Why DVDs Won’t be Dying out Anytime Soon DVDs came. They saw. They conquered. Within a few short years, the DVD was able to supplant the VHS tape as the dominant format that people used to enjoy their favorite movies. One of the reasons was that DVDs are versatile—DVD duplication services can reproduce a disc quickly, and they can contain a variety of different things, not just films. Although, DVD replication services are able to produce highquality video and audio, as well as all the bells and whistles that you’ve come to expect from a DVD. However, the film industry is now seeing something similar to what happened to the music industry some years ago. Streaming services like Netflix, Hulu Plus and Amazon Prime are growing, and some have speculated that DVDs will soon die out. But this won’t happen.
The learning curve If you subscribe to one of these streaming video services, you might think it’s simple, especially if you’ve been using it for a long time. What you don’t realize is that you’ve been using the system for a long time, and you might have forgotten how strange it was when you first started. This learning curve might be hard for someone to handle if they’re starting at square one. However, DVDs are easy. Take it out of the case, put it in the player, and push the right button when the menu comes up. Even if you don’t look at the special features or use setup menus, you are still able to enjoy the movie easily and quickly. Subscription services also require an internet connection and a device hooked up to their television, which not everybody has—the only other option is to watch movies on your computer screen. And who wants to do that?
Buying a product or paying for a service Another issue that most people have with online subscription services is that they’re paying for a service, not buying something. Once they end that service, they don’t have anything to show for it, as all of the media they were able to use is digital. It’s not a download, and there is no hard copy. When you unsubscribe, it’s over. Also, the selections change from time to time, so there’s no guarantee that the media you want to see will be available. Even if it was there the day before. On the other hand, if you buy a DVD, it’s yours. It goes on your shelf, and you will be able to use it as long as you have a DVD player that works. And even if your last DVD player starts do die on you, you still have the option to digitize the media on it. There are a lot of reasons people might think DVDs have seen their best days. Those people point to the decline in DVD duplication services and the rise of streaming services as the main contributing factors to the
demise of the DVD. But DVD replication and increasing numbers of online services are only part of the equation. There will be more formats in the market, but that doesn’t mean that they can’t coexist. It’s just a matter of time before the two reach equilibrium. Photo Credit: svilen001, Ambrozjo