Posted by lorincantrell on 01/21/08 03:40

On Jan 20, 3:57 pm, "Mark Jones" <noem...@mindspring.com> wrote:
> Dick Sidbury wrote:
> > In article <h7Ckj.41542$lD6.33...@newssvr27.news.prodigy.net>,
> >  "PapaBear" <PaPaB...@thebears.x2x> wrote:
>
> >> I've also foreseen the end to movie DVDs but believe they'll be
> >> around for awhile. I can't predict how long, but I'm betting on
> >> another 5-10 years. In the meantime it might be wise to stockpile a
> >> supply of the equipment needed to play them, like some ordinary DVD
> >> players, TVs, blank DVDs and burners (if you burn them), etc.
> >> There's no guarantee those things will be around for much longer.
>
> > Just like video tapes and VCRs.
>
> VCRs are still being sold, but I haven't seen a movie for sale on
> tape in a long time.

Because nobody releases on VHS anymore. Also, there are currently no
stand-alone VCR's in production (I know, I looked for once recently).
They're all DVD/VHS combo units.

That being said, I think DVD is going to be around for a long time.
The consumer acceptance rate and durability of the media are just too
high. Eventually, some sort of streaming HD on demand will likely
kill the optical discs, but I think it will be a decade or two before
it happens.

Everybody is fond of citing all sorts of reasons for the slowdown in
DVD sales, but I think it has mostly to do with the format being
around for 10 years. Just about every catalog title that would sell
has been released already, and there is a tremendous secondary market
due to the durability of the media. Back at the height of VHS I was
always leery of buying 2nd hand VHS, because you never knew when it
had been owned by some clown who used butter-covered hands to shove it
in his never-cleaned VCR. I have no such qualms about DVD because
there are few sins Windex cannot fix. I still think people like to
buy movies on disc, the studios just have to give them something
worthwhile to buy.

-beaumon

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