time to forget CD's forever

[discman07]

Can anyone give me 1 good reason to keep making video on CD's? Don't tell me its cheaper -- blank DVD's are $1 or less, and burners are only a couple hundred. C'mon guys, get serious, floppy diskettes use to be state-of-the-art storage when Apple still made the II+. CD burners are todays floppy--the longer you hold on to them, the longer it will take the industry to push better technology into the spotlight (think higher capacity blue laser DVD next).

[Digifreak]

Yes, its all a matter of time involved. Even after getting a DVD writer I am still making both. Making a DVD can get extremely time intensive depending upon the movie size and how original you want to keep DVD. I am involved every step of the way from ripping, frame serving, encoding, bitrate calculating, authoring, editing .ifo and .vob files. It can take hours and hours. For videoCDs, there are automated programs like DVD2SVCD that only use up 15 minutes of my useful time. Pop in a disc, click a few buttons and then come back later and burn some images. Hope we get something like that for DVDs that preserves the DVD structure.

[adam]

There are already a number of threads on this topic. Obviously cd based media is becoming less popular and less appealing as dvd burners become cheaper and more feasible.

Many people like myself are still waiting for the media to come down in price because even though some media is only $1, that media is far less compatible then the quality media which is still significantly more expensive than a cdr.

Also dvd burners are still in their infancy. Each month that you hold out buying one means that the one you eventually get will be that much better.

[Thorn]

It seems that someone makes an apocalyptic prediction about the death of CD, VCD, SVCD, etc every week. Really, the time for the transition to DVD will take a few years rather than a few months, so it's hardly going to be a sudden thing. CD will have its place for a few years hence. I may have a better chance putting home video on VCD rather than DVD-R if I want anyone else to be able to read it. Moreover, I may have a better chance of getting MY dvd player to read VCDs than DVDs (just bought a Pioneer that was supposed to read DVD-R but doesn't, so I'll still use my Apex for now... but that's OT). All that slows down DVDs "Immenent takeover".

Actually, the best reason I see to use VCD sometimes is that it's easier. I can burn when I have 80min of material, rather than waiting until I have 2-4GB (so I don't waste a disc) then author it, then create the title set to burn... Making a DVD-R is still more of a production than making a CD. That will change, of course.

[thxkid]

weel , one reason I have held out on the DVD burners, is not only time, but think of that time wasted when its encoded wrong or a coaster and even a $1 each you make 10 coasters thats $10 and ten CD coasters is $1.40, but I went with the DVD Home recorder which is way much easiers to use and heck of alot less coasters, I pop in my Star wars 2 and 4 minutes after the movie is over I have one perfect backup copy, have not found a DVD yet that I can not backup.
Down fall on the Home DVD recorders, is the price, if I had not had a insurnace settlement I would not have bought my Panasonic DMR-E20 and DMR-E10.
Once in the future the DVD recorders get to $200 or less the VHS recorder will be serious trouble of being replaced but at the high price they are at now, no way and by the way the Burners are not a couple of hundred dollars more like $300 with a few on the net dropping below to $250.
The day the Frys electronics has them for $199 or less, out the door price I will but one and I see that price by christmas or shortly after.
Also the $1 DVD-R's I use works perfect and great quality on my DVD Recorder, I understand on a burner there are some problems with them.
I have tried the $5 TDK and they don't look or play any better than the $1 Ritek that I use.

[sterno]

Yeah, people just keep predicting the imminent demise of VCD/SVCD in favor of DivX/MPEG-4 or recordable DVD. I'm still waiting for the demise of commercial VHS that people have been predicting for a few years now, but every time I walk in to a store I see a lot more movies on tape than on DVD. Audio CD took years to really replace cassette tapes for the general public, I don't see why people think DVD would be all that different.

For that matter, companies seem to be trying to make DVDs more like VHS tapes - I'm seeing more 4:3 full-screen-only DVDs now, instead of including both pan-and-scan and widescreen versions in the same package. For me personally it's not a big deal because I only have one TV and I like widescreen versions, but if I also had a little TV in the bedroom or a portable player with a 4in LCD I'd rather use a full-screen version than try to squint to watch a 2.35:1 widescreen movie on a small screen.

[SingSing]

but I went with the DVD Home recorder which is way much easiers to use and heck of alot less coasters, I pop in my Star wars 2 and 4 minutes after the movie is over I have one perfect backup copy, have not found a DVD yet that I can not backup.
.

Hmm, you means the macrovision does not stop you from copying DVD ?

[vitualis]

Can anyone give me 1 good reason to keep making video on CD's? Don't tell me its cheaper -- blank DVD's are $1 or less, and burners are only a couple hundred. C'mon guys, get serious, floppy diskettes use to be state-of-the-art storage when Apple still made the II+. CD burners are todays floppy--the longer you hold on to them, the longer it will take the industry to push better technology into the spotlight (think higher capacity blue laser DVD next).

It depends on where you live too. DVD burners and discs are still pretty expensive where I live (Australia).

Basically, for one blank DVD, I can buy 10 CD-R discs and the drive itself costs around 5-6x that of a CD burner.

As for floppy discs, I counter that the CD is the modern floppy. The floppy as a small, ubiquitous, REWRITABLE medium is still unchallenged. The CD simply has taken a role that the floppy never really had (or was good for) -- larger backups.

Otherwise, why on Earth do new PCs still come with Floppy drives?

Regards.

[flaninacupboard]

buying a dvd burner has made me forget about vcd really. i still use it if what i download is already in vcd format, but even then i sometimes just dump loads onto a dvd-r instead, less disc changing! i think sony are pushing memory stick to be the new floppy disc. new sony tv's come with memory stick slots in the side. dump an mp3 on it, the tv plays it. put a bunch of jpgs on it, the tv does a slideshow for you. once the pda laptop mobile phone digital radio and digital camera are rolled into one, that'll be a really useful feature. although by then we'll all be using bluetooth 9.
i agree about media though. every type ive tried that isn't generic unlabelled crap (so 40p a disc up) has worked no probs on my sony dvd player, and they're shit with -all- cd-r. go figure.
no way has dvd-r replaced vhs. when i record tv shows, i record them on video if im out, as well as on the computer. that way i watch the video when im home, and get the computer to encode the next day, and then mess around with dvdit and bsweet and all the other crap some other time. the end dvd looks and sounds miles better, and when i want to watch it in 6 months time, ill really appreciate that. but here and now, vhs fills a big hole.

[discman07]

Apocalyptic Prediction? Newsflash, this isn't a prediction- it's a fact- someone just needs a shovel so they can bury the notion CD's are a viable video alternative. Does anyone out there use an 8 mm silent film camera to shoot their home movies? No, oh- I see- did you know you can still buy 8mm film stock for those cameras, so I guess that means they aren't dead yet. Hey Sterno- where do you live? Backwater USA? I live in Manitoba (Canada, for the geographically challenged) and every Blockbuster, Rogers Video, etc. has made nearly their entire store VHS free. "I can make 10 coasters for 10$ or 10 for 1.40$" - the only people who make coasters are rookies- 99 percent of the time it was the operators fault-not the media. Oh yeah, one DVD is worth nearly 10 CDs so cost is =. Virtualis - ahoy, mate. Last year in my town, 1 DVD was 20 dollars and my pioneer A03 was 1000 dollars (which I was happy to buy). I started my learning curve a year and a half ago making a few 'coasters' (yeah it was my fault) at 20 dollars apiece. Now I buy bulk Optodisc media and never make a coaster.

[vitualis]

The great thing about having people like discman07 is that they help pay for technology to become cheap. This in itself almost outweighs the fact they they are deluded in terms of how fast technology is changing.

Unlike your North American bias, DVD blanks and DVD burners are still exorbitantly expensive in most parts of the world. Furthermore, VCDs are actually VERY popular in parts of Asia (i.e., more popular than VHS).

Canada must be a great place to live, but the last time I looked, there are still a hell of a lot of VHS tapes at all my local video stores (thankfully, they have DVD as well now) and VHS players are still for sale at my local electronics store.

Regards.

[crahak]

I am in canada too, and in a capital but guess what? Blockbuster still has more VHS than DVD's here. Mind you, I never recorded on a VHS ever (felt no need for it), and I only have a DVD player. DVD writers are coming down in price big time, and it's about time I buy one. However, I will still be using CD's extensively, just not to burn movies anymore, that's the only difference. Also, memory stick instead of floppy? I hope not. There has been LOTS of attempts at replacing these things, but I'm thinking it might be mt rainier fmt CD's that will replace em. You might like sony's memory, I'm sorry, but I'm not buying it.

[poopyhead]

As for floppy discs, I counter that the CD is the modern floppy. The floppy as a small, ubiquitous, REWRITABLE medium is still unchallenged. The CD simply has taken a role that the floppy never really had (or was good for) -- larger backups.

well....zip disks are basically just larger version of floppy, though not nearly as popular.

however, wut i don't understand is why those superdisk drives and superdisks (i think that's wut they're called) didn't become popular. they are backwards compatible with floppy, yet support the 120 MB superdisks (which prolly means similar small size as regular floppy) and also reads much faster than floppy.

superdisks and zip can conceivably replace the floppy if either one becomes more of a standard (the backwards compatibility of the superdisk is especially handy because it's like a regular floppy disk drive and zip drive all rolled into one)

[vitualis]

well....zip disks are basically just larger version of floppy, though not nearly as popular.

Alas, the lack of ubiquity makes it almost useless...

however, wut i don't understand is why those superdisk drives and superdisks (i think that's wut they're called) didn't become popular. they are backwards compatible with floppy, yet support the 120 MB superdisks (which prolly means similar small size as regular floppy) and also reads much faster than floppy.

Too much competition, lack of commercial consensus... LS-120 just didn't make it -- it was expensive too and took up an IDE position, and not to mention that whether or not you could boot off it depended greatly on your BIOS.

superdisks and zip can conceivably replace the floppy if either one becomes more of a standard (the backwards compatibility of the superdisk is especially handy because it's like a regular floppy disk drive and zip drive all rolled into one)

I quite liked the LS-120 drives as well but compatibility was a problem...

Sony actually had a possibility of replacing the floppy a LONG time ago with MiniDisc data discs. MiniDisc came in both audio and data flavours and as a data format, it had a lot going for it. It was quite fast, it was reliably (magneto-optical), the discs were relatively cheap to make (compare the cost of a MiniDisc now to a Zip disc) and they held 140 Mb (if I remember correctly). Not to mention, it predated both Zip and LS-120 by years.

However, Sony being Sony made (stupid) arbitrary differences between MiniDisc audio and data discs (and drives) so that one couldn't be read/written by the other. Could you imagine transferring compressed audio onto MiniDisc on the PC? (i.e., sort of what NetMD does NOW). MP3 may never have happened. Sony wanted to prevent that very thing, of course.

This among other reasons (the world just didn't know what to do with a 140 MB floppy back when 100-200 MB HDD were the norm) made MiniDisc data discs essential DOA. The only time I've seen MiniDisc data discs used anywhere was as the proprietary backup device to an Ultrasound machine I believe.

Regards.

[Nelson37]

The floppy still has a use because it is an absolute certainty that if your target has a PC, they have a floppy drive and it will work. CD has nearly reached that point now.

LS-120 was a great idea, though flawed, I have only seen it in the field 2 or 3 times. Zip drive had sexier marketing but they are crap.

As for DVD taking over, WHICH ONE? DVD-R, +, ROM, etc. The general consumer public simply will not buy what they are confused about, the DVD consortium has put back DVD acceptance 2 or 3 years by their inability to decide on a standard, compatible format, and they still haven't done that while they prepare to bring forth Blue Laser disks. It ain't ready for Prime Time yet.

[easydvd]

.

As for DVD taking over, WHICH ONE? DVD-R, +, ROM, etc. The general consumer public simply will not buy what they are confused about, the DVD consortium has put back DVD acceptance 2 or 3 years by their inability to decide on a standard, compatible format, and they still haven't done that while they prepare to bring forth Blue Laser disks. It ain't ready for Prime Time yet

Nobody want a Beta deck in a VHS world. Although.........I still have mine but the 20 yr old tapes are getting ratty

[wulf109]

I guess I'm the only one old enough to remember the VHS v/s Beta war of 80's. Beta lost because it never overcame the stupid markering decisision by Sony to introduce it as a one hour fromat. VHS started as a two hour format and even though Beta was a better format it lost because of recording length. There seems no such problem in DVD-R v/s DVD+R war. Both record for the same length of time. I decided to go with DVD-R because it seems more widespread than DVD+R and the recorders and blanks are generally cheaper. I'm gambling that DVD-R is VHS and will win in the end. You can create a DVD-R in 1 1/2 hours the smae thing in SVCD means 6 to 8 hours that's an advantage not to be overlooked.

[flaninacupboard]

yeah, sony seem to have a history of bad marketing decisions -
VHS/BETA
not utilising minidisc
SACD instead of DVD-A(damn stupid of them! how popular is DVD-V?!?!?)
this stupid double density cd.

i often wondered if an audio MD could be taken out of its caddy and put into a data caddy and read by a MD data drive. i think it was only the caddies hat were different weren't they?

[flaninacupboard]

i hadn't seen this before! i told you sony were replacing the floppy with memory stick! this time, literally!

http://www.ebuyer.com/customer/products/index.html?action=c2hvd19wcm9kdWN0X292ZXJ2aWV3...duct_uid=28219