Europe's online source of news, data & analysis for professionals involved in packaged media and new delivery technologies
DVD and Beyond 2010 magazine
Welcome to the 12th edition of our annual publication - the informative, inquisitive, and at times irreverent companion to www.dvd-intelligence.com, our industry website.
Like in previous years, we examine the state of packaged media and we track developments in the range of alternative digital delivery technologies that may - or may not - impact on the sector.
It's also a timely reminder that, notwithstanding sagging DVD sales figures, packaged media is still a massive global business worth over $50bn this year, and for the foreseeable future. And running on an installed base of nearly 1.5 billion DVD playback devices.
Not even on the radar screen a year ago, 3D has errupted into the marketplace at a frightening speed. It looks like Christmas 2010 will be an active shutter glass love affair. Remarkably, the industry managed to settle on a 3D standard for home entertainment in no time.
Given that consumers will have to fork out their hard-earned cash - once again - on 3D-compatible HDTV displays and BD players, that's no mean feat that the investment will be future-proof. The speed with which the industry is pushing 3D may also be a recognition - an admission? - that it is Blu-ray's saving grace, given the apparently lackluster sales performance of the format. Fundamentally, 3D turns the migration from DVD to BD into a revolution, rather than a mere evolution, thus mirroring the VHS-to-DVD quantum leap.
Imagion's Andreas Thran produced Europe's very first 3D BD disc Grand Canyon Adventure. The ball is now rolling and I invite everyone to catch it!
It would be sad, however, if 3D overshadows the other promise of the BD format, namely, BD-Live. Beyond its unmatched video and audio quality, it is the potential for bridging the gap with the online world that primarily attracts me to Blu-ray. If you think that the disc's webconnected interactivity is a pointless exercise shunned by users, think again! The comprehensive usage data presented at the first Blu-ray Disc Academy we organised in May at Frankfurt, Germany, give the lie to this assertion (see Todd Collart's article here).
The Academy offered the creative community a unique window to showcase - live, for the first time - a wide variety of BD-Live and other advanced features, fueled by ever more affordable authoring tools and BDLive content management solutions. You can read the event’s full report .
This year sees the continuing transformation of the living room TV screen as the destination of choice for much more than broadcast signals. Connecting the TV to the Internet is today’s hot topic – a development Google TV, if successful, will make plain. The remote control is, more than ever, the new controller!
To repeat ad nauseam that Blu-ray is the only true source of high-definition material, and to chastise owners of HD-Ready displays for not optimising their purchase with a BD player - while technically correct - is to start playing with fire.
I am writing this column while watching the satellite-delivered BBC HD live coverage of the FIFA World Cup on my 47-inch screen. Mind-blowing! I just wished half my collection of BD discs was as good, especially the catalogue titles, whose transfer onto BD without appreciably better quality points to publishers' greedy desire to grab more Euros from consumers' pockets! My point: It is imperative that each BD title hitting the market be of pristine HD quality. Short of it, the industry is shooting itself in the foot.
The magazine brings together a unique blend of perceptive analyses and insightful interviews. Also, ten top industry movers and shakers have answered our questions in an exclusive survey on DVD, Blu-ray, 3D and the future of packaged media.
The support we have received once again from the industry, especially in these times of economic slowdown, has been most gratifying. It helped maintain this publication as the annual review that market-leading companies prefer to use in their efforts to reach customers in Europe.
After seven years in operation, our website attracts record numbers of visitors, now from over 100 countries. It is Europe's premier online source of news, analysis and data on packaged media and other delivery technologies vying for position. And more is in store.
As always, I welcome your comments. Good read!
Jean-Luc Renaud, Publisher
Contents
- Crossing the digital divide, Jim Taylor Download PDF (164k)
- Inexorable, but slow – the march of Blu-ray, Helen Davis Jayalath Download PDF (144k)
- BD-Live consumer usage - the story so far, Todd Collart Download PDF (172k)
- 3D TV is here to stay - this time around, David Mercer Download PDF (156k)
- Can Blu-ray escape from the DVD mould?, Bob Auger Download PDF (248k)
- QOL at 10 keeps on innovating, Laurent Villaume Download PDF (372k)
- Producing for 3D - the unavoidable challenges, Adam Lesh Download PDF (472k)
- Green packaging: is the industry committed?, Larry Jaffee Download PDF (144k)
- The changing role of TV displays, Jim Bottoms Download PDF (240k)
- From dubbing to 3D - how to stay ahead, Christos Glaridis Download PDF (172k)
- Mobile video - rise of the Apps, Ronan de Renesse Download PDF (156k)
- Connect me if you can: IPTV challenged, Bob Auger Download PDF (312k)
- BD-Live: an exercise in perseverance, Andy Evans Download PDF (72k)
- Pushing Blu-ray farther - Augmented Reality, Nick Brown Download PDF (164k)
- Going green: time to talk about eco-discs, Barry Hurley Download PDF (240k)
- Filtering & graduated response to infringers, Jim Burger Download PDF (464k)
- BD quality control - going much beyond DVD, Peter Schouwenaars Download PDF (364k)
- DVD is dead, long live DVD!, Timmy Treu Download PDF (128k)
- Predicting the future, Jean-Luc Renaud Download PDF (56k)
- Leadership interviews, DVD Intelligence Download PDF (316k)
Ask for your free copy of DVD and Beyond 2010.
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On predicting the future
Predicting the future, let alone the future of packaged media, is a perilous exercise, and possibly counter-productive, as the exercise closes doors rather than keep them open, argues JEAN-LUC RENAUD, DVD Intelligence publisher. Consider that: Apple was left nearly for dead 15 years ago. Today, it became the world's most valuable technology company, topping Microsoft.
Le cinéma est une invention sans avenir (the cinema is an invention without any future) famously claimed the Lumière Brothers some 120 years ago. Well. The cinématographe grew into a big business, even bigger in times of economic crisis when people have little money to spend on any other business.
The advent of radio, then television, was to kill the cinema. With a plethora of digital TV channels, a huge DVD market, a wealth of online delivery options, a massive counterfeit underworld and illegal downloading on a large scale, cinema box office last year broke records!
The telephone was said to have no future when it came about. Today, 5 billion handsets are in use worldwide. People prioritize mobile phones over drinking water in many Third World countries.
No-one predicted the arrival of the iPod only one year before it broke loose in an unsuspecting market. Even fewer predicted it was going to revolutionise the economics of music distribution. Likewise, no-one saw the iPhone coming and even fewer forecast the birth of the developers' industry it ignited. And it changed the concept of mobile phone.
Make no mistake, the iPad will have a profound impact on the publishing world. It will bring new players, and smaller, perhaps more creative content creators.
And who predicted the revival of vinyl?
(click to continue)... Read More...
