Researchers Create DVDs With Massive Storage

[msu17 0]

Keep in mind that you don't just need storage for your DVD's and music etc. Hard storage is needed for medical information, office records etc. Hard forms of storage is necessary and always will be necessary in certain industries for large amounts of data. Being able to put all of that on a DVD is pretty cool and convenient.

[one...two...tree 2,762]

Gates: DVDs Obsolete Within Ten Years

Bill Gates predicts you'll throw away your DVD player--in about ten years. The Microsoft chairman and founder predicted that within a decade, the silvery discs bearing music and movies will be obsolete. According to German newspaper Bild, the Wizard of Redmond mused, "These things can scratch or simply get lost." ...

Gates depicted low-maintenance "TV that will simply show what we want to see, when we want to see it." And cheer up, haggard commuters, because "When we get home, the home computer will know who we are from our voice or our face. It will know what we want to watch, our favorite programs, or what the kids shouldn't be allowed to see." So get ready to just sit back and relax. Within ten years.

(this was from 5 years ago)

http://www.forbes.com/2004/07/13/0713autofacescan05.html

[scandal 951]

Gates: DVDs Obsolete Within Ten Years

Bill Gates predicts you'll throw away your DVD player--in about ten years. The Microsoft chairman and founder predicted that within a decade, the silvery discs bearing music and movies will be obsolete. According to German newspaper Bild, the Wizard of Redmond mused, "These things can scratch or simply get lost." ...

Gates depicted low-maintenance "TV that will simply show what we want to see, when we want to see it." And cheer up, haggard commuters, because "When we get home, the home computer will know who we are from our voice or our face. It will know what we want to watch, our favorite programs, or what the kids shouldn't be allowed to see." So get ready to just sit back and relax. Within ten years.

(this was from 5 years ago)

http://www.forbes.com/2004/07/13/0713autofacescan05.html

From 5 years ago. Predictions like these, by Gates, Nicholas Negroponte, or any other digital "guru" are a dime a dozen.

Like I said, I've been hearing about the predictions of storage obsolescence for about 2 decades now.

I don't believe it.

msu17 makes a very good point. The applications to which we'll want to use more and more storage grow by leaps and bounds. We'll always find uses for fast, cheap portable storage. Discs are random access, they're very convenient and practical for that purpose. Sure, flash is also random access. But it's hard to see solid state overcoming the densities of optical anytime soon.

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

Isn't there a limit (say for video) where the increased resolution isn't going to make a lot of difference to a living room sized TV set - you'd need a really massive screen to take advantage of the resolution afforded by 10 tb movie file.

[scandal 951]

Isn't there a limit (say for video) where the increased resolution isn't going to make a lot of difference to a living room sized TV set - you'd need a really massive screen to take advantage of the resolution afforded by 10 tb movie file.

In short - yes. With current HD we're probably getting close to the screen resolutions and color densities that make practical sense from the perspective of what the human eye can discern. Similarly for audio channels - there's not much point to adding more than what we have with 7.1 channel audio at 44.1kHz sampling. The human ear won't hear frequencies higher than 20KHz, and won't spatially perceive the stereophonic effects of more channels. And with modern compression codecs, you can get full length feature films in HD video+audio in file sizes that fit on BluRay. So... we've pretty much gone the limit for consumer A/V applications. Where the big 'if' may come in is 3D. If we decide we want fully holographic projected moving images at HD quality, feature film length, that will up the ante of course. But there's no telling if we're going that way.

So, why bigger capacities? Because we're Americans, and bigger is ALWAYS better.

No, more seriously ... convenience. Instead of 10 DVDs to hold all seasons of the Sopranos, put the entire collection on one disc.

And, non A/V applications. Imagine for example having all the map images and metadata of Google Earth... locally stored on a portable disc that you can use even when disconnected from the Internet.

[spookyturtle 9,465]

Gates: DVDs Obsolete Within Ten Years

Bill Gates predicts you'll throw away your DVD player--in about ten years. The Microsoft chairman and founder predicted that within a decade, the silvery discs bearing music and movies will be obsolete. According to German newspaper Bild, the Wizard of Redmond mused, "These things can scratch or simply get lost." ...

Gates depicted low-maintenance "TV that will simply show what we want to see, when we want to see it." And cheer up, haggard commuters, because "When we get home, the home computer will know who we are from our voice or our face. It will know what we want to watch, our favorite programs, or what the kids shouldn't be allowed to see." So get ready to just sit back and relax. Within ten years.

(this was from 5 years ago)

http://www.forbes.com/2004/07/13/0713autofacescan05.html

What's he know? He said that there woud be a computer on every desk too.

[Niels Bohr 72]

Hint: 3D Home Theater System is in development. It'll replace the current TV standard. Regal Cinema, and AMC are renovating their old movie screens to support them.

Edited May 22, 2009 by Niels Bohr

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

Gates: DVDs Obsolete Within Ten Years

Bill Gates predicts you'll throw away your DVD player--in about ten years. The Microsoft chairman and founder predicted that within a decade, the silvery discs bearing music and movies will be obsolete. According to German newspaper Bild, the Wizard of Redmond mused, "These things can scratch or simply get lost." ...

Gates depicted low-maintenance "TV that will simply show what we want to see, when we want to see it." And cheer up, haggard commuters, because "When we get home, the home computer will know who we are from our voice or our face. It will know what we want to watch, our favorite programs, or what the kids shouldn't be allowed to see." So get ready to just sit back and relax. Within ten years.

(this was from 5 years ago)

http://www.forbes.com/2004/07/13/0713autofacescan05.html

What's he know? He said that there woud be a computer on every desk too.

Well he wasn't wrong exactly - if you consider the percentage of people (at least in developed countries) who are connected to the internet. Even in the developing world they've had the One Laptop Per Child program (which has actually given rise to the new netbook series of laptops) - I think his stated goal was that the PC would be integrated seamless with the TV so that you have one box that essentially does everything.

Its not there yet - but you can synch your TV to a windows PC and with things like the Xbox supporting Windows Media Center we're getting closer to that ideal.

In essence, you can already do this - with MicroPCs (or the iMac Mini) bolt the system box on the back of the TV and you have a totally integrated TV and computer.