As of January 11, DVD is officially on the gravy train. DVD has finally taken hold for good. DVD has arrived.
Why January 11? Because that's the day DVD stayed at #13 on the Lycos 50 instead of taking a post-Christmas dive. While toys, games, Barbie and Donkey Kong all went south with Santa, DVD stood its ground. We think it means the mainstream public is finally hooked on DVD.
Take a look at DVD rankings since mid-September, when it first appeared on the Lycos 50:
Sep. 14: --
Sep. 21: #30
Oct. 17: #30
Nov. 17: #25
Dec. 17: #15
Jan. 17: #13
That's a steady, muscular rise.
If you're not familiar with DVD, by the way, it stands for digital video disc. (Certain people now claim it stands for digital versatile disk, which makes as much difference as renaming Kentucky Fried Chicken as KFC.) DVDs are the size of CDs, only they store far more information -- enough to place an entire 2-hour movie on one disc. And movies are a very big reason why DVDs have taken off.
In November hackers got into the act when they figured out a way around DVD encryption and created a utility that let users download DVD movies right onto a computer hard drive. That utility, DeCSS, was so hot it made the Lycos 50 briefly itself.
Perhaps there was never any doubt that DVD would ultimately take the place of VHS tape as the home video format of choice, or would replace CD-ROM as the computer disc of choice. But when the hackers get after you, you know you've arrived.
