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Home > Blogs > Sir Critic on Cinema > Archives > 2008 > June > 03 > Entry
DVDs - Are they staying or going?
You may notice that I haven’t been running much in the way of DVD reviews lately in this piece of cyberspace. There’s a reason for that. Pickings are slimmer than ticket sales for Speed Racer.
Quite frankly, there are some titles out there right now that I don’t feel inclined to alert people to. If you really want to know what’s around, click here and peruse the list. Beyond that, I leave the responsibility of DVD selection to you.
As it happens, good movies aren’t the only things scarce in the DVD world. There’s been buzz lately that DVDs themselves might be go the way of VHS even sooner than expected.
I have talked before on this blog about downloading eventually taking the place of DVDs, and this report from The Guardian in the UK says “DVD industry insiders admit the format may eventually die out.” Netflix itself predicted that their DVD by mail model may start to fall off in only 5-10 years.
Not so fast …
Here’s what makes me curious: Are people really ready to give up physical media when it comes to movies? I myself have pointed at how downloads continually erode CD sales and predicted the same would happen with DVDs. But, as has been pointed out, music and movies aren’t enjoyed the same way.
A commenter on Hollywood Elsewhere named Richardson made this interesting observation: “There’s a big difference between CDs and DVDs. People have always wanted to listen to music as much as possible wherever they could. If you look at it, car stereos, Walkmen, Discmen, boom boxes, they all led directly to the iPod. More portable formats thrived. LPs couldn’t kill 8-tracks because LPs weren’t portable — it took cassettes to kill 8-tracks, and CDs to kill LPs. Then CDs became portable and cassettes died. Then MP3 technology came along… and the iPod killed CDs.
“Despite attempts by the industry, there has never been as much demand for portable movie watching ….”
He also points out: “‘picture quality’ means something to people in a way that “audio quality” never did. The people who buy DVDs because they’re the best picture quality, who are now upgrading their TVs to 70” HD and buying Blu-Ray players… these people aren’t going to want to download unless they can download something quickly and easily which will look as good as what they can buy in a store.
“For some reason, “audio quality” never caught on. LPs sound better than CDs? Nobody cares. MP3s sound audibly compressed? Nobody cares. People just want to listen to their music, however they can.”
He makes a very compelling point that DVDs and music have a very different set of demands than iPods and music. So maybe the DVD won’t die as fast as some say it will.
So what’s your forecast? Should we be deciding how many trips we need to make to the recycling place to get rid of DVDs? Or will you hang on to them indefinitely?
Permalink | Comments (4) | Post your comment | Categories: On Video/DVD
Comments
By DiamondDave
June 4, 2008 2:16 PM | Link to this
I don’t see DVD’s going anywhere soon. Most folks don’t have the technology needed to download the quality desired. And I agree, when you’re talking a visual format, you are talking the highest quality possible desired. I do take a little issue with the statement that “nobody cares” about audio quality of LP’s vs. CD’s vs. MP3’s. I am one who cares and cares very much. If given the option, I would much rather purchase an LP and hear all of the nuances of the music, rather than settle for the compressed version. But I will agree that I am only one man in a sea of billions who truly don’t care.By Derwood
June 4, 2008 1:53 AM | Link to this
The bandwidth needed to support downloading DVD quality video in a reasonable amount of time is simply not available in most homes. Our telecommunications infrastructure is still largely copper-based for the last mile. To support higher speeds, it will need to be upgraded to fiber optic technology. This will take a lot of time and money. Verizon has already started with their FIOS service in certain parts of the country, but they are the only one. I’m with Richardson. If I’m downloading something to watch, I don’t want the video over-compressed to the point that its not watchable. Given the choice, I’ll stick with DVDs.By Hillary
June 3, 2008 5:04 PM | Link to this
As a person who still owns (and even watches from time to time) a lot of VHS tapes… I would hope that DVDs aren’t going away anytime soon. It took me until about 6 years ago to get a DVD player and at that point, I already felt way behind the curve. And as for downloading… while most people have high speed internet connections, not all of us do - making that a lousy choice, plus that would put the video store out of business. I also think that even though the numbers of people buying blu-ray players and HD TVs are rising, the price associated with the technology is still too high, especially in these uncertain economic times. I think most people given the choice between food or rent and a fancy way to watch movies, would choose the former.By SRCputt
June 3, 2008 3:17 PM | Link to this
I always figured downloads through television would be the industry standard by 2020. The quality has improved dramatically in the past 10 years, and many of the processes are already in place: Tivo, On Demand, for example. I believe by 2020 most of us will have our movie collection in a box on top of our TVs, and computer downloads into the box will be the standard method to receive new movies. I also figure part of that technology will be a way to download off DVDs into those boxes, so I wouldn’t get rid of the discs yet.