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Gates Predicts DVD Obsolete In 10 Years
An anonymous reader writes "Not to say that Mr. Gates has been wrong before (sarcasm), but now he is claiming that DVDs will be obsolete in 10 years. As this post claims, I would have to disagree with the world's richest man and say that compact disk media is here to stay for a while because there is just no substitute for a media that cost cents." (And since SMH is going registration only, thanks to the anonymous reader who points out two non-registration sites -- FlexBeta and Yahoo! -- to read the same wire story, and for the observation that not all of Gates' predictions pan out.)
On TW Digital Cabble it's not like that. We really do have video on demand. Go to a list of movies (pretty big.. maybe someday it will be every movie ever made, but definately not now).. and we can start it right away.. pause it.. rewind/fast forward, etc.
I should start by saying that I work for the Deathstar... err... Time Warner Cable. I can't really speak about the competitors' products, but our VOD is not like the traditional pay-per-view. We still have a pile of channels with the same movie all day that start at half hour intervals, but that isn't VOD. For VOD, we add a few movies a week, you can start them at any time, fast forward/rewind, and you can watch it as many times as you like in a 24 hour period. Believe me, nobody thinks less of the service we provide than I do, but the VOD rollout has worked exactly as advertised. There are two additional "features" that don't make it into the marketing materials... One, VOD movies don't seem to freeze up or pixelate as often as the normal digital channels. And two, the catalog of movies only grows. It started with maybe a dozen movies, and everything that's been added since we launched it is still there. It's still not the volume you'd find at CockBuster, but it's growing. And, surprisingly, it's not all huge megabudget movies, there are quite few foreign films and indies, plus older movies available for a cheaper price than the new releases. The older movies seem to be added according to theme or actor... 80's "classics", or additional movies starring somebody who's in one of the new releases, etc. Between cable prices, Roadrunner prices/performance, network programming, etc... It's the only service we offer that I don't hear too many people bitching about. The OnDemand channels from HBO, Showtime, TMC, and Skinemax are great for catching things that are in the current lineup, particularly any of their original stuff... But I agree that the volume is somewhat limited. Personally, I wish we would ditch the VOIP effort and worry about making the stuff we already sell better... But, I'm just the brooding graphics guy that sits in the dimly lit cave with loud scary music... so I doubt they'll be asking me what I think any time soon.
Someday a real rain is gonna come...