The DVD may have died this week.
Walmart is now selling Blu-Ray high-definition optical disk players for $68 in the U. S. Sure, plain old DVD players are cheaper still, but why would you buy one? Blu-Ray players can be used with your old DVD collection just fine and will line-double and up-shift your old disks a bit so they’ll look nice (but not as nice as 1080p Blu-Ray) on your new LCD or plasma TV. So unless the Blu-Ray can’t connect to your old TV for some reason, I can’t imagine why anyone would buy the old standard.
These things happen: Moore’s Law, remember? But in this case it feels to me like the transition is happening a little earlier than I expected it would. For that I blame the economy.
DVD sales have dropped 30 percent in the current recession, which was a big surprise to the major movie studios. They expected sales to go up because movies played at home (where the popcorn is cheaper and the butter is real) are supposed to be a bargain during a recession. In a sense it seemed a perfect time to introduce Blu-Ray and get people to upgrade their movie collections just as they had upgraded their VHS tape collections for DVDs a decade ago.
That VHS-to-DVD transition was the Golden Age of home video, when old flicks earned their weight in rhinestones all over again simply because people liked the prettier pictures and random access to slo-mo nude scenes offered by DVD. So everybody happily bought all their favorite movies all over again, home video revenue became bigger for the movie industry than box office revenue. And like all participants in an unsustainable economic bubble, the movie producers and backers told themselves it would go on forever.
It couldn’t last forever because eventually all the people who wanted to buy DVD’s of old movies had bought them and the industry could only bring out new movies at a certain rate — a rate that was nothing compared to that total library conversion. What was needed, they realized, was another VHS-to-DVD experience, though in this case to a high definition standard like Blu-Ray, or its competitor, HD-DVD.
Except it didn’t work out quite that way. Both Blue-Ray and HD-DVD were late. Like Betamax and VHS, they fought it out in the market, creating buyer confusion (and movie studio confusion too). By the time Sony and Blu-Ray had defeated Toshiba and HD-DVD the DVD business was in decline (movie-related game sales were, too) and there were signs of an impending recession, which brings us to today.
The movie studio fantasy was that we’d pay $20-$40 per Blu-Ray disk, but then Daddy was laid-off and that Blu-Ray copy of 8 Mile suddenly wasn’t THAT much better than the DVD version for half the price. Some people decided to wait while others gave up completely, leading to that $68 Blu-Ray player down at WalMart. Remember WalMart is the largest seller of DVD’s (and presumably Blu-Ray disks) in America and possibly the world. WalMart is such a Big Kahuna in the home video business that they can dictate prices pretty much to the rest of the market. I predict, therefore, that after Christmas Blu-Ray prices will crash to only marginally more than DVDs and maybe even the same.
This is — like short-selling your dream house – just an acceptance of reality by the major players. They missed their chance to make big money but are fairly confident we’ll all finally switch to Blu-Ray if the price difference isn’t very much.
Think about that. It means we’re going to buy all new disks yet again, Hollywood will return to normal, and again we’ll probably be happy about it.
Lucky us.
Which means, once again, Apple guessed right by not adding high priced Blu-Ray drives to their computers yet–if ever.
Apple is primarily a hardware company so while they are smart to look over their shoulder at what Google and Microsoft are doing, it’s Sony’s PS3 that has the potential to disrupt their plan of being the center of our living room multi-media experience. With the recent price drop and addition of NetFlix streaming to the already Blu-Ray playing PS3, it’s (IMHO) the media center of choice. Large flat screens can be had for great prices so I agree with Sammy that 2010 will be a very interesting year with regards to entertainment and how we access it.
Apple’s “plan” to be “front and center” of the living room seems a lot more like an outside bet than a central strategy to me. When you see as many TV spots for the AppleTV as the iPhone then you’ll know the strategy has changed. The living room tech cycle is super-slow compared to Apple’s “normal” and thus difficult to integrate.
Bob’s kinda missed the point here though, this actually signals the *failure* of Blu-Ray. It’s just going to take over from DVD in a smooth flattish decline, no one is out there re-buying their library in Blu-Ray.
There’s a huge pent up demand for an “iTunes” experience for video content. I.e. put DVD in the machine, machine makes digital copy, moves copy to my device(s), I make future purchases as downloads and everything lives in a single library.
My guess is Apple hasn’t been able to swing that with the Hollywood studios yet. It’s still not clear whether you’re legally allowed to make a backup copy of a DVD you bought. In the meantime they’re just keeping the AppleTV on life support until something gives.
Here’s how I see Apple proceeding vis-a-vis the AppleTV. They are going to refresh the thing, once those PA-Semi next-gen ARM chips, for which they bought the company, are good to fab. This will make for a more-potent, smaller, cheaper, more-efficient AppleTV … that runs the iPhoneOS.
That last bit will allow Apple to sell the ATV as not only a media player, but also as a living room game console.
Of course, playing low, iPhone-res games on your 40-inch HDTV would look horrible. But once the games makers recode their games into Apple-tablet 720p resolutions, they will look darn good on that big screen. And maybe the iPod Touch can then be used as a controller for the ATV.
I expect the Apple Tablet also to use those PA-Semi super chips, too. They will be combined with those other ARM-compatible GPU chips made by a UK firm (I don’t recall the name now) whose products are so good that both Apple and Intel bought chunks of stock in the company. Apple also has that new iTunes ‘Extra’ format to rent movies with features formerly only on disk, such as commentary tracks, trailers, and bonus featurettes.
All this — plus streaming content — means that the optical disk market has a significant and growing competitor. That to me means that ‘price is king’ for optical formats, DVD or BD. Plunging prices for DVD players and disks will undermine the progression to BD, except that DVD players don’t have much room to fall in price, and DVD disks have only a little.
But if DVD disks fall generally to the range where new releases list for $5, and back-catalog titles sell for $2-3, then the studios will be very, very unhappy. They will be more likely to strike deals with Apple, MSFT, and others like Netflix, to rent and stream content over the internet, providing per-viewing revenues (assuming they can keep the content reasonably secure from cracking and duplicating).
You’re right, AppleTV has been a confusing ‘hobby’ as Steve Jobs put it. I can’t see the studios allowing Apple or anyone an easy path to creating digital copies of video media (has the RIAA even officially given in to our right to rip audio media yet)? I can see the DVD and Blu-Ray markets getting beat down so hard (via Wal-Mart) that digital copies being included with the physical media as a standard to try and boost sales.
As for the iTunes experience, while it is satisfactory for audio media, for video I’m finding I’m re-evaluating and comparing the ‘own’ model (iTunes/Wal-Mart) to the ‘subscription’ model (Netflix). I’m finding I don’t need to own (in physical or digital format) 90-95% of the video media I may consume, even if I do want to watch it in 1080p. The headache of storage and retrieval of both media outweighs any annoyance with having to wait a day to receive it in the mail. I’ve played with Windows Media Center, MythTV, Linux MCE and Handbrake on my Mac and find that converting and storing my music and DVD collection an overwhelming proposition with regards to their size and the speed to rip them to digital format. I couldn’t beginning to imagine buying Blu-Ray discs and converting them. For now, I’ll stick with Netflix and my PS3 when it comes to movies. I’m not buying any DVDs anymore (so Mr. Cringely is correct on that point) unless they are rare, hard to find movies I find in bargain bins. I’ll might buy 1-2 Blu-Ray titles in a good year (for the studios). No where near my buying rate when I switched from VHS to DVD, so you’re 100% correct on that point. Last point, this is the structure I’m going to and I’m an old man (late 40’s) relatively speaking. The younger crowd of today are much more open to subscription models vice buying than my generation. Physical media delivery of movies is dying.
Yes, Vincente, and we all want to know what the Cringe makes of the recent events: Apple buys Lala’s talent and makes the first concrete proposals to studios for subscription content on iTunes; maybe ALL media such as DVD and BluRay is over.
I don’t have any numbers, but my guess is that Netflix had a significant impact on the DVD market’s decline as well. For the price of one, I can rent a half dozen or so whenever I want.
Yep. I stopped buying DVDs when Netflix on demand became available. Why buy the DVD when I can stream it whenever I want? Besides, my monthly fee would only get me 1 DVD a month, but with Netflix, I have access to a huge library.
Streaming is the future. Media shipped to us in boxes will seem as silly to your kids as 8-tracks do to us today.
-Erica
Thanks to Netflix, I only buy DVDs that I consider to be especially important to me (Seven Samurai, Ghost in the Shell, etc.), which means I almost never buy DVDs.. I don’t buy DVD TV series collections anymore cuz I can just watch them on demand.
I never understood why anyone would buy a video (regardless of format), when you could rent it for a couple of bucks. I agree with you that netflix is teaching a lot of people that they don’t need to buy any more.
Maybe I have a low threshold for boredom, but I can’t watch the same movie twice in a 10-year period.
Interesting how that works.
I’ll agree to disagree with you Bob.
I think it’s too late. The age of physical media is passed.
And I’m pretty sure that 2010 will be the first year we start to see the fruits of all this exponential growth we’ve been talking about for the last couple decades.
Can’t think of anything that would make me want a blu-ray player… when I have the web. But then again, I’m weird. I know this, you know this, and now everyone else knows this too.
Ciao!
-Sammy
You’re not alone.
I have an HTPC with several tuners which I use more than my cable supplied dvr. It has access to Netflix, HULU, and through Media Browser I have access to all of my stored media, in addition to all of the media potential a stand alone PC has over a cable set top box.
Media Center, with it’s competent, and ever growing Internet TV options — I was actually rather pleasantly surprised with how good Windows 7 Internet TV has become — and it’s only going to get better.
With all of these I’ve got more access to more media than my cable provider likes, much less the studios.
With the upcoming release of the Ceton 4 tuner cable card, integrated in Win7 Media Center, it’s way more media than I can consume realistically.
I don’t need blu-ray, and for that matter DVD either.
I would tend to disagree with Bob. It’s not so much that DVD is dead, because frankly DVD is good enough for most people. Blu-ray is far too expensive right now, and considering all of the available options, will remain so for quite some time, even with Bob’s projected pricing down turn.
Frankly I think the industry is going to have to kill off DVD to realize any real ongoing major profit from Blu-ray. Which may be Bob’s point but I can’t really tell from the article.
I think download killed the video (DVD) store, as well as the DVD. I am not sure Blu-Ray did it. Oh, and don’t forget Netflix and Redbox, the upper cut and jab to the gut of brick and mortar DVD rental. BUT both Netflix and Redbox do the bulk of their business on DVD,which is a universal and convenient form.
If anything Blu-Ray rescued the retail store, as at this stage 1080p is not feasible to download, and yes, on a good 108p HDTV, it does indeed look superior. I haven’t bought DVDs in years, but I am buying Blu-Rays. If a movie I want isn’t on Blu-Ray, I just wait…it will ship eventually, or the Movie industry loses my $$. In the meantime, I can get similar DVD quality in a download (legal, no I have never bit-torrented), or with a RedBox DVD rental.
Oh and by the way Robert, I have many LaserDisc’s I am waiting to replace with Blu-Ray…I never went the DVD route, as the quality diff wasn’t that great! LOL! But, with HDTVs, LaserDisc’s look, well, so last century.
Several reasons: you don’t have to buy to get one – inventory reduction, in purchasing a Sony TV by mail order they are bundling Sony Blu-ray players along with the cheaper Sony home theater systems; Stairway to the Next Level – the players provide a NetFlix streaming device since I don’t have an X-box or PS-3 game platform; Cheap purchase to cash in on Video Store Liquidation – Video USA in the neighborhood going out of business is selling Blu-rays for $6 to $9 (or less if you buy 5 or 6 at a time) – wait until Walmart or Best Buy liquidates all their stock.
Vincente- Apple didn’t guess right, Apple drove the market where we are. By selling “good enough” HD downloads and by NOT including a high cost, high profit Blu-Ray drives, Apple (and Microsoft) pushed the market through the period when a HD disc product might have taken over (2004-2007) and got us to the point where Blu-Ray is a struggling format competing with the convenience of downloads. And yes, I’m getting a Blu-Ray player for Christmas, but it’s one that also does downloads really well: a PSP. I’ve already got the PSP Netflix disc.
DVD quality is ‘good enough’ that unless it’s a special film most people won’t bother getting a Blu-Ray version of their existing DVDs. It will be a long time before I buy any Blu-Ray disks as the high end Denon Blu-Ray player I have refuses to talk to my HD TV either directly or via a home theater system with a HDMI switch. News flash Denon, I’m not dumping my Sansui HD TV just to use your player, I have plenty of alternatives to Blu-Ray that look great on my existing hardware.
Sammy – download and Netflix on demand looks ok on a laptop screen, but only marginal on a 40″ and above HDTV. its the MP3 of video. Heck, most cable TV and broadcast HD look dramatically better than any download. Blu-ray looks dramatically better than all of that.
But if you don’t care, the beauty of these times is that you have options available to enjoy content however you like. For me, I like mine at the best possible picture quality…and yes that does indeed cost me more in equipment etc.
enjoy!
What this really means: They want me to add another remote controller to my collection. Think I am up to 5. Think I will sit this one out and wait till the mp3 version of Blu-Ray comes out.
For those of us who are using a non-HD TV, there is ***zero*** incentive to buy a Blu-Ray player.
Even if you have a HDTV, if it’s the proper size for your room/sitting distance then you don’t really need it, either.
I love movies, and I find the idea of Blu-Ray very appealing, but I won’t be shifting my DVD collection (which I used to take some pride in) over to a new format. The appeal of DVD over VHS was as you said mainly characteristics of the medium (random access being the big driver, but also not having to worry about a magnet offsetting those bits of rust-on-tape and ruining my film) but how many films warrant a re-buy for the picture alone? Not many.
I haven’t yet made the leap to Blu-Ray but when I finally do my purchased movies will be a small handful of recent ‘eye-candy’ films. Netflix will happily ship me Blu-Rays where I need them (again, eye-candy features) and for all those chick flicks DVD will more than suffice.
I don’t see enough of an incentive to move every film to Blu-Ray. Sure the picture quality might be superior, but is it worth it? In 99% of cases that would be a ‘no.’
Forget Blu-Ray. I’ve gone all digital with my media library. I don’t think I’ll ever buy another physical disk again. With Hulu, Netflix, iTunes, YouTube, etc who needs Blu-Ray? Is anyone under the age of 18 buying physical media anymore?
[…] I, Cringely » Blog Archive » DVD Is Dead – Cringely on technology […]
I just sold my Sony 400 disk DVD juke box in October. Picked up another Apple TV with the proceeds. I’d managed to rip all our DVD movies to Mac back in 2008 and the player had just been gathering dust. Sure, I’m not watching things in highest res available but then we only have a 27″ 720 tv and various Mac monitors around the house. The convenience of streaming movies from a single Mac Mini really outweighs the benefits of Blu-ray for us. And then there’s the Apple store, Hulu, and, dare I say, those quick downloads of the latest Dr. Who right after they’ve premiered in Britain. Plastic coasters, except for stocking stuffers (the kidlet likes to open presents), are really just becoming decorative shiny pieces. Now, if I could just find an affordable co-lo for our collection…
Two points for the Dr Who reference. You’ve hit the nail on the head here. Within an hour or two of popular shows airing anywhere in the world they’re available for download. People can quibble about the video quality, but having seen some Dr Who episodes, at less than 400 MB (less than 20 minute download) total file size, the picture quality was as good, if not better than most of the standard def cable programming coming into my house, and in a few cases almost as good as the hidef my cable company provides. It’s that good. Who needs the SCIFI now SCYFY channel with the ease of downloads? By the time SciFi decided to get around to airing the New Who, everyone I knew that loves that series, had already seen all of the episodes. SYFY can’t possibly compete with that without distribution agreements it can’t afford, but that’s what SYFY viewers want. What viewers in general want.
It reminds me of Star Trek Enterprise. Towards the end it was getting better and better, and if they had had a mechanism for viewers to support it directly at a dollar an episode, which included download access, that show would still be on the air making a hefty profit.
Download, archiving locally, and serving whole-house (Neighborhood in some cases), as well as streaming, are the present, and future of media.
That said, I’d still buy NerdTV season 2 on DVD…!
I’ve recently seen Blu-Ray disks at Walmart for exactly the same price (and right next to) the DVD of the same movie. Another way to look at this is that the movie studios are getting serious about DRM. The DVD has DRM in name only but Blu-Ray is somewhat better (at least at the moment). Also the HD file size is quite a bit larger. In theory all this makes the Blu-Ray less susceptible to exchange on the internet and casual format shifting than DVD.
Having said that I’m not sure most people benefit much from Blu-Ray resolution over DVD. You need a pretty big screen for most people to notice the difference. Of course that same Walmart now occasionally has a flatscreen TV over 50″ for under $1000 so maybe that’s changing too.
Not everyone wants a gargantuan TV. I certainly don’t. For those of us who have mid-sized HDTVs (30″ to 42″) and invested in a decent upscaling DVD player years ago Blu-ray is utterly worthless. And no, there is no perceptible difference in picture quality between my upscaling Oppo DVD player and any Blu-ray player on less-than-huge HDTVs, and yes I’ve tested.
DVDs advantages over VHS were many:
– you could actually buy movies on the release date. Remember that, with VHS, most movies were not avialable for purchase on release date until months after they had gone through the rental circuit. This changed with DVD.
– the picture and sound did not deteriorate with time and use
– less shelf space taken up by the cases (but still depth-compatible)
– backward compatible with CDs — reduced the equipment complexity
– discrete 5.1 surround sound
– much better picture and colour definition compared to VHS
So, DVD vs. VHS wasn’t a difficult choice. But, of the above, the only one that Blu-Ray offers a clear advantage in compared to DVD is the last one.
Likewise, CD replaced cassettes and vinyl because there were similar advantages. Nobody was interested in SACD or DVD Audio when those came around because the advantage was minimal and couldn’t be seen by most.
Other than cinephiles, the only people I know that seem to be enthusiastic about Blu-Ray are those that bought a TV too big for their living room and are required to sit too close to it… and DVD doesn’t look alright under any circumstance.
What I expect to happen with Blu-Ray is that people will buy the players and buy new movies on BR, but I can’t see that many people going out and upgrading their DVDs to Blu-Ray format.
Ba-hum-bug. I’m out of this game. I have enough DVD’s I’ll never watch again. I have an iPod. I have an Android. I have laptops and broadband. I have a 37″ 720p.
Wal-Mart could give me the Blu-Ray player (with a free Gillette Sensor Excel razor) and I wouldn’t plug it in….I’d throw away the razor after the trial blades got dull.
The movies that need Blu-Ray’s capabilities, for special effects and obligatory booming bass, aren’t worth watching.
I will follow the curve on connectivity tools and apps, but Hollywood can dissipate.
I’m a huge fan of High Definition, but even I don’t plan to replace most of my movie DVD’s with Blu Ray. It comes down to scenery. Some movies, like the James Bond series with their gorgeous backgrounds, really benefit from an HD remake. Those, I’m upgrading.
I still prefer plastic discs and buy new movies in Blu Ray. Now that there is an official 3D Blu Ray standard, I’m looking forward to getting the 3d (full color) version of Avatar next summer 🙂
[…] Shared DVD Is Dead. […]
First thing I found fascinating about this post was the picture of the display. Just the other day, I was looking at the same display here outside Vancouver – except the price was $98 not $68 (as the two dollars are close in exchange value someone’s got some ‘splainin to do) and I thought “..wow, the price on these players is falling fast..”
For anyone who has been through a few technology changeover cycles, BR-DVD is only worth the $ when it becomes a no-brainer to replace the player and the new rentals & purchases go for a comparative price – which seems like anytime now. I’m working on a move to a media server based on linux so ripping will be needed and even the computer-based players are coming down in price. In any event, the pipes for streaming HD are not yet upon us so another round of physical media is still in most of our futures.
Two points:
a) to the Canadians complaining about $98 vs $68 … at an exchange rate of 1 UK pound to 1.60 dollars, the price should be £42, but in all likelihood, the price in the UK will be £68 (or possibly even more) at the same store (yes, Walmart have outlets in the UK too)
b) VHS -> DVD was a no-brainer, the quality was so much better, etc. and the VHS tapes couldn’t be played on a standard DVD player (although you can now by dual format players), however DVDs can be played on Blu-Ray players, so where’s the need to update the plastic discs even when your DVD player dies? The format conversions are two different kettles of fish entirely.
Ah yes, forgot to mention that I am some 3 minutes from the US border, so I can eliminate the border tax with little effort, but really too bad about the difference over there – they’d chalk it up to overseas transport I suppose. In which case global digital pipelines start to look even better, don’t they?
All this talk about downloads killing off physical media is a bit silly. There is a couple of points here:
1) Yes, while geeks like us may have already shifted to digital via AppleTV/Boxee/PS3/whatever we are the small exception to the world. There are many many mothers and grandmas who do not how to download a movie or give a movie as a present digitally. We should not overstate the geek buying power
2) You have to look at the worldwide market. Yes, the USA is the largest single market but there are many places where downloading every movie is just not feasible yet. In my Australia, download caps kill any thought of using non-optical discs regularly. For example, a high end plan here is 100GB a month at ADSL2+ speeds. At a full Blu-Ray disc, that is only 2 per month (without facebook email, news etc). A regular joe like me only has about 10GB per month – barely enough for a couple of movies streamed. The quality and the ability to move around a DVD or Blu-Ray is too appealing over digital distribution.
3) Access: Say I want to take a movie over to my girlfriends to watch as a digital file. I have to make sure she has the ability to play whatever file I have (streaming, mp4, etc) and that this will be linked up to her TV and that it won’t be too much hassle to get going. This is in addition to making sure that the file quality is watchable. Also, how do I move it around? Flash drive? DVD? External HDD?
I’ll stick with my DVD collection and buy any new (HD) movies on Blu-Ray until Australia’s download caps become sane enough that I don’t have to worry watching too much blackadder is going to send my internet down the drain.
I started buying a lot of rare DVD movies, and quickly realize this – DVD has 2 major fail points – the physical media, and the player. One scratch and your best disc may be gone, and a bad quality DVD – especially on rare, old, collectables – can have problem being played on just any machine. The there’s the issue of storage, which just a temporary waste of space unless you are a hardcore collector.
For someone like me who just wants dependable availability, but no fuss and muss of owning a movie I may never watch again, I’m waiting for Apple to come up with the right iTunes library online digital subscription/ownership solution. The only physical media I’m sticking with are a few paper books.
I have a PS3, so I *can* watch Blu-Ray, and I have 1 or 2, and before Netflix started charging extra for the privilege, I rented quite a few – and what I found was that I don’t want ’em. I’m still watching movies on my 37″ tube TV, and all those Blu-Ray menus were made with HDTVs in mind, so for 1 in 3 BluRay movies, the menus are unreadable. Literally unreadable. Luckily the Play button usually still works, but otherwise I’d be sunk.
So the price of Blu-Rays has been coming down, yes, almost equal with DVDs now, but given the choice at the same price I’d still choose the DVD for almost any movie simply for usability. At the same time, knowing that someday the price of HDTVs will drop down to where I’ll get one, I’m increasingly reluctant to buy DVDs, either. This is a big part of my personal decrease in buying movies. Yes, I stream from Netflix. Yes, I have a computer hooked up to my TV to watch media with. But even with that, up until the last year or two, I bought 2-6 movies a month. Now I buy less than 10/yr – but maybe that “conversion” moment the studios are waiting for will hit me when I get an HDTV in another couple years. For now, I’m stuck between a nigh-obsolete format and an unreadable menu.
With a $68 player and parity-cost discs, many people will switch and Blu-Ray will hold up the dying physical media movie market for 3 more years. By then, streaming and DL will (probably) improve enough to handle 1080p, and 32GB thumb drives will cost $7 and fit on your ring.
A good way to predict the market would be to look at the disc industry itself: Ever since thumb drives hit the market and FTPing 500mb files became possible, how has the sale of CD-ROMs and DVD-ROMs been affected? Technically we should be past it, since a thumb drive holds 16gb and can be used again and again. But I’m betting that most non-techie offices still burn discs.
As far as I’m concerned, disks in general are dead. I haven’t bought one in over a year and will soon stop getting disks through Netflix. Between the my Apple TV and XMBC I have everything I need.
Going from VHS to DVD was a very obvious improvement in video quality. BlueRay didn’t improve the video quality by enough to matter. It appeared to me all BlueRay did was allow them to pack more related content onto the disk. That added content is largely irrelevant to me. I probably check out something in the added content about 1 time in 50 disks.
When my 10 yr old (more?) DVD player finally breaks, then, yes, I will buy a Blu-Ray player. (Same thinking applies to my 36inch HD tube TV.) I just can’t see replacing something that works for not much difference in end result. VHS-to-DVD transition provided MUCH more goodness.
I’ve thought about this several times and always come back to multiple causes
1. The HD/BluRay screw up, non standardization will always confuse, paralyze and put people off .
2. Netflix / On Demand / Tivo …
3. The economy – ( I think the smallest factor) – needs no explanation
4. Format changes people are tired of taking it up the backside with format changes. People will do a one time change, but after 3 or 4 you start to wise up and realize there is another one coming, why dump a fortune into another soon to be obsolete format. The belief that you are buying a movie and you will have it forever, (true or perceived) is no longer sustainable.
5. The multiple money drain – We pay for cable and internet monthly, raise the price of cable if you get HBO / Starz etc… (to see movies), raise the price again if you rent a dvr box with cable, or if you have a tivo , multiple boxes – more money, now tack on some costs if you have a netflix subscription, oh and the cost of actually going to the actual movie theater and seeing it on the big screen. Not to mention the upfront cost of all the equipment for the home theater. How much is watching a movie worth?
6. Is it really worth the extra cost – DVDs are really good quality, no they aren’t BluRay but they are really good and for old movies which you already own it’s not worth switching. You can justify getting some new movies on BluRay, but not re-buying ones you already own.
Some movies might be worth the extra cost, but 90% are not. If you are buying a movie you’ve never seen and you might hate, is it really worth more then 10 – 20 bucks?
7. Replacing the DVD player for a BluRay, a lot of people have a perfectly working DVD player, and don’t feel like junking another machine, that may be replaced by something different in 5 – 10 years. Anyone stupid enough umm … short sighted enough to believe that the BluRay will be the last format change. It makes sense to buy one if your old machine breaks, but for many, not before, especially when money is tight.
The upgrade from VHS to DVD was so huge that it sold itself, this upgrade although better is no where near as big, and with technology advancing so quickly, it’s easy to understand why people are not creating the format change boom that the industry would like.
Of course the concept of owning a movie might go away all together and people will just stream it when they want it, I’m sure the industry would love that, no where near as cost effective for the consumer. You have to pay for it every time you want to see it, but it seems the world is getting very used to overpaying on a monthly basis. I’ll never understand that.
I liked your post, and agree with most of it.
The industry is fairly greedy, and they’ll try to go for high rates for viewing, but the public won’t stand for it. I’ll willingly pay $1 that’s one dollar US, to stream a movie I want to see, and I expect it to be in a high resolution format with absolutely no commercials, anything more is highway robbery.
Apple’s rates for music downloads are plain and simple robbery. Why would anyone pay a dollar for a compressed three minute song when they can get a two hour movie which includes some of the same songs PLUS video, for 10 dollars or less? When you put it in that perspective it’s clear Apple, in it’s distribution capacity, is ripping off it’s customers. Apple should have leveraged it’s provider partners into 25 cent song downloads by now.
While I generally agree with you’re comments, Apple actually did some serious battle with the RIAA et al for the price they made. The music industry was ‘outraged’ that Apple “only” charged 99 cents. Remember that the same song as a 15 second ‘Ring-tone’ was selling for $2.50 – $3.00 and the other music services were charging monthly access fees (much like cable) regardless of if you never used them.
I’m not at all saying Apple is some altruistic unilaterally benevolent entity, just that pricing over media has a lot more to do with content providers / controllers (NBC, RIAA, The big 4) than the outlet. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ITunes_Store
Gouging for media is ludicrously rampant, the tough part is finding out just where all the bloat is coming from, which is one of the reasons I like owning physical media. Streaming should require a remote and maybe a keyboard, but never a lawyer and a 2nd mortgage.
One word why DVD beat VHS: Rewind. That in itself was enough of an improvement that made VHS dead. Quality is important too, and DVD extras helped, but what really did it is not having to rewind your tape in order to watch it.
Blue Ray players are going to kill the DVD, but I’m not so sure Blue Ray will kill the DVD disk. If I have a choice of buying a DVD version of the movie for $19.95 and a Blue Ray version of the movie for $29.95, I’m buying the DVD version. I don’t care if the Blue Ray version has a better picture, has dozens of extras, and comes with a coupon for free sex. Thirty bucks is still a lot to plop down on a single movie.
Blue Ray is going to have to become the default standard for disks. That is, there’s no premium for BlueRay. Then, people will start buying it. It will also be the time Apple will include Blue Ray in Macs. This will probably happen this Summer.
I think the clock is ticking for those people who want physical media instead of just being able to stream or store the blue ray stuff. Personally I tend to move from cost to coast every three years (not counting when I move to Brazil until their government gives me the boot) I don’t need to have yet more disposable electronics.
I will NEVER buy a Blue Ray disk player… though I will continue to use my laptop and media player to stream content.
Interesting comments from technically proficient folks, but having spent a month back home with the family, Bob is right. Downloading isn’t happening with folks who don’t have internet and there are still a lot of them. Young and old, for reasons from just don’t get it to just don’t need it to just can’t afford it, a lot of people like physical media. They have TVs and VCRs (now DVD players) and will use physical media because it’s simple. (Simpler than downloading, anyway). Physical media means they can take what they buy and play it in the van’s dvd player or to grandmas house and there aren’t issues with DRM and coasters and internet.
Yes, the age of physical media being the only way to get information or entertainment is over, but it’s going to share that stage for a while with other distribution methods. There are just too many people who just want to go to their shelves, find the movie, put it into the machine and hit play to put that model out of business in 2010. 2020 maybe, if broadband does get ubiquitious, but it’ll remain practical for some time because it is.
I think you hit the nail on the head. The lowest common denominator is a huge factor for me. The decision to buy a disc vs downloading is based on several factors, much like the decision to see a movie in the Theatre, own it or just rent it. I will buy a movie when I expect multiple viewings. Anyone who has small children may agree that Shrek / Ice Age type kid films may be watched 50 times or more and buying that physical disk may not be an unwise investment. I love the ‘Epic / Historical’ movie genre and have no problem paying for a quality copy of ‘Troy’, ‘King Arthur’ (Keira Knightly = goodness 😉 etc. Also, there are many ‘niche’ films with limited distribution that aren’t available at Netflix. On the other hand, I’d most likely stream ‘The Hangover’ and hundreds of other films I may or may not like or want to see again. So far I haven’t re-bought any DVD’s in BR but may consider it for the ‘Eye Candy’ films when the price point drops a bit more.
I hate to sound paranoid, but I’m always leery of cryptic TOS with subscription services. I’m a big fan of ‘Technology’, but I think the death of [media] ownership should be a long, slow process.
I started buying CD’s before I owned a CD player, because I knew the quality (and longevity) would be vastly superior. I now own 800-900 CD’s. My purchases have slowed down over the last two years, as I ‘taste’ more digitally, however I still buy the CD’s that matter to me (The remastered Beatles albums).
I also started buying DVD’s before I owned a DVD player, for much the same reason, however at the time, DVD prices commanded a hefty premium for many titles, and to this date, I still haven’t completely replaced my VHS tapes, even though I haven’t even pulled them out of the moving boxes for several years (I know, I really need to get back on eBay…).
I haven’t done that for Blu-Ray. I only have one HDTV with a BD player, and three SDTV’s with DVD players. The slight premium commanded by Blu-Ray discs does affect my purchasing habits a bit, although I have no great desire to replace my entire DVD collection. I have a lot of TV on DVD, and the quality of the source material really doesn’t make upgrading to BD that necessary. Most Blu-Ray players will upscale DVD’s to HD, but it doesn’t have near the clarity of BD. I really don’t see a need to upgrade South Park to BD, or Office Space, or many of the other movies in my library. Sci-Fi and Action shows seem to benefit the most from the jump to 1080p, and as I come across bargains (2001: A Space Oddity $7.99) of movies that I enjoy, I may decide to replace them. I won’t blindly go out and pay full retail for anything any more. I add to my hard cover book, CD and DVD libraries by combing eBay and Amazon for 2nd-hand copies fairly often (‘Three Mile Island’ by Mark Stephens just came in yesterday). And as I said, I digitally taste items I either can’t get or aren’t emotionally significant for me to buy.
I have begun the conversion to digital media for my CD collection, all my photographs, and transferring off my TiVo’s. The limiting factor has been storage space and a proper media server, both of which I intend to remedy in 2010. I am the proud new owner of a Seagate FreeAgent Theater+, which I have some high hopes for, and I’m investigating alternatives to DirecTV2Go since my re-conversion back to Satellite after poor service from my local cable company. My TiVo’s are in their last year in my household, unless they get the new DirecTiVo’s out the door soon. Not having an HD TiVo for my DirecTV service is their swan song.
Yes, I have myriad sources of downloadable content, even straight to my HDTV, DVR and BD player, but I still appreciate the ease and convenience of that shiny little plastic disc. Among other things, it’s tangible ‘stuff’, you can point to and look at and have your friends come over and point to and look at.
I’ve pretty much stopped buying DVD’s in favor of BD’s, and I don’t intend to ever buy another DVD player (an upgraded DVD-RW for my PC isn’t out of the question, though), especially when a very good quality Sony BD player with BD-Live, NetFlix and all the other goodies can be had for $129 (which I just bought for my daughter to go along with Harry Potter Ultimate Edition BD’s; ‘my’ Sony BD player cost $300 in January!). But I don’t intend to replace all my DVD’s willy nilly, either. I will take that money and upgrade the rest of my TV’s, some of my audio equipment and my main PC rig with HD components. Sorry, Hollywood.
No, we didn’t buy them all over again, why do you insist on repeating that? Our family only buys what comes out on the new media that we don’t already own. There is not an unlimited supply of money, regardless of what so many ‘experts’ believe.
I’ll only buy a Blu-Ray player (most likely in a combo device, like PS3) once my existing DVD players break or the major studios drop DVD and go exclusive on Blu-Ray (which I doubt will happen). I hardly buy DVDs any longer (only for stuff me or my family will watch again and again), usually renting from Redbox ($1 a night) or watching a Netflix DVD, Netflix streaming on my Roku ($99, and I can easily move it around to plug it into any TV in the house), or Hulu TV shows on my PC or laptop. There’s such a plethora of video content out there, and since I don’t have a 40″+ 1080p big screen TV that would justify high-def content, I don’t see any reason to “upgrade” to Blu-Ray yet. So many TV makers are integrating internet features that it’s more likely that when my DVD player dies, I’ll be more likely to upgrade my TV. Hollywood is likely to support DVDs for years to come if they can’t all agree to dump the format in favor of Blu-Ray, because the lowest common denominator (DVDs) will win. I doubt they’ll agree. They’re just going to have to deal with lower sales and work the internet and rental angles for the profits they feel they’re missing.
I think you’re spot on with this analysis.
How long do we expect 1920 x 1080i to be the standard? 5, 10, 20 years?
I’m hoping to skip the Blue-Ray physical media conversion all together as Internet distribution will be the big, next move for movie distribution.
If only we can get gig-e to the last mile!
DVD platform is far from dead. Blu-Ray players are still not in most laptops, car entertainment systems, portable player or the small handheld market. This reality is putting a huge damper on Blu-Ray disc sales. Enough that some Blu-Ray titles come with DVDs.
Cringe is wrong again.
Content it king.
DVD has far more selection at lower prices than BR. Players are nearly immaterial.
When BR (content/price) > DVD (content / price) THEN and only then will BR be dead.
As it is, anything released on BR is released on DVD as well. Until that changes, the above equation will be really difficult to overcome.
3nough said.
I disagree. Access is king, specifically ease of access to media. Apple has proven that with itunes. They made it easy, and OVERPRICED, but the ease won out, and it’s paid off handsomely for them.
Cable companies understand that which is why they offer profitable Video on Demand services, and why the major pay networks offer the same.
*yawn* up too late partying last night. above sentence should have read:
When BR (content/price) > DVD (content / price) THEN and only then will DVD be dead.
time to kick this ho out and start the hunt yet again
I was in Walmart yesterday. The cheapest Blu-Ray player I saw was $148. And no, there wasn’t any empty shelf space where a $68 player may have been.
I don’t own any kind of “TV” and barely watch movies.
Using DVD for data store is my use.
DL blanks never became price attractive, while the burners are all capable. There must have been a fundamental limitation, like maybe yield rates, in manufacturing.
I know it is still early for BD blanks, but the price is $3 for 25 GB compared to DVD $0.3 * 5.6 = $1.7.
I’d be willing to buy a DB burner ($150) and media once I’m sure there aren’t going to be any coasters spoiling the cost.
Why? Because just using my Creative VADO camera and doing the YouTube-oriented editing, it would be worth it to me for archiving my work process “for posterity.” :^)
However my activities do not represent a viable consumer segment at all.
The price shows at $98 on Walmart’s website. I think someone just flipped the 9 upside down and took the picture. It does look like they were selling it for $78 on Black Friday.
I don’t recall if I’ve bought a single dvd since I got Netflix. For an extra $3 a month, you can get blu-ray from Netflix. Redbox has started having some blu-ray titles in some of their machines for the same $1 as DVDs. I cut my Netflix from 3 movies at once to 2 recently and use the money I save for a Redbox movie once in a while, when I can’t score a new release I want to see from Netflix.
I haven’t been to see a movie in the theater since I got Netflix, but I think I’ll go to see Avatar on an Imax screen. I’m thinking of waiting until Jan 4th, so I don’t have to watch it in a room full of teenagers.
The other day I saw quality blu rays for $130. The same store sold HDMI cables for $150-250. The cable was more than the player! Add $70 for a special wifi card to connect your player to your LAN. I passed. What a joke.
As I saw this I realized blu ray would have a short shelf life. The industry can’t be making money on this. They will try to kill it off and “invent” another format for early adopters to salivate over. And over and over again.
I’ll consider blu ray again when they can surf the web without limits. Why pay for essentially a set top box that’s hard wired to netflix or any other captive market?
I’m not sure I follow your argument. Which industry in particular? The HDMI Cable alone cost how much? It sounds like a case of free [ok, ‘Cheap’] Razor with requisite $140 blade, $200 shaving cream, and ‘optional’ $75 blade stand [and by optional, we mean you can buy it now or later], oh, and this only works with a special faucet. That sounds like a pretty profitable business model to me. Unless you’re saying ‘No-one will buy this because of the hidden actual implementation costs?’
I think there are costs either way. (Blu-Ray vs Streaming), Obviously keeping DVD is simple and relatively cheap (depending on how many you buy / watch a month).
I think it’s a mixed bag with the other options.
Go digital:
I don’t have a movie-worthy PC in my Den so I’m stuck watching movies on my computer chair upstairs instead of my Lazy-boy. So, I need to either move my PC or buy another with associated networking / Wi-fi + subscribe to a streaming service (I realize there are many free ones for non-premium content).
Go Blu-Ray:
Assuming I have a HD TV, I need only the aforementioned cables, player, a NASA engineer to hook it up and then purchase away. (I may also need a Wi-fi kit to take advantage of certain ‘features’).
So either way it’s not really a quick path regardless of which way you go.
Although I fully agree on the Hardwire == evil for surfing.
Now they are talking about Blu-ray 3D
https://www.engadget.com/2009/12/17/blu-ray-3d-specifications-finalized-your-ps3-is-ready/
My answer to buying whatever format? Netflix. Don’t plan on a Blu-Ray player until forced to do so by machine failure. Why own movies in the digital age?
Yeah, not going to happen. Oh the possibility of picking up a Blu-Ray player is there. But only if the PS2 and two X-Boxes we have quit working. I’ll never buy a Blu-Ray disk. Netflix on the Xbox360 is up to 1080p. The Netflix resolution won’t be that high on the Wii but that’s ok.
Now listen silly humans. You got the hang of rubbing the sticks together and now the next big test is to get the hang of this media business. You have to remember to pay attention to the content and not its means of presentation. Practice by watching the radio because that’s where the best pictures are! You’ll soon realise there’s no need to waste your planet’s limited resources by upgrading things past adequate.
[…] I, Cringely » Blog Archive » DVD Is Dead – Cringely on technology […]
Why would we all buy our movies again? Unless you owned something like Planet Earth on DVD that actually looks much better on blu-ray (or so I’m told), there is no point. Sure, at some point I’ll pick up a blu-ray player and then start buying blu-ray discs exclusively, but I see no remotely compelling reason to replace any of my DVDs.
What?! No podcast this week?
It’s not that I don’t like your blog-site, Bob, it’s just that I collect several podcasts to listen to during my 1:20 commute. Hope you get back to it after the holidays.
Happy New Year!
(another) Bob
Moore’s Law is a very interesting phenomena. Besides electronics, cars and many other industrially produced items fit some form.
Originally it meant the doubling of transistors every two years, more or less for the same price. But that translates to a halving of cost every two years for a unit of computing.
Other items like cars have fit as well but with the time frame being different, for example, cars may be 10 years or more. (to see how this has proceeded, note that the Model A Ford needed a total overhaul in 20,000 miles- and decent car today will last 200,000 miles)
Some items, however, like houses, do not fit Moore’s Law. The reasons are not clear except the cost of houses is not industrially based (not based on their cost to produce), its based on banks and realtors greed, and as such actually increases over time. This may be a good reason for industrial housing bought directly from and financed by the maker.
Sixty eight dollars for a blue-ray player may sound like a deal; however what kind of quality can you get for that price? I will eventually get one, but will opt for more quality and do my research before purchasing. Wal-mart also sold a microwave oven for 23 dollars a few years ago. Would you trust your health to such an appliance?
Moore’s law means that in a few years from now we’ll have hi-resolution 3D TV, finally. The Blu-Ray disks and the players can’t handle that amount of data. Why should I buy old stuff like that?
Well judging by shelf space and what I buy and see others buy here in Aussie, television series makes up a lot of DVD sales. That is non-hd content from the “long tail”, mostly not available or accessible online (legally) yet here. And not requiring blue-ray as it was probably shot straight onto non-HD video.
Is there evidence that people bought the same movies in video and then dvd, or is that just assumed by the volume of sales?
Most U.S. TV series that aren’t shot in HD are shot in 35mm or Super-16, both of which convert quite well to HD. That’s why we’ll still be watching Desi and Lucy a century from now.
I’ve seen the same Blue-Ray player at a Wal-Mart in North Port, FL for $50! DVD is VERY dead!
I think the golden age of VHS-DVD could also be explained by the shift in ownership – tapes were mostly rented, whereas the DVD business shifted primarily to sales.
You’re forgetting one thing, O Great Cringe! Blu-Ray discs cost a small fortune compared to DVDs, and the quality improvement is marginal on a flat screen under 5 or 6 feet. I upgraded my Niro surround system with an external blu-ray player and I own exactly one blu-ray disc I bought to see if it worked (it didn’t–I had to upgrade the firmware). How many cheapie Walmart folks are going to spend $68 so they can pay $40 for a movie? I don’t get it.
I don’t think DVD is any less dead than Blu-Ray, they are both dinosaurs compared to digital downloads. Inevitably something else will come along, perhaps a card that you swipe at Walmart to say “this card now has access to this movie/music/game/ebook” and then you get home and it is already in itunes/mobile phone/media playing set top box or even a legally purchased torrent if the media dinosaurs get with the times already. Something like an itunes gift card but more accessible.
I’m with Chris – Blu-Ray is a dinosaur. I know some of us are ahead of the curve, but digital downloads are so much better than getting something on disc. And don’t get me started on Blu-Ray’s DRM, slow startup, forced adverts/warnings, …
Thanks for reminding me why the blu-ray experience sucks, I hate advertising.
Can I rip the movie and watch it on my iphone? No.
I will happily stick with low-def netflix dvds & streaming which has doubled in quality in 3 years. 3D televisions are being released this year… where will the content come from? Creating yet another new media standard and new hardware and new discs would take way too long. Streamed or downloaded content in a flexible file format with programmable hardware is the future.
I was going to get a ps3 for blu-ray and netflix(must insert netflix disc every time, cannot search for movies), but I think I will pass.
I just wish I could play console games on computer hardware.
Samsung and LG are set to release 3D televisions this year, but where will the content come from? Sony says the ps3 will support 3d blu-ray, but will it support 3d games? what about espn 3d?
The easiest way to get this content quickly into homes would be via streaming but I am not sure that US household internet connections have the bandwidth necessary to stream 3d hd with surround sound. What about games? Can the ps3 & xbox be updated to support 3d games? My guess is that 3D will be the hook they use to get people to buy a new generation of consoles.
Downloaded streams would work for movies, but not sports.
I’m so far ahead of the curve that the road disappeared.
The truth is that until I get my own Holo Deck/Suite, Replicators and AI Asistant that I wont be buying anything newer then a good book. It’s true, I want a fully immersive and interactive environment where I can ride on the back of one of Anne McCaffery’s Dragons, Wear Iron Man’s Amour or Green Lantern’s Ring. Until then, I’ll stick with the mundane world of Books and dream about the possibilities.
That’s a very US-centric view … my collection of DVD’s (800+ and growing) isn’t about to be replaced by blu-ray because (a) that’s a huge investment and (b) about 20% of my DVD’s are not Region 1 – mostly DVD’s that were never released in the US. The bottom line here – I object to Hollywood telling me what I can and can not watch.
Why so many DVD’s? Simple, I figured out a long time ago that if I redirected the cost of a cable subscription to purchasing DVD’s that I actually wanted to watch I’d save money over paying for stuff on cable that I had no interest in watching.
It’s going to take a lot more than a cheap player to make Blu-ray a success
I just got a Samsung Blue-Ray player for Christmas and am quite happy with it. The HD is nice and the up conversion of my existing DVDs is an improvement, but the really cool feature of this box is the Netflix player. I now have a much larger list of choices to watch at any given time.
I also noticed that the Blu-Ray disc prices dropped substantially during the holidays. Good timing for me.
In all honesty i rather have a dvd over a blue ray. if it’s about cost. But over the two i rather watch my video from net flix stream.
[…] Cringely thinks so, anyway. […]
Er, some of my favorite movies (e.g. Stealing Home, Leaving Normal) still haven’t yet become available on DVD, nevermind Blu-ray. I guess the cost of a disc run and distribution is a barrier for some of the less mainstream titles. I hope online movie rental/purchasing will solve this, so we can access every movie ever made, anywhere, on any device and at any time…
The $68 player was a loss leader, it it now sells for $98. Like others have said here the BluRay movies are too expensive, many movie studios are having to double pack BluRay disks with standard disks to try to get people to buy them. Had I seen the $68 BluRay player, I might have purchased it, but I bought the $44 Philips up-convert player instead.
I have been very satisfied with DVD quality and have no current intention of paying for a BluRay player which can’t currently handle DivX/Xvid material satisfactorily. The advent of respectable 3D will render the current crop of BluRay players and some flat panel TV’s (Those under < 120hz) obsolete in the short run and further out will render all current flat panel TV sets obsolete. I have no intention of climing on this particular horse at the present time.
I finally bought a Blu-Ray player at the end of the holiday season, even though I swore I never would. I came out on the losing end of the HD-DVD format war in 2007, but only after spending $100 on a black-friday HD-DVD player that did a beautiful job of upsampling my DVDs. I said to myself that I’d bought my last disk player. I would be getting all that content online instead.
So why did I buy a BluRay player? The Sony BDP-N460 can view no end of internet content. It works with Netflix, Amazon on-demand, YouTube, and several other providers. You could conceivably buy the player and enjoy it without ever putting a disk in it.
[…] […]
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Blu rays suck! Yea the picture looks better but the cost for the blu Ray movies are way to much money. When I can buy a movie for 10 to 20 dollars as to buyin a blu Ray for 30 or more especialy during this crappy depression I’ll go for the latter. An yea my buddy actually got that same blu Ray player from walmart and it broke a week later! This is the only reason why I even found this page. So yea unless your rich or your that picky about seein actors/actress blemishes on they’re face you’ll go with the blu Ray
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The Lost Arts Of War…
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Originally it meant the doubling of transistors every two years, more or less for the same price. But that translates to a halving of cost every two years for a unit of computing.
Other items like cars have fit as well but with the time frame being different, for example, cars may be 10 years or more. (to see how this has proceeded, note that the Model A Ford needed a total overhaul in 20,000 miles- and decent car today will last 200,000 miles)
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Some items, however, like houses, do not fit Moore’s Law. The reasons are not clear except the cost of houses is not industrially based (not based on their cost to produce), its based on banks and realtors greed, and as such actually increases over time. This may be a good reason for industrial housing bought directly from and financed by the maker.
Death is a shadow that always follows the body.
Originally it meant the doubling of transistors every two years, more or less for the same price. But that translates to a halving of cost every two years for a unit of computing. news , Style and info
I wonder if that’s one of the reason that people don’t post comments? That even though you might like what someone writes, you’re not sure how to reply?
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the prices of Pioneer dvd players are dropping these days and they are quite a bargain:-:
Reality hits when a college grad realizes that two years after graduating he still doesn’t have a job.
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there are many sites on the internet that offers downloadable movies, some are even offering the latest movies .`”
watching online movies has been my past time this month, i really enjoy it .,’
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Hands down, Apple’s app store wins by a mile. It’s a huge selection of all sorts of apps vs a rather sad selection of a handful for Zune. Microsoft has plans, especially in the realm of games, but I’m not sure I’d want to bet on the future if this aspect is important to you. The iPod is a much better choice in that case.
formed a partnership with Geelong-based sheepskin tannery, Jacksons, distributing the newly emerged product in America in the 1980s”In point of fact, Emus infringement is occurring in the United States and in many other countries where only Deckers Outdoor Corporation enjoys trademark protection
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dvds’ out! new trends are welcome, every new-tech is welcome , slight differences or big ones,..consumers will connect to the trend…
vds’ out! new trends are welcome, every new-tech is welcome , slight differences or big ones,..consumers will connect to the trend…
sup
ho
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Wednesday that it saw no immediate need to scale back its rescue of the economy, with high unemployment still justifying its $600 billion bond-buying plan,
while the government budget deficit condition was expected to worsen before the 2012 presidential election”Eygptian President Hosni Mubarak was to address the
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just an acceptance of reality by the major players…
hmm good
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I like having Blu-Rays better then digital downloads. I also like the fact I can get rid of my DVD cases and put the DVD in with the Blu-Ray cases to save room on my shelves. I also like the fact some Blu-Rays are combo packs. I never watch the DVDs no more, just the Blu-Rays! I just display the DVDs. We have 2 players at home. One is a DVD, and one is a Blu-Ray/DVD combo player. We use the Blu-Ray one a lot. The DVD player was a donation and the DVDs as well. I love Blu-Ray and I liked the BLUE case covers! I hated those Black and White DVD cases back then, not same color case! Blu-Ray cases are awesome and so are the movies/tv shows on the Blu-Ray Discs!