Sooo.... Are dvds dead?

[mike.motaku]

I ask because no one I know can afford to switch to another format anytime soon. Like in the next 5+ years. Oh sure, they would like to, but realisticly speaking rent and food and just staying alive are taking precedence over leisure goods. And if companies stop releasing things on regular dvds, that means we just stop buying. Period. Regardless of how the "format wars" shake out.

So are we coming soon to a day when company 1 releases that brand spanking new hot anime (or any anime)on HD or Blu-ray and just ignores the dvd market? Because my heart would be sad, but my wallet would be happy.

[Magic_Knight]

The DVD market isn't going away anytime soon. Even if there is a clear winner in the format war and it does well, as long as DVD sales are still good, companies will continue to release them. Remember when DVD came out companies still made VHS releases to go with their DVD releases (and maybe still are)? I'm sure the same thing is going to happen here.

I'm not worried about it. When the majority of releases are HD/Blue Ray DVD's only, there should be more affordable players out there, with backwards compatablitily to run my 1,500+ DVD collection. /images/graemlins/catgirl0.gif

[Puppet Master]

[ QUOTE ]
Magic Knight said:

I'm not worried about it. When the majority of releases are HD/Blue Ray DVD's only, there should be more affordable players out there, with backwards compatablitily to run my 1,500+ DVD collection. /images/graemlins/catgirl0.gif

[/ QUOTE ]

I definetly hope they do make them backwards compatabile if they didn't that would suck.

[mike.motaku]

Yeah, non-backwards compatible would suck hugely. I, for one, think there are a lot of series that will never make the leap to whatever format wins. If it didn't make money on dvd, there is no financial reward for companies to put it out on the new format. Especially with the young'uns only buying the new shows.

[Leon_Belmont]

The new formats are a tough sell to the average income customers. DVD still had its advantages even on low dollar income setups. No rewinding, instant feature access, and lower raw material costs. All one usually had to do to hop on board was invest in a DVD player, which has, over time, become almost as cheap as the VCR format (if not cheaper).

Blu-ray and HD are still disc based technologies. They just plain have more space. This in itself has certain innate advantages (no more bonus features disc, can do on same disc), but I'm not familiar with what degree of quality we're talking here. But the core of the technology, the fact that it's disc based, has not changed.

DVD is helping the TV technologies take off. My take is that they really need to wait for these technologies to saturate the market before they bring out a format that fully utilizes their visual capabilities. The TVs keep coming down in price, and creative space saving and money saving formats are continually introduced (where was DLP years ago?). The prices will come down, and majority of people may, in 2-10 years time, own one of these tvs.

But I honestly believe Bluray and HD will experience failure until at least half households have at least one HD capable tv. It's going to be tough before then, and tough to stick around in the market as that is happening.

Keep in mind I'm not rooting against the technologies here. I intend on buying a Sony DLP in the near future and a PS3 within months of its release, but it's going to be pretty tough for these formats.

[Kellory]

DVD's are not dead, and wont be going anywhere anytime soon. Anymore than LD's made VHS go away.

The reason DVD's replaced VHS is that the DVD is superior to VHS in almost every respect. But also because it didnt take much to convert from VHS to DVD. All it took was replacing your VHS player with a DVD player. By 1999 you could get an excellent DVD player for between $200-300. By 2000-2001 sub $100 DVD players were common. This made DVD mainstream.

HD, by comparison, is superior to DVD but only under certain conditions. Mainly, you need an HDTV as well as the HD player. So until you upgrade to an HDTV there is little need to upgrade your player, and thus no need to upgrade to HD media. The fact that not only will you need to buy a $300-500 player (assuming prices come down after a year or two), the average consumer will also need to buy a $400-700 TV to go with it. This is the real roadblock. Yes, the FCC is mandating HD changeovers for broadcast, but with converters that doesnt mean the average consumer is going to necessarily run out and get an HDTV. For the average consumer SD pictures are good enough that they wont buy a new TV until the old one breaks. This means that HDTV's probably wont be in the majority of houses for some years. Which, in turn, means HD players wont either.

Hence, DVD will still be around because few people will own HD. In fact, I personally dont think HD will take off and become viable for some years. Until then, it'll probably be more like a laserdisc or even the UMD's. A format for a niche group who care, but not for the masses. Yet.

In any event, it took about 4 years for DVD's to replace VHS. I'd expect at least that long for HD to reach the same mark. Dont worry, you will have plenty of warning before HD superceeds DVD. If it ever does.

[dunno001]

[ QUOTE ]
Magic Knight said:
The DVD market isn't going away anytime soon. Even if there is a clear winner in the format war and it does well, as long as DVD sales are still good, companies will continue to release them. Remember when DVD came out companies still made VHS releases to go with their DVD releases (and maybe still are)? I'm sure the same thing is going to happen here.

[/ QUOTE ]

Correct. It was only last year that the last major movie studio announced the discontinuance of VHS, making it an official dead format. So even if HD/BR take off, it'll take about 4 years before certain things start getting tougher to find, and another 4 to die off completely. And at that time, they'll be looking to jam the next new thing at us.

To be honest, though, I don't think DVDs entering the downward 8-year string yet. There are still far too many people who can not utilize the HD aspects, and as long as Joe Consumer (okay, including myself, too) can't utilize this new technology, DVDs stay in the prime, with HD/BR being like UMDs- a questionable future. It will clear up, but I think it'll be about 4 years before HD even approaches Joe's level. And with HDDVD and BR being not as cutting-edge in 4 years, I predict that something new will be introduced at that time, to try to get Joe's AND the tech geek's interests, helping it to get market penetration.

[ape2020]

[ QUOTE ]
dunno001 said:
[ QUOTE ]
Magic Knight said:
The DVD market isn't going away anytime soon. Even if there is a clear winner in the format war and it does well, as long as DVD sales are still good, companies will continue to release them. Remember when DVD came out companies still made VHS releases to go with their DVD releases (and maybe still are)? I'm sure the same thing is going to happen here.

[/ QUOTE ]

Correct. It was only last year that the last major movie studio announced the discontinuance of VHS, making it an official dead format. So even if HD/BR take off, it'll take about 4 years before certain things start getting tougher to find, and another 4 to die off completely. And at that time, they'll be looking to jam the next new thing at us.

To be honest, though, I don't think DVDs entering the downward 8-year string yet. There are still far too many people who can not utilize the HD aspects, and as long as Joe Consumer (okay, including myself, too) can't utilize this new technology, DVDs stay in the prime, with HD/BR being like UMDs- a questionable future. It will clear up, but I think it'll be about 4 years before HD even approaches Joe's level. And with HDDVD and BR being not as cutting-edge in 4 years, I predict that something new will be introduced at that time, to try to get Joe's AND the tech geek's interests, helping it to get market penetration.

[/ QUOTE ]

Add to the fact that introduction of the PS3 I don't think will have the same effect as the PS2 did with DVD. Especially when the PS3 will also play DVDs. The PS2 couldn't play VHS so it automatically made much of your libary obsolete. Now with the PS3 you can just keep your DVDs and buy the movies on the cheaper DVDs until you can get a HDTV. Plus those that can afford a HDTV most likely are videophiles that can afford a better BR-player, since console players are not know as the best quality.

-chimp1010

[Njr Scrawl]

IMO one reason VHS kept going was the rental market. Of course that has all changed now & the size/weight advantage of DVDs makes postal the new trend. Perhaps the shape of rental to come, more than sales, will be quick downloadable shows for limited time viewing.

Going back to anime, VHS kept going, but what happened was that some companies gradually stopped subtitled VHS releases, only continuing with dubbed ones. Sub fans who wanted new series had to switch to DVD. ADV only released Gasaraki as dub on VHS, CPM likewise with Utena and Pioneer with Sailor Moon S. Others like Media Blasters Rurouni Kenshin TV kept both sub & dub releases on tape.

[Skywise]

While I pretty much agree with your assesment, there's one thing that hasn't come up, and that's that HDTVs are going to sell a lot more and come down in price faster than people think. The reason isn't the resolution but something pretty simple - form factor. Now I haven't been to a consumer electronics store in the US lately, but here in europe at least the majority of TVs sold are flat screen ones. That means either plasma or LCD, and thus HD (some plasmas are still SD, but that's changing). You can hardly find old CRT TVs here anymore. Production cost is coming down as well. Simply due to TVs dying from age that means that within a 5 year span 1/3rd to 1/2 of all CRTs will be replaced - most likely by a flat screen/HD capable display.

In that respect HD is a natural evolution for TVs that we'll get eventually. Once you have the TV, the upgrade step to a Blu-ray or HD-DVD player is much smaller since they'll be fully backward compatible with DVD. DVD players also have a much shorter durability than TVs on average (especially the cheap junk people buy from walmart) so that's another factor that might push the new formats in sooner than you'd expect.

Whether Blu-ray/HD-DVD media actually becomes a success can take a while though. It's something you really can't say anything about until 3 years have passed or so. In the meantime the studios are going to try to push out titles so there's some incentive for people to buy. In a way it's like console gaming systems - a lot of people decide what to get (if anything) not by brand or specs, but by software availability, so they have to build up a decent library beforehand. In a way due to the money invested and format wars keeping up the media interest, the expectations to either format may be a bit high from some people. They won't be overnight successes, or even supplant DVD in 5 years. There should be a growing market and decent availability of both titles and hardware however.

Evolution, not revolution.

[something]

[ QUOTE ]
mike.motaku said:
I ask because no one I know can afford to switch to another format anytime soon.

[/ QUOTE ]

If you've read other threads in this forum, there's definitely agreement that DVD will be around for years to come. BR and HDDVD don't even know what they want to be at this point, and HDTV is still not as ubiquitous as the companies would like. Also, even if the formats DO come in, they'll still play DVDs.

So why worry? DVDs will easily be around long enough so that by the time we "have" to switch because DVDs are phased out, whatever crap next gen format wins out will be affordable enough by then, I'd wager.

And as far as I know, you can play a BR/HDDVD disc in one of their drives even if you don't have an HDTV, right? I don't care about HD so if I'm forced to buy them in a few years because DVD disappears, I'll be fine playing them on a regular TV. Or hell, what am I saying? I watch everything on my monitor anyways.

Eh, whatever, it's not like we have to switch any time soon. Remember how long it took VHS to die out (some people still use them), and VHS>DVD was a much more well defined and meaningful advance than DVD>whatever will be.

[Njr Scrawl]

[ QUOTE ]
The reason isn't the resolution but something pretty simple - form factor. Now I haven't been to a consumer electronics store in the US lately, but here in europe at least the majority of TVs sold are flat screen ones.

[/ QUOTE ]

Very sadly true. And 4:3 as a screen ratio is even rarer since most remaining CRTs, including ex-rental (a dying industry) are widescreen.

Panel screens replacing tubes is also happening for PC monitors, Dell & Iiyama only have a couple CRT models still advertised. I think the LCD monitor is helping panel TV sales by making them seem increasingly like the norm. Less electricity useage and less space & weight probably help as well.


Going to next gen, perhaps rental is the key to its success or failure in the longer term. Rental helped DVD as people bought players to watch movies, & realised gradually how superior DVD AV is generally to VHS. Eventually if prices come down, titles once rented may be bought. Its up to Hollywood to put their best titles on thr new discs.

What live action movies or shows would tempt you to try a next gen DVD?

[mike.motaku]

[ QUOTE ]
What live action movies or shows would tempt you to try a next gen DVD?

[/ QUOTE ]


None, so far. The way I'm reading this whole development is that it is more for the studios' benefit than the consumer. With movie ticket sales tanking, how can they start charging more for what they already do, and fight piracy?

I don't live or die by the extras on a disc, so the storage capacity is unimportant. And does anyone really think a company would put out a complete season of your favorite series on one disc with every extra known to man and only charge the cost of a single dvd? I've heard a *lot* of people express that little piece of fantasy as fact. Never gonna happen!

I don't make copies, so that "hey, let's bring back DIVX" b-s is nuts. DIVX failed because no one wanted to have to keep paying to view something they had already purchased. And the braintrust of hackers worldwide would just see that new copy-guard as yet another challenge. You could start a pool today on when it gets cracked and place money down to the minute of any day or hour within the first week of release.

Now if I could afford that 100" screen and go the whole home theatre route, sure. Sign me up. But us middle- and lower-class folks just can't do it. You rich folks? You go right ahead.

[fantasydewdrop]

[ QUOTE ]
Skywise said:
While I pretty much agree with your assesment, there's one thing that hasn't come up, and that's that HDTVs are going to sell a lot more and come down in price faster than people think. The reason isn't the resolution but something pretty simple - form factor. Now I haven't been to a consumer electronics store in the US lately, but here in europe at least the majority of TVs sold are flat screen ones. That means either plasma or LCD, and thus HD (some plasmas are still SD, but that's changing). You can hardly find old CRT TVs here anymore. Production cost is coming down as well. Simply due to TVs dying from age that means that within a 5 year span 1/3rd to 1/2 of all CRTs will be replaced - most likely by a flat screen/HD capable display.

In that respect HD is a natural evolution for TVs that we'll get eventually. Once you have the TV, the upgrade step to a Blu-ray or HD-DVD player is much smaller since they'll be fully backward compatible with DVD. DVD players also have a much shorter durability than TVs on average (especially the cheap junk people buy from walmart) so that's another factor that might push the new formats in sooner than you'd expect.

Whether Blu-ray/HD-DVD media actually becomes a success can take a while though. It's something you really can't say anything about until 3 years have passed or so. In the meantime the studios are going to try to push out titles so there's some incentive for people to buy. In a way it's like console gaming systems - a lot of people decide what to get (if anything) not by brand or specs, but by software availability, so they have to build up a decent library beforehand. In a way due to the money invested and format wars keeping up the media interest, the expectations to either format may be a bit high from some people. They won't be overnight successes, or even supplant DVD in 5 years. There should be a growing market and decent availability of both titles and hardware however.

Evolution, not revolution.

[/ QUOTE ]

If PS3 does well, then I expect Blue Ray to do better than HD-DVD (but I admit, it might only do decently at best). I mean, people will already have the players, so they might be currious to check out what this "blue-ray" business is all about and pick up a few movies.
Is it known as to whether PS3 will play BR movies on standard TVs? Obviously the higher quality wouldn't shine through, but the extra space does leave room for some content that could be extreemly interesting and exclusive only to the BR release.

[Sensuifu]

[ QUOTE ]
KasiTL said:
Is it known as to whether PS3 will play BR movies on standard TVs? Obviously the higher quality wouldn't shine through, but the extra space does leave room for some content that could be extreemly interesting and exclusive only to the BR release.

[/ QUOTE ]

most likely. Last I heard, the console will include composite, s-video, and component outputs. Though, I'm not too sure if the HDMI bugs are ironed out, or whether dual HDMI will be a final spec.

[Wagg]

Yeah, the PS3 it should play BR over standard S-Video/Composite outputs, but really, why bother? I think if you're going to spend the extra money for a BR movie, you'd want to get an improvement over standard DVD.

[Sugei]

[ QUOTE ]
Wagg said:
Yeah, the PS3 it should play BR over standard S-Video/Composite outputs, but really, why bother? I think if you're going to spend the extra money for a BR movie, you'd want to get an improvement over standard DVD.

[/ QUOTE ]

I believe that Sensifu stated that he/she would be interested in the BR version of a film for the supposed super duper extras that BR discs are supposed to have due to the extra disc space in comparison to DVD.

I guess if you are going to buy a PS3 and still only own a standard TV then why not start buying BR discs instead of DVD's. You'll get the extra content and if/when HDTV sets becomes affordable then you can upgrade at a later date.

Of course there is always the risk that Blu-Ray could be the next betamax/laserdisc and companies decide to support HD-DVD (Like VHS vs Betamax) or support neither and/or move on to something else entirely (Like LaserDisc) but I guess time will tell.

[Sugei]

I figure DVD's will die off eventually.

So my plan is to save up my money instead of investing in a HDTV set and a Blu-Ray / HD-DVd player.

And then use this money to buy all that cheap discounted anime on dvd.

Muhahahaaha /images/graemlins/catgirl0.gif

[cpuuk]

They might start phasing DVD's out in another 10 years or so, depends on HD\BL\ HDTV sales.

[ QUOTE ]
CPU said:
They might start phasing DVD's out in another 10 years or so, depends on HD\BL\ HDTV sales.

[/ QUOTE ]

Hmm... Boy's Love? Probably some other BL in this case... ;p

[Njr Scrawl]

[ QUOTE ]
CPU said:
They might start phasing DVD's out in another 10 years or so, depends on HD\BL\ HDTV sales.

[/ QUOTE ]

10 years is a long time in technological development terms...all be on quick pay-to-download by then /images/graemlins/tongue.gif

VHS stayed around because everyone had a VCR & sales & rental were saturated with tapes for sale & rent. To upgrade meant expensive new everything.

Perhaps next gen players, if backwards compatible will be sold better, since people will be upgrading a player, without having to replace their current DVD titles. Upgrading being a natural desire, especially when prices drop eventually.

Going to anime, what concerns me about US R1 companies going next gen is what they won't put on current DVDs which they will put on HD etc.

They will want to get people buying the new discs. Will "old" DVDs be relegated to extraless & single language budget releases with poorer overall AV quality? Will licenses expire & only be replaced with next gen versions, or not at all?

[mcarocks2003]

I expect dvds to be around as long as there is demand for it.

Also everyones speculating about the format war. But what about HVD?

It seems to have become the forgotten format. Is there any news update since IGN wrote this Article (http://uk.dvd.ign.com/articles/590/590428p1.html)

[Skywise]

[ QUOTE ]
Wrath of the Njr said:
They will want to get people buying the new discs. Will "old" DVDs be relegated to extraless & single language budget releases with poorer overall AV quality? Will licenses expire & only be replaced with next gen versions, or not at all?

[/ QUOTE ]

Err.. that does not make sense. They want people to buy both versions, not just the new discs, or just DVDs. The dvd market is much bigger than blu-ray/HD-DVD and will stay that way for years.

[Kellory]

[ QUOTE ]
mcarocks2003 said:
Also everyones speculating about the format war. But what about HVD?


[/ QUOTE ]

Holographic storage systems have been in the works for years. Longer than DVD really. And, as the article says, there are at least 1 if not a few more systems in place currently. However, the technology just isnt there yet for large scale consumer demand.

It is, I imagine, the next gen beyond Blu-Ray/HD. Simply due to storage capacity and size. Being able to potentially store a movie on something the size of a Sony Memorystick or even a Credit Card sized piece of plastic would be very nice. But again, years in the future.

Since it undoubtably will be in a format other than a disc (no need for a disc since a holographic laser web doesnt need the object to spin) we will probably be looking at the demise of DVD/HD discs at that point. Much in the same way DVD doomed VHS. But again...years down the line. Probably at least a decade, perhaps more. If, for no other reason, consumers and retailers are not going to want to abandon a disc based system and obselete their stock after this short a time. Especially with HD coming online now.

Dont worry, I doubt DVD's will go anywhere. And I doubt we'll see holographic systems in place for many more years. But I do think we'll see them, or something very similar in the not so distant future. Isolinear chips mmmmmmm....

[xstylus]

[ QUOTE ]
Skywise said:
[ QUOTE ]
Wrath of the Njr said:
They will want to get people buying the new discs. Will "old" DVDs be relegated to extraless & single language budget releases with poorer overall AV quality? Will licenses expire & only be replaced with next gen versions, or not at all?

[/ QUOTE ]

Err.. that does not make sense. They want people to buy both versions, not just the new discs, or just DVDs. The dvd market is much bigger than blu-ray/HD-DVD and will stay that way for years.

[/ QUOTE ]

I agree with Njr. Granted, they want to make money off both versions, but they'd rather that people buy the HD versions over the DVD version because the former can't be copied. The studios don't like DVD for that reason and can't wait to get rid of it. DVD is only a necessary evil to them.

It's easy to conclude that they'll start doing DVD releases with only passive attempts at adding extras while saving their best for the HD releases so as to encourage people to move to it. They'll also not want to put their best on a format that can be easily copied.

[Skywise]

Yes, they want to switch people over to the new formats because it's more secure than the old one. No, they still won't stop doing DVD releases because a normal movie DVD can easily sell a couple of hundred thousand (if not million) copies, while HD on disc will only cater to a much smaller market for years to come.

When HD on disc manages to surpass DVDs for sales that's when you'll see companies starting to consider dropping DVD, but not before. Even then it would have to come to a point where it's not economical to release 2 issues of a movie - in other words the high definition market will have to have pretty much have squeezed out the DVD one entirely. Copy protection or no, they won't do anything that will deliberately hurt their earnings, and dropping DVDs won't happen.

[butsurigaku]

"The future is here already, it just isn't evenly distributed yet."

-William Gibson

Just wait. I know a couple of people who are working on holographics, and they say it is easy to get this stuff working in the lab (i.e. anyone with an Electrical Engineering degree could do it), but not ready for mass production.

P.S. Don't listen to any press releases on this stuff until they start arguing on a format for the discs. That is a sign that the big companies are paying attention.

[Skywise]

See I don't get people saying that, because it's pretty much the same as saying you can't afford DVDs (and if you can't, why are you even visiting this site? /images/graemlins/wink.gif). And what will you do when your DVD player stops working in the next couple of years? Or your TV?

[shukusatsu]

DVDs won't die until a few years after there is a single next generation format. Considering that both competing next-gen formats haven't even been released yet, I think it is a bit early to bury the DVDs.

For me, I'm not doing any sort of upgrading (TV, player, components, etc...) until this blatantly stupid next-gen format war ends and there is a CLEAR winner. Then I will worry about getting my new HDTV and next-gen player and what not. By then I should be able to afford one anyway. Until that day comes, I have no problem spending alot of money on my anime DVDs, and I am perfectly happy with my DVD/VHS player and my Sony CRT (Flat-screen though) TV, both of which are less than 2 years old.

[Azumangaman]

Question...are HD-DVD players backwards compatible?

[Skywise]

[ QUOTE ]
Azumangaman said:
Question...are HD-DVD players backwards compatible?

[/ QUOTE ]

Yes.

[JeffDM]

[ QUOTE ]
Puppet Master said:
[ QUOTE ]
Magic Knight said:

I'm not worried about it. When the majority of releases are HD/Blue Ray DVD's only, there should be more affordable players out there, with backwards compatablitily to run my 1,500+ DVD collection. /images/graemlins/catgirl0.gif

[/ QUOTE ]

I definetly hope they do make them backwards compatabile if they didn't that would suck.

[/ QUOTE ]

All announced and shipping HD disc players will play a new format AND play DVD. I see no credible reason that DVD players will suddenly die with no replacement and leave you with an unplayable library. The market, installed base and number of DVDs sold is too big for anyone to simply abandon the format like that. I'm not convinced the new players could sell without the backward compatibility, the new Toshiba makes big selling point of DVD upconversion.

[Njr Scrawl]

As important, I hope that post-sale multi-regioning will be possible, either by "chipping" or firmware region cancelling. Whichever format allows that is what I will go for first.

If Japan is joining region 1, how will their current R2 DVDs be playable. Will the HD (& BR) players accept all R2 DVDs, old & new without rejecting them?

[ThomasBellman]

[ QUOTE ]
Wrath of the Njr said:
If Japan is joining region 1, how will their current R2 DVDs be playable. Will the HD (& BR) players accept all R2 DVDs, old & new without rejecting them?

[/ QUOTE ]

They will still be in region 2 as far as DVDs are concerned. Players that handle both HD-DVD/BluRay and DVDs (which will be all of them) will have one region code for DVDs and one for HD-DVD/BluRay. That's the only way they can do it, if they want DVDs to be playable.

[Skywise]

Or they can just drop region coding for normal DVDs entirely. It's actually under consideration, but so far there hasn't been any more info than that.

[ThomasBellman]

[ QUOTE ]
Skywise said:
Or they can just drop region coding for normal DVDs entirely. It's actually under consideration, but so far there hasn't been any more info than that.

[/ QUOTE ]

They can't drop it *entirely*, as long as there exists discs that check the region of the player. They must implement the region code register, and set it to some sensible value.

[Sensuifu]

[ QUOTE ]
Thomas Bellman said:
[ QUOTE ]
Skywise said:
Or they can just drop region coding for normal DVDs entirely. It's actually under consideration, but so far there hasn't been any more info than that.

[/ QUOTE ]

They can't drop it *entirely*, as long as there exists discs that check the region of the player. They must implement the region code register, and set it to some sensible value.

[/ QUOTE ]

something like R0/All? I know there are issues with some RCE discs that won't play properly on some players, but most loopholes and region hacks for a lot of today's players can easily bypass the restriction.

[Skywise]

RCE is technically not part of the DVD specification, so they could just say that the player won't enforce region protection. Sucks for the discs that use it, but then the studios would be obligated to provide non-RCE trade-in versions of it instead.

[ThomasBellman]

[ QUOTE ]
Skywise said:
RCE is technically not part of the DVD specification

[/ QUOTE ]

But the facilities that make RCE possible *are* in the DVD specification. Specifically, there is a read-only register in the virtual machine that tells what region the player is for. If you drop that from the players, quite a lot of discs would not work in such players.

Several studios in Europe (Disney and Universal were the first, IIRC) started using this long before Warner started their RCE campaign. The only technical difference between RCE and the earlier uses is that in RCE the region byte on the disc is set to 0xFF (i.e, all regions allowed), in order to fool auto-switching players, while the earlier European scheme had the region byte set for only the real region of the disc.

Player manufacturers that want to support such discs (discs that *do* conform to the current DVD specification) must include this support in the player. They may want to make players that have automatic or manual switching of regions (like all "region free" players since 2000 are), but they can't just remove the region register.

[Njr Scrawl]

[ QUOTE ]
Skywise said:
RCE is technically not part of the DVD specification, so they could just say that the player won't enforce region protection. Sucks for the discs that use it, but then the studios would be obligated to provide non-RCE trade-in versions of it instead.

[/ QUOTE ]

Perhaps region selectable chips? That is how some current players can take a particular region, by changing the default region.

[BennyParsons]

Not by a longshot. I think the most recent estimates I've seen have less than 10% of U.S. households owning HD-ready TVs by the time the federally mandated switchover happens in 2010 (a date which keeps getting pushed back, you'll notice).

There are going to be a lot of people who will balk at the idea of yet another new format, even if it is backwards compatible ("I'M NOT BUYING HARRY POTTER AND THE PRISONER OF AZKABAN *AGAIN*!!!")

When I was at E3 two weeks ago, I joked about it with a couple reporters from Gamespy and Gameinformer, but there is a real fear that blu-ray will fail as a home video format, leaving the PS3 high and dry.

[MrDisco]

i was looking at the DVD Pacific sale and have the naruto box in my cart when i was thinking - why am i buying this? by the time we get to episode 150 on DVD, HD should be readily available in stores. its highly likely we'll see a re-release of all the big name titles so it doesn't make much sense to sink money into a series like this when we're so close to the next format? hmmmm i dunno...maybe i'm offbase.

[PhilipReuben]

I've kind of thought the same thing. If they stick to this schedule it'll be 7 years before we're caught up to the episodes airing now, and it's quite possible DVDs will be practically dead by then.

But... eh. I want Naruto on DVD /images/graemlins/sdsmiley.gif

[MrDisco]

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Philip Reuben said:
I've kind of thought the same thing. If they stick to this schedule it'll be 7 years before we're caught up to the episodes airing now, and it's quite possible DVDs will be practically dead by then.


[/ QUOTE ]

but see that's my point. how do we know in 7 years they'll even bother to release eps on DVD?

[Judeau]

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MrDisco said:
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Philip Reuben said:
I've kind of thought the same thing. If they stick to this schedule it'll be 7 years before we're caught up to the episodes airing now, and it's quite possible DVDs will be practically dead by then.


[/ QUOTE ]

but see that's my point. how do we know in 7 years they'll even bother to release eps on DVD?

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Who knows. Maybe in another 7 years, you wont be into anime any more. Buy it if it makes you happy.

[Judeau]

I don't think DVDs are going away any time soon.

Blu-Ray may hold more info, but that doesn't make people wanna buy it. At an ADV panel (Otakon IIRC), the guy spoke about how people don't want to buy an entire series on one disc. They want something more tangible for their money.

I seem to remember something about Fruits Basket being on four discs and how that didn't fly over as well as Funimation had thought. Which is why they didn't do it again (IIRC).

And to bring older series to HD, wouldn't that be a colossal pain in the ass? I guess it's feasible for newer series, but it would cost appreciably more, no? Like for the same number of episodes on Blu-Ray in HD, as compared to normal DVDs?

Anyhoo, a suped up new format may be cool, but are people gunna pay the difference for it? My guess is no. DVDs will stick around for a while.

[Skywise]

The problem with Fruits Basket wasn't the number of discs - it was the price. People just looked at the price and got scared, and didn't really notice the number of episodes. Some even posted in the forums here and complained - they didn't realize that it was actually cheaper per episode than most other shows.

[Vicserr]

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MrDisco said:
[ QUOTE ]
Philip Reuben said:
I've kind of thought the same thing. If they stick to this schedule it'll be 7 years before we're caught up to the episodes airing now, and it's quite possible DVDs will be practically dead by then.


[/ QUOTE ]

but see that's my point. how do we know in 7 years they'll even bother to release eps on DVD?

[/ QUOTE ]

But remember guys, to see the mayor leap in quality, unlike dvds, the consumer needs to make a mayor equipment update to enjoy HD, and until HD ready equipment hits consumer level prices, ppl will wing it with SD until their equipment gives up, I know there's the HD deadline in 2007 but most ppl will probably get an HD converter/antenna instead of upgrading to a new tv IMHO so technically you should still see dvd produced for a few years still.