Is consumer video hardware driven ?

[SingSing]

When CD-R/W disc and CD burner is the main stay, we work on VCD and SVCD, and wait for DVD-R/W.

When DVD+/-R/W disc and DVD burner are affortable, we rip and transcode, and capture our video with PC.

With DVR with/out HD on the store shelves. Video are mostly directly captured. Our work is just organised and keep tracks of the 100s of disc in the house.

What' next ? Pherhaps HD camera/camcorder/player combo with wireless ?

[kschang]

Don't be too surprised.

HD video cameras are on the way. In fact, didn't someone just make one for under $1000? Or was I thinking of something else? I think the review says that it works, but extremely poorly under low light, and the anti-shake doesn't work, or something like that.

Wireless is coming soon too. Wireless USB has been worked on for a while (Bluetooth doesn't have enough bandwidth). The proliferation of hi-res "web cams" made monitoring incredibly easy. Those Axis Internet Cameras are being used as security cams in many warehouses, archived straight to PC in color, backed up to tape nightly, much cheaper and easier to maintain than video tape, and they have wireless version now that works off WiFi. Some even have pan/tilt.

The focus in the future would be more features on content creation, instead of on all the backend management/transmission/archive stuff, IMHO.

[lordsmurf]

Few people ever did the VCD route. It was inferior to VHS. By the time SVCD came around in force, DVD already was upon us.

Ripping and transcoding is not the main reason for DVDs. The main reason for DVDs was larger data backups and superior video creation media. It will still be around for quite a while. Even VHS is still steadily used.

Wireless is not reliable enough for video data off a camera. I don't see a camera being combo'd with anything.

Technology is neat and all, but I remember watching tv shows in the 1980s that showed us driving around in flying cars and colonizing both Mars and the moon by the year 2000. A lot of the video tech things I see people coming up with in the past few years are about on par with that level of not-gonna-happen.

What you suggest may very well happen someday, but expect to put on a few more gray hairs between now and then. If your hair is already full of grays, then you'll probably be dead by that time. Remember that technology moves in baby steps.

[Treebeard]

Few people ever did the VCD route. It was inferior to VHS. By the time SVCD came around in force, DVD already was upon us.

VCD was more popular over in asia I believe, but in the U.S. most people had no clue what it even was. I Hit the SVCD route til DVD-r's were affordable. I think HD content is further away then people are thinking, well widespread HD content at least.

[edDV]

High def is already here in MPeg2. Typical variations:

HDV - camcorders (1440x1080i or 1280x720p @ 25 Mb/s)
ATSC DTV - MPeg2_TS 1920x1080i or 1280x720p @ ~12-25 Mb/s
Other DTV - similar bitrates

MPeg4 based HDTV encoders (h.264, VC-1, xvid, divx, others) work at about half MPeg2 bitrates.

[kschang]

US didn't care about VCD, but VCDs are wildly popular in Asia. Most movies are still released on VCDs, and are plenty available in Chinatown alongside DVDs, which costs about 3 times as much.

[SingSing]

Few people ever did the VCD route. It was inferior to VHS. By the time SVCD came around in force, DVD already was upon us.

VCD was big in Asia, and the chinese communities in US and Canada. We can't discount its place.

SVCD sadly never get anywhere.

[edDV]

Few people ever did the VCD route. It was inferior to VHS. By the time SVCD came around in force, DVD already was upon us.

VCD was big in Asia, and the chinese communities in US and Canada. We can't discount its place.

SVCD sadly never get anywhere.

True VCD and CVD were cheaper to produce than VHS in that time period and players were cheaper. DVD had prohibitive format and MPeg2 licensing fees.

This led to the abandonment of VHS and postponement of DVD in the growing nations.

[SingSing]

VHS is still in. Half of the video shelves at the rental and library are still filled with VHS.

VCD did not last that well.

I assume DVD will.

edDV touched on the followed up question : What last ?