April 18, 2008

Disposable DVD-D Discs Will Self-Destruct In 5, 4, 3, 2... April 18, 2008

Read more Entertainment , Gadgets , Gizmodo UK , Home Entertainment , Movies

A German company has produced a series of disposable DVD movie discs that will delete themselves after 48 hours.

In fact you can get three versions of it: a 'one-time only' play disc, 8-hour and 48-hour versions. The discs, already being used in parts of France, Italy, Germany and Scandinavia are designed as a cheap way for non-traditional movie rental companies to rent movies to the public. These would include the likes of online movie rental companies that use the postal service or those that use movie kiosks. There’s another disposable DVD out there too called EZ-D.

Continued...

The DVD-D comes in a cardboard cover that will keep them usable for years but once the cover is opened, a chemical process on the disc begins that makes them useless after 48 hours. Of course, you could copy the disc within that time but then that would be illegal now, wouldn’t it?

Still, with the advent of downloadable movies going mainstream in the next few years – dependent on decent broadband speeds - I see this kind of thing as a stop-gap measure to prolong DVD technology, at best.-Martin Lynch

[I4U via DVD-D.org]

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Just think of all those extra discs ending up in landfill... ah, sod the planet, with global warming were all doomed anyway :)

Posted by Anonymous | April 18, 2008 02:23 PM

What a f***ing waste of resources! How many of them will get recycled? And that is if they even can be.

Posted by Jon | April 18, 2008 03:03 PM

IDIOTS

Posted by Anonymous | April 18, 2008 09:09 PM

Too late to market. Six years ago and this would have been bang on time, today it's all about digital distribution.

Posted by Thomas | April 18, 2008 10:16 PM

Wasn't this shelved before? Isn't there enough disposable stuff around already?

Posted by John Bailey | April 19, 2008 01:46 AM

To be fair, why even buy these? Anyone with a remote amount of intellegence will just download the rip of the movie off the internet and save the planet. 700mb now is nothing, especially when people have fast internet now. Especially that old woman in Sweden who has 1gbit/s connection. What a whore.

Posted by Thomas Allen | April 19, 2008 10:00 AM

This sort of thing should be covered by the WEEE (sp?) directive. I can't believe the Germans of all people could allow this to happen.

Posted by Brian Williams | April 19, 2008 10:53 AM

Is it REALLY greener to send back the same DVD on the return journey?

You'll need
1)a cardboard sleeve/envelope,
2)The mileage/sorting for the post office
3)then the sorting and tracking at the company's end

Also, some people may drive to their postbox, or post office.

Posted by darth dave | April 21, 2008 05:58 PM

As echoed in virtually every post above, I am absolutely astounded that in this age of sustainability some idiot would try to market what essentially is nothing other than a throwaway technology. Perhaps the manufacturer should be made responsible for not only the packaging committment for the product, but its complete life cycle.
I also agree with Darth Dave's post - sending them back is also not a great idea.

Thomas got it right - someone come out with a good legal internet distribution option that doesn't cost the earth and isn't too invasive

Posted by Wayne | April 22, 2008 11:26 AM