Flash based movie cartridges

1. they could be recorded on many times-DVD-Rs can only be recorded once.

2. there were almost no compatibility issues between machines, unlike DVD-Rs, which some DVD players play poorly or not at all.

3. they stayed in the same position as they were when you left off. Although I will admit trying to get it exactly where you want it can be a pain, as well as waiting for it to rewind. I once attempted to play a DVD on what is probably the worst excuse for a DVD player in history. There was no way to stop the movie without starting all over again. There were no fast-forward or rewind keys (!!!!!!!). There was no pause button!!!! There wasn't even a menu key! What this meant is that if I stopped the movie or interrupted it in any way, shape or form, there was NO way to get back to where I left off! I couldn't even skip past the previews!

4. The tapes seemed more durable.

Most movie studios no longer release newer movies on tape, and have shifted solely to DVD and Blue-ray.

A better alternative to using DVDs and blue-ray disks would be to use a plastic cartridge of reasonable size (say, the size of the average game cartridge from an old-school game console) with flash memory inside, with the movie stored on it, and connectors at one end where you insert it into the player.

Since the cartridge is larger, less effort needs to be given with miniaturizing the memory circuits than would be needed for a smaller form factor. Thus, more capacity can be achieved at a lower cost.

The player will have an appropriate slot on the front and all the necessary stuff in it to put the movie onto a screen. The player will also have recording capabilities, and possibly even a built in tuner and scheduling capabilites. Blank cartridges could be sold anywhere blank DVDs and tapes are sold. Movies could also be released pre- recorded on these cartridges. The blank ones will have a write- protect switch on them, which prevents things from being recorded over. The player will either have the cartridge stick out slightly to allow you to grab it and just pull it out, or have a MECHANICAL eject button that kicks the movie out without any power. There will be a light right above the cartridge slot stating that the cartridge should not be removed when lit, and the light will come on when recording or any other situation where the cartridge should not be removed. When there's no movie inserted, the play, skip search and FF/REW keys do nothing.

The cartridge has a small bit of memory inside set aside for "cueing" abilities. In other words, when you stop playing it holds the position where you stopped so it will pick back up where you left off. You can rapid screen search, but the player allows you to "index skip" like a DVD as well. You use the cueing capabilities to indicate where you want to start recording. While it records, it goes along a fixed "timeline" on the cartridge from where you last stopped playing. If anything is already recorded ahead of where you cued, and it gets to there, it will erase that and record right over it, just like a VCR. For DVD-like convenience, every time you start recording, it makes a "chapter flag" at that area so that you can skip forward

If there are any totally blank areas or areas that can't be read, the player will keep moving forward in real time, but the screen will go black or show static until playable video is found or you turn it off, or it reaches the end. If just a few bits of the video are missing or messed up, the player will ignore it and move on, and those little messed up bits will show up on the screen.

If the cartridge has any extra features on it, they will be accessed by pressing a clearly labeled "EXTRAS" button on the player or remote control. This will retain the cued position in the main movie, so when you're done you can go right back to where you left off. The extras are navigated using the FF, REW, and other front panel buttons (with the exceptions of the power button and stop button) or by the traditional arrow pad on the remote. This way, you won't lose the ability to view the extras if the remote is lost or broken.

When it reached the end, it just stops, and the front display says "End" but it does not reset the cue position so that when you press play or record, it stops shortly thereafter. To go back to the beginning, you simply press play, and then keep pressing the "skip search back" button until you're at the beginning. If these things caught on and rental companies started stocking them, it could cause a return of the "please rewind" stickers you used to find in rental boxes or on the tapes themselves back in the good old days. Speaking of which these would be perfect for rental movies because the disks would be more durable than DVDs.

Any type of new format/technology is most likely going to be rather expensive when it first comes out, but it would come down in price due to all the supply/demand crap. the main advantage here is this-since both the recordable form and the pre-recorded form of this format are pretty much the same thing, there's no need to worry about disks you recorded playing badly or not playing at all on certain machines. Any player made for this format will be able to play either home recorded disks or pre- recorded movies. If any significant changes are made to this format that would render certain players incompatible, rather than just "slicing and dicing" an existing disk format, ideally an entire new type of disk would be made, different form factor, different players, the works.