Subscribe by Email“This DVD will self-destruct in 48 hours….”
April 25, 2008 by Mark O'Neill |By Mark O’Neill
Welcome to the latest new German product - a self-destructing DVD disk which will make return trips to the movie rental store a thing of the past.
DVD-D Germany Ltd’s ‘Einmal‘ (German for ‘Once’) will shortly bring out a disk which will be useless 48 hours after it is unwrapped from the packaging. A chemical agent will destroy the disk making it no better than a drinks coaster. Or you can just chuck it in the bin.
So you can rent a movie from the store and just keep the disk. 48 hours later, the chemicals kick in, and then the disk becomes useless. There’s also supposedly no DRM (Digital Rights Management) so if you have the technical know-how, you could also quickly copy it (not that I know anything about that of course).
The “disposable disks” will retail for EUR 3.99 each ($6.44). I don’t know about you but if I’m feeling lazy, I’d pay the extra not to have to get up off the bed to return the disk.
But as usual, critics question how long these disposable disks will last for, given the widespread use of illegal file sharing. Ask yourself, when was the last time YOU hired a DVD from the movie rental store? Plus, if people are going to be throwing lots of DVD disks in the bin, some sort of recycling scheme has to be in place first, otherwise we’re going to end up with a serious bout of DVD-itis at the local garbage dump.
So what do you think of the idea? A good idea? Or has “Einmal” seen too many “Mission Impossible” movies?
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Hej, I think that it is quite a nice idea. They write on their homepage that everything, the CD and the Cover, is recyclable. And there are a lot of capacities for recycling in Germany
But, for me, if I buy a DVD, I want to be able to watch it as often as I like.
I think the disposable DVD’s are only for places like rental stores, not for places where you buy DVD’s for full price.
This isn’t new - it failed miserably in the US about 3 years ago.
Yep we’ve seen this before. 5 years ago in fact Disney tried it. In 2005 they stopped. Here’s an article about it written in 2005: http://www.afterdawn.com/news/archive/6057.cfm
Circuit City tried the same thing around the same time, they called it DIVX (no relation to the codec). And it failed just as badly too. I can’t see this going anywhere this time around for Germany.
Pointless, what a waste (literally). With the rise of internet downloading, what’s the point?
I think between Netflix and the iTunes rental model, this is a dead idea. Netflix is really cheap and is no harder to deal with then checking your mail. Also, you can watch movies on their site. iTunes is a digital version of the above concept and it has the benefit of no garbage.
I’d also hate to have a ripped package.
Yeah I think it’s a rubbish idea. Wasteful, that’s all that needs to be said, and all so people don’t have to do a little work.
Over six bucks for a dvd that you can only play a couple of times? For that money i’d probably either:
A) go see it in the theater
B) rent it from netflix
C) Steal it off the internet
Not to mention what actually happens if you forget and leave it in your DVD player?
Endless lawsuits, here I come.
Even if it’s recyclable, it’s a huge waste of energy to produce and recycle (and transport, and package) many discs where only one was used before. In the list of ecological ideas, reuse is much better than recycling, and that’s just what a durable DVD is, reusable…