Return of the disposable DVD

First we had DIVX, then Flexplay (pictured), and now meet "Einmal," the latest of the watch-it-then-toss-it disc formats. It's a bad idea that just keeps getting...well, recycled.

The Register reports that a company called DVD-D Germany Ltd has just unveiled its "Einmal" (that's German for "once") DVDs, which come sealed in vacuum-sealed cases. Once you crack the seal, oxygen reacts with the disc's "self-destruct" chemical coating, leaving you about 48 hours to watch your movie before the DVD turns into a coaster.

The "Einmal" discs will sell for about four euros, according to the Register; that's more than $6 here, although I'm sure the price would fall to about four bucks if the discs ever made it Stateside (let's hope not).

This isn't the first time that the disposable DVD idea has reared its ugly head. A company called Flexplay has been making disposable DVDs (which have, more or less, the same "self destruct" feature as the new Einmal discs) for a few years now.

Flexplay claims the discs (which cost anywhere from $5-$7; new releases include "Transformers," "Arctic Tale," and "The Golden Compass") are fully recyclable, although environmentalists (obviously) aren't too thrilled with the idea.

And then there was DIVX, a format developed by Circuit City and a group of lawyers in the late 1990s that initially competed with DVD. Instead of self-destructing, DIVX discs (not to be confused with DivX, the video codec) had to be played in a specially-made DIVX player connected to a phone line; once your disc expired (usually after 48 hours), you could either throw it away or pay a fee and get the disc reactivated. DIVX died back in 2001, and I can't say I miss it.

Clearly, I'm not too hot on disposable DVDs—they're expensive, they're bad for the environment (imagine how many of the discs end up in the trash rather than the recycle bin), and c'mon...how hard is it to return a rental DVD? Not to mention the fact that the boom in online video is rendering the whole issue moot.

So, what do you think—would you pay $4 or so for a DVD you could watch and then throw away?

Related:
This DVD will self-destruct in 48 hours [The Register]