Physical Media vs. Digital Media

Last year saw the demise of the HD-DVD format that Toshiba, Microsoft and other companies were hoping would replace the DVD as the medium of choice for movies and other content.Sony, with its Blu-ray disc, and with the backing of most of the major movie studios, won the war and fully expected Blu-ray to finally take-off. Why wouldn’t it when it had no competition anymore, right? Well, there was still one problem. Blu-ray players were still quite expensive, and a lot of people didn’t really see the need to upgrade from their DVD players.

Blu-ray’s biggest problem however could not be physical at all. Blu-ray’s biggest competitor could turn out to be digital media. Yes, there are still people who want to have physical media, who want to be able to hold their movies in their hands, but one only has to look at what is happening to the music industry. Apple revolutionized the way people got their music with the iTunes Music store, and now, with Amazon offering DRM-free tracks as well, the CD’s days are probably going to end soon.

It won’t be surprising to see if the same could be done with movies. In this day and age of broadband internet, it’s a lot easier to get huge content online.

Blu-ray is a good format. It pumps out High-definition video with special features. But even if it hasn’t taken off yet, its days may very well be numbered.