Tech Forum

There have been many media reports lately that talk about DVD technology dying.

That may be true in the U.S., but how will Europe, Africa, Asia react? What will be the next platform for delivering movies? Is there a better way now?

Obviously Blu-ray is nice, but I wonder if web-delivered media will catch on quicker (given the concept of web-enabled TV's).

mkmurray wrote:Obviously Blu-ray is nice, but I wonder if web-delivered media will catch on quicker (given the concept of web-enabled TV's).

Although that seems like the path we are heading, I wonder what that experience will be like in areas that do not have broadband. Even when I was in Germany or Paris I found it difficult to find a solid broadband signal.

leonardmc wrote:There have been many media reports lately that talk about DVD technology dying.

That may be true in the U.S., but how will Europe, Africa, Asia react? What will be the next platform for delivering movies? Is there a better way now?

I'm not sure it's dying - I think it's more that blu-ray didn't catch on a well as people hoped. Apparently the improvement isn't enough to drive people to it in the numbers expected.

As for what's replacing it - I think that's easy - the web.

As for other countries, I think it all depends on the speed, reliability and cost structure of their networks. In the US we enjoy "unlimited" access such that we are only charged according to our access speed, not on the amount of data retrieved. I'm not sure that's true of other countries.

I suspect DVD may decline in popularity, but I don't know as it will go away. It's still a cheap way to store a movie. On-line content is only as good as it long as it remains on-line. DVD storage gives a feeling of permanence.

The other thing to think about here is that some of the ISP's are making noises about charging more for larger bandwith consumption. With DVD or higher resolution being shipped over the Internet, it may well make it a lot cheaper to buy a DVD with those new charges.

Blue-ray might start to dominate the market in the shops but so far its been a slow uptake and that might be partly due to DVD & DVB upscaling becoming better so Blue-ray is now not as great as it sounded at first.

If the web becomes a more dominant delivery method then I think DVD will still be there to allow us to store (backup) what we purchase and download over the net as I cannot see them making Blue-ray quality downloads available for anytime soon.

I am mostly excited about the DVB progress happening in Europe and particularly in the UK with content delivered via arial, sat and web using one platform (= one standard) via setup box to the TV (which will eventually be built-in). That will have hard disk too.
Its all in place except for the forthcoming built-in web-player which amazingly will be one agreed standard.

I certainly haven't seen or experienced any slowdown in the DVD industry. According to a Nielson survey back in Feb of this year, 33% of American households had HDTV capable sets. While this is impressive (and growing), it still leaves 2/3 of us that have no use for anything higher quality than a good old fashioned DVD from a Red Box (or NetFlix) for our entertainment needs.

Also, just in the past few years I've been seeing a major shift in the way large programs, operating systems, and computer games are being distributed on DVD's, replacing large CD "sets". I feel this trend will continue to be on the upswing for many years to come.

Even if DVDs die off for movies, they seem to be becoming more popular for data delivery. But whenever DVD's do die off, I think the internet and/or solid-state memory may be used in its place. The internet is great for accessibility, but bandwidth limitations could be an impedance for large media, in which case solid-state memory would provide an excellent delivery medium.

faazshift wrote:solid-state memory would provide an excellent delivery medium.

While it has the storage capability, it's still expensive for distribution. A DVD-R is maybe $1. How much electronic media can you buy for twice the price?

RussellHltn wrote:While it has the storage capability, it's still expensive for distribution. A DVD-R is maybe $1. How much electronic media can you buy for twice the price?

Well I'm not suggesting immediately, but the technology is continually improving and at some future point could become a feasible option, plus its reusable.