Video sales and rentals combined, though, still account for more than half the revenues of the feature-film business. But a lot of pretty successful businesses in this country are mature. The Divx people believe that DVD, without their enhancement, will not have very wide consumer appeal. Their biggest worry, they say, is of a format war that could kill the market for both. But it would be nice to see Divx go down in flames quickly rather than linger.
Many retailers expect to make money renting as well as selling DVD disks.
They envision Americans taking movies home and bringing them back again, into the next millennium. Video renting has become a national habit, says Eves, who points to a survey four years ago in which Americans rated it the second-best bargain in contemporary life. It would be hard to name a new business venture that has gone wrong by overestimating the sloth of the American consumer, say video retailers. Then again, there's always a first time. The player is connected by telephone line to a computer that tracks its use.