The future of home video and home theater? (1 Viewer)

[James M]

Hi, I am doing an assignment for school, which is a future trends assignment and I have decided to look at, whatelse, Home Video, and Home theater. So, what I am looking for from you guys is some help, what I need is some information about the history of both home video and home theater, websites or peronsal opinions will do. What I also need is websites or personal opinions again about what you think about the future of home video and home theater and what they will evolve into. I guess Im basically asking for your knowledge and opinions of both the history and future of home video formats, and what they will evolve into, as well as home theater, its' history, and what it will evolve into. I hope this is pretty straight forward, please post all responses or questions in here or shoot me an e-mail if you wish at [email protected]. thanks
James

 

[James M]

can anyone help me on this? thanks

 

[Kyle McKnight]

So now we're offering free term papers at the HTF? What will Ron & Parker think of next?

 

[ScottL]

Hell, I'll bite...here are my ramblings..a grand exercise in free form thinking....... ;-)

Dare i say it without sounding to cliche', but as I see it we are at the digital crossroads. We are upon a new era of home entertainment where we can get movie theater quality sound and picture quality in the privacy of our own homes like never before. Tie that in along with the assimilation of Internet related media sharing technologies by the general public and you start to get the idea of where things are headed. Perhaps a digital nirvana where users are able to have access to entertainment and communication like never before or on the other hand, a legal battle where the forces from the MPAA/RIAA try wreaking havoc with the the youth armed with their ipods and dvd burners. Who knows. Things have changed since the vcr was always was flashing 12:00. at your parents house... but then again perhaps it is still flashing, there at your home(one of the remaining refuges from the digital big bang that occurred in the mid 90's).

With the advent of the vcr things changed. People could watch when they wanted to, record and "Store" what they wanted to, even skipping over commercials if they wanted to. The fat cats did not like this, and tried to initially block it but that did not succeed. It did not really matter though because most of the public were content purchasing a few videos a year and renting the rest at there local block buster and watching movies on Showtime and HBO. For the general public life went on, years came and went, time past. but technology was changing .....

Digital. Bits and bytes. 1's and 0's nothing more nothing less. The medium itself is a sterile concept, but who knew that from this that this digital revolution would grow fueled by the wide use and public acceptance of personal computers. Armed with a PC or MAC you can create, copy, edit or do whatever you want to do with your digital content including storing it. Storing entertainment content on a medium that would not deteriorate over time like a VCR tape would and having the ability to watch it when you wanted to.

In the next few years the emphasis will be more on Home Entertainment rather than just Home theater per say. Devices like TIVO are examples of this. The user is able to view content WHEN they want to and around their schedules with quality never before seen. In the next few years you're going to see a major convergence with current home entertainment electronics and personal computers not only because of the above stated reasons but also because people want to communicate with others about there experiences(just look a t this forum as an example).

OK enough rambling I am getting sleepy. I really don't think this is what you were looking for, but that is what I typed sorry

Scott

 

[James M]

Hi, thanks. Im just looking to wrap this thing up, Can anyone direct me to some more info on the history of home video and/or home theater? thanks in advance...

James