How long do you think until DVDs are gone?

[Scarim Coral]

The only time I will see DVD become obsolete is probably when internet access become more and more accessible to everyone (young and old )and also the internet service provider will become super cheap.

I mean these days ain't people are streaming tv and film via a subscription online service like Netflix or Ilovefilms etc than actually going out to buy the dvd of the said tv and film? Why have a phyiscal copy when it is store on the non phyiscal plane of the world wide web, saving you alot of space?

Capcha "miss you" Yeah I will miss you DVD when you will dissapear in the name of technological advancement.

 

[fix-the-spade]

A long time.
DVD's are cheap, reliable and easily available globally. VHS died in five years because it sucked, DVD's beat them on everything from production cost to image quality to content capacity. Blu Ray has been steady because it's basically DVD+ as far as most are concerned, many care nothing for watching movies in 1080p (although that might change as 4k screens become mainstream) plus they're expensive.

Internet getting fast enough and widespread enough to support massive numbers of downloads for everyone might kill DVD, but lots of people like to just buy stuff and have stuff, which will keep physical media going for a long while yet.

 

[Xerosch]

My guess would be it's still a long time. Just recently a lot of TV series that used to come out on Blu-ray were listed DVD only for future releases. I.e. Regular Show 3, Portlandia 4, 'Damages' after season 1. And it's not only the more exotic shows, but series like 'Modern Family' from season 5 onwards.

And some popular or nerdy series like 'Parks & Rec' or 'Community' didn't get a Blu-ray release at all.

 

[RivFader86]

DvD's or physical mediums in generall will become obsolete when having internet is not reliant on having a contract for it.
The german Federal High Court of Justice ruled in January 2013 that the internet is a basic liberty so it has to be taken into consideration when it comes to social aide's.

In my oppinion it can't be that long until basic internet is a given like power or water (not necessarylie free but in the sense that it has to be provided by a local/federal company up until the point someone chooses a different provider).

The internet is an integral part of todays day to day life and converting to digital will have a big impact not only on our shelves but on the entire planet, considering the amounts recources that are needed to produce, ship and package dvd's (starting from the mining of recources to shipping of the raw recources, the production of the dvd's, on to again shipping of the raw medium then again shipping of the recorded medium to the store all the way to our shelves and trash) it will make a difference especially keeping in mind that more need for resources to produce dvd's in turn directly converts into the need for more resources to mine/transport these resources.

PS: That google guy living in my pc gave me this to have some numbers to what i am saying http://www.environmentalleader.com/2014/05/29/streaming-videos-carbon-footprint-lower-than-dvds/

 

[Colour Scientist]

The rule of retro says it will never actually disappear. It will follow the path of the old and cherished and receive a cult following that is essentially forever.

CDs and DVDs don't have the longevity that older media formats had.

(Edit: Not necessarily older formats but certainly other formats.)

CDs don't last as well as, say, vinyls do.

I'm an archivist and information that has been stored on discs is already problematic.

 

[Recusant]

Physical media itself isn't going anywhere; its market share will decrease, perhaps enormously, but will get a big boost when the downsides of digital streaming (probably the "your ISP knows exactly what you're watching, and when, and when you pause, rewind, etc." part) come crashing home. DVDs specifically, however...

What do DVDs offer that VHS doesn't? Better picture (and sometimes sound) capability. A lack of need to rewind. A much smaller probability of getting stuck in the player- which is much less likely to be damaged if something does get stuck. Lesser vulnerability to magnetic fields. Nonlinear playing abilities that allow for specific chapter selection and other options. A smaller profile leading to larger numbers stored in the same space. Aside from the last one, every single advantage they had was also present with laserdiscs, which became available (in the US, at least) only a few years after VHS did; the format never had much penetration and lagged along until DVDs finally wiped them out, too. But it illustrates that it's not just (nor even primarily just) technological advantage that wins you custom; a big chunk of it is plain old marketing.

Fun fact: the screen following the ubiquitous FBI warning (again, in the US, at least) on your DVDs says something that I find very interesting:
"The International Criminal Police Organization - INTERPOL - has expressed its concern about motion picture and sound recording piracy to all of its member national police forces. (Resolution adopted at INTERPOL, General Assembly, Stockholm, Sweden, September 8, 1977.)"

Here we sit in 2015, and an organization using language as weak as "expressing its concern about" (not even "disapproving of") this activity at a meeting four decades ago is so damned important that you won't even let me fast forward through it?

 

[Dizchu]

DVD video is like CD audio. It works, it has a resolution most people are quite comfortable with, it's easy to reproduce, everyone's likely to have a system that can play it. I don't see it going away until streaming becomes absolutely ubiquitous.

The jump from VHS to DVD was huge. The jump from DVD to Blu-Ray is not and I doubt I will ever own a Blu-Ray system because HD streaming is making it obsolete.

 

[dalek sec]

I'd hope that physical media sticks around for a while. Honestly, if given the choice between a digital copy and a physical one, and the price isn't vastly different, I'll pick the physical one. Technology has a habit of buggering up too often, and if I were to wake up one morning and find all my movies gone because of a computer hiccough, I'd be pretty upset.

Besides, I'm one of the mutants who actually likes the director/cast commentary on movies/series, and you don't really get that from streaming/downloads.

Pretty much this. Be it movies, books, or games I prefer a physical copy myself. I'd like to know all my stuff will be there and not gone because of a computer error or a server crapped out.

 

[Owyn_Merrilin]

Most people will always go for the more cheaper option, when given the chance. Especially in today's economy. [Ech, adult speak] I highly DVD's are gonna go out any time soon. Especially considering many, many people have created a vast library of DVD's. *glances at DVD cabinet*

I thought that HD-DVD got bought out by the blu-ray blokes. Isn't that why the DVD's and blu-rays are packaged together now? I thought the companies were trying to gradually phase DVD's out of existence.

All I care about is getting the original Eva dub, to be honest. If Funimation recasts Haworu with Johny Yong Bosch or whoever for the blu-ray release, then I may have to go on a shooting spree. Seriously, some of my DVD's are hard to procure. I don't care to track them down again.

HD-DVD just lost the format war, they weren't bought out so much as their backers gave up. These days you can buy a Toshiba Blu-Ray player, just like you could buy (still can, actually) a Sony VHS deck once Sony finally gave up on Beta.

OT: VHS held out until 2006 (when the last major movie to be released on the format, A History of Violence, hit home video). This is kind of crazy when you think about it, because that was the same year that Blu-Ray came out. What's more, VHS was completely incompatible with DVD. You could get combo players, but they were just a VHS deck and a DVD Player crammed into the same case, and usually a crappy example of each. DVD is natively backwards compatible with Blu-Ray, and much like there was with VHS, there is a huge install base that still doesn't have the new format. It's possible that DVD will be around as long as Blu-Ray is, if not longer.

 

[FalloutJack]

The rule of retro says it will never actually disappear. It will follow the path of the old and cherished and receive a cult following that is essentially forever.

CDs and DVDs don't have the longevity that older media formats had.

(Edit: Not necessarily older formats but certainly other formats.)

CDs don't last as well as, say, vinyls do.

I'm an archivist and information that has been stored on discs is already problematic.

Could you expand on this? It sounds as though you could tell me what specifically - even with the proper care employed by smart people like me - can go wrong with the media. Even still, anything can degrade, but that doesn't stop the retro community from doing what it does and making a market for it.

 

[Demagogue]

Wait... they still make DVDs? I've been a slave to the Fruit, and Steam so long I've forgotten what physical media feels like.. *hangs head in shame*

 

[Silvanus]

I don't believe that Blu-Ray will supplant DVD in the same way that DVD did VHS.


The gap in quality between DVD and Blu-Ray is honestly pretty insignificant, and though the Blu-Ray can hold more information, most people don't really care so long as the film is on there. Blu-Ray players are still bloody expensive, and the majority of people don't have one.

 

[Owyn_Merrilin]

The rule of retro says it will never actually disappear. It will follow the path of the old and cherished and receive a cult following that is essentially forever.

CDs and DVDs don't have the longevity that older media formats had.

(Edit: Not necessarily older formats but certainly other formats.)

CDs don't last as well as, say, vinyls do.

I'm an archivist and information that has been stored on discs is already problematic.

Could you expand on this? It sounds as though you could tell me what specifically - even with the proper care employed by smart people like me - can go wrong with the media. Even still, anything can degrade, but that doesn't stop the retro community from doing what it does and making a market for it.

Vinyl records, properly stored, don't degrade while just sitting on a shelf. Optical disc based media can degrade due to various impurities in the component parts causing problems with the data layer, although it's mostly a problem with burned discs[footnote]where the data layer actually starts flaking off after a long enough period. If you've still got any burned CDs from the early 2000's, you've probably got a disc that's doing this[/footnote] and early laserdiscs[footnote]which, as the first optical medium, took a while for the manufacturers to realize how important proper clean room conditions were. In the early days it wasn't uncommon to have a disc that was bad when it was brand new, let alone after a few years or decades[/footnote].

 

[lechat]

dvd will probably always stick around as an alternative to blu ray and both will die as soon as we have reliable cheap internet and t.vs come out by default with reasonably priced streaming services with the majority of content available.

I still don't have a blu ray player and despite the fact that i have a dvd library large enough to kill me if the cabinet falls over if i want to watch something i just download it. why? because despite the fact i paid money for it each dvd comes loaded with anti piracy warnings.... so it's more convenient to pirate it than watch my legal copy.

 

[VanQ]

Not untill The Abyss finally gets a blu-ray release. Seriously, what the fuck is keeping them!?

Wait, I swear my dad has a copy of The Abyss on Blu-ray. Maybe I'm imagining it though. If there really is no BD release then colour me shocked. Such a good movie deserves one.

 

[mariosonicfan5]

As soon as they stop being cheaper than blu-rays probably, which won't happen. Honestly I never really see the appeal with getting just blu-rays. For generic real life movies, be they action, drama or what have you, I can't see myself getting the blu-ray, dvd will be just fine. But for movies that are special effects heavy or superbly animated, such as the LOTR, STar Wars or recent disney films, then yes blu-ray's HD coat of shine will compliment them.

But Honestly it all comes down to the money thing I think. Do I pay 30 bucks for the DVD season 4 of game of thrones...or 65 for the blu-rays hmmm yeah gonna go with the cheaper option.