I’ve ordered movies from Netflix for a year now since we bought our Samsung Blu-ray player (pic below right). But I haven’t ordered a single DVD. The Blu-ray comes with an ethernet jack where I connect to my router. It came with video distributor apps like Netflix, Blockbuster, YouTube (I watch my YT videos on our HD) and even the music service Pandora. When we want to watch a film from Netflix, we order it on our phone or laptop, and in the seconds in takes to download, it streams through our Blu-ray on to HDTV. Nice.
Streaming on personal computers, phones and TVs has become so popular that Netflix has struck a deal
with Hollywood studios to release first-run movies for streaming. The quality is good (not all movies are in HD), selection is growing, price is competitive, and it’s great environmentally because you don’t have to drive to a store nor get a plastic disc shipped to you via a big, polluting airplane in an expensive, pretty cardboard package.
For a couple years now my clients haven’t requested DVDs with their video files on them as much. They instead want them uploaded to their FTP sites where they retrieve them. Same quality but a lot faster, cheaper, and less polluting form of delivery. That same concept is behind the streaming revolution that will ultimately make most DVDs obsolete and maybe even end the blight of those large, obnoxious mega-super cinemaplexes that have destroyed more than one rural wetland.
I was never a fan of DVDs though they were a huge advancement over film reels and cassettes. After a century of transitional formats, we may have finally come to the end of the portable, disposable media storage era. It will mean a lot more junk on our screens but, more important, less junk in our homes, air, and landfills. Now that’s a REALLY huge advancement.
