I'm starting to get my collection growing on DVD+R, but I keep hearing about new mediums coming out. First there was DVD-9, now Blu-Ray and HD DVD. Am I wasting my time using the DVD-5's and DVD Shrink? Should I be waiting for the new media to be readily available? Does anyone know if DVD Shrink will be upgraded to handle the Blue-Ray and HD DVD formats?
First off, I don't think there will be any more updates to DVD Shrink. I heard that the designer now works for Ahead and is the author of Nero Recode. Sucks huh? Personally, I'm not worried about the next formats yet because they have yet to make Dual-layer recordables cheap enough to actually use. And it will take even longer before everyone can afford a Blu-ray or HD-DVD player. I bet that until these players are affordable, they will continue releasing movies on multiple formats. Kind of the way that cassette tapes were gradually phased out. Don't worry about it, we have alot of Shrinking ahead of us!!!!
Yes, Blu-ray and HD-DVD will be coming soon, but I'd give it until 2007-2008 before it is mainstream.
- Even though Blu-ray players won't be backwards-compatible, HD-DVD will (which is why I think Sony's Blu-ray will lose out to HD-DVD since people have 100s of DVDs in their collections and aren't about to abandon DVD - just look at the adoption rate for SACD & DVD-Audio).
- If you think ripping a DVD-9 takes too long, imagine a HD-DVD disc which is 3-4 times as big. That's okay. How much more improvement can you add to 1970s films which they keep reselling.
- Copy protection will be a very big part of the new formats. You might not even be able to rip them...at least until someone comes up with a new decrypter.
