DVD's on the Decline

Was reading the Financial Times before, an article about how DVD sales are slowly on the decline. They talked about the VHS-DVD switch and how there most likely won't be another switch like that, at least not for a little while. The new Blu-Ray (Sony--featured with the PS3) and HD-DVD (Toshiba--featured with the Xbox 360) are expanding the amount of memory that the DVD can hold, with an improved (?) format. You are starting to see some DVD's come out in both those formats. I have been seeing them in their own section, recently, at Blockbuster. Both new formats have their own new players, which also allow us to play regular DVD's as well. Both the Blu-Ray and HD-DVD will not be as big a switch as the VHS-DVD but they will be a nice addition to the new HDTV trend.

What I found really interesting is that they already came out with a player that plays both Blu-Ray and HD-DVD. Since this is happening, it seems that eventually there will only be room for one of the DVD types, but not as long as there is a need for both with the two gaming giants insisting on using their unique format.

The major reason attributed to the decline in DVD sales? Internet movie downloading. There has been a significant increase in the amount of movies downloaded online in the past few years. People are finding it easier and cheaper to sit home and download movies onto their hard drives. It is cheaper because there are little, if any, production costs. Materials costs to a DVD such as plastic, paper, and the actual DVD itself, and other miscellaneous costs such as shipping, production, and storage, are not incurred when a DVD is transferred online. Therefore, the customer does not have to fork the bill for oft-unnecessary and unwanted extras.

Obviously, DVD sales are not even close to reaching worrisome levels. However, it appears that DVD's have reached a maturity level after years of strong growth.