I, or 1080P format. My PC has a HDMI video card and I have one of the outputs going to my HD TV.

5. Cooperation, the anime industry needs to sit down with it’s core group of fans to determine what the fans want, and to talk realistically about cost vs value issues, in a consumer society like ours the companies that succeed see a void that needs to be filled and steps in to fill that gap, it does not work the other way around, The American auto industry almost went out of business by putting out products that the buyers did not want or were substandard compared to the Japanese, Korean, and German cars.

In closing, as a anime fan no one wants the industry to succeed more than me, I’m have been more than willing to spend my money on anime, but in the new digital age the anime industry needs to change fast (2-3 years) or die.