HD video doesn’t need much more storage than SD video. It’s all about the codec and bitrates. With H.264, the bitrate is the SAME for High-Def as it is for Standard-Def. I know, it sounds kinda crazy, but it’s a higher resolution with better compression - and it works.
Blu-Ray (or any other larger storage medium) will certainly open up the possibilities for longer programs, clearer (less compressed) images, and higher resolution.
But, everything just keeps getting bigger and bigger. At what point will we be done increasing the common / standard video and photographic resolutions? 12 megapixels for a photo? 5 looks excellent with most consumer lenses. Most people never make enlargements, so when will we hit the barrier of clarity vs. excess?
Then comes HD video… At some point we’ll no longer be able to see any more detail with the naked eye. We could have movie-theatre-sized screens, with resolution that rivals a printed image (300dpi), will that be enough? What megapixel would that come to? Say, 16 feet by 9 feet (to keep the aspect ratio “correct”) x 300 dpi = 57,600x32,400 = 1,866,240,000 pixels or 1866 megapixels. That ought to be enough. You could get right up on the screen and read 6-point text. We may think this is overkill now, but who knows. Why not get to that resolution?
Then once we get to that milestone, will we be done with 2-D video and photography? It’s GOT to get to an end point, at which we’ll move on to 3-D and other dimensions.
As far as standard formats goes… I agree, one standard would be nice. Look at miniDV. It’s pretty widely used, not many other video tapes exist for digital video. Sure, mini-DVDs, but they aren’t good for serious video. (Pre-compressed video isn’t so good for editing.) What about the 3.5" floppy? I don’t recall a rival 1.44mb formatted disc.
I do, however, recall DCC (Digital Compact Cassette) tapes, made (I believe) by Philips, to rival MiniDisc. Backwards compatible with Compact Cassettes (what we pretty much call an audio “tape” now).
