In continuation

You thought the previous article was the end of it? Nope, it was merely the beginning. You see, we see the iterations of DVD, BluRay, 4K and we do not stand still on the larger issue. The idea of a disc is nice, it is accepted and it continues. Yet the larger station is that a DVD is a mere 5GB, a BlueRay is 50GB (double sided) and a 4K is 66GB in dual layer and 100GB on triple layer. 

The Player is in every case about the size of a CD player. A SD card is about $35 (128GB) and the CF version is (alas) a lot more expensive. Yet the setting of the SD card is still shrinking in price and the price of the MicroSD is about the same. So consider the idea that you can have the entire Marvel collection in a holder the size of a pocketbook and that need is growing. People who want to watch a movie on route, people who want the kids to watch a movie in the back, people who are left with less and less space, you can look in every direction and the need for discs is falling away, CD’s are already falling away. How long until DVD’s are a think of the past? And even now we see the stage that one (micro) SD card (or CF Card) can hold an entire season of episodes. 

Here Sony is in part to blame. I remember the issue of all region DVD’s, but Sony would not hear of it. And that was a discussion I was part of 6 months BEFORE the PlayStation 2 was released in March 2000. Over that time others also has issues, but I still see it as fear, they had their little island and it had to remain safe even though the issues of safety were blown away in 1992 and was never restored, there was a feigned time of safety with the BluRay and now with the 4K, people will find a way. There is no stopping them and as the law is merely running after the events and not solving anything, stopping evolution tends to detrimental to ones sanity (health too).

So whilst we ignore what COULD be out there and what MIGHT be possible, we merely are part of some insanity roundabout and it goes nowhere. And interestingly enough, the streamers are making this evolution clear and more profound. So whilst you ponder the latest movies on SD or CF card, consider what you have and what you might lose. Especially in light that the quality of DVD’s has faltered in the last 5 years. It might be that the players are less reliable, but they still need discs and over the last 5 years I have seen more movie discs fail than in the 20 yeas before that. Something is failing the people, failing the systems and devices and it is time we ask the questions that matter, because only in the coming year is the price of an SD card a valid excuse, but when we see that this is already no longer the case with Bluray and DVD, consider what the larger station is to stop evolution. I gave the setting for players to allow other formats to play close to half a decade ago, we merely see discs continue. Why? When was the last time you tried to get a CD of a band you liked? I honestly never saw that coming. My introduction to CD’s was somewhere in 1977, 45 years ago. I thought they were forever, but that was of course delusional. Now consider that one SD Card can hold the entire collection of David Bowie or the Beatles. At what point will we concede that technology surpassed our labels of music and soon movies too? And it is not even close to the end. New technologies will come, they will revolt and we will contemplate how to react to it. I am not telling you how to react, how ever you will react it will be highly personal. I myself still enjoy looking at the covers of an album, that will never stop, but to hold a box with an entire season of Xfile episodes, or one SD card that holds EXACTLY the same is another matter. It will open new doors, new venues and new opportunities. And there is a hidden benefit. You see the next few years will be about congestion of the network. So will you be waiting for Disney to download part of the episode so that you can watch, or will you insert an SD card and just watch, without congestion, without delay and without hassle? 

And those who claim that there is no congestion? Well Computer weekly gave us last October “Enea claims first 4G, 5G user-based congestion management solution. Telecoms software provider launches solution based on proprietary algorithms to take pre-emptive action to boost QoE for individual sessions before subscribers experience congestion” Really? If there is no congestion, this solution seems like the most useless solution in existence. The truth is not that simple. The next 5-7 years will be about managing expectations, Service Level Agreements. And these will all have the small print regarding congestion. When we realise that, why do we see elements stopping the evolution of disc entertainment? I believe that this evolution will be a lot more essential in the next 2 years than anyone realises. And that is before you realise that there are even more options available, but I will leave that to you to figure out.