The Incredible, Shrinking Video Storage Problem!

In the 1980s, consumer videotaping became the norm, with VHS defeating Betamax to nab the lion’s share of the video market. For the first time, people could tape their favorite TV shows or movies and watch them later.

Flash-forward twenty odd years, and you most likely had a basement or attic filled with space-smothering tapes, no doubt some unlabelled, most you probably haven’t watched or even looked at for years. The solution? Copy your tapes to DVD!

In 2009, despite the innovation and growth in popularity of Blu-Ray,the winner over HD-DVD in the high definition war of 2007-08, it’s safe to say the DVD is still king of visual digital media-for the most part.

The question is, “what will we choose to watch and store our videos on in five, ten or even twenty years?

There are mp3 files, which can be stored on your computer, harddrive, ipod or other mp3 players and of course, mini-DVDs, smaller versions of the long time favorite mentioned above.

So how do you choose a format and if you make a choice, how long will its’ popularity last? Say you’ve dubbed (pro-video speak for “copy”) your entire videotape collection to DVD and you’ve thrown away the original tapes. What if they stop making DVD players? What if they make the MICRO mini DVD player instead? Would you then copy your DVDS to micro mini DVDs? What if those things are as small as a thumbnail? There comes a point where you have to say, “ok, small is great for saving space, but any smaller and the average person is going to lose items in their collections as easy as we lose a contact lens!

I just don’t know where it will all end! Maybe the Earth will have world peace, all the countries on the globe will have international boundaries and we’ll all be ready, and willing to store all of our precious videos on one, gigantic WORLD SERVER!

What? Oh yeah. I guess we kinda do have an approximation of such a thing with sites like YouTube. Maybe it’s best to quote Doris Day and say “Que Sera Sera, whatever will be will be” and stop worrying about it! Just enjoy your video collection no matter what format it’s on.

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