Anyone want to put a guess on when we will see the last title on DVD? We saw the last VHS in 2006 the same year as the first Blu-ray. So that goes to show how long that media was still alive (if only hardly). Already some titles are OOP on DVD and only available on Blu. Though there are still plenty of titles only being released on DVD as of now.

Last VHS was released a month ago: http://www.amazon.com/House-Devil-VH...8106947&sr=8-3

Sure it's a store exclusive novelty item but I think it counts.

Even if you discount this I think it will years, probably over a decade before DVD gets phased out. The fact there was still enough demand to produce a VHS copy of a movie 4 or 5 years ago shows something. Most of the DVD Talk audience are enthusiast and because of this are not a good sample of the general public. I think the vast majority of the people I know in real life still only have a DVD Player. I expect most will only replace their DVD player with a Blu-Ray player when their current DVD player breaks.

I'm not saying Blu-Ray may not take over as the dominate format but VHS lasted a good 5-6 years after it was well surpassed by DVD. Blu-Ray is still 2 or 3 years away from passing DVD (IMO). After that happens DVD will probably last another 6 or so years.

I'm an enthusiast of both formats; but for every 20 DVD's I buy, I probably buy around 3 Blu-Rays. A lot of the things that I want aren't available on Blu-Ray, and I don't see them coming out anytime soon, if at all.

Look at the weekly listings of new Blu-Rays and new DVD's. Until the weekly new releases for Blu-Rays is equal to or surpasses DVD, DVD will still be a viable format.

Gimmicks don't count. Though a cool gimmick it was!

I think DVD is here for a long haul. Even if the format eventually fades away and Blu-Ray prices go down considerably there will always be room for DVD in my collection because there are things I have that I know may never be released again in any format.

I have about 85% of the DVD titles that I want anyway. I'm not worried about the time when DVD's will be phased out by Bluray or streaming because I already have most of the titles that I want already.
There always will be other titles coming out that I will want, stuff that is in the theaters now of course.
But the DVD's that I have now will play in a BluRay player so there isn't much to worry about.
I am planning on getting a BluRay player sometime in the future but i'll use it for the DVD's that I already have. I won't be changing over all my standard discs but once I get a Bluray I will start buying them and mix them in with my standards.

I don't think blu-ray will ever 'take over' for DVDs. Something else may though.

I don't think I agree. Blu-ray hasn't really taken off in the UK. DVD outsells by 4:1. I think DVD is the better format anyway.

Who knows, we may only be able to download titles someday with NO disc media whatsoever.

I'd rather guess when we will see the last title released on Blu-ray.

I only switched to DVD when the stuff I wanted (anime in Japanese with subs., Hong Kong action films) began to only come out on DVD. So, I'll only buy a new format when the stuff I currently want to buy (anime, classic Japanese cinema, Japanese pop music videos/concerts, obscure American films from the studio era) only comes out in that format. Till then, I'll stick with DVD. I still buy (used) VHS tapes. Just last week I bought two VHS volumes of a classic Japanese anime series from 1973. (In Japanese, no subs., but it's an important series I'd never seen before.) I don't download or watch much on YouTube.

Wasn't the last legit regular VHS released "A History of Violence"?

At least that's what I thought it was for the longest time...

Doesn't matter, the world is gonna end in 2012.

Yes.

My daughter didn't know what a vhs tape was when I mentioned it a couple weeks ago. She's 9. We have them in our house but the name didn't ring any bells for her.

Friday....so you better hurry

I absolutely agree!

OH Nooooooooo...

As someone who authors DVDs which I have replicated for work, until Blu's /licensing costs come way down, DVD is going to be the way to go for titles that are not mega-hits and have smaller runs. DVD has become the universal format and replication costs are extremely reasonable.

Don't get me wrong, I'm a big fan of Blu (and own 3 players). But it will be quite some time before DVD dries up and goes away.

The last title on Blu-Ray will be released before the last title on DVD.

Agreed. I first heard about that movie because of the whole VHS gimmick. Now I proudly own that flick on DVD, Blu-Ray, and VHS.



Yeah, I'm a nerd...

I think this is likely true.

Long before BD players reach the ubiquitousness of DVD players, we'll likely have moved on to some other format/method.

Movies will all be downloaded or streamed to a hard drive and we'll manage our libraries like iTunes soon. Blu will disapear first, because all download content will be 1080. DVD will hang around until 2020 so our parents have something to watch.

I'm storing up new VHS players and DVD players so I'll always have something to watch my tapes and discs on. I ain't giving up "physical media." I'd sooner give up my computer.

VHS players I can understand, but why DVD players? Current Blu-Ray players are backwards compatible.

That's the kicker right there. All of us know there's still a lot of movies that were released on VHS at one time or another that were never released on DVD. A lot of catalogue titles were released on DVD based on the erroneous assumption by the studios that DVD customers were more "serious" film collectors who would be interested in a lot of these catalogue and obscure titles. While that's true to a certain extent, it wasn't enough to keep a market going in these older titles.

Right now we're seeing a mini-boom of catalogue titles being released on Blu-ray because the studios are anxious to give people the ability to build up a decent sized library of Blu-ray titles at a relatively modest price. So a number of catalogue titles are being released at street prices under $10. The only reason these are selling is because people do want to build up their libraries (if you only have a half dozen titles on Blu-ray, the boredom factor sets in). But once people get to their comfort level (probably 20-50 titles for most people), they won't be inclined to get an old movie just because it's cheap and on Blu-ray any more than they have been inclined to get an old movie just because it's cheap and on DVD.

There's still a sizable number of people who can't take advantage of Blu-ray... people with analog TVs, people who have combo DVD/VHS units, people with portable TVs with DVD built in. As long as that total remains a substantial percentage of the overall market, the studios will cater to them.

Not to thread crap or anything, but I'm more interested in the "When will we see the last death-of-dvd?" thread.