How long will physical media last?

[compl3x]

I made this topic because of the discussion in this topic about online passes. Of course this isn't only relevant to games, it could be DVDs, CDs etc. But the question remains the same: how long will physical media continue to hang around?

Of course, I added the obligatory poll.

[Hell-In-A-Handbasket]

id have to say forever, i personally know of ALOT of areas that do not have broadband options, and they are not boondocks. because the houses have alot of land there isnt alot in a confined area. thus Highspeed will not extend there, and Trees make it had to get stuff like Satalite.

just about every time there is a storm, repair shop i work goes through dialup modems like crazy and has multiple systems in shop for people not able to get online ( bad dialup modem )

the High Speed Internet Push isnt as all over as people think, especially so close to WashDC

[djdanster]

For a long time still. Remember, not everyones internet has good speeds!

[Jason S. Global Moderator]

you have to remember that while you can stream an HD movie on Netflix, for example, you cannot easily stream the entire contents of a blu-ray disk. The HD streams on netflix are much lower bit-rate than blu-ray. and now the future is going to be 4k or 8k resolution, that means ever more data. Broadband simply cannot keep up. so, while some people suddenly hate physical media, it's not going away any time soon.

[c.grz]

Eventually everything will be pushed to DLC and you'll have to pay extra for physical media; I give it another 5 years before we start seeing this begin to happen.

[Daedroth]

Physical media will die out in the mainstream, but not for a long time yet. Average broadband speeds are still dreadful.

[OilersFan]

How would you re-install windows/linux without physical media?

[Jason S. Global Moderator]

How would you re-install windows/linux without physical media?

touche, salesman...

although i suppose a method could be derived to allow some PXE-like boot system through UEFI, in which the iso is copied over, then the setup program runs as normal.

[cork1958]

How would you re-install windows/linux without physical media?

By the time physical media dies out, this will be an everyday thing!!

[cybertimber2008]

How would you re-install windows/linux without physical media?

See Mac OS X Lion :p

You put a bootable partition which allows the downloading of an OS from the internet (if it already doesn't have a downloaded copy), and it starts the install process shortly after. Windows/Linux could do the same, or in the event of a blank hard drive, have it stored on the motherboard.

[metal_dragen Veteran]

Forever. 1) Collectibles (special editions, extra features, etc.), 2) in the case of Blu-Ray vs. current streaming, much higher fidelity, 3) anytime, anywhere access without an internet connection, let alone broadband, 4) the ability to convert the media on the physical disc into any other format you want, and probably some other reasons I'm missing.

[Lingwo]

I think the majority of us will be long gone by the time physical media is phased out.

There just isn't a strong enough network or systems in place to handle such a demand. Also the fact most countries don't have fast enough Internet or offer enough bandwidth to allow this kind of service.

[neufuse Veteran]

I don't trust cloud storage enough to get rid of physical copies.... just look at megaupload as a vague example, say you have a major legit storage service from say microsoft... and a client misuses it, your stuff is there also, what if the FBI came in and siezed all those servers / drives? or forced them to be shut down until the case is over? it COULD happen, especially if you have a shared storage device where their data is stored in the same place as your data... they seize the drives that store the clients data, and leave everyone elses on, and yours is also on that drive, you are screwed...

or they could lose your data...

or they could shut down...

[Daedroth]

How would you re-install windows/linux without physical media?

Network or USB install would be the replacement.

[HSoft]

I won't say forever but I would say a very long time yet.

A lot of places don't have a high enough broadband link to make online only a viable option plus a lot of people want physical media. If I go out to buy a DVD/Blu Ray etc. then I want the physical disk.

[Ci7]

when most of earthling get access to 5th generation network with over 9000 mb/s :p

give it from 15 to 30 year!

oh yes , the speed is from my imagination

;)

[nominak]

How would you re-install windows/linux without physical media?

Download to USB drive.

[Dashel]

Forever. There will always been a need for offline, read only copies of data.

[plasmarox]

Download to USB drive.

While I agree this is the way things will go, a USB drive is still physical.

[Gerowen]

Forever I hope. It's nice to be able to have a physical copy of my games to carry with me and play regardless of my internet connection. Our power went out for two days last week, so I took the battery out of my car and wired it up to power a television, my PS3 and a lamp for about 5 hours. The internet was down, so any game requiring an internet connection to run would be useless. When my PS3 inevitably explodes, it'll be nice to be able to pick up a new one, or a PS4, and stick a disc in it and play my old games.

[capr]

I think it will change form but will always be around. One example is you buy a bluray movie online but have to download the entire thing before you can watch it. Doesn't sound like physical media? That's exactly what I am trying to get accross. Your hard drive becomes the form factor that physical media uses.

Unless you are streaming, you are using something to store the files and then view them. Maybe we will have special hard drives for this task but it will still be physical media. I don't think we will ever stream everything. People like the idea of having something in their possession.

[c.grz]

Well, I imagine optical media will be obsolete long before USB drives as USB drives are multi purpose, quick and easy to use compared to optical media.

[justmike]

I made this topic because of the discussion in this topic about online passes. Of course this isn't only relevant to games, it could be DVDs, CDs etc. But the question remains the same: how long will physical media continue to hang around?

Of course, I added the obligatory poll.

Well, until the point that MS/Apple/or Google buys the Onlive technology. At some point there should not be more than whatever is sitting in memory or storage on a server somewhere, including operations. Because of costs, calculation, shared space, security, location, and many other reasons I would think.

[Zippo7]

How has no one mentioned bandwidth caps, if your PC blows up and you have to re-install everything from the "cloud" you could easily blow through a crappy 100-200GB cap over the course of a few days. For this reason alone physical media will continue to exist and that will not change so long as there are greedy asshats in charge of the Media owned ISP's. Now it may not exist in CD/DVD/BD form but in some for or another it will exist for a long time to come.

[ryoohki]

For Games (on PC) and Music, i don't really care, but for Movies... Unless they offer me with 1:1 quality of Bluray (Video and Audio) i won't ever buy one. Digital Downloaded Movies (legit ones) look ok on a Cell phone size screen, but if you own anything bigger than 40' TV, they look crappy.. I still can't believe what Apple charge for 720p movie with loosy audio on the Itunes.. it's ridiculous..