CDs and DVDs - Why?

I remember when I saw my first CD, it was back in the mid-80s. Revolutionary, you could skip to different song within a second. But that was more than 20 years ago! DVDs delivered more storage, but the same issues as the CD – it easily scratches.

 I remember soon after the CD came out I spent ½ years worth of allowances to purchase my first high storage drive, the Commodore 1581. It could store a whopping 1 Meg of storage (great for my BBS – The Surf Board!), but what I remember distinctly is that it was the first time I used the 3 ½ floppy. Sure you can make fun of the disk now due to it’s low storage, but since the actual magnetic disk was encased in plastic, you could throw it across the room, rub sandpaper across it, and it would still work.

Last week my wife got a DVD from the library for our 3 year old son, Bear and the Big Blue House, and I was frustrated due to the frequent skips. How long does a DVD last with 3 year olds handling it? About 5 minutes I would guess. I feel we’ve advanced so far in all aspects of technology, yet we still seemed plagued with this bad storage medium.

Blue Ray? Slightly better, but still not adopted everywhere. Solid State HDs seem very promising, but I’m not seeing Bear and the Big Blue House on a 2 Gig stick at the library. Or a USB port on my TV that will allow me to play it.

I’m hoping soon CDs and DVDs will be relics on the wall, as for now I’ll continue to Fast Forward and rewind past bad frames…