Disposable DVDs

[souldog]

I read an article where Disney is planning on trying a new kind of DVD format. The idea behind it is mainly for rental people... they buy a dvd and within 48 hours of it being opened, the disc will "self destruct". A special chemical in the DVD burning process will react to the oxygen when th edvd package is opened and turn the disc to black (unreadable) within 48 hours.... in a sense giving the viewer a two-day rental period. I think Disney is calling it EZ-D.

What do you all think about this? Granted it may indeed benefit some people who are too lazy to return their rentals to the video store.. but this sounds very similar to the DIVX format Disney was quick to support back in the late 90's. Do you think this is a good idea?

Eric

[Disneykid]

A thread like this was made a few weeks ago:

http://www.ultimatedisney.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=157

[Prince Phillip]

Even though this has already been discussed I will give my opinion.
I think it is a good idea. In theory it sounds promising, but then again so do so many other things that fail. It wouldn't really effect me since I still like the old fashion video stores (dvd store), but for the lazy it would be beneficial, plus the site would not have to worry about returns. I would bet that takes up quite a bit of resources.

[Prince Phillip]

Oh, and as for the Movie Beam or whatever... Hey, Eisner, whatever floats your boat. Again I plan to stick with good ol DVD's, although again in theory this does sound promising, but what happens when you hit the hundred limit. Do you need a second... third, and so on... box? And would it depend on the length of the movie, or just how many movies, and would we still get bonus features, or would we still need to but DVD's or HD-DVD's or whatever else to get those?

[TheMadHatter]

My take on it is...

Great, something else to throw into a landfill. AOL is bad enough.

[goofystitch]

This sounds very cool. If each is priced around $2-4, I Think it would sell well. I am always late returning videos and this would also eliminate rental discs being so scratched up they have problems playing!

[Stitch]

I don't know about anyone else, but for me I would rather own the disney movie to watch over and over and over again on the drop of a dime. Granted there are a few not so great disney movies, but wouldn't be easier to just pay the extra $10 to put it in your collection.......... THINK OF THE CHILDREN!!!

Besides, what happens if the package is damaged in delivery and somehow punctures the case (worst case scenario). You're going to have a DVD that's DOA... what a waste of time.

[herman_the_german]

No need for that. VHS and DVD will degrade over time regardless of how much you take care of it. Discs scratch, and DVD are extremely delicate. Plastic cases and tape become brittle and break or image and sound degrade. New formats emerge and old formats become obsolete.

If you own VHS or DVD, you really do not own them forever, but only as long as you take good care of them.

[Luke]

Just because most of us may never see what these look like, here are a couple of pics:

<img src="http://ultimatedisney.netfirms.com/ezd1.jpg">
<img src="http://ultimatedisney.netfirms.com/ezd2.jpg">

[Joshua Clinard]

Luke,

Did you actually buy those? Try any expirements on them yet?

[2099net]

Did you urinate on them?

That's supposed to stop the chemical process that renders them inert after 48 hours!

[Luke]

Hehe, no I didn't buy them - I just found the images. They're only in a few select middle America markets I believe for the time being.

If I did buy one, though, I'd probably perform a urinary...test.

[BasilOfBakerStreet427]

One question:Who came up with this idea?It's so stupid.

[chrisrose]

Very stupid idea! I guess we need more garbage hurting our environment. Yes, let's throw out our DVDs after one viewing! A format which was meant to PRESERVE movies in higher quality, and for a longer period of time than VHS.... is now disposable? It doesn't make any sense. What a useless product.

Oh I guess it's "useful" because it's convenient, not having to take it back to a rental store. Well, I've never minded returning a rental. But pretty soon we'll all be conditioned to find that suuuuch a chore! Thanks Disney, for helping to make our lazy society even more lazy and dependent on unnecessary "conveniences".