TV, DVD and the future

[norm]

I was reading through the Spock's console thread and saw and interesting post by Zabka and I was wondering what others thought of it.

Eh. I am not convinced that DVD for movies is even going to be relevant soon.

I've just gotten started with Netflix and in the process of getting rid of cable for my TV. Right now the cable bill for us is $56 per month for extended cable and that doesn't include premium channels which are $10 per month for each. Netflix is costing me $18 per month and the basic cable will run $13 per month. So I'll save $25 per month by doing that. I know Netflix just went Blu-ray for their HD movies. Also I know that most of the movie studios have gone Blu-ray. My question is do you agree with Zabka's point of this being the end of DVD types of media as we know it?

Just some points for you to think about. LG and Netflix have formed a partnership and are stated to release a TV and set top box that allows streaming movies without having to hook up a laptop, computer or console to your TV. They are makign a TV that features that technology contained within the actual set and also a separate box for those that have HD TV's or don't want to upgrade their TV's yet.

Flash memory has gotten super cheap lately. You can now get a quality 4Gb flash drive for less then $24. With newer TV's that have USB ports installed or other forms of flash readers why not have movies on flash drives now? That way there's no need to buy a separate machine just to play movies.

Internet speeds have gotten faster here lately. Though the US is behind in speed compared to the rest of the world to download and stream a movie is so easy to do with your TV. This goes along with the Netflix statement, but also covers Amazon's Unbox that you can use with TiVo.

Video games are not getting to the point where you can download them over the net. With hard drives getting cheaper it's easier to store them all in one hard drive then several cases that you might lose a game when you pack and move to some place like Boston..lol Maybe Games will be able to be bought on a hard drive instead of a disc. Instead of swapping out discs for new games you swap out the hard drive.


So what do you guys think?

[Ditch]

that does sound like the way of the future, instead of all the dvd players and upscalers and disc buffers, and cd storage devices, the other day my wife and I were looking for something to put all our dvds in, so the flash drive would be awesome, and it is more efficient and space saving

[Shoot_Me_Now]

I think it will be about another 10 years if not more before we start downloadin everything. My opinion is that a lot of people would prefer to have a physical copy of the movie or game and it will take a while to get passed this phase.

[Inlimbo]

i pretty much do that now. i have 2 xbox's moded and running a media center. i just use the newsgrps(can dwnld a full movie in about 5 mins), then they stream from my pc on the same network. avi/divx is the format most commonly used. btw, you can also do this with the 360 with a program called tversity(no mods needed). so i def think that streaming and dl'ng is the future of media. we might even see games go that way in the future.

[Ditch]

I wire a house a year ago that had a huge tower in the utility room, it held over 3000 movies in at and music and could be accessed from any room in the house and any room could also watch their own movie from it, they told me the utility room with everything in it was about $90,000

[Rdaug27]

Yeah I got a 800GB external HDD and I have downloaded all of my DVD's to it with the Divx format. Now I just select a movie from my Media Center. Also you can find from Wal-Mart cheap DVD/Divx players, so if I want to watch it somewhere else, I can just burn a Divx copy of the movie and do so.

I just found out I can download to save, or rent a movie from one of the online things through Media Center. Its kind of like the Video on Demand stuff that I know Time Warner pushes. I have really been thinking of doing the same with my cable as you are Norm, but I am having trouble for some reason getting my network set up so I can share my HDD with my movies and music on it. The 50+ I spend a month is crazy for just expanded basic cable. I am out of range for DSL so I have to have Road Runner which is 50+/- a month and this 100+/- a month is killing me. I even bought a converter so I can put my PC onto any TV I have. The movies look good on it, but reading text and stuff is kinda tough. Hell I have my Wii set up and can watch some streaming video on it.

[Kerry2]

DVD's will go the way of the VHS tape soon. Think about the physical facts of DVD's. While they are a smaller, cleaner media than VHS, they still can be easily damaged and have data storage limitations. Most production companies are "layering" their DVD's to get more info on them, that's why you sometimes notice a weird pause in a movie, it's switching layers. The Blu Ray DVD's offer more data storage than ever before but it won't be long before that's not enough either. The other problem with DVD's is that you have to store them and they still take up a decent amount of room. I seriuosly think that it's only a matter of time before all media is switched to online access. It makes sense, look at the music industry, the movie industry has pretty well mimicked it thus far and you see where it is going. Sites like NetFlix and Blockbuster are already making the transition, factor in the fact that you can already download movies onto your 360 to watch and it's clear the direction everything is going. I don't think it will be a quick, overnight transition but it will happen eventually and it will honestly be for the better.

[MajinTony]

I like the ease of which to obtain media, but I don't like the fact that I get nothing tangible to show for my purchase. If I DL a game and grow tired of it, I can't trade it in for store credit.

[norm]

That's a good point Tony. There are so many stores whose business is to sell second hand stuff, like books, games, movies and text books. I wonder what will happen to those stores.


The other thing is without the money spent on case design, art work, and producing those materials that go with buying an actual product will the games start to be cheaper?


Pretty good point Tony, I didn't think about that.

[Zabka]

That's a good point Tony. There are so many stores whose business is to sell second hand stuff, like books, games, movies and text books. I wonder what will happen to those stores.

They will go out of business without some revamping of their business model. There was a time that Kozmo.com (remember that one?) was looking at extending its delivery concept into doing online streaming--not unlike Netflix. Blockbuster, gamestop, etc will go the way of record stores.

Right now, EB/Gamestop make most of their money off of selling used games at HUGE margins--much bigger than they do for new games. For a $60 new game, they make $10. That has to cover all the costs...which is just not enough for a business model. Think about how little they are willing to pay you for a used game and think about how much they sell it for. That's a huge mark up and much more profitable. It's a pretty inefficient market that should have a better clearing house.

The other way that EB/Gamestop make money? Pre-orders. There is NO point in pre-ordering a game way in advance. you still are guaranteed the game if you pre-order it right before it comes out. What they are essentially doing is taking cash MONTHS in advance of you getting any product. With that cash, they can invest it in short term securities to make interest. This is interest that YOU should be making on that money. But somehow they make you think you have done something special by pre-ordering and giving away your money in advance. I can't think of other situations where people happily hand over their money in advance for no discernible benefit.

Those retailers will go down. Their stocks already reflect concern about the business models longer term.

The other thing is without the money spent on case design, art work, and producing those materials that go with buying an actual product will the games start to be cheaper?

People made this argument when we went from LPs to cassettes and then to CDs. CD's cost pennies to make on a mass production scale. but the costs of the items went up. Promotion and cost of signing talent, etc will always be bigger factors into the cost of such items than the physical product itself.

[MajinTony]

Right now, EB/Gamestop make most of their money off of selling used games at HUGE margins--much bigger than they do for new games. For a $60 new game, they make $10. That has to cover all the costs...which is just not enough for a business model. Think about how little they are willing to pay you for a used game and think about how much they sell it for. That's a huge mark up and much more profitable. It's a pretty inefficient market that should have a better clearing house.
itself.

Not that I condone this or am proud of it but, when I worked at FedEx, from time to time I would "find" a brand new game. I would turn the game in before they got their shipment, and I still only got $35 in credit for the damn thing in shrinkwrap.

[CHRIST]

Not that I condone this or am proud of it but, when I worked at FedEx, from time to time I would "find" a brand new game. I would turn the game in before they got their shipment, and I still only got $35 in credit for the damn thing in shrinkwrap.

lol should have taken it to F.Y.E., I won a PS3 game off of 1up.com a year ago Ridge Racer 3 i think). I called up a few stores wondering whether I could return a game without a receipt and how much I would get. FYE said I could trade it in for full price credit ($60) as long as I spent it all that day. So I picked up God of War 2 and a PS2 disc reader cleaner.

Great Deal!!!

[MajinTony]

All I have out here is Gamestop and Gamecrazy. We used to have an EB, but it became a gamestop too.