As Online Streaming Booms, DVDs Hear a Death Knell - NYTimes.com #infdist

THAT distant rumble you hear is the sound of yet another approaching cultural shift, accompanied by all the shouts of joy and gnashing of teeth that come with such upheaval.

Rick Wilking/Reuters

The brick-box Blockbuster, once the dominant DVD franchise, has fallen into bankruptcy in an era of other video options.

The DVD isn’t dead yet, but it’s definitely looking a little peaked, at least in the eyes of the home-video industry. Sales continue to decline (volume is down about 40 percent from this time last year for the Top 20 titles, according to Home Media Magazine), the formerly ubiquitous neighborhood rental shops have all but vanished (Blockbuster, once the dominant franchise, has plunged into bankruptcy), and the major studios have drastically cut back on full-scale releases of library titles.

The days of the digital versatile disc may well be coming to an end, at least in its established form as a factory pressed, attractively packaged object of mass consumption. But there are several new formats competing to replace it, each with benefits and drawbacks.

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