Somehow it appears that we have to care a great deal about the next generation of DVD disks. The Blu-ray vs. HD DVD was is in full swing as Iomega entered the stage with a disk that promises to store as much as 800 Gbytes – about 94 times as much as current generation DVDs and double the capacity of Blu-ray or HD-DVD.

Consumers need all this storage for our movies, claim the technologists behind all these standards. Never mind that a high definition movie fits nicely on any of the next generation disks.

Think bonus features, the marketing guys will argue. Ah, yes. The joy of watching the movie while you can hear the sound guys talk about the blasts and punches. Fascinating. 800 Gigs of sheer joy.

Forget all the talk about "user benefits". This discussion revolves around licence revenues and hardware sales. A new DVD standard means we all have to go out and buy new DVD players.

I don't blame Iomega for wanting to make a buck – they we hit relentlessly when the CD-rom burners made their Zip-drive business disappear and have been wandering ever since. Just don't expect me to embrace a standard that was created with financial health the optical storage industry in mind.

27 May 2005