Because Blu-Ray will "obviously" be replaced rapidly by streaming only...

[Steedeel]

Originally Posted by wormraper

for one, tablets and smart phones have NOT replaced bedroom tvs. TV sales have declined because it has hit the GROWTH peak, every market has to hit the growth peak. Also KIDS are using tablets and phones. everyone grows up sooner or later. when I was a kid I was happy with a portable dvd player and a walkman.... it's a proven fact that as you grow up your tastes mature and adapt. which is why Home theater is mainly an older mans sport. most of the "young" people have 32 inch bedroom tv's while they live at home, as they age their price ranges increase and they adapt to full size sets.

and kids watch tv on their smartphones and tablets only??? sorry, but I see kids quite often and except for youtube crap or the occaisonal netflix while they're on the go I know of almost NO ONE , kids included who use their tablets and phones to watch TV on a regular basis.

It's not just kids that are using tablets. Most of my family own tablets. Most of my friends have them. A LOT of female work mates own kindle fires and ipad minis. I own ipad and Nexus 7. People who don't care about films are just going to buy tablets to watch their tv shows in future.

Only film fans will want bigger, me included.

I am sure people were having similar arguments years ago about separates hifi systems. Who would imagine many would swap the slick piano black look and the sheer beauty of quality components, the smooth, crisp sounds of music (headphones or not) and the purity of Vinyl?

I was and still am one of those people, but I simply would not of believed that people would be listening to highly compressed, soulless music on a portable player with tinny headphones? It is almost unthinkable, but that is the reality.
In my eyes, if that can happen, then all bets are off. I find it unthinkable that people will watch films on tablets and smartphones instead of TV but history proves people are cheap.

[Brightstar]

Originally Posted by Steedeel

It's not just kids that are using tablets. Most of my family own tablets. Most of my friends have them. A LOT of female work mates own kindle fires and ipad minis. I own ipad and Nexus 7. People who don't care about films are just going to buy tablets to watch their tv shows in future.

Only film fans will want bigger, me included.

I am sure people were having similar arguments years ago about separates hifi systems. Who would imagine many would swap the slick piano black look and the sheer beauty of quality components, the smooth, crisp sounds of music (headphones or not) and the purity of Vinyl?

I was and still am one of those people, but I simply would not of believed that people would be listening to highly compressed, soulless music on a portable player with tinny headphones? It is almost unthinkable, but that is the reality.
In my eyes, if that can happen, then all bets are off. I find it unthinkable that people will watch films on tablets and smartphones instead of TV but history proves people are cheap.

People where complaining about how expensive Blu ray is 5 years ago look at it now

[vargo]

Originally Posted by Terjyn

You sure do love slippery slope arguments don't you?

Are you denying the fact that Broadband availability is growing slowly?

Are you denying the fact that ISPs are putting caps on downloads?

Nobody but you is extending these trends to the absurd. And you don't win "points" for your arguments by doing so.

No, I am following your arguments to the logical conclusion. If that conclusion is absurd then that is only because your arguments are absurd to begin with.

[ack_bak]

Originally Posted by Steedeel

How is it bizarre to suggest TV sets that are shrinking in sales and by all accounts been replaced by tablets for bedroom TVs, will be no more in a few years?

Tablets and smartphone displays are where the money is, plus the kids now just watch TV on their smartphones or tablets. The more this happens, the more traditional tv screens will be under threat. If 4k screens do not take off, where from there?

Tablets and smartphones are hurting the traditional PC and laptop business far more than they are HDTV's. I have provided evidence to you in this thread that a very small percentage of people are actually watching movies and TV shows on their smartphones and tablets. Netflix has put out information showing that most streaming is not happening with those devices. At least for the near future. If 4K hits 1080p HDTV pricing or close, it will probably sell pretty well. I don't see most people paying a huge premium to get a 4K today though..

I just don't buy that HDTV's will go away. Yes, like any market they are showing that they have hit saturation levels, but Samsung alone sold over 50 million HDTV's last year and had record revenue and profit. The well is far from dry and saying that HDTV's will disappear because everyone will watch movies and TV shows on their tablets and smartphones just seems way out in left field.

4K will most likely be niche similar to 3D. If the CE's and studios can make money off it, then great. They will most likely make far more money off traditional HDTV sales with integrated apps and networking as those devices will be within price points that most people can pay.

[ack_bak]

Originally Posted by cvm

Lets not forget that companies want to start to limit the amount of bandwidth. If you go over it, the cost would be very high, as to the point of not being worth the activity.

This has been talked about at comcast and other big internet providers over the last few years. They will find a way to make money and capitalize on anything they can. If it went streaming, you can bet they would put bandwidth restrictions in place.

I agree. Folks, Comcast is going to lose cable subscribers and more and more people who sign up for premium channels to streaming.

Comcast also owns the Internet pipes for lots of Americans. So how do they offset the cable subscriber losses as more and more people cut the cord for streaming? Easy. They start tiering their badnwidth caps. You want to stream more, you are going to pay more.

This should come as no surprise, this is what AT&T and Verizon has done with data caps on mobile devices.

[spawningblue]

Come to Canada where our cap is way smaller then in the US for twice the price. My iPhone bill is like $80 for 4gb, and basic home Internet with a 20gb cap is like $40-$50. So what, I can watch 4 high def. movies for $40? It will be a while before streaming takes over up here. Blockbusters were actually doing very well in Canada, the only reason they closed is because of debt from the US companies.

That plus you have to take into account, companies will get their money from somewhere. If cable companies see no one is paying for cable anymore and only watching their shows on Netflix then you can guarantee they will increase the price of their bandwidth and start adding lots more ads. They are not going to start only bringing in half of what they were used to. Same with movie companies, if they are no longer making money from DVDs and Blurays they will charge Netflix more for the rights to their films, either that or each company will offer their movies from their own servers and charge you what they want.

Either way, if streaming takes over it won't be any cheaper for you in the long run, that I can guarantee. And it definitely won't be happening any time soon. If it has't completely taking over CDs after how many years, it will be a while before it takes over Blurays. Just because some States can handle streaming well doesn't mean the world can.

[Steedeel]

Yep, but the streaming fanboys seem to think the future will be some paradise with every film made available to stream at the drop of a hat in HD. Give me a break!

[ack_bak]

Originally Posted by Steedeel

Yep, but the streaming fanboys seem to think the future will be some paradise with every film made available to stream at the drop of a hat in HD. Give me a break!

Studios will just get the money from somewhere else as packaged media declines. Most likely we will see them raise the price of streaming/download rentals. The studios are not going to accept losing billions of dollars without putting up a fight. We are also seeing the studios demanding a lot more money from Netflix. At some point Netflix will have to either tier their streaming service as well or raise prices.

[spawningblue]

Originally Posted by ack_bak

Studios will just get the money from somewhere else as packaged media declines. Most likely we will see them raise the price of streaming/download rentals. The studios are not going to accept losing billions of dollars without putting up a fight. We are also seeing the studios demanding a lot more money from Netflix. At some point Netflix will have to either tier their streaming service as well or raise prices.

Exactly.

[ScarredLungs]

If it moves to streaming, people will lose ownership of their movies.

[Terjyn]

Originally Posted by vargo

No, I am following your arguments to the logical conclusion. If that conclusion is absurd then that is only because your arguments are absurd to begin with.

No. You can't just extend anything to an infinite conclusion and call it valid.

The fact that you think you can shows you have no grasp on logic. At all.

TRUE statement: Some ISPs are adding limits that reduce the amount of internet traffic individuals are allowed to use.
Your absurd conclusion of what the statement means: Soon the limits will prevent all internet traffic.

And you think the original statement is what's absurd? You HAVE to be trolling. You can't be serious.

[octagon]

Originally Posted by Steedeel

I find it unthinkable that people will watch films on tablets and smartphones instead of TV but history proves people are cheap.

I see, so it's your keen grasp of history that leads you to conclude that Americans are on the verge of abandoning their television sets.

[The_Donster]

OK, this is my 2 cents on the matter. Streaming is no different than watching something on a paid cable stations. Streaming will pay licensing fee's and make deals with studios, just like cable has for years. Whether physical media people like it or not, streaming is here. Is it up to the quality than you can get on a BD? As others have pointed out, depends on your internet provider. There are some, like me, who have had no issues with the quality of what I'm watching. That also depends on the source material as well. Given that technology is always advancing and most of you have made the jump I think its a little close minded to thinking that streaming won't be viable in the future.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rfLMIM77SJ4

[arrow61095]

Originally Posted by The_Donster

...........Streaming is no different than watching something on a paid cable stations. Streaming will pay licensing fee's and make deals with studios, just like cable has for years. .......

Correct.

Originally Posted by The_Donster

...........Is it up to the quality than you can get on a BD? As others have pointed out, depends on your internet provider. There are some, like me, who have had no issues with the quality of what I'm watching. That also depends on the source material as well. .......

While there are some people that may not have a problem with the quality, (as I mentioned in an earlier post) the quality is not up to BD standards. Like cable, with HD you get mostly 1080i or 720p not 1080p like blu-ray (doesn't matter on small sets). The main culprit tends to be the audio, as with streaming you usually get Stereo or Dolby Digital or another lossy format, while with BD you get lossless audio like Uncompressed PCM and Dolby True HD. Not a big deal to your average person, but if someone is an audiophile or has a home theater system, they won't like the downgrade. Streaming companies will likely never offer lossless sound as it would balloon their storage and bandwidth problems, and they would make the argument that the rise in costs would hurt the library of content they could secure.

For me, the deal-braker of streaming and digital downloads comes to not "owning" a copy of the movie. It is fine for renting. But if you had all your movies downloaded on a hard drive and the hard drive crashed, you would lose all your movies. Movie studios would use formats and write protection to prevent you from backing up your hard drive of movies, since they are so paranoid about piracy. While some companies may allow you to re-download movies (in the case of a hard drive crash), they may make you pay for it + how long before they rotate a movie out of their library and then you can't re-download it. Personally, when I buy a copy of a movie, I want to own a copy of it.

[vargo]

Originally Posted by Terjyn

No. You can't just extend anything to an infinite conclusion and call it valid.

The fact that you think you can shows you have no grasp on logic. At all.

TRUE statement: Some ISPs are adding limits that reduce the amount of internet traffic individuals are allowed to use.
Your absurd conclusion of what the statement means: Soon the limits will prevent all internet traffic.

And you think the original statement is what's absurd? You HAVE to be trolling. You can't be serious.

As I said already, I am simply following the points that people have made to their logical conclusion to illustrate how absurd the arguments against streaming are.

If you say that digital delivery won't catch on because of 2013 broadband caps, then by definition you believe that the USA is incapable of upgrading the infrastructure to meet demand.

[ack_bak]

Originally Posted by The_Donster

OK, this is my 2 cents on the matter. Streaming is no different than watching something on a paid cable stations. Streaming will pay licensing fee's and make deals with studios, just like cable has for years. Whether physical media people like it or not, streaming is here. Is it up to the quality than you can get on a BD? As others have pointed out, depends on your internet provider. There are some, like me, who have had no issues with the quality of what I'm watching. That also depends on the source material as well. Given that technology is always advancing and most of you have made the jump I think its a little close minded to thinking that streaming won't be viable in the future.

I don't think anyone can argue the validity of streaming. Like you said, it is here to stay. I think many of us are saying that streaming is not going to replace packaged media anytime soon and that we will continue to see both for a long time to come. Again, this is not an either or scenario. For the same reason that physical books, CD's and physical video games will continue to exist.

I really see streaming becoming the rental standard and a viable way to cut the cord on cable/sat TV shows. Ownership? I just don't see it right now and I really believe there will be a large group of people who will prefer to buy and collect content on packaged media.

[KRW1]

When I first started collecting, it was pre-recorded video cassettes. In many cases, these were identical to the versions broadcast on TV. Many people would ask me why I would bother to spend money on a pre-recorded tape when I could simply tape it off the TV for free. Looking back, I can't actually give a logical answer to that other than it was nice to have a favourite movie in a box on a shelf. If lots of other people didn't feel that way, sell-thru VHS would have died on it's arse. Same with physical media now; Sell-thru VHS didn't kill movies on TV and Movies on TV did not kill off sell-thu VHS. They both co-existed nicely, as will/does physical media and streaming. They satisfy different demands.

[Steedeel]

VHS pre- recorded movies always came out years before TV version. Was it not the same in USA or wherever you live?

[KRW1]

Originally Posted by Steedeel

VHS pre- recorded movies always came out years before TV version. Was it not the same in USA or wherever you live?

Except, obviously, where the movie was released decades before VHS was even a thing. UK, but principle is the same. Christ, I paid £40 for the VHS of The Rocky Horror Picture Show and it was on TV often. I've still got that version, in a little cabinet along with the first VHS of Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Great talking point. Do that with a hard drive!

[wormraper]

Originally Posted by Steedeel

It's not just kids that are using tablets. Most of my family own tablets. Most of my friends have them. A LOT of female work mates own kindle fires and ipad minis. I own ipad and Nexus 7. People who don't care about films are just going to buy tablets to watch their tv shows in future.

Only film fans will want bigger, me included.

I am sure people were having similar arguments years ago about separates hifi systems. Who would imagine many would swap the slick piano black look and the sheer beauty of quality components, the smooth, crisp sounds of music (headphones or not) and the purity of Vinyl?

I was and still am one of those people, but I simply would not of believed that people would be listening to highly compressed, soulless music on a portable player with tinny headphones? It is almost unthinkable, but that is the reality.
In my eyes, if that can happen, then all bets are off. I find it unthinkable that people will watch films on tablets and smartphones instead of TV but history proves people are cheap.

yeah, I see tablets all the time... for computing stuff and work for the most part. playing gaems on the go (like gameboys) etc... but NOT for TV stuff, simply don't see it happen unless they're at the gym.

oh, you mean headphones , kind like how walkmans and discman's have been around for over 20-30 years???