Will DVDs Save The PC Industry?

from the probably-not dept

The Register takes a closer look at a new study saying that the demand for people creating their own DVDs will help save the PC industry. The thinking is that people will want to create their own video DVDs and will need to buy newer, more powerful computers with DVD burners included. They suggest that potential problems with this happening would come from the DVD writable format wars. However, they seem to miss one major limiting factor: if all of these ridiculous anti-piracy laws go through, it's going to be next to impossible to record your own DVD unless you are officially approved by various Hollywood agencies. Restricting what people can do with the DVD burner should take away much of the incentive to buy one. The Register lumps the prediction in with various past predictions about "PC saviors" including wireless connectivity, LCD screens, broadband access, and plenty of other features that were supposed to make us all rush out and replace our old machines.
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  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 1 Aug 2002 @ 9:14am

    No. DVD will not save the PC market.

    People are not going to buy new computers so they can store more things on fewer disks. The problem lies with software makers. Every new version of Windows requires twice the RAM, HDD space and a whole lot more MHz. People are tired of buying the worlds fastest and most bestest computer only to see six months later it is now the entry level computer that is capable of running the lastest Windows and offers marginal gaming performance. The upgrade cycle is rediculous! That same computer 1 year later is too old to be sold. I don't mind performance gains being made. I do mind software being developed that requires obscene amounts of resources. What happened to developing tight software? Everything is bloated far beyond reason. The price is not worth the money. I can sit on the computer I own and just ignore the games and new OSes. The benefit of upgrading will only be felt momentarily.

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