|
|
Posted by Richard Dewsbery on 01/10/06 14:26
Unless either format makes a big splash early in its life (and I don't see
that happening for a number of reasons), then my bet is that DVD will be the
last format where we have a physical product to "own".
The replacement for CDs is not higher quality audio discs, or solid state,
but computer files in the shape of MP3s. Which are actually LOWER quality
than CDs, but very convenient for a variety of reasons.
Now some people are already moving towards treating films and TV programmes
in this way, either by storing DVDs on HDD arrays in complicated home cinema
setups, or by recording TV onto HDDs, or by downloading bittorrents.
We saw the MP3 and other purely digital formats go "legit" with the likes of
iTunes; with bandwidth increasing all the time, how long before we have
film and TV distributed in the same way? In part it's already heading
towards the mainstream, with at least one of the cable providers setting up
a limited "on demand" service for some films and TV programmes.
If we have a new type of box under our tellies in the next 5-10 years, it'll
be to download (and possibly store) such streamed-on-demand content.
In the past, the infrastructure (and specifically the bandwidth) hasn't
been available - I reckon that will be "solved" faster than the hardware
manufacturers can persuade us to buy into a new disc format that replaces
DVD.
Richard
Navigation:
[Reply to this message]
|