“Doomsayers say DVDs are dinosaurs, but they’re dead wrong. These discs will not only make it through the digital age – they’ll thrive in it,” Chris Taylor writes for Business 2.0.
“Reports of the death of the DVD have been greatly exaggerated,” Taylor writes. “Sure, the shiny digital disks look increasingly irrelevant if you read the headlines. Industry giants like Amazon.com and Apple are going head to head in the nascent market for movie downloads. Amazon just unveiled the Unbox, and Apple’s rolling out a service that lets people watch a flick as soon as it begins to download. Apple is also trumpeting a forthcoming device, tentatively called iTV, that promises to stream movies wirelessly from computers to TVs.”
MacDailyNews Take: Amazon going head-to-head with Apple? Puleeze. Amazon’s junkbox has been universally panned:
Fortune: Amazon Unbox movie service ‘unfun,’ a horror show, two thumbs down – September 19, 2006
Amazon Unbox generates resounding yawns; analyst: ‘too little too early’ – September 11, 2006
CNET Alpha Blog: absolutely do not try Amazon Unbox – September 09, 2006
Analyst: ‘Amazon Unbox – Well that didn’t work at all’ – September 09, 2006
Analysts: Amazon’s ‘Unbox’ to be ‘Unsuccessful’ vs. Apple – September 08, 2006
Taylor continues, “So if we’re getting movies on our iPods, our computers and our TVs (via our computers), why would anyone ever buy a ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’ DVD again? Turns out, there are plenty of reasons why.”
“The current push by Apple et al. into digital movie downloads makes a lot of assumptions. It supposes that we all own iPods and PCs, and are more than happy to plunk down a few hundred bucks for yet another set-top box – this time called iTV,” Taylor writes. “These services may do very well, but they lack one thing: the ability to store, or ‘burn,’ a movie on a disc… there will be a truce in the tug-of-war over Blu-Ray and HD DVD. Sales of DVDs players will spike and the movie experience will outshine downloads even more.”
Full article here.
Why do you want to burn a plastic disc? Easy, for archiving, playing, and sharing. Plus a DVD player plus a disc trump a Mac or PC with iTunes and and iTV in the upfront cost and ease-of-use departments. Apple iTunes allows for archiving the data, iTV will handle the playing, iPod takes care of the sharing (you can take your iPod with you and play your movies on TVs anywhere with a $19 cable). People do like to share/lend DVDs, but Hollywood frowns upon sharing; they want everyone to buy the content, not share it with others for free. Apple and everyone else have quite a distance to go to replace the sharing (you’re not going to want to lend your friend your iPod as easily as you’d lend a DVD), cost of entry, ease-of-use, and also the quality advantages of DVD. All in all, Taylor is right that DVDs aren’t dead, yet.
I’ve never had a working DVD player that wasn’t in my Mac.
I’ve never purchased a DVD (had couple given to me for promo purposes).
I subscribe to HBO/Max, Showtime/TMC, Starz/Encore.
In my home the DVD isn’t just dead, it was never alive in the first place.
Remember when paper was dead?
Another big factor for consumers is copy protection on downloads. I can currently use my purchased DVD in all manner of arenas (home TV, friend’s TV, car DVD player, computer, etc). Plus of course if I want a digital copy on my HD, there’s Handbrake or other solutions.
That flexibilty of use is _not_ what you get with digital downloads, which restrict my usage to something tied to a computer (even an iPod, which has to download the file from my mac).
Lack of flexibility coupled with poor video quality on downloads means that I’m unlikely to purchase my movies that way.
Now if I could rent a movie on demand from iTunes for, say, $4–then we’d be talking!
Until we all have an “iTV” and terabyte hard drives, I can’t see digital downloads overthrowing DVDs. I cringe at the though of storing my 200+ DVD collection on my Mac.
What a foolish question, the LP is still around and circuit city still sells magnetic data disks
iTunes download movies are not yet as good as DVD’s, but as soon as a HD standard movies will be there, that changes. Trust Apple and wait.
The iPod is the replacement for the DVD. Duh.
Young whippersnappers! I watch my movies on punch cards and paper tape. The only time it skips is during the occasional hanging chad. Oh, how I miss the good old days of Kinetoscopes and wax cylinders.
(Actually, I do remember changing the channel on a huge console, tiny screen, tube filled B&W TV using vise grip pliers.)
What if Apple release iTunes 8, which will let you burn a copy of the movie you downloaded up to 5 times with DRM on it. That way, you will not be able to make a copy and put it out there on the net.
Ampar. So that’s the kind of TVs they have in the home country? Lower Slobbovia?
Something more interesting than Ampar’s babblings:
Any six, small, pale pink pieces of gravel.
What a totally useless article.
Macatheson… Right ON, bro!
People LIKE to collect things. Yes, real physical, hold in your hand, stack on a shelf, hang on the wall THINGS! Whether it be marbles, pennies, books, art, LPs, CDs or sports cars, we’ll all continue to do so. No amount of digital media will change that. I archive my data to CDs, DVD and MO disks.
Movie downloads are in their infancy. With the development, maturity and push for HDTV, more and more people will want to see FULL resolution movies on their FULL-res HDTVs!
Note that 1080p sets of reasonable size and price, (Sharp sells a 37″ 1080p set) are now available. Oh yeah, the 24″ iMac is full resolution 1080p monitor and HD playback system of reasonable size and price!
Those with the sets are going to want their full-res images. (I know when I finally get one, that’s what I’ll want.) But in order to deliver full-res content online there needs to be a serious increase in bandwidth and download speed. It’s happening, but it’ll be a few years before it’s readily available at a reasonable price.
Then, when we download our full-res movies from iTS, we’ll be able to burn them to a Blu-Ray or HD-DVD disk (My vote’s for Blu-Ray), line them up on our shelves and marvel at our media collections.
Ampar, I remember that myself. So does my girlfriend!
Next… The Mod Squad… In Color!
There’s something unique about having and purchasing a tangible object as opposed to mere data. The much expected paperless office has not yet arrived, people still prefer reading books instead of computer screens, and it will still take time before CDs and DVDs disappear as well. I think it will take another generation for people to acclimate to the digital world, starting with today’s youth.
The other potential roadblock is the proprietary nature of digital files. People are not used to having to wade through a contract just to listen to music or watch a movie. They aren’t used to having restrictions on the types of devices they can use their legally purchased files on. They aren’t used to having to check the brand to ensure compatibility. Of course, this is something that today’s youth can also adjust to as well, but it will still take time to replace the current business models that we’ve become accustomed to.
I can’t believe that anyone doesn’t think Ampar is funny. Ampar might be the only reason I read the drivel that normally shows up in the comments below a story. Anyone who thinks Ampar isn’t funny needs to get laid ASAP.
Hey, wait, I don’t think Ampar is funny….! Any volunteers to help me find him funny? Female volunteers with brown hair, blue eyes, and a nice body?
Anyone?
No?
Shoot. And I really wanted to laugh at Ampar’s postst today…. 🙁
MW: eyes. Too funny!
When iTV comes out and downloads are at a higher quality, for me dvd’s will be dead. Remember when you got to the point when you hated looking at your huge cassette collection or your CD collection gathering dust and wished you could have it all on one simple device. Then the iTunes iPod combo came out and you never looked back. It’s going to be the same with dvds.
I now carry with me 10 movies on my iPod, readily viewable on the closest tv or on the iPod itself. Try that with 10 dvds. See what I mean.
Time will tell, but for me I’m already making the transition.
No.
MDN will not allow just one word. Is this better MDN?
Except for the long loading times, DVDs offer a very good viewing experience that can be customised; subtitles, zooming, soundtrack selection and bonus features like making-of documentaries offer a more complete package than iTunes offers today.
I usually don’t find me funny but that’s a different story. Thanks to those who laugh and to those who don’t – skip my posts and move on? I’m not kicking in for your therapy. Again.
Common urban myths exploded – No. 22
Shoeless Joe Jackson was a phenomenal baseball player for the Chicago White Sox
who conspired to throw the 1919 World Series. It is widely believed that a young
fan, seeing Shoeless Joe emerge from the courthouse, gave us the immortal line,
“Say it ain’t so, Joe.” But he was misheard.
What the boy actually said was:
“Say, Ampar ain’t so funny, Joe.”
I think the more important question here is….What’s Your Favorite Texas Food? I’m leaning to the BBQ brisket
Today must be twit day. Its Incredible but True (har har somedays I crack myself up).
Ampar is funny. Hopefully he has a thick skin to ignore some of the buttheads who write comments…not on the subject….not even witty…but with the sole purpose of putting down others.
Another question would be-anyone got an iMac on grass?
http://www.ilevl.com/
what a trip…
“(Actually, I do remember changing the channel on a huge console, tiny screen, tube filled B&W TV using vise grip pliers.)”
Luxury. We would have killed to have a pair of vice grips. We had to walk thru the snow, uphill for 5 miles, barefoot to get to our TV and then we used our teeth to turn the channels.
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Our b&w console that we had until 1976 (even though many of my friends had color TV’s IN THEIR ROOMS-no problems here, Dr.) needed at least ten minutes to warm up to full brightness. We also just had a peice of cardboard sticking on the flat side of the tunerknob holder to turn with. OH YEAH, BUT DADDY HAD A NICE CAR… inhale, hold…
MW:lack
No Buster, Ampar isn’t funny. Some of us get fed up with seeing these boards clogged up with one stupid comment after another from just one guy and, more often than not, it has very little to do with the topic but more to do with feeding his ego.
Thanks, Buster, Roberto and j. Even heavily medicated outpatients will still have internet access.
TowerTone: Three alarm chili. (http://www.traveltexas.com/tx_act_treats.asp?SN=9929289&LS=0#chili)
dogfriend: Man, that’s rough. Remember remotes on a tether? Didn’t that almost defeat the purpose of “remote”?
Ampar – If you give him a penny for his thoughts, you get change back.
[Cue harp]
[Cue peacock]
“The following program is brought to you in living color, on NBC.”
[Cue Star Trek: ‘Space. The final frontier . . . ]
[And, almost without fail . . . Cue Mom]:
“Kids, supper’s ready!”
Damn, WhatEverett, your ego must be stuffed now! Draw outside the lines occasionally. The topics can be a little lame sometimes, just an excuse for people to chat and vent, much like you just did. And Ampar is much better at his attempts of humor than you are with your attempt at intelligence.
One of my old (20th century) networking books had a line to the effect “Never underestimate the bandwidth of a truck full of computer tapes driving down the Interstate.”
Updated, the statement should be “Never underestimate the bandwidth of your mail carrier delivering packages from Netflix.”
“Remotes? Those are for people who are too dam sorry and lazy to make their girlfriend get up and change the channel.”
This has been a Filmways presentation, dahhhling©
and
A Quinn-Martin production
TowerTone: “The topics can be a little lame sometimes . . . “
You mean you don’t always have fresh commentary on every article about the Zune, or Rob Enderle’s brilliant prognostications, or the rumored Sony-Apple-Disney-Google-Adobe-Gap merger (NASDAQ listing: SADGAG)?
I want iTunes with a rental feature. Sure, buy the DVD of your favorite movie, get the special features, be able to watch it over and over, put it on your shelf etc. But for the vast majority of the movies I want to see, I’ll watch them once, say, “hey that was pretty good” and never go back to them again. That’s why movie *rentals* have been so popular for so long. iTunes would be perfect for that. The lower resolution isn’t as much of a problem because your expectations are lower–you don’t own the movie so you don’t care as much. People have argued that there’s no money in it, or just do Netfix, but I say wouldn’t it be an elegant solution to go to the iTunes store, one-click on a movie you want to see, stream to your iTV and enjoy a great movie experience in your living room (not on your computer). And not have to worry about bringing it back to the store or putting it into the mail. That would be cool.
Ampar, I don’t remember the wax (or foil) cylenders in average use, but have used the one’s from my parents when I was younger. I do still like to listen to my original Sir Harry Lauder records though.
I agree with the others on the HD content. While it is a small fraction of the overall consumer base at the moment, the group of HD class “TVs” is steadily growing.
Even with the newest compression methodologies (the H.264 standard or Microsoft’s VC-1) the average data rate for feature films on HD DVD or Blu-ray disks is still approximately 22 Mbps. This is significantly higher than the average consumer has for her/his Internet access.
When bandwidth exceeds that of the compressed audio/video stream then downloading might become mainstream.
Additionally, storage is a real issue. With HD DVD having up to 30 GB per single sided disk and Blu-ray having up to 50 GB per single sided disk (with the current specifications — there are roadmaps for higher volumes), storing all that data is significant. I know of several people who have over 40 of these disks right now. (I know, they’re sick.) In the long run we are certainly talking about several terabytes of storage for anyone with a sizeable A/V library.
Ampar
The topic is people not staying on topic, and then you go and change the topic. How can we talk about people changing the topic if you keep changing the topic???? I gotta go shine some shoes, baby needs a new pair of dice.☺
I own an iPod. I haven’t purchased a single song or album online, and I never will. My iPod has 34 days worth of music on it.
There is absolutely no chance in hell that I will buy a movie as a download. At least not until they cost $.49 or less. So “no chance in hell” will apply.
“Remotes? Those are for people who are too dam sorry and lazy to make their girlfriend get up and change the channel.”
Towertone….damn near choked on my sandwich reading that one.
People remember….if the subject is lame, the next best thing is to read humourous comments. In case you haven’t noticed, a lot of sad things are happening in the world around us…people dying in wars. dying of aids, dying from cowards who like to shoot innocent schoolkids. Sometimes humor is the best thing we have going so….
Sit back and enjoy…do not destroy.
Peace love and understanding (and before any of you nutbars say it…yes I am a liberal)
I agree with Mr. Reese: People like to collect things. They also like to display their collections. Somehow, a folder full of titles on your computer desktop doesn’t quite replace the shelf in your living room where your collection of DVD titles is proudly displayed. One thing can be counted on: people will TALK about anything.
At what point did CDs and DVDs stop being digital?
I think we already covered this but remember the cable tv remote controls in the early 80’s. It was wired the the Tv and had a row of buttons on it and each button was a channel.
THAT was channel surfing my friends.
What the hell was the topic again?
Buster
Glad you enjoyed that. It was stolen, thus the quotation marks. And as the 2nd Elvis said-What’s Do Funny ‘Bout Peace, Love and Understanding? its great that you are a liberal, but many of us conservatives subscribe to that point of view, too, hence the reason I throw so much silliness-at least until I have to vent at some snideness. I don’t have the control Ampar and some others have. So
Tune in tomorrow
Same Bat time
Same Bat channel