Technology grows at a fast pace. Remember the days of VHS, 8-track players and Atari? Today media formats are constantly being upgraded, improved and revamped. With the introduction of Blu-Ray, DVD was projected to be obsolete and fade away into the history books. Now with streaming movies and internet TV, are DVD and Blu-Ray on their way to extinction? IT professionals believe that is almost a guarantee.
Projections:
Bill Gates has been quoted saying he suspects DVDs and Blu-Rays to become obsolete within 10 years. This method of delivering media can get scratched, melted, damaged and lost. As many of us have already dealt with the heartache of finding our favorite movies and music unplayable due to damage, technology is headed toward creating new methods of enjoying our music and movies. With the introduction of MP3s we have already seen a significant drop in CD sales leading to closing of some major music retailers.
Though CDs and DVDs will still play a part in file backup, home movie creation, and personal use, retail sales of movies and music may stop. The future may show isles of prepaid cards for streaming movies and music where there were once the latest releases from the box offices and record labels. Many already have turned to strictly digital viewing of their favorite shows and movies. MP3 players are hot sellers and those who are up to date would rather download to iTunes than scour the isles for music.
The Future:
With DVDs and CDs becoming a thing of the past, what will take its place? Those who follow technology already know the best way to get a movie when you want it is to stream it. No gas is used to drive to the nearest video store to rent a movie when Netflix and Blockbuster both have online streaming services to allow us to watch movies from the comfort of home.
It is projected that home entertainment will be available at home. Computers will be able to recognize us by our voice and face, know what we like to watch, and know what the kids are not allowed to watch. Soon all of our favorite shows, movies and music will be available anytime of the day or night. We will be able to request and stream what we want to watch when we want to watch it.
Future Use of DVDs and CDs:
If you currently have a large collection of DVDs and CDs you already have a library of movies and music that can still be enjoyed. At this point DVD and Blue-Ray players are still being sold and manufactured. Once all of our media is streamed to our homes, you can still keep your current collection. You may also create back-ups of your discs if you want to enjoy them in the future.
This media type may still be useful for file back-up long after retailers stop selling movie and music discs. However, many computers will be without a DVD Rom. Apples newly designed laptop will not include a DVD Rom, but instead offer their iCloud service which gives 5GB of storage space for free. Therefore the use of DVDs and CDs on your laptop may not be possible in the future.
Technology is always in transition for the future. The sci-fi movies that depicted everything controlled by computer are coming true. Be prepared for the future and adapt. If you enjoy your movies and music collection, start creating copies now, soon it will be hard to replace.
Musician Skylar Tate relies on blu-ray and DVD duplication from DVD Copycat duplication for all her original work preservation and distribution needs.
Visit his site at : http://www.bbb.org
(addendum) For me, online streaming just works better. I don’t want to have a huge collection of CDs or DVDs to lug around. I used to buy CDs back in the 1980s and 1990s. When I accumulated a collection of 400 cds I said to myself, “This is just ridiculous.”. Besides, they can get scratched, broken, lost, etc. They really do seem like an archaic and obsolete mindset to me. But if it works for you, more power to you. Most people these days just find it a big hassle to deal with the physical format. I certainly do
I knew this months ago. Answer me this question. When is the last time you’ve played your collection of DVDs? The industry has played us for the fools we are. They’ve charged pretty pennies for stuff we’ll never watch again
I like to buy Blu-Ray movies because of the best picture quality. Online stream does not have the best, and I rather own the Discs. Same with CDs, I rather buy CDs as backups for itunes. I do have a ipod shuffle to which I put my CDs on. So yeah. I love Blu-Rays. I don’t buy DVDs no more. I just rebuy everything on Blu-Ray! I love those $10 BR shelves in Target and Walmart. Sometimes I spend $15 on a BR. Mostly CDs I spend $5-10 on albums @ Walmart and Target
For me, I prefer the physical format. I rather watch movies on DVD and listen to music on a CD! For some people who cannot allow internet access, will only have the physical form of media. I also own some Nintendo DS/3DS games as well, nothing downloaded. Some of our family does not like the idea purchasing anything online. Especially since We cannot have credit cards!
I don’t like that when everything is streamed digitally, there will be more control over content and distribution of so-called underground or independent documentaries and films. The same thing will happen with books, when they are only available digitally. Censorship will be a snap.
“those who are up to date would rather download to iTunes than scour the isles for music.”.
Umm, excuse me, but as someone who is using an iPhone to post this comment, I take exception to your generalization above. I prefer CDs for their superior audio quality and I don’t think MP3s will ever satisfy me. Until there is a better audio format available for download I will continue to browse aisles for CDs to play on stereos and my computer, and rip them in lossless formats for my PC and MP3 for my iPhone and iPod.
Although, I do buy most of my songs on iTunes though since I rarely like enough songs on an album to fork over the money to buy it on CD (although, if i really like it, one song can be enough to make me buy an album) and therefore I usually download individual songs off of iTunes instead.
It does make you wonder why we are still using CD and DVD medium, when we can download everything we need without a journey to the 'video-shop' or having to wait for parcels/packages from video rental companies.
I think that once the developers have made the full leap to a point where there is a well established and robust/reliable linked system between TV – Super fast internet connection – storage and search facilites, then CD/DVD will be bypassed?
Wouldn't it be interesting to see if homes begin to include the technology that will make all this current technology obsolete? There is no doubt we will continue to progress but imagine if manufacture homes included computer screens in the walls etc. like in the movies. Obviously it is a stretch but something to think about.
I don't believe the use of blu ray is going to be over too soon, obviously in the near future they will come up with something better than this and it will be extinct, but even sites like netflix don't have too much to offer, except really old movies, or movies that haven't done well in the box office. i still think the best place to watch the best movies are in the theatre if you have opportunity to go to one. if you want to enjoy your favorite movies, or oldies and classics, then you can set up your own home theatre and watch and re-watch them whenever you feel like it in your blu ray/dvd/ whatever is it come in the future :)!
Well, for some very popular films, we can buy Blu Ray DVD but normally I stream online! Your article is absolutely right. DVD and Blu Ray are indeed becoming obsolete, not now, but in years to come!