How Long Until CDs/DVDs/Blu Rays and Other Physical Copies are Obsolete?

[MadVillainy]

I was looking at my Blu Ray collection and I was just wondering. How long do you think until physical copies are obsolete or at least largely obsolete (similar to vinyl)?

I dont think that we're going to get a successor to Blu Ray. I think it will just become higher quality digital releases.

Laptops come without CD drives now. Tablets are big. Streaming music is really popular and so is buying CDs over Itunes, Google, etc.

Just curious to see what other think.

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

Well I think they are already technically obsolete now but people like myself who grew up with physical copies of everything just like the nostalgia of having them. All the kids these days do everything digitally so when all us older folks who cling to physical copies die out I would imagine most of the physical copies of stuff will too. I'm guessing for the most part in the next 20-30 years

 

[DJ Kornphlake]

Until/unless someone can figure out a way to let people freely borrow friend's movies/music digitally without rampant piracy, I can't see physical copies going obsolete.

 

[terry78]

Stuff will never go obsolete as long as we have parents.

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

Well there are also other things to take into account as well such as quality which is one of the main reasons vinyl has seen such a big resurgence in the last couple of years. The public at large is discovering what all us DJs have known for forever is that the sound quality in vinyl is almost unmatched. Unless you you get your entire digital music collection in FLAC and have the special player required to use the media and even then vinyl, simply by it's design, has a warmth to it that can't be recreated. Not to mention that FLAC is very large file size wise as well. I have the feeling MP3's will remain the undisputed king of digital music for sometime until someone creates a way to make lossless music files without huge file sizes

 

[terry78]

I'm 36 so I've lived through the VHS, the cassette, the CD/DVD, and have pretty much evolved alongside it. I'm nostalgic but I don't fear change either.

 

[Kane52630]

DVDs will probably be gone, but I think Blu-Rays will stay as long as vinyls stay trendy.

 

[Immortalfire]

I insist physical copies remain! The main reason they exist, is so you can show off your VHS/DVD/Beta collection.

 

[<(o_o)>]

With physical copies of music & movies etc. you don't need to have internet access to use them but if everything went digital only then everyone would have to pay for internet access on a monthly basis just to watch their movies & download music if they hadn't converted every cd they own to digital. Even in this day & age not everybody has internet access simply because it is an extra expense that they can't afford or just don't choose to have it so if everything went digital it would hurt many.

 

[XtremelyBaneful]

very very soon.

 

[Doc Ock]

I will be the crazy old geezer down the street still with a physical collection of movies, music, TV shows, and video games! No thank you to digital. Except as a copy, that's kinda nice.

 

[MadVillainy]

I insist physical copies remain! The main reason they exist, is so you can show off your VHS/DVD/Beta collection.

I would rather have them remain. But I dont see it happening. Especially considering tablets and laptops dont even come with CD drives

 

[terry78]

Soon game consoles won't, until they can stop making money off the discs.

 

[JJJ's Ulcer]

23 minutes.

 

[Snow Queen]

Never do, I hope. The day they switch to digital only is the day I stop buying.

 

[X Knight]

I hope physical copies don't go bye-bye anytime soon.

just look at what the recent game network hack attacks showed. if you rely on your machine to connect to a network to download or stream the digital media, you'd be pretty much screwed if your machine goes offline.

whereas even if the machine can't connect to the network, you can always stick in your physical copy to enjoy your movie or whatever.

and let's not even mention the time it takes to download stuff, especially larger files like movies or games.

 

[JMLZ]

Physical copies would be obsolete already were it not for the relatively high price of broadband internet access.

 

[Lencho01]

There's also the issue of just these physical copies getting too old to be used.

The Lifespan Of A CD Is Shorter Than We Thought

 

[Thundercrack85]

I think physical media will stick around for at least another good 20 years. Not CD's, but certainly optical discs for games, and video. Our current internet infrastructure just isn't up to the task for a totally digital market. Not to mention the security problems, as those jackasses from Lizard Squad showed us on Christmas.

 

[PyroChamber]

If the physical media stops then a lot of stores will go out of business. Besides I haven't bought a CD in years and blu-rays are still fairly new there's no way they could just get rid of it now.

 

[spiderman2]

It will be a sad sad day when you cant get physical dvd or games or any thing has it can take a long time to down load stuff depeing on your internet and if you player/system breaks you have to redown load it or find a way to transfer it and like people have said how do people borrow a movie or game if it I not physical but I do think it will happen at some point. There was even talk at one point about ps4 being all diditurle back before it came out when rumors started coming out about it.

 

[NewYorkSpider]

With things like Netflix, Hulu, Vudu, X-Box One, PS4 having movies on them to buy, rent and stream, DVD's/Blue Ray sales will probably decrease(as I imagine it already has).

You also have Pandora as a big music streaming device. I myself haven't bought a CD in years.

 

[Breogan]

I insist physical copies remain! The main reason they exist, is so you can show off your VHS/DVD/Beta collection.

And you'll feel derp when your friend shows off your entire collection and ten times more, in higher def. and carried in his back pocket. Can interphase directly onto your screen cycle through the whole collection pick a specific scene or behind the scenes detail or anything, before you even locate or open the box on your dusty shelf.

 

[The Endless]

They are already obselete for me. Can't remember the last time i actually bought a cd or dvd/blu-ray.

I guess video games are the only thing i still buy physical copies of.

 

[Quasimod0]

Hopefully never. I love actually buying something and being able to display it in a collection, or hold it in my hands or whatever.