Can MPEG-1 be phased out?

[Digitizer]

I am just wondering if MPEG-1 can be dropped from DVD specs along the way in the future, as the technology evolves. In my opinion, this is not so easy because there is so much money invested into MPEG1-based hardware systems. In a way it is like trying to drop Cobol and mainframes, nearly impossible. Is my thinking wrong? If, for example, I decide to archive Seinfeld episodes on DVD's, what format will I be safer with?

BTW, MPEG-2 is backward compatible with MPEG-1, right? So there is no effort on the part of manufacturers to implement it?

[resnullius]

well it could be phased out, but not anytime soon... it's part of the spec.
safest would be to make your seinfeild in dvd... if not vcd, svcd specs are not part of the book.

[FM80]

Don't look for it to be phased out any time soon. VideoCD (MPEG1) compatibility requires two things:

1. A laser that reads Compact Discs (in addition to DVDs), and

2. An MPEG1 video playback system.

Why won't it be completely phased out in the near future?

Until another solution (such as DVD Audio) gains popularity, most DVD players will continue to read Compact Discs in the form of AudioCDs. It's just expected of them.

The MPEG2 decoders required for DVD Video playback are backwards-compatible with MPEG1. It's only a matter of "enabling" playback of the VCD format.

Furthermore, VideoCD is gaining popularity as a home video archival method. People want a disc-based format for their home movies. So, despite the obvious prospects for piracy, most DVD manufacturers will continue to enable VCD playback, and will use laser mechanisms capable of reading CD-R/W discs.

Those manufacturers who are not ALSO involved in big-budget movie production (such as Apex and Mintek) couldn't care less about WHY you want VideoCD compatibility... they just care that you DO.

So look for it to be around for a long time to come.

Just my 2¢

[Digitizer]

Cool.

What's DVD Audio? 650 MB's of uncompressed wave data is enough for 10-12 cuts on a disk, which has been a standard forever now. The only way you can go up is ragarding the sampling frequency, but is that necessary with 0-22,050 Hz band being so well-established? Most can't hear past it anyways. Maybe it's the 5.1 channel deal? Well, that has as much promise as Quadro