Disc protection solution: Optional cartridges. Good idea?

[telliott]

This idea came about while reading the DualDisc thread in the music forum.

Flipper discs are really hard to handle. Most of the time I look at buying a used flipper disc, it has fingerprints all over the top.

I think, by the time HD, Blu-ray players come out, they should ALL accept cartridges, like the DVD-RAM recorders and the carts should be OPTIONAL. All children's movies (and rentals) would come with them. Empty carts should be cheap ($1 or less) and they should be child resistant.

Remember the early days of CD Rom? Some drives required "caddies" but they were almost $10 each! I can see why they went out of favor

This seems like a good solution for protecting flippers and discs kids (and some adults) treat like cheap toys.

Tim

Tim

[Michael St. Clair]

I think, by the time HD, Blu-ray players come out, they should ALL accept cartridges, like the DVD-RAM recorders and the carts should be OPTIONAL. All children's movies (and rentals) would come with them. Empty carts should be cheap ($1 or less) and they should be child resistant.

I've said for years it is a great idea, and the rental industry supports it, but it won't happen.

It adds a couple of bucks to the price of the transport, and that is enough to scare the industry off, in large.

FYI, I have a Panasonic DVD recorder that has a very well designed tray that supports bare discs and caddies for DVD-RAM (plus bare CD, CD-R, DVD, DVD-R, etc). It works great.

Think about this. The studios want discs to get scratched and damaged, so that Blockbuster (and families with kids) have to spend $$$ on replacement discs.