Oh noes teh sky is falling!

[mcf]

Well, I wouldn't simply dismiss it.

As much as we love Blu-ray, it's still a relatively niche technology outside of North America, Europe, and Japan.

Hell, most Asian countries still have new movies released in the VCD format (240i resolution, stereo sound only, MPEG1 video, 4x3 aspect ratio only no copy protection).

In addition, the likes of Netflix et al will increase in popularity as Internet speeds increase, making 1080p streaming available to more and more consumers who simply don't care about collecting discs or having the best quality possible when viewing a movie.

Streaming 1080p video with DTS-HD MA 7.1 audio is already being tested and may even be implemented as a regular feature by the end of this year or next year.

While it's indeed far fetched that Blu-ray (both as a format and technology) will die in five years time, I don't expect it to survive this decade either.

[thecalm_7]

I wouldn't worry myself about it too badly. All things end, but there are still companies that will cater to the needs of few. Remember 4k is coming out as well. Think about what is in the market now, DVDs are still coming out and while some companies are doing less movies, they are doing TV shows in mass.

Its the beginning of 2014, everyone and their mother have articles about how this tech and that tech are irrelevant or don't buy.

Yahoo's 2014 list was laughable. And for the 3rd year in a row DVD/BR players, portable navigations, and cable services.

Truth is: Physical media will slack off as the years pass, but you might have to order it to get what you want. In the late 90's-early 2000s I could wait until Saturday to get my new releases and I got them all, no hassle. Today, the best sellers are physically in the store, the rest, I order. And for the most part, I need to be their on Tuesday to get them. They order less now. Target/WM have the most quanity usually.

2013 was Blu-Ray media's highest financial success yet in many markets.

[bhampton]

I read the 1969 Dodge Charger is now obsolete. These don't have air bags or antilock brakes or cruise control. Don't try to use one on modern roads.



If anyone has one taking up space on the lawn please contact me and I'll help you remove it.

[alvarez468]

Originally Posted by bhampton

I read the 1969 Dodge Charger is now obsolete.

If anyone has one taking up space on the lawn please contact me and I'll help you remove it.

😆😆😆

That was funny



I'm fully dedicated to bluray. Im Buying all my movies on this format but if a new format comes out I'll probably be picky with which movies I buy.

I'll jump on streaming when Netflix gets movies on same day release as the bluray till then no thanks. Don't get me wrong I like Netflix but id rather buy the bd

[AKORIS]

Originally Posted by thecalm_7

I wouldn't worry myself about it too badly. All things end, but there are still companies that will cater to the needs of few. Remember 4k is coming out as well. Think about what is in the market now, DVDs are still coming out and while some companies are doing less movies, they are doing TV shows in mass.

Its the beginning of 2014, everyone and their mother have articles about how this tech and that tech are irrelevant or don't buy.

Yahoo's 2014 list was laughable. And for the 3rd year in a row DVD/BR players, portable navigations, and cable services.

Truth is: Physical media will slack off as the years pass, but you might have to order it to get what you want. In the late 90's-early 2000s I could wait until Saturday to get my new releases and I got them all, no hassle. Today, the best sellers are physically in the store, the rest, I order. And for the most part, I need to be their on Tuesday to get them. They order less now. Target/WM have the most quanity usually.

2013 was Blu-Ray media's highest financial success yet in many markets.

that's not a bad thing to hear

[bowlingbilly10]

This better not happen!! I love my blu rays and I support physical media than streaming. Streaming is good and all when u want to test your movies out first before u buy the physical copy but I rather have the physical copy for my movies.

[HyperRealist]

Originally Posted by bhampton

I read the 1969 Dodge Charger is now obsolete. These don't have air bags or antilock brakes or cruise control. Don't try to use one on modern roads.



If anyone has one taking up space on the lawn please contact me and I'll help you remove it.

You could get a 69 Charger with cruise control....

[raygendreau]

The Sony CES press conference (recorded) had no mention of physical disk during the discussion of 4K, which supports the OP article premise. Hastings (Netflix CEO) said 15 Mbps is all that's required for 4K streaming.

The 4K discussion starts right after the introduction (00:07:20) and lasts for about 20 minutes.

http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/42493231

[bhampton]

Originally Posted by HyperRealist

You could get a 69 Charger with cruise control....

Oh. My bad.

[UFAlien]

Originally Posted by raygendreau

Hastings (Netflix CEO) said 15 Mbps is all that's required for 4K streaming.
http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/42493231

Sure, if you want your 4K to look exactly like 720p whenever anything moves slightly.

[JohnAV]

Originally Posted by Krelldog1977

Guys,

Check out this article- Is Blu-ray dying or what? ridiculous.

http://techland.time.com/2014/01/02/...ad-in-5-years/

Same drivel that was published previous year, you have marketing types that believe that physical media is doomed because of streaming. The main problems are that a large percentage of population doesn't have access to high speed internet, and that licensing broadcasting of studio content by streaming hosts is yearly, so content you like to watch doesn't disappear. All you need now is for the tech companies to finally come up with a 4k media standard and then discussion changes totally.

[Packerfan75]

Originally Posted by Krelldog1977

Guys,

Check out this article- Is Blu-ray dying or what? ridiculous.

http://techland.time.com/2014/01/02/...ad-in-5-years/

No. And you can quote me on that.

[nousefouraname]

Probably a dumb question, didn't know where to put this, and didn't want to start a new thread; however, what is Blu-Ray going to look like on a 4k tv?

I'm of the mind that I want to stop at Blu-Ray as well. I've spent hundreds if not thousands of dollars converting most of my dvd collection to blu-ray. I'm completely satisfied with how blu-ray looks on my 1080p tv.

However, I can certainly see a scenario where 1080p tv's go the way of 720p tv's and aren't really readily available anymore. Maybe in 5 years, the only model on the market will be 4k. If that happens, I may be forced to upgrade to a 4k tv even though I don't really think I'll need one. I don't see over the air media making the leap to 4k anytime soon. I'm not a game addict or anything either.

I remember being really satisfied with dvd, but then bought my 1080p tv. At that point, DVD became immediately visually unacceptable to me. Is the leap of presenting a blu-ray on a 4k tv going to have the same jarring effect on me? Will blu-ray on a 4k tv look as bad as dvd on a 1080p tv? Or, will the degradation of the picture not be as jarring or noticeable?

I'm interested in getting some opinions on this. I can't find a decent answer to this anywhere. If it's as bad as dvd on 1080p, I'm inclined to buy another 1080p tv if it looks like they are about to be on the way out, because I'm not spending thousands more to upgrade my media collection again.

Thank you!

[pro-bassoonist]

And as usual I would be commenting on these "findings"/predictions when the time is right.

I still remember a certain pundit from a certain "mainstream" magazine who predicted that PCs and DVDs would be dead in " a couple" of years.

That prediction was in 2001.

Pro-B

[Canada]

Originally Posted by JohnAV

Same drivel that was published previous year, you have marketing types that believe that physical media is doomed because of streaming. The main problems are that a large percentage of population doesn't have access to high speed internet, and that licensing broadcasting of studio content by streaming hosts is yearly, so content you like to watch doesn't disappear. All you need now is for the tech companies to finally come up with a 4k media standard and then discussion changes totally.

Our streaming speeds in North America suck, I heard a year ago that South Korea has better streaming speeds than we do.

[Det. Bullock]

Originally Posted by nousefouraname

Probably a dumb question, didn't know where to put this, and didn't want to start a new thread; however, what is Blu-Ray going to look like on a 4k tv?

I'm of the mind that I want to stop at Blu-Ray as well. I've spent hundreds if not thousands of dollars converting most of my dvd collection to blu-ray. I'm completely satisfied with how blu-ray looks on my 1080p tv.

However, I can certainly see a scenario where 1080p tv's go the way of 720p tv's and aren't really readily available anymore. Maybe in 5 years, the only model on the market will be 4k. If that happens, I may be forced to upgrade to a 4k tv even though I don't really think I'll need one. I don't see over the air media making the leap to 4k anytime soon. I'm not a game addict or anything either.

I remember being really satisfied with dvd, but then bought my 1080p tv. At that point, DVD became immediately visually unacceptable to me. Is the leap of presenting a blu-ray on a 4k tv going to have the same jarring effect on me? Will blu-ray on a 4k tv look as bad as dvd on a 1080p tv? Or, will the degradation of the picture not be as jarring or noticeable?

I'm interested in getting some opinions on this. I can't find a decent answer to this anywhere. If it's as bad as dvd on 1080p, I'm inclined to buy another 1080p tv if it looks like they are about to be on the way out, because I'm not spending thousands more to upgrade my media collection again.

Thank you!

My guess it's that the difference wouldn't be really that much unless you buy a huge TV.
Consider this: the 2k resolution used in the average digital cinema theatres isn't much higher than 1080p (though DCPs have less compression than Blu Rays of course) and 4k is used mostly for even bigger screens.
Probably most people don't have enough space in their homes for a TV screen big enough to really appreciate 4k resolution.

[Tok]

South Korea is quite a bit smaller. So it's not as much of issue to upgrade their systems. But I agree for what customers pay in NA we don't get much value.

[vargo]

Originally Posted by UFAlien

Sure, if you want your 4K to look exactly like 720p whenever anything moves slightly.

So I take it you have a lot of experience with encoding 4K content using HEVC ?

[Peak]

Originally Posted by Canada

Our streaming speeds in North America suck, I heard a year ago that South Korea has better streaming speeds than we do.

Your streaming speed might suck in the US. However, your library when booting up Netflix is not anywhere close to the Suckage present in countries abroad, like Sweden in my case.

If you saw the library we have access to (on the Movie side, TV Series is slightly better), you would unsubscribe pretty quickly.

This is, in my book, one of the reasons seldom mentioned when talking about how streaming will take over the world. If you want to watch a movie released in the last 2 years, Netflix is not an option outside of the US. Multiple reasons for this, but the main one is that the big 8 does not own distribution rights in our regions. These complicated distribution deals - different for most European countries - makes it very hard to do something coordinated outside of the US. Again, this builds a stronger case for disc based media as I see it...

[50strat54]

DVD and Blu-ray players


DVD sales and rentals are down, so it’s not a surprise that fewer consumers are buying DVD players. Sales of DVD and Blu-ray players totaled 21.3 million in 2012, down 20.1% from a year prior and down 24.8% from 2010, according to research firm SNL Kagan.

Instead, experts say, consumers are increasingly streaming movies from Internet-based subscription services like Hulu and Netflix. Gamers can also use their consoles, such as the Xbox One and PlayStation4, to watch DVDs.

http://money.msn.com/how-to-budget/1...-buy-in-2014-1

Discuss...