DVDs: To Buy or not to Buy
For years, we have been able to enjoy movies at local theaters. More recently, we have been able to watch movies in the comfort of our own homes either on television, through a video or on a DVD. Thanks to services such as Netflix, we can even have the DVD delivered directly to our homes. Now, companies such as Netflix, Microsoft, Apple and various cable companies are delivering movies to customers immediately over their own network or the internet.
What does this mean for the future of video? Media has always had a problem of becoming obsolete rather quickly. Even standard video tapes are quickly becoming a thing of the past as digital formats such as DVDs quickly replace the analog tapes. Does this mean that everyone should upgrade their collection to DVD or even better yet Blu-ray? As with all technology, it is very easy to spend a lot of money on something that will soon be obsolete.
My prediction for the future is a pay for use system similar to the existing on-demand programming offered by most cable companies. For most uses this makes sense. Looking at the current price of a movie, it just doesn’t make sense to buy a movie (and the equipment to play it) that you are only going to watch one or two times. Instead, pay a few bucks to start watching it when you want and stop when you want. It will be important however, that the system is setup so that everyone gets to watch the content the way they want to watch it. This means allowing someone to watch a movie in half hour segments over the course of a week if that is what they want. Portability will also become a larger issue, but as was demonstrated with music and the iPod, this isn’t likely to remain an issue long.
In the end, it boils down to personal preference. It is still important to consider, however, how long in the future your current preference will be available. It is also helpful to think about the future when deciding how much of an investment should be made in any one technology.
What do you think? Are DVDs and Blu-rays worth buying? Are people interested in actually owning the movie or would they be happy with just having the right to view it once? I look forward to your comments.