The End for the DVD?

[alegator]

It seems that HD Camcorders will replace current DV camcorders. As High Definition video becomes widespread, and since I was told that DVD format is not suitable for HD, does this mean the end of it or am I confused? Just curious...

[somebodeez]

Oh nuts I haven't even finished paying for my DV camera yet

[redwudz]

I wouldn't panic just yet. HD takes an incredible amount of bandwidth. If you had a HD camcorder a standard tape would only record a very short time.

If you look at 'WHAT IS' , 'DVD' to the left of this page, you can see a comparison of HD, DVD formats.

Blu-ray is coming, along with other innovations that will make HD more practical, but imagine encoding a 30GB HDDVD. (And you thought TMPGEnc encoder was taking forever to do a 4.3GB DVD)

[Capmaster]

I don't think it's a given that HD will "take off" yet.

Remember DAT and LD?

[bdf24]

Not only that. But hell we still have VHS around yet. And it will be for a while. As well as cassette tapes for audio. How long ago did CD's take off! Just because somethings taking off does'nt mean everything before it will be obsolete. Just means the rich people will have more toys to buy for a while. Then slowly the general public will get into it as prices come down. But DVD is not going anywhere for a while.

[alegator]

By that time maybe there will be multiprocessor 64-bit PC's that will shorten encoding times dramatically.

[Capmaster]

Not only that. But hell we still have VHS around yet. And it will be for a while. As well as cassette tapes for audio. How long ago did CD's take off! Just because somethings taking off does'nt mean everything before it will be obsolete. Just means the rich people will have more toys to buy for a while. Then slowly the general public will get into it as prices come down. But DVD is not going anywhere for a while.

Exactly. CD's have been popular for 20 years, yet I see plenty of cassette blanks on sale at Walgreens.

The installed user base for non-HD equipment means it'll be a long, long time before we even see 25% of homes having HD. Don't write off DVD yet - it's only been with us for 8 years, and only possible for the home DVD creator for about 2 or 3 years. It's just hitting its stride

[alegator]

Oops...too late! I trashed all my DVD's and DV camcorder...!!!!

[freestyler]

The sky is falling!

[verchad]

I'm sure dvd's will be obsolete in a few weeks now that we all have our high def tvs and our blue ray recorders at home.

I forgot, how long ago was hd supposed to be standard and have replaced traditional tv broadcasts?

[alegator]

Guys, this is the end of the world, not even H.G.Wells would ever dream of this, what are we going to do without DVD's, the survival of future generations is at stake!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Now seriously, I the gap between DV and HD is much wider than that between Hi8 and DV, sooner rather than later HD will be the new standard ...I give it a couple more years lifetime. (it will come hand in hand with 64-bit computing, which will make HD editing/authoring more practical)

[Gillies]

u never know, HD-DVD or blu ray may never take off if they promote it too soon... look at DVD-Audio. it's been out for a while now, but whenever i go into a music store and ask what dvd-audio titles they have, they either look at me with a blank expression, direct me to music dvd-videos or have 2 bits of nothing on offer

[Nilfennasion]

That was just bad publicity. The DVD Consortium seems to have expected that they could just output the format with no fuss or fanfare, and have it instantly be accepted. One major problem facing the format is that nobody quite knows what market to target anymore. Sales across the board have slumped so badly that even markets with high disposable income are impossible to tap.

What they should have done from the get-go was start educating sales staff about the format, explaining to them what it is and why it is better than CD, and then set up demonstrations in stores. Nothing fancy, mind you, just a regular 5.1-channel system with a budget of about a grand, play something people would recognise (Prince's Around The World In A Day would be my choice from the Warner catalogue), and let people hear the difference.

Salespeople seem to have a general policy of ignorance these days. You should have heard when I phoned the local Big W and asked if they had any DVD+R DL in stock. It took me long enough to get it through the guy's head that it was a new type of recordable. Then he told me the supervisor said they weren't ever going to stock it. They'll get tired of sending their business over to Harvey Norman or the like soon enough.

[alegator]

DVD+R DL are still very expensive (U$20/unit), eventhough DL burners are affordable (under $200). I would wait 6 months until prices become reasonable for blank media, unless of course your needs/budget justify getting them now.

[Ranaya_Kay]

Though technology doubles every 18 months, I still believes that DVD will be around for a long while, give or take about 10 yrs or so.

[Nilfennasion]

At the moment, my need to have more hard drive space is more pressing than the need to conserve money. So I will be purchasing one DVD+R DL in order to test its compatibility with my player. Or something. But really, this is another example of the DVD Consortium's idiotic thinking on how to bring new formats to the public. Drives are about months before the media is even available from a singular retailer? Can we say "creating ill will"?

[Gillies]

I phoned the local Big W and asked if they had any DVD+R DL in stock. It took me long enough to get it through the guy's head that it was a new type of recordable. Then he told me the supervisor said they weren't ever going to stock it. They'll get tired of sending their business over to Harvey Norman or the like soon enough.

never bother with the useless idiots in big w... they don't know a damn thing and will tell u anything so that they can get u to stop bothering them (why are they always so surly). they are so poorly trained and uninformed, the only way to find stuff out there is to look for urself. dont expect DVD+R DLs anytime soon there... their DVD-/+R/RW range isn't too crash hot, they've got a billion different types of CD-Rs and a handfull of DVD. though i will say their $35 25disc datastream pack is pretty good.

[chobo321321]

I don't care how good new technology claims to be, or is. People have just started to migrate over to DVD's from VHS. Do you honestly think everyone is just going to throw there hands up in the air, and ditch DVD's? Hell, I still haven't even ditched my VHS I actually recently (3 months ago ) bought one becuase my old one died. How many people have digital TV? How have HD-TV's? Not that many.

VHS has lasted for a very long time, I hope DVD's last half as long. What are companies gonna tell people that have large DVD collections that are only a few years old? Sorry we have just shit out a new format please go re-buy all those movies because they have a higher resolution, come again. If something like that happens I'm sure movie piracy would go through the roof.

Prediction - DVD's will be around for at least 10 more years before another format tries to replace it.

[pete2828]

in my opinion if bluray or HD DVD is going to work then It MUST be backward compatible with DVD and CDs. In addition these players can be played on any TV. the picture will only be HD if the TV can display HD content. If any of those 3 points are not accomplished then this format is going nowhere!!

[Nilfennasion]

Normally, I don't bother with those morons at Big W. The only reason I even go there is because it is the only place in this area where DVD±R can be quickly obtained. If I had the chance, I'd go to somewhere that understands the need for competitive pricing and give them all of my business.

The conversation I had with the guy on the 'phone went something like this:

"I'm trying to find prices for dual-layer recordable DVDs..."
"You mean the CDs?"
"No, listen to me carefully. I said dual-layer recordable DVDs."
"Duh all our CDs are dual-layer."
"Let me put it another way. If it doesn't say 'DVD+R DL' on the box, I am not currently interested."

The conversation went on like this for another five minutes until it finally dawned on the guy that I was talking about a recordable format that had just been released to the public. He went and asked his manager, who proved himself to be equally clueless by basically saying that they don't stock these discs and never will. I'm sure that in six months time, they'll notice all their recordable business going to Harvey Norman or Dick Smith, and quickly change their tune.

[alegator]

Well, in my opinion 99% of sales assistants and Tech Support guys are useless.
I have this story of a friend of mine who bought an ABS PC system. His brand new PC would run slowly, so he went thru clean installing Windows and all that stuff. So he finally called Tech Support and the guy suggested him to buy a small fridge and have the PC located next to it with the freezer's door open to cool it down and increase performance.
I thought it was a joke, but he was really serious. They are useless but at least funny!

[alegator]

Yes, Blu Ray will be backward compatible with current DVDR's.