Arstechnica discusses the possibility that Amazon will be getting into “Buy a DVD and download/stream the movie while you wait for the mailman to come.” This is funny, because I was just looking at my Netflix queue this morning and wishing that I could watch about half the movies in it right then, via download. Granted, there is a difference between renting on Netflix, and buying the movie outright on Amazon, but the “get it now and later” idea is close to how I use both iTunes video and Netflix, and the (rumored) Amazon model is a hybrid of the two that I really like.

As many of you know, I really love to download video off of iTunes, but I’ve often wondered, as I look at the MASSIVE amount video content in my iTunes folders - 1.5 Seasons of Battlestar Galactica, Season 2 of Lost and the first five episodes of Surface - how long I’d keep them, either in my iPod or my laptop. Right now I’d hazard a guess and say that within the next few months, I’ll decide which series I will purchase on DVD, and which ones I’ll delete for good (to make room for all those new downloads I haven’t thought about yet).

I use Netflix similarly – I rent DVDs (mostly TV shows on DVD) and either send them back with a “Gee, glad I didn’t get THAT” or I run out and buy the DVD shortly after I’ve returned the disc. Using Amazon’s (rumored) method won’t save me from buying something crummy, but if they (or others) could adapt to the “try and buy” method, I would be right there with them.

At the same time, the “buy and download while you wait for the mail” method gets over another hurdle I have with downloadable video – which is sometimes, its nice to have the DVD right there in your house. Until we have a fully converged media-web-home system (on which you can get the same entertainment you can get on DVDs now), I, at least, will want the option for both.

Gawker had a post today about the Magazine Publishers Association’s campaign in which they are sending out current magazines to “advertising and marketing leaders” with wrapped covers dated 100 years in the future. While Gawker was pretty snarky about the whole promotion, the campaign made me think about “the physical” side of media.

I love magazines. I love getting them in the mail, I love buying them at the store. I love reading them, I passing them on to other people, I even love accidentally spilling my coffee on them. Same with books – downloading a book is just not the same as walking into Borders and coming out with 10 books that I hadn’t planned on purchasing.

In yesterday’s This Week in Tech podcast, the TWiT gang was discussing the audio quality of digital downloads and the quality of CDs (CDs won for the moment). They then went on to discuss whether or not digital distribution of video content (vs. DVDs) will be the way of the future. I’m not an audio addict in any way shape or form, but I know some, and they also love the act of buying music, and bringing it home. (As you probably have guessed, I’m a video addict – known to buy whole season of TV shows without ever having watched them, just because I’m interested.)

The only form of content I’m terribly interested in acquiring on an exclusive digital basis at the moment is video content – a point that is probably painfully obvious from this blog. I think that physical manifestations of content (magazines, books, DVDs, CDs, etc) can be powerful. What I’m looking forward to in the future isn’t to see magazines get totally replaced by online content, or books replaced by digital downloads, but seeing how the digital versions and the physical versions converge. This goes for CDs and DVDs as well.

In talking with a few people I know, they primarily mentioned the ability for magazines and books to integrate more fully with the web. As one friend put it, “Say I’m reading a magazine, and there’s an article about spaceships, and then they give a link where you can go and see a companion movie to the article. It could be so much than just posting the article online.” Like my friend, there’s a lot of thought out there on what this convergence will look like. I want to hear from you, about what you think we’ll be seeing. It could be soon (companion content for books and magazines) or in the future (digital paper is one of my favorites). Hit me up.