The end of DVDs?

Amen.

That's exactly what I do.

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"Critics are like eunuchs in a harem; they know how the Tatty 100 is done, they've seen it done every day, but they're unable to do it themselves." - Brendan Behan

If the end of DVDs is near, I will literally CRY!! I love going out and binging on movies at thrift stores. Or the cheap bin at Target? (I'm practically broke, Don't judge me.)

I hope that they don't go totally digital, but I doubt they will either. From the looks of this thread there are just too many like minded people who love buying physical dvds for movies to go completely digital.

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"Puns are the highest form of literature." -Alfred Hitchcock

That's a very good point. I'm sure a bunch of people would be very angry if movies went completely digital. So I think it is unlikely. A scary thought though..

So far from what I've seen, it's rather low quality compared to blu rays(especially streaming a film)? and I can't be arsed to download a film for an hour or so - how long does it take to download say a 2 hour film on a normal computer(not someone with the fastest broadband EVER)?

Eh, wrong.

Eh, also probably wrong, unless you're 65+ years-old.

Things are indeed headed down the road of being all digital. You all just aren't farward thinking enough. (Don't get mad at me, that was a joke)

You all have to remember that our ability to transmit data grows exponetially. Just look at streaming video. We went from crappy ultra-low quality that had that aweful *buffering* notice to HD streaming on my gaming system/blu-ray player in a decade. Within the next decade, we will see actual store bought hard copies of film almost completely disappear as everything is slowly brought into the cloud. More and more things that you "own" will be stored somewhere in cyberspace and you will access it via broadband. The only barriers right now are piracy issues (how do you make sure access to "owned" property doesn't get shared?) and lack of broadband access in the US. Believe it or not, the US has a surprisingly low amount of people having access to broadband internet.

Yes, DVDs/Blu-rays will most likely still be around, but only in the sense that there are still people who record TV programs instead of using a DVR. They will be the minority, and a hell of a lot sooner than most of you think.

Don't believe me? Which one is cheaper for the film industry? Digital distribution. The only real expense is labor costs. Combine that with what i said about the growth of data transmission and you've got the death of the hard copy.

I used to be opposed to the idea of all digital until I moved back into the city and started watching Netflix streaming on my PS3. Now I look at my DVD collection as quaint.

Also, I LOLed when I read about the 300+ DVD collection. My wife and I have a collection of over 1100 DVDs/Blu-Rays. That does include a whole ton of kids DVDs for my children. But, that's counting box sets/TV programs as one individual unit! However, I've almost completely stopped buying films. The last thing we bought was Inception on Blu-Ray.

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This thread is making me sad.

Eh, not really because there will always be someone who doesn't want to dish out the money on something like a computer to watch movies on where they can just go out and buy a cheap DVD player. Besides, a majority of the people still prefer to watch things on big televisions with surround sound rather than just sit in front of a tiny computer watching a movie.

It will never go all digital...at least in our lifetime. Maybe a couple of hundred years from now, I don't know, but we'll be long dead by the time this were to actually happen.

Ouch, denial.

TVs are now including Wi-Fi/internet connectability. Every Blu0ray player has to have internet connectability to update firmware, so most (all?) throw in access to Netflix. Netflix is pushing to go all digital.

The writing is on the wall, you just have to be willing to read it.

I'm in denial? There's no way the push to all digital will come anytime in our lifetime.

Very few TVs are coming with internet, I don't even know anyone that owns one, because there's no point to internet on a TV. Like you said, most Blu-Ray players come with internet, so why would anyone need it on their TV? Still, I know plenty of people who don't own Blu-Ray players because they see it pointless to upgrade to Blu-Rays.

Also, there's no way Netflix will go all digital anytime soon. I'm sure it'll happen eventually, maybe like 10 years the line, but that doesn't mean people are just going to stop buying DVDs. It's too expensive for Netflix to go all digital anyways, which is why they haven't yet.

Let's look at it another way.

The internet went heavily broadband about ten years ago. In that time it revolutionized the music industry. It has had a heavy impact on the newspaper, magazine, book, TV, and video game industries; impacts that we've yet to see the full impact. But impacts that are very substantial, to the point that all of those industries have had to completely change their entire business philosophies or perish (Borders is the most recent example).

And yet, you insist that the change isn't happening within your lifetime?!? It's been ten years!

I'm not really trying to make this a debate, I'm being a realist. The internet literally changed the entire world. There are countries that are in revolution and the internet is playing a big part. Social media changed entire political landscapes!

I understand that, and yes, the internet has had a huge impact on movies as week, but I just think it's just kind of crazy to think movies will go all digital. Everything you've listed has gone digital, but none of them have all digital and I don't see any of them going all digital anytime soon either.

There will always be those people who don't want to change and enjoy things the way they've been getting them for years.

There's just no way I ever see them getting completely rid of DVDs/Blu-Rays anytime soon, because there will always be those people who enjoy things the old traditional way.

Again, I didn't say this will happen overnight. There's still people who buy CDs, but that number is much smaller than the number who get their music in other ways.

So, given the rate of change, the growth of bandwidth, etc. do you really, truly believe that you will die before films go all digital? Honestly?

I'm sure this was a debate back in the day.

Oh, VHS is gonna go extinct. Nobody will EVER use it. And still, I know a bunch of people who still own VHS players, and own even more cassette tapes.

Movies will never go entirely digital. Maybe partly, but I'm sure I can speak for a bunch of people when I say that I won't let that happen.

Yeah, because while the number will remain low, I'm sure people will still be buying CDs in a hundred years. It'll be the same for DVDs, because there will always be someone who would prefer to watch something on DVD rather than on some device, especially Blu-Ray because it's much better quality than anything you can get digital.

And may you be as successful in your endeavor as the people who have so far kept VHS tapes in the Red Box Kiosks and Netflix mailings. I wish you the same unbeielvable luck that they have had!

Blu-ray is better, for now. But, as I said, bandwidth grows exponentially. Within ten years, even YouTube could rival Blu-ray.

Also, if people are still buying CDs in a hundred years, I'll buy you a coke (yes, I plan on being alive in 100 years).

Okay, it's on.

Just because they are not in Red Box Kiosks and Netflix mailings, doesn't mean they're not still there!!

True, I did forget the massive VHS selection at Best Buy, my bad.

You're being too pessimistic. The point I'm trying to make is that VHS STILL exists, and even though it's not the BIG thing.. it's still used.