When Will Dvds/Cds/Blue Ray Become Obsolete

Am Chile

With Music available on I tunes to download/ movies/ tv shows available to watch on netflix and amazom livestreaming plus other video on demand type sites- how long more can cds/dvds survive- when do people think all form dvds/cds buying music albums/movies on discs will become completely obsolete.

mickrock

I still use videotape to watch certain, er, films.

Tar.Aldarion

About 5 years ago I'd say.

Kiera

29/06/2023 at 6.43am

SocSocPol

realistically cds are dead its all itunes/mp3/4 now.
I wouldnt expect cds dvd's to be around more than another year or so.

Palytoxin

I haven't bought a cd in the last 4-5 years I'd say, don't plan on buying anymore either. The only thing cds and dvds are good for is giving them as presents to grandparents who wouldn't be too tech-savvy.

lemd

I was in HMV yesterday when a middle aged woman came in and asked where the cd single section was. The girl working there could barely contain her amusement as she explained why they don't stock them anymore. The cd album has not long left either.

Shryke

They already are. Netflix, iTunes and all that.

Am Chile

mickrock wrote: »

I still use videotape to watch certain, er, films.

I haven't used videotapes in years-they were good enough at the time.

southcentralts

Skynet has no need of these things, they will be destroyed along with the humans.

Tomk1

Am Chile wrote: »

With Music available on I tunes to download/ movies/ tv shows available to watch on netflix and amazom livestreaming plus other video on demand type sites- how long more can cds/dvds survive- when do people think all form dvds/cds buying music albums/movies on discs will become completely obsolete.

Last time I looked (a few months ago) you couldn't get TV shows from itunes, also something about Amazon being content limited in the UK.
...so when every movie/TV-show is online to download & Ireland gets something called Broadband, 30/100 kbs is snailband. 2029 sounds about right.

Am Chile

Has anyone here bought or used one of the new smart tvs as of yet? I understand its Internet built in tv to watch films/tv shows via livestreaming.

DEFTLEFTHAND

Stall the ball there please, I still use a record player.

Firefox11

Tomk1 wrote: »

Last time I looked (a few months ago) you couldn't get TV shows from itunes, also something about Amazon being content limited in the UK.
...so when every movie/TV-show is online to download & Ireland gets something called Broadband, 30/100 kbs is snailband. 2029 sounds about right.

I suppose it depends on where you live. If you live in the sticks the broadband speeds are crap. My parents can just about get 1Mbit broadband where they live, which barely qualifies as broadband these days. the urban/rural digital divide still exists.

DEFTLEFTHAND

Do you not think though that there's something nice about holding the physical copy of a recording in your hands? Whether it be a record or CD. I love album artwork, the liner notes etc. There's something very impersonal about this digital bullsh1t.

Jester252

When the internet is 100Mb/s everywhere and there is no download limit

fergiesfolly

Have to agree. But most acts don't put the effort into album these days. I'm thinking about investing in a Record player and going old school just for the album art. about smart tvs. They're crap. Have had two. Don't live up to the hype at all.

Wilberto

DEFTLEFTHAND wrote: »

Do you not think though that there's something nice about holding the physical copy of a recording in your hands? Whether it be a record or CD. I love album artwork, the liner notes etc. There's something very impersonal about this digital bullsh1t.

Completely agree. The thing that I hate about itunes etc. is the complete removal of ownership of the product. Call me old fashioned but when I spend hard earned cash, I would so much prefer to get something tangible rather than a couple mbs sized file.

I always try to by the CD's of artists that I actually like and that I'm a fan of. With others I download the stuff alright but only because I don't know if I'll like them or not.

BarnhallBull

Blu Ray never really took off the way I expected, I still watch (and buy) DVDs despite owning a ps3 for a good 5 years or so, not sure why, I jumped from VHS to DVD a hell of a lot quicker.

Netflix (the american version) is awesome for tv shows but fcuking useless for movies, long way to go before i'd watch movies on it regularly I'd say

Kensington

Nah, I use iTunes for meh-OK stuff but music I really like I'll always buy on CD.

Sure vinyl is making a comeback despite it being far older than CD and it wears out after extensive playing. So Ican't see physical CD/Vinyl ever being "obsolete".

(Tapes were another story but tapes were ****e :pac:)

BarnhallBull

Kensington wrote: »

Nah, I use iTunes for meh-OK stuff but music I really like I'll always buy on CD.

Sure vinyl is making a comeback despite it being far older than CD and it wears out after extensive playing. So Ican't see physical CD/Vinyl ever being "obsolete".

(Tapes were another story but tapes were ****e :pac:)

I miss recording songs off the radio on a tape, where you'd often get shafted when the b*****d DJ started talking over the end of the song! :mad:

milehip1

they still haven't managed to kill off vinyl
so whats the rush with all these other formats?

Kurz

If they packaged albums in such a way that they came on a custom USB stick in a little package with an album sleeve I'd probably buy it. Like if it was an Elvis album, the USB stick could be a little moulded Elvis head or something.

I'll stick to pirate bay the apple imusic download shop for now.

Im not sold on digital, everything has a very harsh unnatural quality.

I prefer the warmth of VHS and Vinyl.

JerryHandbag

DEFTLEFTHAND wrote: »

Do you not think though that there's something nice about holding the physical copy of a recording in your hands? Whether it be a record or CD. I love album artwork, the liner notes etc. There's something very impersonal about this digital bullsh1t.

Absolutely, love the fact also that some bands put a lot of thought into the album artwork and packaging.

Duggy747

Something like Blu-ray won't be obsolete for those who want high grade TV shows & movies, though they won't be as popular as DVDs were.

Compression of a 1080p movie from a digital download doesn't have the same quality unless you're willing to download 15+ gigs for a film.

Digital downloads or streams like Netflix and Hulu will only ever become really popular when they secure rights and have a vast, vast library of media people will want to see. It's the only way to compete against the pirate sites that stream TV shows & movies though their servers and visual quality of the media vary wildy (low quality TV-shows as opposed to DVD quality and inconsistent server speeds)

Irish Guitarist

If the only way to obtain music was to pay to download it I'd never listen to new music again. In my opinion MP3s only serve two purposes: to get music for free or to get rare music that's not available elsewhere. I don't understand why anyone would choose to pay for an MP3 file when the CD is readily available.

I bought some second hand vinyl yesterday. It cost less than it would have to download the songs from iTunes (although I have all the music on CD anyway). Some music just sounds better on vinyl, even on my crappy turntable I bought from Argos eight years ago. I also bought some new vinyl a few months ago. Johnny Cash never sounded better than he does on my clear vinyl pressing of his last album. Eddie Cochran sounds great on vinyl too.

Wibbs

Well Apple are at the early stages of phasing out built in DVD/CD players with the removal of same from their new pro laptop range. I'd be surprised if they don't do this with most of their range in the next 18 months. Not as sudden a change as they did with their first imac a decade ago when they dropped floppy disk drives from their entire range pretty quickly. Both the manufacturers and content producers would prefer if the ability to copy and physically "own" content was reduced. More control in the general market. Same for software. The iPhone model has shown it's doable and people forget that platform has about the least piracy issues of any platform ever, so transferring that to the desktop will be pushed(Apple are already on that road, others will follow).

There'll always be people who will circumvent that, or just prefer to have the physical item. Folks here and people I know who still buy vinyl etc, but the mainstream will go where they're guided for the most part. Since itunes legalised the online music scene physical CD sales have plummeted.

hardCopy

I hate CD's. They get 1 use when I rip them onto my PC, then I'm stuck with a lump of cheap plastic to store.

Digital music, digital movies and kindle books for me.

mikemac1

Bought some American football DVD's from Amazon. Am a fan of American sports like that or baseball but since you can't realy buy these in Ireland you order them from amazon and USA sellers
They were Region 1 and we are Region 2 as I remember

My computer (is an imac) let me switch regions 5 times and then it locked permanently
I assume there is a way to crack it but I'm not the best with things like that

Down with this sort of thing

krudler

mikemac1 wrote: »

Bought some American football DVD's from Amazon. Am a fan of American sports like that or baseball but since you can't realy buy these in Ireland you order them from amazon and USA sellers
They were Region 1 and we are Region 2 as I remember

My computer (is an imac) let me switch regions 5 times and then it locked permanently
I assume there is a way to crack it but I'm not the best with things like that

Down with this sort of thing

you can get region free programs so disable the lock on the player, or get a cheap region free dvd player, amazon do them for half nothing.

vibe666

mickrock wrote: »

I still use videotape to watch certain, er, films.

that tape won't last long if you keep pausing and stopping it after 5 minutes!

Tomk1 wrote: »

Am Chile wrote: »

With Music available on I tunes to download/ movies/ tv shows available to watch on netflix and amazom livestreaming plus other video on demand type sites- how long more can cds/dvds survive- when do people think all form dvds/cds buying music albums/movies on discs will become completely obsolete.

Last time I looked (a few months ago) you couldn't get TV shows from itunes, also something about Amazon being content limited in the UK.
...so when every movie/TV-show is online to download & Ireland gets something called Broadband, 30/100 kbs is snailband. 2029 sounds about right.

almost half a million homes in Ireland can get UPC 100mbps and TV on demand as of now.

Eircom have some kind of fibre rollout planned as well and magnet and digiweb are doing pretty well as well. If you don't live somewhere that has any of the above then there is a simple option that is the same for any people who don't live near to something they want (anything from God weather or clean air to a nice view or particular amenities) of moving somewhere where there is.

Threw are plenty of options for downloading or streaming tv, movies and music beyond the likes of iTunes and Netflix and the choice cheap (sometimes free) almost endless.

Wibbs

hardCopy wrote: »

I hate CD's. They get 1 use when I rip them onto my PC, then I'm stuck with a lump of cheap plastic to store.

Digital music, digital movies and kindle books for me.

Ironic username there HC.

I'm with you regarding music. Less so with movies, unless as others have said you're willing to rip or store a full HD file running to 15 gigs. When interweb speeds keep pace with filesizes like that then I'd defo jump for the convenience. Digital books just don't do it for me though. In what passes for my brain I find them a very different experience to holding a physical book and thumbing the pages. Same with online magazines. The physical item "feels" different. I've even known some pro graphic designers who will do a printed colour proof of an online page/magazine and they always do for anything that's going to be ultimately printed. The screen image, no matter how well calibrated is different. It's like the two activities activate different parts of my head. I think this difference may be hard for many to fully make the jump.

The other aspect to being fully digital can be it's lack of a physical, more "permanent" item. Photo's a good example. We take photos now without a second thought. Squillions of them, held on memory cards and disks and rarely print and hold the physical item. Hopefully all backed up in at least two places. I have known soooo many people who have lost whole sections of their life in photos because of hard drive failures etc. Daft they don't make regular backups? Sure it is. Very daft. However many, if not the majority are like this. If for any reason, I dunno massive solar storm or suchlike, we lost those images, we can no longer go to the drawer in the living room to pull out the negatives. In that case we'd have a bigger record of photos from world war two than we would from the turn of the century. Doesn't even have to be that dramatic. Shít I know someone whose brother had important docs and photos on a zip disk(remember them yolks). Luckily I had a working zip drive so could get them off. If they had been on an original floppy disk or 80's laser disk good luck.

mikemac1

I remember when xtravision would threaten to fine you if you didn't rewind the tape for the next customer :eek:

vibe666

Wibbs wrote: »

The other aspect to being fully digital can be it's lack of a physical, more "permanent" item. Photo's a good example. We take photos now without a second thought. Squillions of them, held on memory cards and disks and rarely print and hold the physical item. Hopefully all backed up in at least two places. I have known soooo many people who have lost whole sections of their life in photos because of hard drive failures etc. Daft they don't make regular backups? Sure it is. Very daft. However many, if not the majority are like this.

I read somewhere awhile ago that more photos are uploaded to Facebook every day now than were taken in the whole time in human history since the camera was invented up to before Facebook existed.

I thought that my wife had lost her phone a few weeks back with all our baby photo's on it since our son was born 11 months ago and she was devastated.

Luckily we found it again and the first thing I did was back everything up and now thanks to the dropbox app, everything on her phone gets synced to the cloud any time the Wi-Fi is connected, so we're all good now going forward.

nlgbbbblth

mikemac1 wrote: »

Bought some American football DVD's from Amazon. Am a fan of American sports like that or baseball but since you can't realy buy these in Ireland you order them from amazon and USA sellers
They were Region 1 and we are Region 2 as I remember

My computer (is an imac) let me switch regions 5 times and then it locked permanently
I assume there is a way to crack it but I'm not the best with things like that

Down with this sort of thing

You can buy a cheap multi-region DVD player for about 50 euro.

c_man

Ironically, the only physical format of any media that I buy now are tech books (for programming etc.) :pac:

nlgbbbblth

CD sales have dropped but plenty people still buy them.
DVD sales have dropped but plenty still people buy them.
Vinyl sales are up and have been increasing since 2001 or so. The second hand market is huge.
Cassettes don't really sell but they suck anyway.

I download too but only to check things out. Some people can't get over the fact that others prefer physical formats.

Collecting MP3s is like collecting farts in a jar.

c_man

nlgbbbblth wrote: »

Some people can't get over the fact that others prefer physical formats.

Looking through this thread, it seems that the reverse is the case.

KenSwee

lemd wrote: »

I was in HMV yesterday when a middle aged woman came in and asked where the cd single section was. The girl working there could barely contain her amusement as she explained why they don't stock them anymore. The cd album has not long left either.

The irony of that was that the demise of the CD singles will probably cost her her job.

KenSwee

DEFTLEFTHAND wrote: »

Do you not think though that there's something nice about holding the physical copy of a recording in your hands? Whether it be a record or CD. I love album artwork, the liner notes etc. There's something very impersonal about this digital bullsh1t.

Agreed. Should be a new post.

holystungun9

mikemac1 wrote: »

I remember when xtravision would threaten to fine you if you didn't rewind the tape for the next customer :eek:

Now there is a blast from the past.

nlgbbbblth

c_man wrote: »

Looking through this thread, it seems that the reverse is the case.

For the OP and others like him - it doesn't have to be an either / or situation.

Digital and physical formats can co-exist.

Jester252

My sister has a kindle and she loves it but I just love the smell of a new book or opening the plastic from a new game. Movies/film/games will be fully streaming/download in a couple of years but that just the evolution of digital media. Books will always be around the change from physical to digital will not happen

mikemac1

audio books

Haven't bought a book in a long time, you can get audiobooks for a lot of popular titles

The actors are excellent, do a great job. Some do nothing but this work and they are very talented at it

Listen in the gym, on a run, commute, wherever

I'm not sure when I'll buy a book again

starlit

To be honest I think the blue ray will become obsolete before dvd's and Cd's. CD's are more likely to become obsolete more so than DVD's cause of downloading stuff online.

Logical Fallacy

BarnhallBull wrote: »

Blu Ray never really took off the way I expected, I still watch (and buy) DVDs despite owning a ps3 for a good 5 years or so, not sure why, I jumped from VHS to DVD a hell of a lot quicker.

Netflix (the american version) is awesome for tv shows but fcuking useless for movies, long way to go before i'd watch movies on it regularly I'd say

Blu Ray never really took off because the players cost so much at the time. Bly Ray was a huge thing in the gaming industry though...so much more room and games got bigger, more complex and better looking as a result.

LiamKK1982

I'm in 2 camps, I never stopped buying cd's about 6 years ago so all my music is digital. On the other hand I buy a lot of blu rays and physical ps3 games. Anyone who says blu ray is a dead format is a F**KING IDIOT!

enda1

Physical media is already a dead format, but there will always be necrophiles.

GeorgeBailey

nlgbbbblth wrote: »

Some people can't get over the fact that others prefer physical formats.

And some people can't get over the fact that others prefer digital formats.

nlgbbbblth wrote: »

Collecting MP3s is like collecting farts in a jar.

That may be the case but unfortunately for you you're collecting something that will no longer be available in the very near future. It just won't make financial sense to physically produce a product when they can make it available for download and still charge pretty much the same price.

audidiesel

they will not become obsolete for at least another generation if not two. as said hd rips of movies are huge 10-15gig. thats a lot of hard drive space to use up. also what if your travelling for a week or two and want to bring entertainment with you?

ive a huge collection of movies in both digital and physical format. generally i prefer the physical format for films/series

as for music, im mostly using mp3/flac files these days. if its a really good band though i do occasionally invest in the cd.