While the tech companies argue over which next-generatoin DVD format is likely to be the “winner,” and media companies try to push as much as they can on the current DVD before getting everyone to buy (the same) stuff in the new format, the whole removable format concept is going the way of the dinosaurs.
Good. The longer it takes, the less chance any format of DVD has of having a place in the future of home entertainment. Don’t look now, but the price and size of hard drives have fallen like a rock, while capacities have soared, with no slowdown in site.
Which leads to the question — What is the best way to distribute content? DVDs which will be limited in capacity to 9.4gbs on a single DVD for another year, and then after that 50gbs on a single disk for years to come after that, or rewritable media that can hold 2gb already in a device half the size of a pen, or in a hard drive that can hold 200GBs plus in a drive the size of your cell phone?
With electronic delivery of media, the idea of CD racks and DVD shelves, etc., suddenly sounds like having a carriage house or a coal chute …
(via BoingBoing)
The cost of distribution is a major factor in how data is distributed, which BoingBoing doesn’t appear to consider. The cost of distribution of data using solid state devices and small hard drives will be increased by device failures and by the generally higher cost to produce mechanisms with moving parts than to produce removable media. The cost of distribution of data using removable media is in a sense shared by the consumer when he or she buys a mechanism to read that media. If, in spite of these factors, the cost of distribution of a given amount of data via these devices can be driven lower than the cost of distribution using removable media, then they may become the default way data is distributed. It’s hard for me to imagine that the cost of distribution using small hard drives can be driven lower than that of removable media, but I can imagine that it might happen with solid-state devices since their failure rates are probably lower, than that of small hard drives.
I think much of the distribution “costs” will be handled through electronic transfer of data, i.e., bandwidth. While it’s possible one could imagine getting a hard drive with an entire season of show X, it’s more likely one will get a hard drive and download that season.
Yeah, if everyone gets broadband, then electronic distribution will probably win. But I’m unsure how speedily that will happen. If any companies still use removable media as a way to verify that you purchased the product, they will need to switch to a different model.
I wonder about operating systems too. People need to be able to reinstall the OS on their computer without connecting to the internet if (e.g.) the OS and the network software are hosed. I suppose machines could have a small solid-state ROM memory with just enough of an OS to get on the net and reload the real OS electronically, but this would leave people without broadband access without any way to reload their OS.