Lawrence of Arabia (1962)

[ShellOilJunior]

Originally Posted by Adam_WM

4k?!?! Another upgrade?!?!

From what I've read experts on HTF say only a very very very very tiny fraction of people could ever take advantage of the benefits of 4k. I won't lose sleep over it.

[Scooter1836]

Originally Posted by ShellOilJunior

From what I've read experts on HTF say only a very very very very tiny fraction of people could ever take advantage of the benefits of 4k. I won't lose sleep over it.

Exactly, plus you still have a lot of people that are not even on the current HD technoogy

And as far as streaming, it will be many years. There are major infrastructure issues limiting the streaming of HD picture and sound. First of all most houses are not wired with ethernet connections and the current wireless technology is not good enough to stream full HD picture and sound. Most TV's and BD players that have wireless built in are only using wireless G. Also most hoursholds pay only for the bare minimum broadband packages.

There is a basic bandwidth issue to getting HD streaming out to the masses. Now some of us would have no issue, but it won't overtake physical HD media until the masses can have HD.

4K will probably get adopted as the next step. but not for many years. It will be a niche market until cable and satelite companies can also support it. Very few will purchase 4K technology uniless that happens.

[Strevlac]

Nothing freaks me out more than "the cloud." What can go wrong, will go wrong.

Sell me a disc, please.

[Maggot]

There's a bunch of things going on:

1. The economy
2. A still pervasive view that DVD is good enough.
3. People are getting tired of upgrading and upgrading.
4. People love and want small. They want their iTouch's, iTunes, iPad's, iPhone's, etc. They want generally small, powerful portable devices. They don't want some huge disc library taking up space that can be downloaded and put on a media server in far less space. Or they also want the convenience of streaming.

I remember when the whole DVD-audio/SACD war was going. I have a Marantz universal player and I would audition multichannel albums for friends and family. While people thought it was incredible, they simply were not about to buy all new equipment. They were happy with their CD's. Also, you know what turns people off a lot......media storage wars. Should I buy DVD-A or SACD, should I buy HD-DVD or Blu-ray. That puts a bad taste in anybody's mouth that lasts.

The prevailing attitude for many is still quantity and convenience over quality. There are a lot people who are simply quite happy with DVD or upconverted DVD, that may buy the occassional Blu-ray of their few favorite films. Even then, I hear people say, I love this or that film, but it just doesn't look much better to warrant yet another purchase. So many movies are out there with poor transfers......studios not giving their all. The format demands perfection, but only a handful of films ever get the "royal" treatment. Customers see and hear of this through the grapevine or they get burned themselves buying a favorite movie only to find out it's not much better at all on Blu-ray because the studio didn't spend the money. That's a huge problem. You introduce the format, sell it as being a lot better than DVD, then don't follow through on the promise the format "could" offer if all transfers were given the royal treatment. The word does get out.

Like it or not, the future is downloadable digital files and or streaming. You can already see the writing on the wall.

[Aragorn the Elfstone]

The writing must be in a different language then.

[Maggot]

Originally Posted by Aragorn84

The writing must be in a different language then.

For you and me and many of those on this site, yes. We are collectors, we are enthusiasts. For some it's a hobby, for some it's a labor of love, for others it's both. Having a physical library is up front in our minds. However, we are not the vast majority of people out there, particularly in this economy. John Q Public is not about spending a good deal of their generally shrinking budget on nice speakers, screens, players, amps, etc., let alone buying all the movies again.

[nametag]

Originally Posted by Maggot

Like it or not, the future is downloadable digital files and or streaming. You can already see the writing on the wall.

Agreed.

I CAN see another physical format at a higher resolution being made available. But it won't take off and will remain niche because only people with massive Home Theatre screens or projectors would stand to benefit anything from it.

[Aragorn the Elfstone]

Streaming can go to hell. I'll hold on to my Blu-rays for as long as they continue to play.

[Dragun]

Originally Posted by nametag

I CAN see another physical format at a higher resolution being made available. But it won't take off and will remain niche because only people with massive Home Theatre screens or projectors would stand to benefit anything from it.

We're reaching a point of diminishing returns, regarding the general audience.

DVD- A big improvement over VHS, without having to buy a new TV. The random access features were included on LaserDiscs but they were big and expensive, and you had to flip them over/change discs to watch a movie. Not so with DVD.

Blu-Ray- An improvement over DVD, though people with CRTs can't use Blu-Ray. Yes, I know people who still haven't replaced their CRTs. Some people can't tell the difference between DVD and Blu-Ray or don't care, and an upscaled DVD on an HDTV is acceptable to them.

Future undetermined 4K format- You'd need a large display or projection to be able to see the improvement over 1080p. On average screen sizes, whatever improvements can be seen (if they can be seen) are not going to be worth the extra cost or hassle to most people.

[slick1ru2]

Originally Posted by ShellOilJunior

From what I've read experts on HTF say only a very very very very tiny fraction of people could ever take advantage of the benefits of 4k. I won't lose sleep over it.

What about Blu-ray? This website has only like 35k registered members. There are anime boards with millions of members.

The attractiveness of the cloud will only grow. I have discs that have been damaged and no longer work. Vs the cloud, where for the past 5 years I have bought on the PS3...andI have been re-downloading them for years on newer PS3s. The cloud is persistent, with redundancy and flexibility that a physical copy will never have and now that games that are in the 5-15gb range are being downloaded regularly, I can see full versions of Blu rays around the corner, perhaps, on closed systems like the PS3. The digital copy of Jaws had both an SD and HD copy. One for iPhone/iPod in SD and an HD one for the computer. That will probably be the future. Different resolutions for different viewing devices with lifetime ability to download your copy again into a system with your account.

[lim.davidd]

Blu-Ray for me for the rest of my life

[slick1ru2]

Originally Posted by lim.davidd

Blu-Ray for me for the rest of my life

You must be very old. I say that because 20-30 years from now you will think the same way about that statement as if you had said "VHS for me for the rest of my life" 30 years ago and saw that statement today. At one point in the future BDs will cease production and be replaced with something and there will no longer be any new media put out on it. Technology has not hit any walls and Sony already has a multi TB optical disc.

[Scooter1836]

Now back to our regularly schedule thread "Lawrence of Arabia"

...Will the turks capture Lawrence and have their way with him
...Will the Arabs tell them that they no longer need him
...Will the British Generals throw him under the bus

Tune in and watch

[rickah88]

Originally Posted by Aragorn84

The writing must be in a different language then.

Agree 100%! Well said.

[paper tiger]

I'm debating on whether to purchase the Collectors Edition of Titanic 3D and/or The Lawrence of Arabia Collectors Edition. Ultimatly I would like to own both, but I'm running out of shelf space.

[rickah88]

Originally Posted by paper tiger

I'm debating on whether to purchase the Collectors Edition of Titanic 3D and/or The Lawrence of Arabia Collectors Edition. Ultimatly I would like to own both, but I'm running out of shelf space.

I'm getting both, but if I had to choose I would go with LoA.
I think you get more in the LoA Collectors Edition, then you do with the Titanic CE. While it's a tought choice, to be sure, the good news is you'll still walk away with 2 great films!

[paper tiger]

Originally Posted by rickah88

I'm getting both, but if I had to choose I would go with LoA.
I think you get more in the LoA Collectors Edition, then you do with the Titanic CE. While it's a tought choice, to be sure, the good news is you'll still walk away with 2 great films!

Very true, thank you for your advice, I think for right now I will keep both, however Titanic is the lesser of the Collectors sets. Lawrence of Arabia does have more to offer.

[rickah88]

Originally Posted by paper tiger

Very true, thank you for your advice, I think for right now I will keep both, however Titanic is the lesser of the Collectors sets. Lawrence of Arabia does have more to offer.

Not a problem!
I would, definitely, keep both preordered(assuming thru Amazon) as IF you decide to go with LoA, which has a history of being delayed in it's release AND comes out well after Titanic. Now I'm not saying anything is going to happen to the LoA CE, but you just never know. It would be a total bummer if you cancel Titanic and, for whatever reason, LoA gets bumped/cancelled/delayed/etc...then you might miss out on BOTH!!!

[The Duke]

Originally Posted by Maggot

Unfortunately, there are people on this site who prefer to live in a vacuum or with their heads in the sand.

There are also people on this site who don't live a city and can't get 10 terabyte DL speed internet for $9.95 / mo. I'm not that far out in the country but I am a few miles beyond DSL availability, so I pay almost $50/mo. for WiMax (long range wireless), for what they claim is "up to" 2MB DL speed but averages .6MB. So streaming is not an option, and a cloud is useless to me.

[rickah88]

Originally Posted by The Duke

There are also people on this site who don't live a city and can't get 10 terabyte DL speed internet for $9.95 / mo. I'm not that far out in the country but I am a few miles beyond DSL availability, so I pay almost $50/mo. for WiMax (long range wireless), for what they claim is "up to" 2MB DL speed but averages .6MB. So streaming is not an option, and a cloud is useless to me.

But didn't you hear...the complete data network infrastructure is going to get a top-to-bottom overhaul, within the next 4 minutes! That way blu-ray can be immediately replaced by streaming!