Next Media Format - What comes after the DVD...

A few days ago, Studios announced what will be their first wave of HD-DVD titles. Today, Sopranos has just been added by HBO to the list of this year's titles.

As I read this today, after having picked up Sopranos Season 5 on DVD yesterday (used for $50 no less), I started thinking about the times we live in - vis-a-vis portable media. It will be interesting to see if HD-DVD make an impact in the marketplace before it becomes obsolete.

I don't currently have an HD-TV set nor do 80% of the people I know. I have been knows to be a relative earlybird when a new technology comes out -- at least an "earlier-bird" than most people... I don't expect to buy into this gebneration of technology (the HD-DVD that is, not the TVs). Too plain risky and not enough of an upgrade on the few hundreds of DVDs I already have.

Personally, I will most likely end up waiting for the next generation (holographic versatile disk anyone?). While I am happy that these players will he backwards compatible, unless my player breaks on me, I will wait.

At the speed at which new media is being developped, one has to be careful in his or her purchases. These format wars make consumers weary of technology. We buy more and more disposable crap every year. The speed at which the little mem sticks has shrinked in size is scary. Portable media is getting cheaper and cheaper. Why is it that a perfectly good XBox system which still functions {and has just come into his own game-wise in the last year and a half - meaning that developpers just learned all the cool ways of taking full advantage of the machine's power) is put on the way side in favour of a new unit after only a few years... the Xbox came our 4 years ago for crying out loud! It is now considered old news??

I won't start the debate over instant downloadable media replacing hard copies. Books will always have a place. People will always want to buy a piece of plastic or whatever with a picture on it and say it is theirs even if Bill Gates or that Apple guy creates a system by which one can instantly watch a movie, listen to a tune at his or her leisure without going to a store.

But this generation of media that is upon us (blu-ray, HD-DVD) might be a little too close to what is about to come out in a year or two or three. My warning: If people arem't careful, they are going to learn the cost of buying in to a technology too soon when they have another betamax on their hands.