Future of Media #81: Get Out Your Crystal Ball

Of the media and developments listed, I think the fact that Wal-Mart is buying Vudu will probably have a great influence on the field in the next few years. The technology is changing so fast these days that it's a real guessing game, but anything that Wal-Mart gets involved in seems to make a big effect on the consumers.

I'm not a early adopter of technology. I once had a new VCR in a box for weeks before setting it up. I admit, if I find something that I like and it's easy to use, I stay with it. I don't jump on the bandwagon at the first appearance of a gadget. I generally wait a bit to let the developers work some of the kinks out of it first.

In the last 1980's I got a video player that produced the best picture quality of anything available. It was called the laser disc player. What the "new" format known as CD was to music, the LD (laser disc) was for movies, etc. At the time I was at WTLS in west Texas and one of he county libraries I worked with was the Midland County Public Library. The film librarian there was Anne Trout and she had a big collection of LD's. One of the titles she sent me to try was a Sear's catalog. It was interesting to watch. In-between the various catalog pages of clothes were style shows of the outfits. There was a machine that would play the threes sizes available: CD, 8 inch music videos and the 12 inch movies. I thought about getting one but at $1000.00 it was a little beyond my budget. The movies/documentaries were recorded on only one side and were 1/4 inch thick. I still have some of mine and yes, the player works just fine.