Oh noes teh sky is falling!

[Batman1980]

Another reason not to read Time magazine.

[Retroj23]

Quote "Bluray players were the cream of the crop when it came to watching movies for a few years"

Lol what a bunch of bullshit!

Hey Time mag, newsflash: Bluray is still the best way to watch movies at home!

Until Netflix can provide the same audio and video quality of a bluray or, when and if 4K becomes the norm, blu ray will still be the champ in home theater for years to come.

God I hate Time magazine.

[honeylatte]

The movie companies are really just hoping we'll pay those "$3.99 rental" and "$9.99 purchase" digital prices.

[img eL]

Originally Posted by Goremeister100

I'm sticking with blu-ray and it will be the last physical media I buy. I replaced some of my favorite dvds with this format but I sure as hell won't be going through that again.

No one is forcing you to replace your movie collection. Don't you find value in better quality versions of your favorite movies? Whats wrong with more options? You may really like 4K versions of films that you really like.

[Clark Kent]

Time gets more attention and press if they pronounce Blu-ray dead, which is all they care about with these type of prognostications.

[img eL]

Blu-ray's? Uh... last time i checked I can still buy CD's from recently released new albums from just about any Artist or Band

[vargo]

Everybody knows that physical media will get less popular year by year, and digital delivery more popular.

To say Bluray will be 'dead' in 5 years is a step too far. In 5 years we'll be looking at a situation where Bluray (and physical in general) will account for a pretty small % of total revenue. However they will sell discs as long as it is viable to do so.

When does a format become 'dead' ? How do we define dead? When they stop manufacturing discs? That will take longer than 5 years.

[Steedeel]

It looks like we could have a race to the bottom if streaming is to prevail. Netflix offering SD streams is, in my opinion, very damaging. Soon we will have a race to the bottom with £2.99 and £3.99 all you can eat standard def, not quite dvd quality offered by all the major players. If this takes hold, HD may be dropped altogether as the cheap and nasty mainstream will lap all this up. In turn TV sets will probably become irrelevant as more and more watch on smaller screens where the quality doesn't matter as much. I saw this race to the bottom coming to be honest. Five years from now, free subscriptions but with constant adverts.
Our movie future is low quality streams on our smartphones, watches and (possibly tablets).

Anything of any real promise will flop because human kind in general reject quality.

Occulous rift failure
4k failure (see above)
Google glass failure (young people won't wear glasses regardless of what they offer)
Steam consoles failure

Anything with crappy quality or small or minuscule blocky picture massive win

[vargo]

Originally Posted by Steedeel

It looks like we could have a race to the bottom if streaming is to prevail. Netflix offering SD streams is, in my opinion, very damaging.

Netflix's cheaper subscriptions are simply an extra option for those who do not want HD or who have limited devices in the home. Very few people will downgrade their existing Netflix subscription, it is likely to be new customers who choose this, ones who were maybe on the fence about Netflix.

You are always doom and gloom.

Broadband speeds and caps go up over time, this is a proven and inevitable trend. With this trend - plus new video codecs rolling out - in 2014 and beyond more people will be streaming in 1080p, not less.

[Steedeel]

Originally Posted by vargo

Netflix's cheaper subscriptions are simply an extra option for those who do not want HD or who have limited devices in the home. Very few people will downgrade their existing Netflix subscription, it is likely to be new customers who choose this, ones who were maybe on the fence about Netflix.

You are always doom and gloom.

Broadband speeds and caps go up over time, this is a proven and inevitable trend. With this trend - plus new video codecs rolling out - in 2014 and beyond more people will be streaming in 1080p, not less.

This is more significant than you think. It could start a price war that dips to almost free levels. Let me give you an example.
Lovefilm in the UK is currently £4.99 in UK. Netflix is £5.99. With this new option Netflix (apparently) will be £5.29 if rumours are to be believed. Lovefilm respond to the price drop by also offering SD only option for, let's say for the sake of argument £3.99. Do you see where this is going? Look at spotify a free option with ads. I understand it is very popular. Same thing here. Race to the bottom and everyone who has adopted streaming tech has contributed to that in my opinion. Congrats everyone!

[vargo]

It is not a race to the bottom. It is simply more choice for the consumer. Some will choose it, most won't. You know that Netflix are also testing more expensive plans that allow more devices at once? How does this fit into your theory? A 'race to the top' now?

It is perfectly normal to have different price plans for customers depending on how many simultaneous streams they want, resolution etc. When 4K comes into play in a big way, im sure it will require a more expensive plan.

[Steedeel]

Originally Posted by vargo

It is not a race to the bottom. It is simply more choice for the consumer. Some will choose it, most won't. You know that Netflix are also testing more expensive plans that allow more devices at once? How does this fit into your theory? A 'race to the top' now?

It is perfectly normal to have different price plans for customers depending on how many simultaneous streams they want, resolution etc. When 4K comes into play in a big way, im sure it will require a more expensive plan.

Cheap and nasty wins the day, we all know it. I know it's a different media but look at spotify. They will struggle to convert those free subscribers to premium payers. People have latched onto that because it's free. The masses will probably jump all over the cheap streaming options. We are now living in a gimme gimme world. If it's not free or nearly free this generation don't care.

[Steedeel]

Future is low quality streaming and I for one will be heartbroken.

[DiscoDan]

5 years is a ridiculous statement - we still have CDs for cryin out loud! And those really ARE worthless now, especially since many sites are starting to sell lossless downloads. If Blu Ray dies, it will be to make way for 4K discs, not streaming. Not to say that streaming isn't a huge market, but I just don't see 4K streaming to be possible for the average person with average internet any time soon.

[Steedeel]

Originally Posted by DiscoDan

5 years is a ridiculous statement - we still have CDs for cryin out loud! And those really ARE worthless now, especially since many sites are starting to sell lossless downloads. If Blu Ray dies, it will be to make way for 4K discs, not streaming. Not to say that streaming isn't a huge market, but I just don't see 4K streaming to be possible for the average person with average internet any time soon.

For me it's not that we can't still buy them in five years it's the sense that we are on borrowed time with our fave Blu-ray Discs. I always have one eye on future and it bothers me that I might reach well over 1,000 discs only for the tech to then be near obsolete. Kind of how I felt when dvd came out and I was still watching my laserdisc. I enjoyed them but knew its days were numbered. Same thing here but the major difference is we are heading to inferior tech where as dvd was arguably a big step up.

[GaragePoet]

just because we really needed another thread about how long BDs are gonna be around...

[David McMinn]

Yes, I did contact them both; however, they were unable to help.

[franken_psycho1990]

Originally Posted by bhampton

To me... The idea of having to download so much data seems wasteful.

A Blu Ray can have 50Gb of data.... the thought of instantly downloading such large amounts of data seems wasteful to me...

But,... that's just me.

I dont' know what's after Blu but Blu is it for me. Make mine Blu. I'm middle aged... I will be glad for forty more years but I could go tomorrow. I'm just going to keep my collection blu... I don't care about the next formats.

-Brian

Well then you'll have to excuse this "Youngster" as I will buy any new physical disc that looks better than Blu-Ray, As long as my favorite movies are released on the new disc. BOOM!
BTW... DEATH TO STREAMING! PHYSICAL MEDIA WILL NOT DIE!

[TheScarecrowBB]

I will always own physical copies of my video games/movies and don't ever seen myself owning either of those digitally. The only thing I download digitally is music to put on my ipod.

[MrsMiniver]

Originally Posted by bruceames.

It's going to be in decline but it will be far, far from dead. Blu-ray's fortunes are tied to that of packaged media, and that has been declining for several years now. But the decline (Blu-ray + DVD) has been relatively small, well under 10% per year.
.

I think there is going to be a big shift coming soon. All that needs to happen is for the studios to delay the release of the bluray disc and support the online streaming options. The studios all came together to put an end to 35mm in movie theatres and gave a huge incentive to theatre owners to convert to digital, once that happened and a number of key owners got on board everything changed. Now it appears that some studios simply do not make 35mm prints for some films. Same sort of thing can happen to bluray.

Currently, there is a lot of money being made on bluray releases, but that can change quickly.

Although I love my Redbox machine that is just two minutes walking distance from my house, if the studios block content to Redbox like Warner does, then Redbox will simply go out of business. Success in renting movies is dependent on new releases.

Right now I only rent from Redbox because the option is there at such a low price, I probably would not walk over to the machine if the bluray rental was the same cost as an iTunes or online rental. I sure as hell do not rent from Redbox instant. I will admit, for a big release such as Man of Steel, I would pay for a bluray rental at the same cost as an iTunes rental. I don't care for smaller releases.

I don't think bluray will die on its own, there is some big money to be made in the bluray pipeline that studios just cannot abandon it. However, if the studios all came together and put forth a plan on increasing streaming market share, we will see and end to dominance of bluray. Eventually I think that will happen as the profit margins from streaming will be higher.