Comments on: 20 years: The “death of DVDs” in context

By: walt

walt — Tue, 06 Apr 2010 01:16:54 +0000

Oh, I’m sure there are books on the psychology of ownership.

I don’t know about that 99% claim, though, at least not for movies and maybe not for TV. We watch one Netflix disc a week–and have a second one handy in case we made a bad choice. I think we skip about four movies a year, and find maybe four more “meh” after watching them–so I’d say our batting average is maybe 15% we’d just as soon forget, with only moderate selectivity on our part. I’d say the average for our TV watching is about the same…

99%? Wow! Those people need to watch a lot less and a lot more selectively.

By: Bob Watson

Bob Watson — Mon, 05 Apr 2010 21:10:28 +0000

I think we need someone to explore the “psychology of ownership” in some detail. There’s some real delight in having something sitting on a shelf where, with luck, it will remain undamaged even if unused.

But I also expect that 99% of what people see they’d just as soon forget.

By: walt

walt — Mon, 05 Apr 2010 20:19:54 +0000

Seth: I must refer you to Bandwidth of a 747 Hauling Blu-ray Discs, posted July 19, 2006, and Peter Murray's related post. We concluded that the bandwidth of a 747 hauling dual-layer Blu-ray discs in double-slim jewel cases from JFK to LAX would be 74 Terabits/second. (We excluded bare discs or discs in Tyvek sleeves given likelihood of damage. Hmm...we didn't consider 100-disc spindles...which might increase the bandwidth by another 100% or so.) The latency's a bitch, though.

By: Seth Finkelstein

Seth Finkelstein — Mon, 05 Apr 2010 20:07:02 +0000

“Never underestimate the bandwidth of a station wagon full of tapes hurtling down the highway” — Andrew S. Tanenbaum

(i.e., why physical media persists)