Future "Video" Poll

[J.Andrew Hosack]

Now that we're 2 months into the new year, I'm curious on everyone's current concensus on the future state of home entertainment.

Do YOU believe:

a) DVD will die in 5 yrs [insert own estimate]

b) Hard Drives are the way to go

c) HD-DVD will "win"

d) Blu-Ray will "win"

or the inevitable e) some other universal "disc" type will come out next.

Some things to think about as an avid movie lover myself. I own the top 4 formats and use them, and this "war" sucks the big one (even though there are unified players on the market now).

DVD's rock because they're everywhere, and you can easily/cheaply burn/store/backup films, etc. The only thing that now sucks is the limited 7.5GB space. [Note- 7 years ago I wouldn't have dreamed I would say that]

HD-DVD/Blu-Ray: There's no denying the power of 20GB+ of video power. The HD picture is positively stunning and really (for me) changes the movie experience at home (yes the picture is better than the celluloid at the theater). Vibrant images, kick ass sound, and a ton of other things make HD pretty tasty. We all know the problem here, $$$$ is a big factor, and hardly anyone has the drives for backups...etc ^_^
Plus 2 formats! Come the f*ck on. I'll stop before I insert political ramblings here, needless to say this scenario rivals real life politics.

Hard Drives: At the moment, this is a kickass option, that I and a ton of others are utilizing right now. With all of the kickass software floating around PC/Mac, and the advent of the very kick ass MPEG-4 technology, Backing up your DVDs on a Hard Drive (HDD) and creating a cheap media server has never been more compelling.

Using DVD Decrypter you can make a very quick identical backup of a DVD on a HDD and play it back in full quality, share it, stream it, whatever; you can even throw it on a small as f*ck thumb drive. Oh and of last week, you can do the same with both HD-DVD/Blu-Ray. A DVD is generally 7.5 GB on the HDD (with full menus/features) or you can just the film itself.

Here's the real kicker, MPEG-4 friggin' rules. This new compression (which HD-DVD uses) takes the film image and compresses it, with seemingly no loss of quality (depending on chosen settings). An example is I can take the new Pirates of the Caribbean DVD (7GB) and convert it to MPEG-4 (1.5GB) file and it still looks the same! What that means is you can backup 333 movies (at full quality) on a small 500GB HDD.

Hard Drives are getting cheaper too. You can get a 500GB HDD for about $130 now. All you need is a PC/Mac or even the PS3. Depending on what inputs your TV has and what computer you have, you may need an additional stream box/iTV. If you use an external HDD you can take that wherever you want [over to a friend's house]

I've got a MacMini hooked right into my HDTV and just remote what movie I want on the fly out of thousands of titles I have backed up, it really is kick ass. I could keep telling you other cool features but maybe later.

Of course, one of the few downsides is that inevitable Hard Drives will fail (though they may last really long) [that's why you have backups] and the converting may just be "too much" for some people to do.

Right now it's a great option though, and the fact that you can download HD films and watch them off the HDD instead of paying mega $$$ is also appealing.

As for option e) there's always going to be some new proprietary technology - let's just hope it's unified. I'm waiting for the personal Holodeck myself.

Strike back though, I'm interested in everyone's opinions.

[Cronos]

well i spose id have to go with e since that is already going to happen

[MisterChristian]

Do YOU believe:

a) DVD will die in 5 yrs [insert own estimate]

b) Hard Drives are the way to go

c) HD-DVD will "win"

d) Blu-Ray will "win"

or the inevitable e) some other universal "disc" type will come out next.


a) Err....no. Since it's the main source (AND A HUGE ONE) of revenue for the studios, it's here to stay. It's the new VHS and will be around for years. Unless of course, something comes along to equal the amount of revenue DVD generates...which I don't see happening.

b) Personally no. That's because as a fan, films are more than 1's and 0's in my computer. Ugh. Sue me, I like "packaged goods".

c), d) and e) I presently have HD and love it. But I hate the format wars - having two competing high-definition formats is silly. But I'm sticking with HD-DVD for now. Hopefully this will change in the near future but I don't see it happening. I see however HD-DVD and BR co-existing and studios will release films on both. Sort of like video games, where titles are available on all systems (except for exclusives).

[J.Andrew Hosack]

That's an interesting way to look at it [in the context of exclusive console titles].

I have noticed HD-DVD titles looking sometimes better than their Blu-Ray counterparts probably due to HD-DVD using MPEG-4 and Blu-Ray the outdated MPEG-2.

[bourahioro]

a) no
b) no
c) no
d) no
e) no


because all of these questions make any collector want to vomit - especially those with insane collections.

[CyclicNightmare]

I'm not reading all that.

[Damone]

Blu-Ray seems to think they've won.

Blu-Ray Disc Association declares victory (http://a.engadgethd.com/2007/01/08/blu-ray-disc-association-declares-victory-over-hd-dvd/)

Sounds like somebody wants to crank up the marketing propaganda machine.

[RandalGraves]

Originally posted by Cronos
well i spose id have to go with e since that is already going to happen

[Bcoopa]

No

Yes

No

Yes

I think that dvd's will stay around for a lot longer than 5 years, I mean you can still pick up vhs right, so I figure it will actually belonger than vhs, since dvd's next gen stuff is a disc as well, so there is more compatibility for a multifunction player.
Then I think that Hard Drives would be the best way for the consumer, but just can't see how it would work for the companies making and selling a product, just doesn't seem to work.
Next, I'm picking blu-ray to win. Why? Cause back when I was slightly peaked in interest (first month of the buzz about it) I made my decision to go with blu-ray. Can't even remember why, maybe cause apple was on that side, and I follow anything apple says like nobody's business, but still, until the prices drop it's just gonna be blah, blah, blah, blah, blah to me.

[bigred760]

I think DVDs will be around for a while; HD-DVD and Blue Ray haven't caught on yet, so I don't think they will. If anything I think DVDs will get better quality-wise but if they don't go into a DVD player, than they won't go anywhere.

[KyleG]

DVDs won't last forever and if anyone thinks so they're crazy, VHS is now the way of the past and soon (I don't know when) DVDs will be the same, if i had to guess i would say HD DVD will win since most people have large dvd collections and you can play regular dvds on a HD DVD player. CRT will be the way of the past as well, more and more tvs being made are HD (i recently bought a 42' hdtv, best purchase of my life) and will continue to be so, it is the way of the future. Way of the Future . Way of the Future. Now i must go and lock myself in my tv room and piss in milk bottles for the next three months. Way of the Future

[DareDevil]

I think DVDs will stick around untill we can load our movies onto a chip and store them on some sort of mp3 player for movies that plugs into your TV.

[biglummox]

DVD's aren't going away for a very very long time.

As much as I love the new HD-DVD and Blue-Ray formats with their amazing quality of picture and sound (movies have NEVER looked better), I will not even think of buying any of those formats until there is a clear winner, and the prices of all high quality (and necessary) equipment become available and reasonable.

Once there is a winner the other format will go away and there will be no reason for manufacturers or studios to continue supporting them. One of them will become the new laserdisc.

Whichever format wins, the DVD will still remain because it's still the most owned, most profitable, cheapest, still a wonderful picture and sound, and with the up conversion with HD there's no real reason to upgrade any current movies if you already have it on DVD (except for collectors who MUST have the BEST version of their favorite films, me included).

As awesome as hard drives are, your average consumer doesn't have the time, patients or aptitude to use that option. The closest we have right now, or will probably have, is Media Center or TiVo (or other DVR devices).

[J.Andrew Hosack]

Originally posted by DareDevil
I think DVDs will stick around untill we can load our movies onto a chip and store them on some sort of mp3 player for movies that plugs into your TV.

Already have that brother.

Anyway, I also think DVDs will stick around for quite a while. New transfer processes are looking very good and they are cheap.

One thing that sucks is (this is all scientifically theoretical) the government has theorized that DVDs (other than gold backing) will only last 20 years if stored properly - which could potentially bite the big one.