vpoko
Premium
join:2003-07-03
Jamaica Plain, MA
| Quality vs. flexibility
Quality vs. flexibility it ain't. People are willing to give up quality because most listeners can't distinguish a lossy format like MP3 from better-than-CD quality. Once the bandwidth is cheap enough I don't think anyone will have to sacrifice one for the other.
The part about discs going away in the future is common sense. |
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UglyDork
Premium
join:2002-01-09
Buffalo, NY
 ·Vonage
| Discs are dead (of all kinds)
If all kinds of disks are dead, then where will all the data that is served be stored on?
Some type of yet to be determined media?? 
Think about it.
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nixen
Rockin' the Boxen
Premium
join:2002-10-04
Alexandria, VA
 ·Cox HSI
 ·Speakeasy
| said by UglyDork  :If all kinds of disks are dead, then where will all the data that is served be stored on? Some type of yet to be determined media?? Think about it. Never heard of solid state drives, eh?
-tom
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"Some people have morals, standards and ideals about quality, but I'm an American: I couldn't care less." --Tony Pierce (paraphrased) |
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banditws6
Shrinking Time and Distance
join:2001-08-18
Naples, FL | reply to UglyDork
I imagine those little USB keys we carry around will eventually store hundreds of gigs of data, all on flash memory chips. No magneto-optical storage necessary.
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"I'll follow the law until it's just stupid." -Ted Nugent |
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Tomek
Premium
join:2002-01-30
Brooklyn, NY
·Packet8
| Flexibility? Not with DRM
The biggest issue with flexibility is DRM and no fair-use.
People will soon get very angry when they discover the very limits of downloading LEGAL content.
I still will buy DVDs, because they give me more than DRM-loaded crap.
Audio CDs, well I just HATE riaa. They get nothing from me. If they start treating customers fairly, then we talk.
The outlook for internet-based content depends on how **AA handles that. P2P could be their ally, if used properly.
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Private First Class of United States Marine Corps |
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anonzzzz
@sympatico.ca
| net replacing hdd's
the average harddrive storage capacity is way too big to transfer over the net quickly. maybe what we need now is DVD sized (i mean its physical size) high-storage capacity ( 300 gigs )/ high speed drives/disks that let you basically take your harddrive with you wherever you go  . so basically an external harddrive the size of a dvd or summin with 100's of gigs of storage. |
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Unregistered user
@cofs.net
| I don't believe it
I don't think discs are dead in terms of video. DVD sales aren't falling off just yet. Now, some folks may say that this will change once broadband can deliver better video, but just wait until that DVD you can now buy turns into a pay-per-view movie over broadband. Hollywood may love that idea, but consumers won't. And even if a broadband connection can deliver NTSC video, what about a 1080i image? That'll take considerably more bandwidth.
As for audio, sadly, many people are choosing lossy compression over quality. With hard disk space so cheap, I can't see why. OK, they may want to send the files to a portable player. Then why not allow the compression to be done by the consumer? That way, they download a good-quality file, then they can compress it for portability. Personally, I won't buy music that sounds like crap, and I have a problem buying overpriced CDs, so I guess I don't really buy much music at all these days. Am I in the minority here? |
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jboyo
join:2004-06-10
North York, ON | reply to banditws6
Re: Discs are dead (of all kinds)
Already done.
There is (almost was) a company, www.go-l.com, that put a suped up custom version of XP on a massive Flash drive- instant boot (something like less than 2 seconds, I believe) |
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jboyo
join:2004-06-10
North York, ON | HA! Not with today's business models...
Imagine trying to back up large data files when you ISP has puny caps!
I dont download much, but I backup dozen's of gigs of client data to disc.
I cant imagine when ISP's will be that flexible to allow this without psycho prices! |
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Scree
In the pipe 5 by 5
join:2001-04-24
Mount Laurel, NJ
·Comcast
| always fascinating
So how many people still use video tapes? Quite a LOT, I bet. Discs will be around a long, long time, simply because they are the most common and affordable methods. I would love to see a little microchip thing able to store 1 TB someday, but that's just it... it's WAY off in the future, at least to be affordable. lol
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What is the mind? No matter. What is matter? Nevermind. UH-HEH-HEH-HEH |
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Jason Levine
Premium
join:2001-07-13
USA
| reply to Unregistered user
Re: I don't believe it
Well, I don't buy much music either, but it's mainly for financial reasons. My budget is too tight to spend $15+ on a CD that I'll listen to once a month at most.
When I do buy CDs, however, I typically get them used. There are some really good deals to be had on Half.com, Amazon, and the like. The most damaged purchase I made was one where the case was shattered. I simply switched it out into a new case and it was as good as new.
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-Jason Levine
http://www.jasons-toolbox.com/
http://www.PCQandA.com/
http://www.urateit.com/ |
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djrobx
join:2000-05-31
Valencia, CA
·PHONE POWER
 ·AT&T U-Verse
·AT&T CallVantage
·Time Warner VOIP
·RoadRunner Cable
| reply to vpoko
Re: Quality vs. flexibility
Never underestimate the human's desire to collect things. Television shows on DVD made 2.28 billion dollars in 2004, despite the fact that most were freely available on TV networks. Lots of people have huge DVD collections even though they only watch movies once. I think on demand content will be a huge player in the coming years, but a true paradigm shift away from collectable media will likely take much longer than a century.
quote:
... because most listeners can't distinguish a lossy format like MP3 from better-than-CD quality.
Yup. I'm frightened by how many people think that SAT radio is "CD quality". To me both Sirius and XM sound like a badly encoded MP3. Even though I'm pretty sensitive to quality losses, even I would rather have a DRM-free CD that I can rip to high bitrate MP3 to put in my car MP3 player or portable, than a DVD-Audio disc that I can't do anything with. And I still listen to Sirius because having content available is more important than quality.
CD quality still has much more capacity than most people's speaker systems anyway. 5.1+ audio on an audio-only music performance is fun, but unnecessary. A friend of mine got an Acura TL with the DVD audio system. He eagerly showed off a Shania Twain DVD-A. The directional audio was fun, until someone got in the back seat. Back to the plain old collection! I wouldn't know how much of an improvement DVD-A actually makes on the audio, since the Acura factory speakers aren't exactly audiophile quality.
I wish I could get behind a movement for better quality audio, but I can't. A lot of the music being produced these days isn't even taking advantage of the CD format. Some of the best sounding CDs I have are remastered albms from the 80s. Having my entire library at my fingertips when I get in my car is far more exciting than an incremental increase in quality.
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\\ROB - a part of the SCB local network |
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netmasta
join:2004-06-06
Randolph, MA | Disks vs. Discs
I doubt that discs e.g.: cd's & dvd's will be gone soon. But we can just forget about using floppy disks forever. I don't even remember the last time I used one.
BTW
disk = magnetic media
disc = optical media |
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Jason Levine
Premium
join:2001-07-13
USA
| reply to jboyo
Re: HA! Not with today's business models...
Or restoring your data after a system crash.
"I'm sorry, but you cannot retrieve any more of 'SYSTEMBACKUP/My Photos' because you have hit your bandwidth limit for this month. Please pay us more money to get more of your data back."
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-Jason Levine
http://www.jasons-toolbox.com/
http://www.PCQandA.com/
http://www.urateit.com/ |
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yock
TFTC
Premium
join:2000-11-21
Fairfield, OH
| reply to vpoko
Re: Quality vs. flexibility
said by vpoko :Quality vs. flexibility it ain't. People are willing to give up quality because most listeners can't distinguish a lossy format like MP3 from better-than-CD quality. Once the bandwidth is cheap enough I don't think anyone will have to sacrifice one for the other. The part about discs going away in the future is common sense. I listen t some music through Rhapsody, but if it's anything I truly enjoy I get the CD. The difference is very noticeable.
--
Statistical correlation need not imply causation.
Technical Nirvana |
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zentec
join:2002-01-05
Monroe, MI | Hey Wired!
Never underestimate the bandwidth of a UPS truck filled with DVDs. |
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Omega
Displaced Ohioan
Premium
join:2002-07-30
Cheyenne, WY
clubs: 
·Bresnan Online
 ·Verizon Wireless B..
·Comcast
·AT&T Midwest
| Won't happen soon
At the rate ISP's are going with bandwith, we will still be using discs for sometime now.
Several ISP's are imposing caps, how will they feel when you can download movies that transfer gigabytes of data (legally).
I, for one prefer to have a physical copy. I'll take the CD or DVD over downloadable content any day.
Let's not forget that all the downloaded stuff will be DRM'd!
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My site
SBC DSL 2650/512 |
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imrf
Premium
join:2002-06-06
Utica, MI
·Comcast
·WOW Internet and C..
| reply to djrobx
Re: Quality vs. flexibility
said by djrobx :5.1+ audio on an audio-only music performance is fun, but unnecessary. A friend of mine got an Acura TL with the DVD audio system. Yes, it's totally unnecessary in a car, but at home its great. I have quite a few DVD-A discs and hearing them in Dolby Digital 5.1 or DTS is great, makes music sound so much better. The car idea is dumb in general though. |
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stet
Volitar Prime
join:2002-03-08
Warren, MI
| It's not hi-fi disc vs low-fi downloads...
...it's pay for a disc vs download for free. Most people don't care about a loss of quality as long as it's free. The few people who use services like iTunes (few when compared to those who download for free or even though who purchase CDs) have complained if those services don't at least use higher quality compressed files (instead of the super low quality highly compressed crap often found on P2P).
People will take anything, if it's free. But if they have to pay for it, people want quality.
People seem to be more then willing to purchase a high quality DVD set of their favorite TV show or movie instead of taping it off the TV with low quality VHS tapes.
--
I am of the stars.
I am called "Forever".
Eternity courses through my veins. |
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djrobx
join:2000-05-31
Valencia, CA
·PHONE POWER
·AT&T U-Verse
·AT&T CallVantage
·Time Warner VOIP
·RoadRunner Cable
| reply to Unregistered user
Re: I don't believe it
quote:
but just wait until that DVD you can now buy turns into a pay-per-view movie over broadband. Hollywood may love that idea, but consumers won't.
We've already had that battle. Remember DiVX? No, not the compression format, Circuit City's now dead DVD competitor. The people spoke and declared they wanted control of their content.
quote:
Personally, I won't buy music that sounds like crap, and I have a problem buying overpriced CDs, so I guess I don't really buy much music at all these days. Am I in the minority here?
Nope, that's about how I feel about it. I would be happy to pay for legal 256kbps+ DRM-free MP3 download. Otherwise I'll just find a deal on a used CD and make my MP3 myself. More and more I find I just don't have the "gotta have it" itch with new music. I have a huge library of my old music to keep me occupied.
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\\ROB - a part of the SCB local network |
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