DVD is Dead, but will they fix the user experience?
The latest buzz in the home entertainment industry is that the DVD format is dead. This in itself should come as no surprise, as all previous audio and video media have become outdated over time. They say that movies will be released for High Definition TV and our current DVDs are unable to store enough information for HDTV, meaning a new technology with greater information density is needed. That makes sense and is no big deal. Heck, they’ve already got two competing technologies lined up and ready to go (Blu-Ray and HD-DVD). My question though, is will the DVD replacement technology fix what is wrong with DVDs today?
Sure, it’s nice not to have to rewind DVDs and it’s great to be able to skip through chapters, but I want the video playback to be completely under my control and I want it to be as efficient as the way I currently access still pictures on my computer. What does this mean? Well, for starters, you’ve probably noticed that when you stick a DVD into your player, you have to wait a while, then some kind of threatening FBI or Interpol screen pops up and warns you not to copy it. Eventually, you get to the main menu. This process can take 30 seconds or more every time you put the DVD into the player! (Imagine if you had to wait 30 seconds to hear the first song on an audio CD!) Then, when you select PLAY MOVIE, you might see advertisements or trailers promoting other movies, and sometimes it isn’t possible to skip them. You have to sit through them to get to the feature film which you paid for and supposedly “own.” Each time you watch a DVD, you get quietly raped by the movie industry for a little bit of your precious time.
So here is my wishlist for future digital video players:
- Instant ON - the main menu should appear within 5 seconds of inserting the disc
- Standard user interface - no more wondering which option on the screen is highlighted by the cursor
- No “unskippable” segments of video - give the users a bit of respect and let us decide what we want to watch
- Fast navigation - put a pseudo-analog input device (like an iPod scroll wheel) onto the remote so we can scrub through the video with a fingertip and find exactly what we’re looking for
I’ll keep my fingers crossed and my expectations low. If even one of my wishes is realized I’ll be pleasantly surprised.