DVDs will be obsolete in 10 years: Bill Gates

[kamuixtv]

This topic is getting long...How about our important DVD data (or even video) archieves? Does it mean I can't watch my south park TV-rip episodes or view my JPG/gif pictures in 10 years?

It depends with people's preferences, how about emulation? Can you consider it obsolete where you can go play and enjoy your old console games.

Yep nice example with VHS/Beta, you can still record your tv shows without using your PC and not as expensive as DVD Recorder.

[Nilfennasion]

VCRs were a lot more expensive when they first appeared in the homes of the general public than DVD recorders are now, relatively speaking.

[ViRaL1]

VCRs weren't an upgrade in the sense that DVD-Recorders / DVR are. People with VCRs already have an easy way to record, even if it's not as good digital quality. When VCRs came out there was no real alternative.

[mikesbytes]

When VCR's first came out, they were so expensive that the alternative was to do without. 3 years later, every second household had one.

In real terms, DVD recorders were cheaper than the VCR's upon release. But as theres a lack of components in DVD recorders that have a high manufacturing price, it seems that the alternative of continuing to use the VCR may ware thin as the DVD recorder price drops.

I'd bet that the DVD recorders will kill off both the VCR and DVD players.

[ViRaL1]

Eventually, but the prices will have to drop to about the same range that VCRs were in when mass adoption started. They may have to be lower, since people who already have VCRs (which is just about everyone) will still be able to record, just without some of the features of DVD-Recorders / DVRs.

[Nilfennasion]

What they could do, and I've suggested this to retailers I've been speaking to in an official capacity before, is put up a demonstration stand. Two TVs of about 68 to 80cm, one with the best-specified VCR they can find, the other with the most affordable DVD recorder they can find. Label which one is which, record an hour of footage from a broadcast (hell, the football will do) on each, and then just play it back for everyone to see. Then sit back and watch people who give the slightest damn how things look when they play it back start buying.

[tag]

......record an hour of footage from a broadcast (hell, the football will do) on each, and then just play it back for everyone to see....

Good idea, of course. It also might not hurt to somehow demonstrate functionality. I know for a fact that a bunch of folks out there still don't realize the basic advantages of DVD over VHS (e.g. chapter marks versus fast forwarding).

[Nilfennasion]

Yeah, I know what you mean there. My folks still have a hard time getting their head around the idea that they can just key in a time code and the player will commence playback from that point less than three seconds later. Even I had difficulty grasping it (15 years experience with VHS for ya) until I put it into practise.

I think that is part of the reason why record companies, film studios, and other entertainment moguls are experiencing such sale-slumps. They are just not good salesmen. Demonstration ideas like the one I've outlined were considered common sense and even mandatory in electronics stores during the early 1980s. Now, if they do set up a TV for display, as long as it shows something, they don't even give a toss. Trying to get them to explain how it works... ouch.