The Future of DVD

The DVD format quickly replaced analogue video as the preferred medium for viewing movie material and is supported by a range of DVD players and recorders - from budget players available at supermarkets to sophisticated home-cinema machines. At the same time developments were taking place for a new High Definition format.

Blu-ray

With echoes of the infamous "VHS" and "Betamax" struggle, the recent "war of the formats" has resulted in Toshiba announcing the scrapping of its HD DVD format. This places Sony's Blu-ray format centre stage for the high definition media now entering the market. This resulted primarily from the support offered by many major US film studios.

Hard Disc Recorders

The pace of technological change has quickened and the converging of digital video and computer technology is resulting in another variant - DVD hard disc recorders. Equipment now exists that combine the attributes of computer memory, to store digital video data, with the ability to transfer that data onto DVD disc for permanent storage.

An increasingly popular "hard disc" recorder is the Sky+Box enabling the viewer to pause and rewind live TV. Similar products are now available incorporating Freeview transmissions. It is conceivable that the DVD disc is just a transition before computer memory systems take hold - such as is occurring with new style iPods. For our own productions Missing Link already records straight to a mobile computer in preference to magnetic tape.

High Definition TV

Constant striving for increased picture and sound quality is driving the roll out of HDTV (High Definition Television) which enables even more realistic images to be displayed in our living rooms. Even before this has become standard for DVD production and TV broadcasts in the UK, engineers in Japan are developing a "Super Hi-Vision" format for TV broadcasts which is said to be 36 times better than HDTV with a resolution of 7680x4320 pixels. Estimated availability 2015!

Digital Downloads

Cine-film, video, DVD and HD DVD can all be viewed as transitional media as new ways of capturing and viewing moving images are developed. Already films are available to download from the Internet and as broadband speeds and capacity increases it is likely the main source of material in the future will be digital downloads. However will there be resistance to not being able to see and handle a physical product? Time will tell.

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