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Post #239525

Author
Tiptup
Parent topic
How George Lucas created the O-OT fanbase...
Link to post in topic
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/239525/action/topic#239525
Date created
29-Aug-2006, 6:30 PM
Originally posted by: Number20
DVD is going to be around a good while longer, IMHO. As said before, there simply isn't enough reason for people to adopt a HD format. Besides a format war that has many people scared off, most people just don't have an HDTV, and therefore can't use a high def disc. Secondly, there isn't as much consumer reason to adopt high def formats. Laserdisc didn't replace VHS because to most people there wasn't a good reason to adopt a laserdisc. They were expensive, and had a better video and audio, but not that much better to compel people to buy them. So they remained in the realm of the audiophiles. DVD was a big leap forward. Complete with deleleted scenes, bonus features, alternate audio, commentary, much better sound, etc,people saw a huge difference and went to DVD. Now comes along high def DVDs. Most people don't have HDTVs, and aren't going to be getting them anytime soon. They aren't willing to buy another copy of their favorite film in less than 10 years, for not much difference. They already have extras, and the difference between HD and standard DVDs aren't enough in most people's minds to switch. They are simply satisfied with what they have and don't want anything new. "top-down" pressure isn't enough to force adoption.
An example of this is DVD-Audio. That was supposed to be much better than CD, and was supported enthusiasically by the music industry. But it failed miserably because nobody wanted it.


First, read my posts.

Secondly, Laserdisc didn't replace VHS because it wasn't really that great of a format. For one thing, and perhaps most importantly, it was a mammoth disc that people didn't like to handle and were easy to damage. After that, very little video could be fit on one side of a disc requiring people to flip them all the time and require the existence of multiple discs for one film. And lastly, consumers couldn't record their own content (which was extremely important to the success of VHS). Even considering all of that though, Laserdisc was a very popular format in Japan where "top-down" pressure helped ensure consumer awareness and cheap prices (in North America Laserdisc got no such treatment).

Thirdly, as I said in another thread, CD audio already produces sound at a level of quality where the human ear can't notice anything better for all practical purposes. HD resolution and less audio/video compression for movies (with the larger data capacity) make both HD-DVD and BD a very noticeable leap forward in quality. With "top down" pressure that quality product shouldn't be unsuccessful.