Reviewing the works of Philip K. Dick was a highly enjoyable chore that gave me t
he opportunity to revisit some videos that I had not seen in quite a while. It also took a good bit of convincing before my wife believed that my assignment was to watch a movie. When it came time to make my decision as to which of Dick’s films to watch, I went to one of the shelves in our family room and looked for the titles that I wanted. I have owned all of the films mentioned in the original assignment for years and deciding which to see again was the only difficulty I experienced. My choice, “Minority Report”, was 150 minutes of escapism that I actually viewed with an altered perception. Instead of seeing the technology and taking it in stride, I was writing down examples of the new and unique items observed in the film and comparing them to current and emerging technologies.As to the competition between DVDs and VOD (video on demand), It does not seem to be a “Red Queen” situation. One is not being favored over the other by the consuming public, as in the case of VHS over Betamax, or the more recent decline of the HD DVD to the Blueray disk and player. It should be noted tha
t the American population is the group being observed in this situation: Betamax is still very popular in Mexico and HD DVDs are still being sold in Canada. The situation between DVDs and VOD seems to be a matter of preferences and convenience with the American public. Both formats have coexisted for quite some time without one threatening the continued existence of the other. Both formats seem to be thriving and maintaining their popularity with consumers, giving them a choice in terms of convenience.McLuhan’s tetrad displays the four laws of media as Enhancement, Closure, Retrieval, and Reversal. The two formats, DVD and VOD, currently seem to occupy similar positions on the tetrad. DVDs and videos on Demand both retrieve or rekindle the phenomenon of story telling. I suspect that this is one of the main reasons why they are allowed to coexist without too much friction: they both answer a requirement that we as humans have to tell, or be told, a story.
Further information about Video on Demand can be obtained from the following:
http://www.cs.tut.fi/tlt/stuff/vod/VoDOverview/vod1.html
http://home.vod.com/
http://www.itvdictionary.com/vod.html
You bring in interesting point to consider the country. What is your speculation or knowledge of why Beta and/or HD DVDs are still in other countries and not the U.S.
ReplyDeleteDo you not see VOD eventually obsoleting DVDs? In a way, I think of DVD vs. VOD as landlines versus cell phones. I wonder if landlines will eventually be obsolete. Not really sure how I feel about this quite yet. What are your thoughts about DVDs going obsolete?
Koh
John,
ReplyDeleteI didn’t know that Beta was still be used in Mexico, or anywhere for that matter! I thought it was like 8-track tapes, gone forever. (Those aren’t being used anywhere, are they?) This made me think of Dr. Thornburg’s reminder that the world is much bigger than the boundaries of the United States and that what may be emerging technology in one place may be mainstream in another. Your example seems like the same concept in reverse—technology that may have become obsolete in the United States may still be mainstream elsewhere.
I can relate to your experience of watching Minority Report with new eyes for this assignment. You notice so much more when you’re actively looking.
Lisa