Next new video format to hit big.

[Doramius]

DVDs are obviously the biggest thing in video these days, and may stay for quite a long time to come, but there has been talk about new possible formats that even the video rental stores may be willing to accept.

Sony has had their mini-disc player for audio on the market for a while now, but they have a work-in-progress of a mini-dvd. I tried looking for a good online reference site, but couldn't find one. I saw this info. at the CES show here in Vegas recently. A disc would be DL and could hold 7.5GB of info. top & bottom or just under 4GB per side. Advantage of this is an even more compact size for traveling and a cartridge like style so the disc is a little more durable and less susceptible to scrathes & dust.

Compact Flash, and other similar flash technology, is starting to make it big for sheer size and it probably won't be too long before costs for the tiny little objects to drop signifigantly over mass production of larger units. Again, there's no online reference, but was talked about at the CES convention. An advantage to this format is that movie companies can set the format so rentals can be litterally purchased and then expire after any given SET period of time. The unused cartridge would be returned to the video store, and a possible minor deposit return be given to encourage the returns, and can be reprogrammed with another or multiple movies. They also talked about not even requiring a fully manned video store, or a video store at all, but a kiosk as a replacement that dispenses the cartridges or reprograms the returns. You could pick the titles you want off a title list and they would automatically program into the cartridge. They admitted that feature may be a little into the future. The more feasible ability CURRENTLY would be to offer 1 title per cartridge and have several programmed carts waiting for customers to pick up. It would take a moderate amount of time to program the cartrides with current technology, so while the return is being programmed, the consumer is walking out with their new rental purchase. They can also make special encodings, formats and players for the cartridges, so that pirates cannot easily pop the device into their computer and play them or save them to HDD. This format could also offer an even higher bitrate in which to view movies.

Pure Download or streaming rental media - Something similar to this is already offered in hotel television systems, Pay Per View, and Digital Cable/satellite systems. The next step may be in the computer or towards that extent. This is highly frowned upon by Hollywood due to current technology abilities that pirates might be able to take advantage of. I'm not really sure how the formats would be set up. As it is, it's not widely available at an inexpensive cost. And there are no plans to lower the cost or make it more widely accepted outside of a high premium paying capability. The digital formats are starting to send signals of macrovision, or the like, that prevent pirates from cracking and/or copying the signals. Rental companies don't like this as private rental stores couldn't compete. You wouldn't need a rental store at all and large rental companies could make prices extremely low so only large volume rental companies would survive.

EDIT: Added TGPO option & fixed typo.

[bazooka]

I vote for the minidvd.

In the computer world, we have a tendency to make smaller devices.

[Bodyslide]

Mini-DVD....

[pyrate83]

Mini-DVD.

It would be cool to have flash drives instead of hard drives in coputers in the future but they would have to be very large which I guess may not be possible.

[Garibaldi]

I went with flash. The 16 GB flash drive is already out and it costs only half of what the 8 GB one costs to make. Plus it can't be scratched. Just my opinion though.

[Capmaster]

Yeah. Like HD hit it big. And DL. And HD-DVD will hit it big ...and BluRay :P

I'll believe it hits it big exactly 6 months after it really hits it big.

Wait .....

[Heywould3]

SS media is gonna be big.. dont know how long.. but SS is the future

[ViRaL1]

Flash will always be too expensive to compete with a 'disposable' media like DVD or CD (or MiniDVD).

[Doramius]

Flash will always be too expensive to compete with a 'disposable' media like DVD or CD (or MiniDVD).

At CES, they were talking that flash media has gone down an average of 30-50% of it's original cost 1 year ago. You can get 512MB for around $50-$60. They had a spin & win wheels where most of the winning prizes were 32MB flash drives. A LOT OF PEOPLE were walking away with them. Yet, the fact that they were offering 25 & 50ct. cakes of DVDs & CDs as prizes too shows they may hang on for a lot longer than we may realize. Plus, flash technology players aren't really available outside of a computer, and knowing Hollywood, they'd want it to have their own type of encryption for anti-pirating.

[Garibaldi]

SS media is gonna be big.. dont know how long.. but SS is the future

What is SS?

[yoda313]

Hello,

I voted for pure download with the caveat that it be DRM FREE!!!!!!!

Never gonna happen but we can dream.....

Kevin

[bazooka]

SS media is gonna be big.. dont know how long.. but SS is the future

What is SS?

Shiny silver

[Heywould3]

SS = Solid State.. any media without moving parts falls into that category

[yoda313]

SS = Solid State.. any media without moving parts falls into that category

Hello,

Wouldn't that make flash drives SOLID STATE as well?????

Kevin

[Heywould3]

yes.. thats how i voted.. but thats not to say that flash will be the media just anything that is SS, maybe something not out yet.. it was meant to be broad

[Garibaldi]

yes.. thats how i voted.. but thats not to say that flash will be the media just anything that is SS, maybe something not out yet.. it was meant to be broad

So flash, cds, dvds, blu-rays, holo-disks all fall in that category? I agree, I think the type of media without moving parts will take over more and more, no moving parts to break. Granted they can break in other ways but the fact that they don't have moving parts makes them more enduring.

[lordsmurf]

VHS

[Craig Tucker]

Mini-DVD.

It would be cool to have flash drives instead of hard drives in coputers in the future but they would have to be very large which I guess may not be possible.

Who knows what is possible in the world of computers, the future seems impossible to predict. Flash drives are getting bigger and bigger in their storage capacity and are getting to the capacity that hard drives were just a few years ago.
http://www.pretec.com/PR/PR_CU-Flash_010605.htm

[offline]

Micro Softs. Consciousness expanding data straws, allow
interactivity between brain and chip. Drive a Jet, speak
a new language, experience virtual worlds - all instantly.

[ViRaL1]

Micro Softs. Consciousness expanding data straws, allow
interactivity between brain and chip. Drive a Jet, speak
a new language, experience virtual worlds - all instantly.

I'm actually Beta-testing that one. It's a bit buggy (imagine that). Sometimes I get tourrete's episodes and installing any unlicensed software gives me a migraine. On the bright side it has increased my penis size to a whopping 11" (up from 3). I think the last part is an unintended side effect, but I'm not complaining.

[Garibaldi]

http://www.pretec.com/PR/PR_CU-Flash_010605.htm

That's amazing! I had heard ideas about implanting a flash drive under people's skin or dog tags around the neck so if you get injured and are unconcious they can check your medical history from the flash before they treat you.

[ViRaL1]

Along with your SSN / Credit History / Whether your insurance has lapsed / any previous drug use / your last reported income etc.

[Doramius]

THere's debate about the skin implants. Right now the only authorization is medical history, but they'd like insurance info. too. You can get a skin implant currently. Again, they can only put an ID that can track your medical history currently. Anything else has not been approved, or widely accepted for that matter. Of course you really can't say the implants are widely accepted wither. Interesting technology though.

Again, I say Flash Technology is going to completely replace hard drives and possibly evolve to a much faster speed and size.

Imagine haveing a 42" flat sceen panel that's your TV, but you connect up a keyboard, mouse and slide in a flash drive and you can turn on your computer. Talk about Hot swap capabilities.

[Garibaldi]

Again, I say Flash Technology is going to completely replace hard drives and possibly evolve to a much faster speed and size.

Imagine haveing a 42" flat sceen panel that's your TV, but you connect up a keyboard, mouse and slide in a flash drive and you can turn on your computer. Talk about Hot swap capabilities.

Exactly, that would be great. I'm looking forward to more flash tech in the future.

[ViRaL1]

THere's debate about the skin implants. Right now the only authorization is medical history, but they'd like insurance info. too. You can get a skin implant currently. Again, they can only put an ID that can track your medical history currently. Anything else has not been approved, or widely accepted for that matter. Of course you really can't say the implants are widely accepted wither. Interesting technology though.

Again, I say Flash Technology is going to completely replace hard drives and possibly evolve to a much faster speed and size.

Imagine haveing a 42" flat sceen panel that's your TV, but you connect up a keyboard, mouse and slide in a flash drive and you can turn on your computer. Talk about Hot swap capabilities.

There's no real way to be sure WHAT they actually put on there. I'm not trying to instill paranoia. If I had to guess I'd say something of that importance would probably be encrypted, and that there's no easy way any unauthorized person (including the implantee) could look into it to see ALL of what's on it. Just a thought.

[Doramius]

Maybe it's a way to tell how often you masturbate? Some of us will have to learn to use the other hand.

[ViRaL1]

I'm ambisextrous. :P

[Doramius]

I'm ambisextrous. :P

So you're telling us you go both ways?

[MOVIEGEEK]

8 track. :P

I hope we start using CF/SD cards the size of 3.5" floppies...no moving parts,no lasers,no scratches,etc.

[Dr. DOS]

Flash.... combined with MPEG encoding the next generation camcorders will store video on flash memory in MPEG2 format.