Why there will always be a need for a Physical Medium for Movies/Games

[RAILERSWIM]

I live in the country, where I'm getting the best internet that I can. 5 mbps. Which compared to the bandwidth I get at my house in the town where I go to college I get 50 mbps.

My ISP uses RF to unicast information to subscribers. We have an antenna that points to a tower 4 miles away. This is the only choice of internet we have (excluding Hughesnet, we tried them out for a year and we canceled but faced a cancelation fee of a couple hundred dollars which was refunded after they lost a lawsuit over false advertising (they are scammers)). So I'm happy to have internet most of the time out here where it's better than Hughesnet.

At home (in the country), we used to get 2.5 mbps where we could either play an online game, or watch Netflix, or all of us browse the web at the same time whilst using ad block. Then we upgraded to 5 mbps. Now we can watch Netflix and browse the web without need of ad blocking or anything to prevent excessive bandwidth use.

Still this isn't enough for good quality streaming. ESPECIALLY if streaming dominates the 4k media market. A 4k movie will be hundreds of gigabytes in size and will have an extremely high bit-rate. At best at my home in the country I will be able to get 2k quality if no one is using the internet and it's 3 in the morning. Still this would be quite taxing on my internet at my college house. I could get the file in at great quality but I would need all the bandwidth and none of my roommates would have any decent download speeds.

If worse comes to worse and a 4k medium doesn't actually happen; I will be skipping 4k movies and will just be upscaling or sticking with 1080p. If 4k is streaming only, 4k will only reach people who have ridiculous fast download speeds and so 4k will miss half of the customers wanting to go up to that resolution.

Last week I went into one of the local Best Buys, I asked an associate if they were getting any steelbooks for some of the upcoming titles. He told me that he wasn't sure but not to get my hopes up (and to just order online). His reason being is that he was told they are posibly phasing out BLU-RAY and that they are moving more into selling digital copy vouchers. I went on the same rant I did here (but I was polite) and I made the point that most people don't have the internet to go 100% streaming/digital especially if that is the main source for 4k content in the future. He agreed in the fact that he can barely support gaming and web surfing at the same time. When look at the movie section of this Best Buy... it was unfortunately dwindling. Yet I'm ok with that because my girlfriend works at Hastings so she gets discounts on movies and they will never not sell Blu-rays (they make way too much money off of used ones to not have a section whether new or used).

So there you have it my rant on why there will always be a physical medium for content. Take the CD for instance, it still exists today in the wold of streaming music, iTunes, etc. Granted CD's have diminished as well.

[kurtlingle]

Never, say never....

I hope blu-ray is around for a long time. I feel like streaming will always be less quality. I'd be fine with paying more for Streaming "full/xtras/high HD" content... but this stuff they stream now is terrible in my opinion and on par with DVD, not 1080p HD.

I prefer disk at this point. Plus, downloads should be like $1 for a 24 hour viewing, not $4-5 - what a ripoff.

[RAILERSWIM]

Originally Posted by kurtlingle

Never, say never....

I hope blu-ray is around for a long time. I feel like streaming will always be less quality. I'd be fine with paying more for Streaming "full/xtras/high HD" content... but this stuff they stream now is terrible in my opinion and on par with DVD, not 1080p HD.

I prefer disk at this point. Plus, downloads should be like $1 for a 24 hour viewing, not $4-5 - what a ripoff.

I couldn't agree with you more. I use Netflix and Amazon but I have to say I like to be guaranteed actual surround sound and 7.1 audio instead of sometimes 5.1 and sometimes stereo. And look at cable TV providers. Not all of the content delivered on HD channels are 1080p, in fact most content from cable TV is 720p or at best 1080i. So why do people want to abandon the Physical Medium ship when its really the best and fastest way to deliver true 1080p content with all of the bells and whistles (with no annoying buffering requests (only an initial loading time)).

[Al_The_Strange]

Originally Posted by RAILERSWIM

So why do people want to abandon the Physical Medium ship when its really the best and fastest way to deliver true 1080p content with all of the bells and whistles (with no annoying buffering requests (only an initial loading time)).

I find more and more that most people don't really want a movie collection, they just want to watch movies. In fact, nowadays they're happy to watch them on the go. And for all those purposes, streaming fulfills their needs perfectly (fulfills my needs too, strictly from a short-term renting perspective).

I agree with you though; I prefer to have a huge collection, so I can watch my stuff with the gaurentee that the content will be readily available in a presentable quality. I even still collect CDs for the same reasons.

It seems to surprise most people when I tell them "yeah, I have a couple thousand movies;" it's like ungodly to them. But it's still just a trifle compared to other people, who could have as many as 5,000+ physical titles. For those people who find this incredible, I'll bet their idea of a "collection" is a select handful. I find it amusing.

[Steedeel]

Originally Posted by Al_The_Strange

I find more and more that most people don't really want a movie collection, they just want to watch movies. In fact, nowadays they're happy to watch them on the go. And for all those purposes, streaming fulfills their needs perfectly (fulfills my needs too, strictly from a short-term renting perspective).

I agree with you though; I prefer to have a huge collection, so I can watch my stuff with the gaurentee that the content will be readily available in a presentable quality. I even still collect CDs for the same reasons.

It seems to surprise most people when I tell them "yeah, I have a couple thousand movies;" it's like ungodly to them. But it's still just a trifle compared to other people, who could have as many as 5,000+ physical titles. For those people who find this incredible, I'll bet their idea of a "collection" is a select handful. I find it amusing.

How do you watch a film on the go? Walking to work/school? Isn't that dangerous?

[Steedeel]

Originally Posted by RAILERSWIM

I live in the country, where I'm getting the best internet that I can. 5 mbps. Which compared to the bandwidth I get at my house in the town where I go to college I get 50 mbps.

My ISP uses RF to unicast information to subscribers. We have an antenna that points to a tower 4 miles away. This is the only choice of internet we have (excluding Hughesnet, we tried them out for a year and we canceled but faced a cancelation fee of a couple hundred dollars which was refunded after they lost a lawsuit over false advertising (they are scammers)). So I'm happy to have internet most of the time out here where it's better than Hughesnet.

At home (in the country), we used to get 2.5 mbps where we could either play an online game, or watch Netflix, or all of us browse the web at the same time whilst using ad block. Then we upgraded to 5 mbps. Now we can watch Netflix and browse the web without need of ad blocking or anything to prevent excessive bandwidth use.

Still this isn't enough for good quality streaming. ESPECIALLY if streaming dominates the 4k media market. A 4k movie will be hundreds of gigabytes in size and will have an extremely high bit-rate. At best at my home in the country I will be able to get 2k quality if no one is using the internet and it's 3 in the morning. Still this would be quite taxing on my internet at my college house. I could get the file in at great quality but I would need all the bandwidth and none of my roommates would have any decent download speeds.

If worse comes to worse and a 4k medium doesn't actually happen; I will be skipping 4k movies and will just be upscaling or sticking with 1080p. If 4k is streaming only, 4k will only reach people who have ridiculous fast download speeds and so 4k will miss half of the customers wanting to go up to that resolution.

Last week I went into one of the local Best Buys, I asked an associate if they were getting any steelbooks for some of the upcoming titles. He told me that he wasn't sure but not to get my hopes up (and to just order online). His reason being is that he was told they are posibly phasing out BLU-RAY and that they are moving more into selling digital copy vouchers. I went on the same rant I did here (but I was polite) and I made the point that most people don't have the internet to go 100% streaming/digital especially if that is the main source for 4k content in the future. He agreed in the fact that he can barely support gaming and web surfing at the same time. When look at the movie section of this Best Buy... it was unfortunately dwindling. Yet I'm ok with that because my girlfriend works at Hastings so she gets discounts on movies and they will never not sell Blu-rays (they make way too much money off of used ones to not have a section whether new or used).

So there you have it my rant on why there will always be a physical medium for content. Take the CD for instance, it still exists today in the wold of streaming music, iTunes, etc. Granted CD's have diminished as well.

It's not so much the digital only I fear as much as the trend of watching movies on tablets and smartphones. Big screens could die out soon if this trend continues.

[Al_The_Strange]

Originally Posted by Steedeel

How do you watch a film on the go? Walking to work/school? Isn't that dangerous?

Sure, why not?

Although it's probably a lot more common to do it while on a bus, while waiting for something (like an appointment), on an airplane, on a train, or any other number of instances where you're waiting or travelling and need to fill up the time.

I know that's the only use I see for having movies on a cellphone.

[Steedeel]

Originally Posted by Al_The_Strange

Sure, why not?

Although it's probably a lot more common to do it while on a bus, while waiting for something (like an appointment), on an airplane, on a train, or any other number of instances where you're waiting or travelling and need to fill up the time.

I know that's the only use I see for having movies on a cellphone.

I couldn't relax, watching a movie that way. Your post suggested to me that people are watching on a mobile exclusively. Did I read it wrong?

[Al_The_Strange]

Originally Posted by Steedeel

I couldn't relax, watching a movie that way. Your post suggested to me that people are watching on a mobile exclusively. Did I read it wrong?

It may just be me generalizing. I think you've stated the idea better that it's a trend to watch stuff on a mobile device, rather than exclusively. I do notice plenty of people streaming or setting up media servers to their TVs as well. In any case, it's the convenience of being able to whip out a movie from a cloud or from the Internet that seems to attract people, especially when a service like Netflix or Amazon provides a huge number of titles with their subscriptions.

I can kinda see the point where, if you have a subscription, you'd have instant access to all these different movies, and it'd be like having a collection of your own, even though you pay for it monthly and don't really control it. But I think my ultimate point is, that's good enough for plenty of people, whereas they may not want to invest in a physical collection.

[Steedeel]

Fair enough.

[punkguy03]

I have always thought both could survive. This idea that some people have of only being able to like physical media OR streaming is just stupid. I love Blu-ray heck I've been a member since 07 I think. But I love netflix as well.

That being said I will NEVER pay the prices they want to download a movie or stream a movie that I could buy a physical disc for. I'd rather own it if it's at all possible.

I remember when Ipods and just regular mp3s came out. No one really thought much of them at first, but they took off. However, they are still selling cds. Just not to the extent that they used to.

Until quite a few generations die physical media isn't going anywhere. It's a revenue stream and they know it.

[ZoetMB]

Originally Posted by RAILERSWIM

Then we upgraded to 5 mbps. Now we can watch Netflix and browse the web without need of ad blocking or anything to prevent excessive bandwidth use.

Still this isn't enough for good quality streaming. ESPECIALLY if streaming dominates the 4k media market. A 4k movie will be hundreds of gigabytes in size and will have an extremely high bit-rate.

Last week I went into one of the local Best Buys, I asked an associate if they were getting any steelbooks for some of the upcoming titles. He told me that he wasn't sure but not to get my hopes up (and to just order online). His reason being is that he was told they are posibly phasing out BLU-RAY and that they are moving more into selling digital copy vouchers.

I wouldn't put too much trust in what some likely minimum wage worker at a local Best Buy tells you. BB does not tell its floor workers or even store managers what the company strategy is going forward. They find out when it happens.

If a retail chain decides to stop selling a product it's either because the margins are so thin that they can't make money on it or because they're not selling very many. So it wouldn't surprise me in the future if some do reduce space for BD (although they'll never stop selling them completely - they just might go to a "hit" strategy where they just sell the top 100 titles or something similar).

And while I understand your argument that your web service isn't good enough to support streaming, especially 4K, that's obviously not true for a large part of the market, otherwise DVD would not be in severe decline and BD would be doing better than basically flat sales over last year.

But having said that, it makes absolutely no sense to me that Best Buy would stop selling physical media and sell streaming/downloading vouchers instead. I simply can't see that being successful in physical retail because in that environment, packaging plays a really big role in consumer purchase behavior. And no one needs a voucher for streaming a movie - you simply sign up to a service and pay online.

The only way it makes even some sense is if BB takes the space currently devoted to media and turns some or all of it over to managed branded inventory (a "store within a store") where a manufacturer (like Apple or Samsung or Sony) takes over the space and pays fees to BB that exceed what they can make from selling media. But a big flaw in that model is that if you force consumers to the web to order media, they'll likely order their electronics that way as well. The other flaw is that BB has already done this with the major manufacturers, so who else would they get. There has however been talk of BB moving to smaller stores in the locations where rents are high when their leases are up. In a small store model, I can see where they might devote far less space to physical media (but not "none").

For the foreseeable future, new titles are still going to be released on BD and there's tons of catalog product in the channels that will last for many years. Go onto Amazon and see how much supposedly new condition VHS is still on there. I'm always shocked that there's any VHS media around at all. And the industry is supposedly working on 4K physical media formats. It will be niche, but it will exist.

[Penton-Man]

Originally Posted by RAILERSWIM

Why there will always be a need for a Physical Medium for Movies/Games

The sky has been falling on books for decades and I imagine the trend will continue….
http://media.ofcom.org.uk/news/2014/cmr-uk-2014/

but I don’t care because they will still make ‘em and I enjoy that particular form of physical media also.

[Steedeel]

http://connectedconsumer.mediatel.co...ll-replace-tv/

This makes chilling reading, even though I don't think that would happen inside a decade. The fact that people would even think it is possible is worrying. I really hope 4k is a success lol.

[tilallr1]

Originally Posted by Steedeel

http://connectedconsumer.mediatel.co...ll-replace-tv/

This makes chilling reading, even though I don't think that would happen inside a decade. The fact that people would even think it is possible is worrying. I really hope 4k is a success lol.

First of all the statistic is total BS !!! So don't worry.

How did they even get a statistic like 53% of ALL America thinks mobile devices will replace TV. Did they run a poll to all of the US to get this number? Doubt it. More likely it was run at Apple head quarters or on their website or something.

Honestly, I think its what mobile hardware providers want you to think, but its a pipe dream.

[AnamorphicWidescreen]

It's obviously just a matter of personal preference. This may just be me, but I can't stand to watch movies/TV shows on a cell phone or other mobile device; the screen is too small.

The smallest device I'll stream TV shows/films on is my computer monitor, and even that's not too great.

[flyry]

Originally Posted by ZoetMB

I wouldn't put too much trust in what some likely minimum wage worker at a local Best Buy tells you. BB does not tell its floor workers or even store managers what the company strategy is going forward. They find out when it happens.

If a retail chain decides to stop selling a product it's either because the margins are so thin that they can't make money on it or because they're not selling very many. So it wouldn't surprise me in the future if some do reduce space for BD (although they'll never stop selling them completely - they just might go to a "hit" strategy where they just sell the top 100 titles or something similar).

And while I understand your argument that your web service isn't good enough to support streaming, especially 4K, that's obviously not true for a large part of the market, otherwise DVD would not be in severe decline and BD would be doing better than basically flat sales over last year.

But having said that, it makes absolutely no sense to me that Best Buy would stop selling physical media and sell streaming/downloading vouchers instead. I simply can't see that being successful in physical retail because in that environment, packaging plays a really big role in consumer purchase behavior. And no one needs a voucher for streaming a movie - you simply sign up to a service and pay online.

The only way it makes even some sense is if BB takes the space currently devoted to media and turns some or all of it over to managed branded inventory (a "store within a store") where a manufacturer (like Apple or Samsung or Sony) takes over the space and pays fees to BB that exceed what they can make from selling media. But a big flaw in that model is that if you force consumers to the web to order media, they'll likely order their electronics that way as well. The other flaw is that BB has already done this with the major manufacturers, so who else would they get. There has however been talk of BB moving to smaller stores in the locations where rents are high when their leases are up. In a small store model, I can see where they might devote far less space to physical media (but not "none").

For the foreseeable future, new titles are still going to be released on BD and there's tons of catalog product in the channels that will last for many years. Go onto Amazon and see how much supposedly new condition VHS is still on there. I'm always shocked that there's any VHS media around at all. And the industry is supposedly working on 4K physical media formats. It will be niche, but it will exist.

if you've been in a best buy recently it defintely is believable. the media section is less than half the size it was only 2 months ago.. and i received a similar response about everything "going digital"

best buy stores damn near look like samsung stores now since the samsung phone section took up most of the old bluray section

[evoxturbo]

Wait till something happens to Vudu or Ultraviolet cloud where people's movies are lost or stolen. If its a big enough loss it could be detrimental to one of those companies. I don't trust any of them for longevity. Their prices are too high for something you can't actually store yourself. Your putting all your trust into that company to properly store movies that you own.

Also if they start charging people to watch movies they already own or if they start putting expiration dates on films that you own it will hurt the company.

[Steedeel]

Originally Posted by evoxturbo

Wait till something happens to Vudu or Ultraviolet cloud where people's movies are lost or stolen. If its a big enough loss it could be detrimental to one of those companies. I don't trust any of them for longevity. Their prices are too high for something you can't actually store yourself. Your putting all your trust into that company to properly store movies that you own.

Also if they start charging people to watch movies they already own or if they start putting expiration dates on films that you own it will hurt the company.

4k disc is coming so who cares. Quality will be available to those of us that want it. Let's the sheep have their compressed crap.

[singhcr]

Originally Posted by Penton-Man

The sky has been falling on books for decades and I imagine the trend will continue….
http://media.ofcom.org.uk/news/2014/cmr-uk-2014/

but I don’t care because they will still make ‘em and I enjoy that particular form of physical media also.

Me too. I read articles online all the time (such as the many articles posted here by Penton and Co.), but when it comes to reading novels and other such things for pleasure I'll take an actual book every time.