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Toshiba, NEC Plan To Create Yet Another Optical Format
selderrr writes: "Dow Jones Newswires is reporting today that Toshiba and NEC are planning to propose a new optical disk format to the DVD Forum that will offer four times more storage capacity than current DVDs. In February, a consortium of nine companies, including Sony and Matsushita, announced a new format that would offer 50GB of data storage. While the Toshiba/NEC option is smaller at 40GB, it is cheaper to produce. The two disc formats will not be compatible." Related, coryboehne writes "The New York Times has a great report detailing the history of the DVD. According to the article digital videodiscs and their players have now surpassed the VHS in terms of sales for the first time (In 2001, $10.3 billion was spent on movies, 52% of this on DVD's, now compare this to 2002, $12.4 billion total revenue with 65%, going for DVD's) . Funny considering that DVD's are only in about a third of American homes (about 30 million households, and consider that a quarter of these homes have more than one player), compare that to the unbelievable amount of VHS players (about 90% of homes in the USA have a VHS player) and it quickly shows just how popular the DVD has become."
DVD stands for "Digital Versatile Disc." In it's infancy it was known as a Digital Video Disc, but everyone wanted the format for their own purposes, so the "V" was changed to Versatile. Now you can have video, audio, data, etc. all on one format and not have a contradictory name.
Could anyone argue that DVD was such a huge success because there was no real competing format at the quality level? We didn't have to choose between two incompatible video disk formats. We just had to choose between a Panasonic or a Phillips..
Now, they are doing the betamax vs vhs thing again. I wish they would learn their lesson. In establishing standards, a bit of cartel may be for the better.
Stop the brainwash
Of course not. Nobody needs more than 640K.
/. If the government wants us to respect the law, it should set a better example.
In 2001, $10.3 billion was spent on movies, 52% of this on DVD's, now compare this to 2002, $12.4 billion total revenue with 65%, going for DVD's)
These figures aren't all that surprising, considering that VCRs have more uses than just watching pre-recorded movies. Lots of people probably have VCRs mostly for time-shifting purposes. I, myself, only rent movies infrequently and don't buy a great number of them. Whereas, DVDs really only have one purpose, to play pre-recorded movies. They also offer higher quality and more convenience than VCRs, so it's not surprising that the sales figures for DVDs would be increasing, and although only a minority of households have DVDs, the ones that do would belong to the more hard-core movie collectors who are more likely to spend money on movies than average.
I'd bet that a minority of households have 1.5GHz+ computers with the latest GeForce video cards, but that they represent a disportionately large share of video-game purchasers.
Is this really necessary? With 100GB hard drives becoming more commonplace, I think we're at the limit of what normal users need out of hardware. There is just no use whatsoever for 50GB removable discs. In 10 years, we will all still be using DVD+RW. Drives will be a lot faster, sure, but history has shown that there is just no application that requires more than the ample 4.7GB of removable storage provided by DVD technology
I think you just stated for yourself why 50GB optical discs would at least be wanted by some percentage of the population. They won't be needed for popular media (music/movies/software) for the most part (at least not for a while, who knows how much software bloat we'll see). However, when it comes to backing up data, do you really want your hard drive to require 10-20 discs to backup, or would you rather use 1 or 2 50GB discs to backup that 100GB hard drive?
Personally, I'm doing ok with CD-R for now, because the majority of my 100GB of hard drive space is fairly static (my CD collection in MP3 format, software and games that I can simply reinstall), and a minor amount of data that actually needs backing up on a weekly or monthly basis. However, if I was running a critical system that handled large amounts of customer data, I'd want to reduce the number of discs I needed to backup that data whenever possible. I don't need DVD+RW capability for my own personal use, but if I were managing a couple hundred gigs of customer data I would like to back that up with the largest storage media possible, short of putting it onto another magnetic drive.
-PainKilleR-[CE]
Shocking, everyone can afford a VHS deck, while DVD players are considered more of a luxury. Sure there are $60 DVD decks, but mostly online and hard to find. While they have recently hit the affordable levels, VHS has been there for 10 years.
Therefore, DVD, with its smaller penetration, has more penetration among upper income folks.
Upper income folks buy more DVDs? Wow... Who would have thought.
Video collecting is an expensive extravagance. While I enjoy my DVD collection (it gets used more than my VHS collection), I have more disposable income than most Americans.
However, I can't imagine being shocked at DVD's penetration...
Alex
The reason dvds have so much market share compared to vhs is because the movie catalog rollout to dvd. People with DVDs who love Godfather will re-buy the title on DVD, even though they already have Godfather on VHS. People are replacing thier movie collection in the new format.
I'll be doing it for of the newly released special edition Pulp Fiction DVD.
I'm not a *new* buyer. I'm a *repeat* buyer of the same movie. Naturally, this is not sustainable. Ad DVD adoption increases, and as the back catalog is filled out and people have replaced their collection, DVD will be no different from what VHS is. I doubt VHS is going away soon.
Of course, when VHS *does* go away, and the DVD catalog is complete, and the everyone has replaced their collections -- the movie introduce an "all new" format and start the cycle over again.
For accurate head-to-head measurements, check unit sales of LOTR on VHS vs DVD.
Software Wars
A couple of points to ponder:
1) Chances are this digital storage format would be used for digital video, and not for personal storage (at least on launch, how long was it from the launch of the DVD standard before consumer recordable devices were available?)
2) Digtal video/audio quality/resolution can always be improved, as (eventually) displays will be able to handle a higher res than what DVD offers, and as such, a full-length motion picture will require more space. For that matter, many DVD's we're already watching are multiple disc sets, whereas with any of these new formats, the whole thing could be shipped on one disc.
3) If you think 4.7gb of removable storage is enough, remember the 100mb zip drive? Remember when that was all the space most you ever thought you'd need to take with you? There are USB storage devices with almost this much space (or are there 128mb+ keychains available already?)
4) I'd almost guarantee you we won't be using DVD+RW drives in 10 years, especially if these new formats are available. Considering 10 years ago almost nobody was using CDR for storage, and CDR as a storage format is pretty much starting to phase out already, being replaced by DVD media and such.
Now to sit back and watch the electronics giants fight for supremacy and see which 'standard' is adopted...
z.
Like many others, I own both a DVD player and a VHS recorder/player. While I occasionally buy films in the VHS format (even less frequently now that I have my DVD player), I bought my VHS player primarily for watching rental films and for recording stuff on TV. DVD, on the other hand, has been heavily marketed as a player of purchased films, and although I now rent films in the DVD format, I bought my DVD player primarily to watch purchased DVD films.
The DVD may have better image quality, and room for more hi-fi audio channels (stereo sound quality on the VHS is excellent, though), but the main reason I prefer DVD is media durabilty. Every time I watch one of my VHS films, it wears down. Image and sound quality deteriorate over time and with use. I'm reluctant to let people borrow my favourite VHS films. With DVD i have no such hesitations.
I think this accounts for a lot of the difference in sales. The VHS is marketed as a recorder, the DVD is marketed (at least in Sweden) as the hub of your home cinema. While all newer films are available on rental DVD, purchasable DVD's are much more visibly available than their VHS counterparts.
Excellent marketing by the filmmakers. They recognised that the change of technology generations gave them a chance to push for a change in consumer patterns.
It would be nice if they see the advent of Internet media distribution as an opportunity as well, and not a threat.
...ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.
The companies supporting Blue-ray are: Hitachi Ltd., LG Electronics Inc., Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd., Pioneer Corporation, Royal Philips Electronics, Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd., Sharp Corporation, Sony Corporation, and Thomson Multimedia.
-- null
No doubt because people can easily use their VCRs to pirate movies. I guess Jack Valenti was right after all.
My beliefs do not require that you agree with them.