Movie And Music Streaming Services Are Getting Bigger And More Popular, But Dvds Are Still In Use; What Is The Reason For This?

DVD‌, abbreviated Digital Video Disc or Digital Versatile Disc, meaning digital video disc, was a beautiful technology that appeared in the eighties and happened to be known in Iran in the mid-eighties, of course, of its solar type.

This highly functional and exciting technology quickly found its place among families, movie lovers, music lovers, and, of course, gamers, and it was not long before there was a DVD player on the TV table in every home and another player in the case of a home computer; If you have a laptop and game console, they are equipped with a DVD player.

Now, after more than four decades of DVD presence and the growing popularity of movie and music streaming services such as Netflix, Amazon Prime, Spotify, Apple Music, etc., the existence of DVD is less felt; You might think that this lovable product has gone down in history, but the fact is that the percentage of usage of this form of storage memory is still high. By 2021, it will have sold over 300 million DVDs.

In this article, we want to examine why DVDs and storage disks, in general, survived in the age of streaming platforms. But before that, let’s take a look at the history of optical storage.

History of DVDs and optical discs

Optical recording technology was first invented in 1963 by David Paul Gregg and invested by James Russell. He was working for Westrex, a subsidiary of Western Electric. Greg filed the first patent for VideoDisk in 1962, just as he was working on a project to record and reproduce information by the electron beam. Of course, before this, in 1958, the wolf had come up with the initial idea of making an optical disc.

The growing trend of DVDs was such that from 2005 to 2009, sold more than 2 billion DVDs each year.

Let’s go a little further to 1961. This year, Greg founded Gauss Electrophysics after collaborating with 3M’s top engineers, Wayne Johnson and Dean De Moss, and patenting several disc recordings. He registered his future patents in the name of the same company.

Finally, in 1968, the Music Corporation of America, or MCA for short, acquired the patents of Wolf and his company Gauss‌, accelerating the process of developing laser storage disks and laying the foundation for famous and popular products; The product we know today as DVD.

The DVD entered the Japanese market in 1996 and covered all calls worldwide within three years. The growing trend of DVDs was such that from 2005 to 2009, sold more than 2 billion DVDs each year.

As one of the prominent investors and developers of the first generation of optical discs (known as CDs), Sony has made a significant contribution to introducing this technology to users as much as possible; The company’s first game console, PlayStation 1, with CD support, and the second generation of this console, with DVD support, hit the market.

It led ordinary users to realize the potential of storage disks and accept it as an efficient product. In addition, Xbox consoles were initially capable of playing DVD movies, and their high sales helped make DVDs more popular around the world.

The advent of online services

The pervasiveness of the Internet and the access of more people to this vast information network also formed the concept of content streaming. With time, the development of DSL Internet technology, and the consequent increase in Internet speed, companies that used to do so offline by posting movie discs invested more in the content of the online streaming service.

For example, Netflix, which started by posting movies to people’s homes, launched the movie streaming service in 2007 after the development of the Internet, which was the death knell for DVDs.

With the proliferation of online services, DVD sales have been declining, From 2 billion sales in 2008 to 300 million in 2021; However, the use of this almost old technology is still intact, as if it does not intend to go down in history!

Why do DVDs still exist?

After dealing with the history of optical disks, now is the time to answer our main question. Why do DVDs still have relatively high sales and not intend to become extinct? It happens depends on several important factors, which we will examine below.

The quality of streaming services is not as good as a DVD

Many people who love cinema chests have a particular emphasis on the “image quality” factor. They see the difference between 4K and 1080p in the blink of an eye and pull the so-called hair out of yogurt. These people are well aware that the quality of 4K video streamed from a platform like Netflix is ​​not like its Blu-ray counterpart. The image size is the same, but the online version of BitRate is much smaller than the Blu-ray version.

Apple TV Plus (+ Apple TV) offers the highest bitrate among online services at 25 Mbps. Then come Netflix at 15 Mbps and Disney Plus at the same rate. You might be surprised to learn that the bit rate of Blu-ray movies is between 82 and 128 Mbps. It makes a difference of four to six times in the quality of the film.

Better sound quality

Another reason DVDs continue to sell well is the higher sound quality of online services. It does not matter if you watch a movie or listen to a track from Adele’s latest album. In both cases, DVDs and Blu-Ray give you much better audio quality.

Music streaming companies have decided to stream content more compactly because the general public listens to music at work or outside the home, and unlimited cable internet is unavailable. Music lovers know that more compression equals more quality. But when using a DVD, this is not the case, and your content is in Lossless quality and FLAC format on the disc, Right there, without the need for streaming and internet usage and at no extra cost.

Harry Potter series Blu-ray version

A better and more attractive collection

Maybe you love movies, music, or even video games and have always dreamed of having a collection of them. By purchasing a one-month Netflix, Spotify, or Gimps account, you can finally have your collection for up to a month; It’s not a collection for you. You have no material or intellectual property on it.

But by buying a disc, you can have a collection that is always at home. It does not matter if it is the Internet or not; You do not need to renew your monthly subscription to have it. It is a complete collection for you and no one else.

The cover image of the DVD version of Scarface movie will delight every movie lover.

There is a reason for this that has caused many people worldwide to collect their desired collection from film, music, games, software, etc. For example, in an interview with several film collectors, Business Insider found out that these people keep up to 1,000 to 5,000 movies at home; The youngest interviewee was only 19 years old, and the oldest was 36 years old; In fact, people who have spent their adolescence and youth in the digital revolution are still interested in collecting DVD versions of their favorite movies.

More content is available on DVD

Log on to Netflix and see that your favorite movie from your childhood is no longer available due to the director’s problems with the Netflix service? Or do you not find the DVD version of the film on online services? It is another reason why DVDs are so popular.

Movies, music, games, software, or other content may not be available on your popular online service for various reasons. For example, with the release of new versions of a piece of software, the previous version will no longer be available and sometimes even ‌ will be removed from the servers. Still, with the purchase of the DVD version, you can always access all the versions.

Blu-ray version of Game of Thrones series with attractive packaging

Physical copy ownership

As mentioned above, by adding a digital version of a work, movie, music, etc., to your online streaming service or even buying a digital version, you do not own it. You have only rented it for a limited time.

True, this can be bypassed-but not unless you’re a techie who knows what he’s doing. You’re just buying the digital streaming, right, not owning it entirely; Maybe you are one of those who love a movie and would like to be proud to have it on your bookshelf.

In that case, the only way is to buy a DVD‌ or Blu-ray version. By purchasing the physical version of your desired product, you can always access it and leave it in any part of your home. It can be a good reason for many people to continue to buy DVDs of their favorite works, and as a result, the sale of optical discs will continue.

On the other hand, some versions of video games or movies have a unique cover worth keeping, Like the Scarface movie, whose stunning cover image delights every movie lover.

The DVD path continues.

Despite their old technology, optical discs still have many reasons to stay in this market; Given the above reasons, it can say that their use might never disappear.

Most people who watch DVD movies are reported to be between the ages of 25 and 39; Given the obsolescence and “nostalgia” of optical discs, it is expected that the declining trend in their use will also slow down, resulting in a longer or even longer lifespan.

What do you think? Will DVDs continue to be with us, or will the streaming culture reach a point where discs go down in history?