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This DVD Will Self Destruct..........


JCBaggee
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[color=red][size=1][font=arial]In some states today, Disney is going to begin testing their new "Self Destructing DVDs". The plan is for these movies to be sold at chain stores and restaurants for a very low price. After being exposed to air, the DVD is only functional for a few days, after which the DVD will no longer play. The hope of this is to lower costs of rental movies. So, what do you guys think?

--Chris[/color][/size][/font]
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Didn't they do something like that with dvd's before? I forget what they were called now, but you had to have a special type of dvd player to run them properly. Supposedly the dvd would play a certain number of times then you could toss it when it expired.

I never really saw the point, they went out of fashion really quickly. But maybe disney will pull through with it.
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[color=red][size=1][font=arial]You speak of DivX, which was Circuit City's idea. They would play a couple times, then frost over and never work again. The problem, if I remember correctly, was they cost as much as a regular DVD! Disney's will cost a buck or two.

--Chris

EDIT

I just saw the story on the news again. The DVD's last for 48 hours, and cost $6.99. A bit pricy for something that only lasts two days, IMO.[/color][/size][/font]
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I personally think it's an incredibly stupid idea. I remember first hearing about it almost a year ago, and it was just as stupid then. Divx didn't survive for a reason.

I really just think it is wasteful. I'd rather spend three times as much and get a DVD that will last far, far longer. What is the point? I can't imagine how much garbage this would create, assuming it even did well enough. Not everyone will bother to recycle them.
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I heard about this on the news the other day, and they were all excited about limited use DVD's for rentals. How lazy do you have to be to rent a DVD and not want to return it? The video stores shouldn't want this either because if you return a video then it gets you back in the store. It is such a huge waste of plastic. If they start to sell these regularly, I'm going to start copying DVD's. This is a dumb waste of cool technology.
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Technologies like [url=http://www.labelgate.com]LabelGate[/url], DivX, and Disney's new EZ-D format belong to the fifth stage, or "False Pretenders". This refers to any upstart technology that threatens to eclipse the older model, in this case traditional CDs and DVDs. When first introduced, CDs were pretty much untouchable in terms of piracy, because CD-burners were a long way off for the consumer market, and recording to tape was too time-consuming to pose a major threat. But the digital media industries recognize that things are changing: A platter (obfuscation) just isn't going to protect your data anymore.

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In my mind, the future looks pretty darn cool... We just have to wade through these stupid "pretenders" to get there.
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