A zombie thread . . .
Anyway, multimedia was a pretty big deal in the 90s. Interactive CD-ROMS, stuff like that, where written content was mixed with videos and audio. Back then, video was limited but nowadays you could have high quality video.
I don't think it would replace eBooks, but I think there is definitely a use case for it. It could be an "Enhanced" offering, for example. Or, if a movie is novelized, clips from the movie could be included. That would be kind of neat. But I don't think it would replace a book that's nothing but text. I mean, books used to include illustrations and these days that concept seems limited to children's books. Readers want to read and there are enough real life distractions that you don't need a popup video in a book to add to them.
Still, like I said, there are use cases. Non-fiction, for example. A printed book can have photos but an eBook could have video. Suppose you had a book on insects and a section covers how a butterfly emerges from its chrysalis. Instead of photos, you could have an actual video. That would be useful.
Or manuals too. Repair guides. In the old days, you used to get good manuals with detailed and understandable instructions. Nowadays, you're likely to get a series of poorly produced videos vaguely showing you how to do stuff. I prefer manuals you can read but occasionally you need to see how something is done. If you could combine both worlds, that is a well-written manual with quality videos, you'd be well-covered. I could read the manual like I prefer but if I get stuck, hopefully the video would help me out.
PDFs have supported embedded videos for many years now. Still, it's kind of rare to receive one.
