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Paradigm
shift in home entertainment
With the advent of videos and home
entertainment, marketing wizards had predicted the downfall of the movie
theaters, which didn’t really happen. At the dawn of the 21st century, people in
the US still like to go out to the movies, notes Mohan Babu
Every few decades,
there is a paradigm shift in consumer electronics and entertainment, one that
seems gradual and unobtrusive, but is all consuming. In the mid-seventies, there
was a shift from gramophones and LP recorders to audiocassettes, a change that
many of us may not recall. In the nineties, we saw audiocassettes being
overtaken by CD’s and more recently, by MP3s. DVDs are slowly inching their way,
gaining market from videocassettes, especially in the home video rental
industry.
Interestingly, with
the advent of videos and home entertainment, marketing wizards had predicted the
downfall of the movie theatres, which didn’t really happen. At the dawn of the
21st century, people still like to go out to the movies. During the first three
to four months after release a movie is screened only on the big screen, after
which it is released in HBO (cable) and then to lending libraries. Incidentally,
Blockbuster and Hollywood videos are the biggest chains in the US.
The advent of DVD
technology is seeing a new paradigm emerge. In a classic case of producer driven
technology, video rental companies and manufacturers of DVDs and electronics are
driving consumers into using this new technology. The technology is being pushed
unobtrusively; more by Blockbuster than by manufacturers of DVDs themselves.
Why? Because of the optimisation of retail shelf space that DVDs afford. In the
shelf where they stock one or two videos, Blockbuster can store three or four
DVDs, instantly doubling the number of titles they can carry without increasing
the limited shelf space. Of course dozens of manufacturers pushing the use of
DVDs and hyping its clarity and usage has only helped. Slowly and
inconspicuously, Blockbuster has been trashing old videos, replacing them with
DVDs. Nearly 50 percent of the rental movies now come in DVD format. This, aided
with the lower cost of DVD players has prompted consumers to go in for them, at
least to second their home entertainment systems. As a matter of fact,
Blockbuster has gone as far as providing ‘deals on DVD players, offering free
rentals to lure customers into switching.
One of the main
reasons for the popularity of DVDs is the software security build into the
players, making it hard for pirates to make and distribute copies. Quality of
the video output is another big draw — sharper images and audio make it a real
pleasure to watch. Thanks to dick capacities between 4.3 GB (DVD-5) and 15.9 GB
(DVD-18), a DVD can hold more than two hours of high quality MPEG-2 video with
several audio tracks (multi-language) and subtitles. In order to avoid illegal
copies, commercial video DVDs come with a region code that define the origin —
for example, North America is code 1, Europe is code 2, etc. A European (code 2)
DVD player will usually not work with US (code 1) DVDs, as the industry does not
want DVDs to be brought to Europe as long as movies are still in the theatres
there.
If the mainstream
movies are moving towards DVDs, can our Bollywood be far behind? Most Indian
shops and online malls now stock a collection of latest Indian flicks in DVD
format. Movies just released by Bollywood find their way into DVDs really fast.
Most movies also come with sub-titles and indexes of songs — a big draw with
NRIs in the UK and US. DVD technology touts hard-to-copy technologies that make
it especially attractive to Indian cinema, which already generates much of its
revenue from the big screen domestically. In the international market where
copying of Indian movies is especially rampant, DVD technologies may help.
However, the by-product of this trend is the mushrooming of cottage industry in
“conversion” that has sprung up, copying DVDs into videocassettes! Indians in
the US now enjoy superior quality prints on DVDs or “DVD copies” on
videocassettes, a win-win situation, if there was any. A number of online
retailers not only sell Indian movies but also provide DVD rental with
convenient return policies to customers in the US. Some give the convenience of
prepaid shipping, even providing convenient return envelopes (Yes, those dotcoms
are still around!)
Does the advent of
DVDs herald the end of VCR/VCP era? No, we are probably not going to see the end
of video technology any time soon. This is especially true since DVD technology
is not yet affordable for “personal use video” applications like making home
movies, clips of weddings and other events that people normally capture on
video. DVD technology is good for mass production of secure videos but not very
friendly when it comes to copying and creating home videos. Until a technology
that is cheap and easy-to-use (for home recording) comes along, videos are going
to remain. With the proliferation of CDs and MP3s, interestingly, even
audiocassettes haven’t really gone away, not yet at least.
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