Nothing is forever. And even if it does last your lifetime, will you even care twenty to thirty years from now? As collectors, we all have been through the process of upgrading media to a new format.
I suppose the point many are making is that Blu-ray is the last format they will collect because the quality is as good as they think home media should be, and that 4K is overkill.
I will likely collect movies all my life, well beyond Blu-ray (2D/3D), Digital HD/UHD and UHD Blu-ray. Technology changes in many ways over time. Many of the people who are speaking out against digital could very well be right that it could turn into something bad for home cinema.
I suppose I'm an optimist when it comes to digital. I appreciate its benefits and I do see it becoming more popular than physical media at some point. Physical media should be around for a very long time. Just look at CDs and Vinyl. Many probably expected them to be gone by now, but they're still here.
People are less and less patient these days, so they want things NOW! That could lead to a certain lack of appreciation for the arts, when people demand it to be quick and easy. Digital isn't the cause of this, but it is growing in popularity as a result of this development in the modern world. People avoiding movies because they're too long. Wanting a movie digitally 2-3 weeks ahead of physical.
Many more people are ordering everything online. The next logical step for many of those people is to just get it digitally instead. Cut out the delivery man. Instant gratification. Very little noticeable loss in quality.
It's easy to judge people who've succumbed to digital, but it goes deeper than laziness. It's a cultural shift. People are becoming more anti-social, agoraphobic, etc. You hardly have to leave the house anymore. More people work from home thanks to the internet. Digital is a very modern luxury. It's an extension of who we are now.
I wonder who we will be in the future. As long as I can always retreat into movieland, I'll be fine. However, I do recognize the concerns about digital. There are things about it to give you pause.
Thanks for reading.
|