Let me make a prediction, some hotshot multimedia start ups will get enamoured by the capacity and we'll see products packed with horrendously graphics/sound/movie intensive screens which take up hundreds of megabytes. Which is all very well and good, expect that the transfer rate of DVD isn't the speed of light and neither are the poxy buses in most PCs so we'll have the customary wait while Quicktime loads, Macromedia thingy and other bells and whistles all cram into our limited memory. When the wait is over we'll get jerky video and generally crap.

Then nobody buys it as the reviewers all tell us its shit so somebody figures out how to use the medium well and then things start happening.

Fine, but what if it starts happening in the US first (now that WOULD be a surprise wouldn't it?) we can just mail order the stuff. Oh no you can't. The DVD discs made for the US won't be compatible with European ones! Yes its true, there will be different formats for different geographical regions!!! In this digital age? I know, its ridiculous. This is supposed to cut down on piracy, no software really, but movie. The movie companies, who see this as the replacement to VHS insisted on these measures after:

a) The amount of piracy that occurred with VHS

b) Because other technical techniques originally intended for use were found to cause problems on many types of TV set and so on...

So now we face an even more ridiculous state of affairs. And it won't be possible to get European DVD players in US and US ones in Europe for obvious reasons. So how am I supposed to send my multimedia work to a customer in LA when I'm in London? Fuck knows but until he tells me I'll be sticking to the Iomega Jaz disks. Sort it out DVD people...

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by Jason P. Kitcat [e-mail him]