I keep reading that DVD has only 5 more years before it's dead...that video-on-demand will replace it,
(incoherent rant follows)
... but we don't buy DVDs because we only want to see the movie......we want features, commentary, DTS, deleted scenes,...we want something we can hold in our hands, don't we? Why would you want to settle for whatever audio mix, image, aspect ration that the video providers want to provide? People were happy with HBO for years because the average price of a video was $24.99, and no one wanted black bars on a 19" screen. I can't believe that the market for DVD (or another disk or chip sold in stores) would dry up for lack of demand. It's possible that the golden days of getting the most content about a film are here now, and that they may go away in the future, but I think there are enough of us to support the format (whatever it evolves into). But, please, don't make me think that I'm going to have to download everything in the near future. E-mail doesn't even work right: how are they going to get me a whole movie on Saturday night when 3 million other people are downloading the same thing?
(rant ends)

The features are what was the biggest incentive for me buying my first dvd player way back in 1997. I don't mind watching a movie on cable tv but I much prefer watching it in glorious widescreen with 5.1 sound as well as a commentary track every now and then. I agree with you about the difficulty in downloading a movie. People have enough problems with their computers as it is, and a great deal of people don't have broadband capabilities so that will make downloading a movie a verrrrrry long process. I just don't see that being the preferred format over dvd.

DVD (or backwards compatible HD-DVD) is here for the long run I think. People are so used to the universal disc size for cds and dvds that it will be really hard to make another totally new format sucessful. Even people of modest incomes can afford a tv and cheap dvd player. Not all can afford a top-flight PC and broadband internet. Also I think SD dvd will be around long after HD-dvd is introduced. I don't see HDTVs being the norm for atleast another 10-15 years. I mean alot of us have them but we aren't the mainstream market by a long shot.

Lots of discussion in this thread from 2 days ago....

http://www.dvdtalk.com/forum/showthr...5&pagenumber=1

my biggest prob with VOD is that you pay $ and the second the film ends you dont have anything. With dvd, you buy it, u watch it whenever you want, and in the end you can sell or trade it.

j

DVDs still have a looooong ways. DVD player sales last Christmas went over VCR sales, that marked the end for VCRs, but DVDs will stay for quite some time.

If VOD is the way of the future, how come I don't know anybody who buys the DirecTV pay per views that start every 30 minutes, but yet love DVDs? Waste of satellite bandwith if you ask me.

VOD may not kill DVD, but I may kill the next person who starts a duplicate thread on this topic. Closing.