Oh noes teh sky is falling!

[RodChester]

Originally Posted by xander

It's notable that the guy who is a fanatic film collector still hasn't upgraded to Blu yet.

Yeah, I was a bit bemused by that as well. As cheap as players are now there really isn't any reason to not have one. Especially someone like him. He said he does still buy blurays though. I wonder if he gets new releases as combo packs or just the DVDs then?

[EVERYONE LIES]

He started collecting VHS, 16 years ago? That is around the time the format died. No blu-ray player? This makes about as much sense as Criterion still releasing DVD's.

[Brian81]

Originally Posted by EVERYONE LIES

He started collecting VHS, 16 years ago? That is around the time the format died. No blu-ray player? This makes about as much sense as Criterion still releasing DVD's.

Doesn't matter. I started collected LD around the time it was dying off. I had a CRT TV and I thought DVD's looked pixelated on them. I liked the smoother picture, and the resolution seemed about the same between the two on it. It wasn't until I purchased an HDTV in 2006 that I realized how bad LD looked. The whole digital vs. analog display.

[gkolb]

The Flavorwire article was also mentioned at the Digital Bits - My 2 Cents posting today, along with a second piece over at DVD Review (link follows)

http://www.dvdreview.com/2015/08/ult...t-nobody-came/

"I want my MTV", errrrr 4k uhdbd, or whatever

[cakefactory]

Originally Posted by gkolb

The Flavorwire article was also mentioned at the Digital Bits - My 2 Cents posting today, along with a second piece over at DVD Review (link follows)

http://www.dvdreview.com/2015/08/ult...t-nobody-came/

"I want my MTV", errrrr 4k uhdbd, or whatever

Article's good just for the War of the Gargantuas plug.

[MifuneFan]

Originally Posted by EVERYONE LIES

He started collecting VHS, 16 years ago? That is around the time the format died. No blu-ray player? This makes about as much sense as Criterion still releasing DVD's.

Do you want to cover the shortfall for Criterion so they can stop selling them? DVD's still make up a notable percentage of their sales.

[I KEEL YOU]

DVD revenue down 20% from a year ago.
Blu ray revenue down 41.2% from a year ago.

I think there's only one explanation for this: People are not buying the older formats because everyone is saving their money and waiting to invest in UHD blu rays, which will be the most successful home media format in history by far, and which will kill off digital/streaming entirely a couple of weeks after its launch.

[Bates_Motel]

Originally Posted by I KEEL YOU

DVD revenue down 20% from a year ago.
Blu ray revenue down 41.2% from a year ago.

I think there's only one explanation for this: People are not buying the older formats because everyone is saving their money and waiting to invest in UHD blu rays, which will be the most successful home media format in history by far, and which will kill off digital/streaming entirely a couple of weeks after its launch.

LMAO right

[gkolb]

Wow, did disc media sales hit the skids, or what???

Was there an anomaly last year in sales that generated large dollars, or are you wearing your Wall St hat at the moment to predict the upcoming investment opportunities in Florida land sales, or was it UHD blurays at laserdisc prices?

lol, all the way to the land bank...

[kidglov3s]

Originally Posted by gkolb

Wow, did disc media sales hit the skids, or what???

Was there an anomaly last year in sales that generated large dollars, or are you wearing your Wall St hat at the moment to predict the upcoming investment opportunities in Florida land sales, or was it UHD blurays at laserdisc prices?

lol, all the way to the land bank...

That week last year Spiderman 2 was released, along with Toy Story of Terror. That week this year we got WDAS Shorts and Little Boy (DO YOU BELIEVE WE CAN DO THIS? No I don't.)

[Groot]

I expect sales to pick up when big summer releases hit (Mad Max/F7/JW/Ultron) but I do think people are transitioning to streaming or redbox rentals vs buying.

[Bates_Motel]

Originally Posted by Groot

I expect sales to pick up when big summer releases hit (Mad Max/F7/JW/Ultron) but I do think people are transitioning to streaming or redbox rentals vs buying.

Yep, Netflix continually posts record-number growth each quarter. Physical media - despite what some people may want to believe - is indeed on the way out. Will it ever go away completely? Maybe not. You can still buy albums, but the selection is extremely limited and usually its only the biggest titles. So it will stay around for a bit, but the selections and releases will shrink. And UHD won't take off at all. It will be reserved for the biggest blockbusters, so don't expect a bunch of catalog titles to come out on there, outside the top franchises and random blockbusters like Titanic.

I do laugh every time I see someone post they are holding off on some average title until it hits UHD. Just because a film has a 4K master doesn't mean it'll automatically get put on 4K blu. That 4K master is most likely reserved for streaming.

[kidglov3s]

Originally Posted by Bates_Motel

Yep, Netflix continually posts record-number growth each quarter. Physical media - despite what some people may want to believe - is indeed on the way out. Will it ever go away completely? Maybe not. You can still buy albums, but the selection is extremely limited and usually its only the biggest titles. So it will stay around for a bit, but the selections and releases will shrink. And UHD won't take off at all. It will be reserved for the biggest blockbusters, so don't expect a bunch of catalog titles to come out on there, outside the top franchises and random blockbusters like Titanic.

It says a lot that UHD isn't even mentioned in the article.

[Clark Kent]

It's a smart, fascinating piece that captures the zeitgeist of the current movie market very well in all its complexity.

The bad news is that the major Hollywood studios will release fewer and fewer Blu-rays in the coming years, as the decline in sales will make more and more releases unprofitable for them or not worth their time.

The good news is that there is a small but reliable market of Blu-ray buyers. That gives niche labels like Shout Factory a huge opportunity to license more and more studio catalog properties.

Most catalog films will never hit UHD, the cost to restore them in 4K will surpass their ROI. That is why releasing a quality Blu-ray of them is so critical and why Blu-ray will hang around for many years after the studios have stopped caring.

[kidglov3s]

Originally Posted by Bates_Motel

Not really. I mean, it reads like a puff piece considering this "guy" still has VHS. I certainly don't put any value in anything he or the article has to say, really, since he's not even current with the times. So really, he wouldn't know.

Beyond the guy. I mean the writer mentions Netflix, Amazon, Criterion, Shout, Severin, Vinegar, Exploitation.tv, all kinds of stuff and I mean the pending new format UHD Blu-ray not even a mention.

D-VHS, is all I'm saying.

[Bates_Motel]

Originally Posted by kidglov3s

Beyond the guy. I mean the writer mentions Netflix, Amazon, Criterion, Shout, Severin, Vinegar, Exploitation.tv, all kinds of stuff and I mean the pending new format UHD Blu-ray not even a mention.

D-VHS, is all I'm saying.

Yeah, and seemingly everyone they mention still mentions VHS. It's brought up over and over, like its some kind of holy grail that has some collector's value. That's like crappy Polaroid photos coming back in style like they are, when they were always a terrible quality photo to begin with.

UHD didn't get a mention because 1) the writer was too busy talking about VHS and 2) because UHD is going to be a smaller niche than Laserdisc.

[StingingVelvet]

Less mainstream doesn't equal "dead," that's all you have to keep telling yourself.

[Member-222782]

My thoughts on the whole physical media debate:

DVD is the dominant format because it's what big box retailers choose to stock on their shelves. Go to any shopping mecca and if there's a home video section you can bet it will be mainly DVDs, especially children's programming. People can't buy what stores don't have.

Speaking of Brick & Mortar retailers, many don't see the value of selling movies in general. Movies are a loss leader, which is why you only see the latest blockbusters on DVD. The future of physical media sales belongs to the internet.

Sales of Blu-ray and DVD titles are perceived to be dying because format wars have done some damage to consumers' confidence. Plus, you tack on chatter about upcoming format "upgrades" like UHD and you have further erosion among enthusiasts, thus more people holding off for the next hot thing. People who still want to own physical copies of their favorite movies are sticking to the one "safe" format in their eyes, which is DVD.

The internet has eaten into people's perceived notion that owning physical copies of movies is a must because it's the only way of being able to watch your favorite movies when you want to. Pretty much anyone can download movies for free from many torrent sites, There are endless outlets for folks to watch stuff without paying a cent. People no longer feel they have to buy movies because they can watch them for free online. In 1997, everyone and their mothers were buying DVDs by the armloads. Today, the only people still doing that are diehard collectors like us, are we're a dying breed.

The good news is, there's still a market for specialized home video releases, even if it's much smaller than it was 15 years ago, and there are people who are passionate enough to start and run indy labels to cater to that market. As long as they exist, I will continue to support them until the end.

[imsounoriginal]

An alarming number of people I know personally either can't see, or just don't care about, the difference in quality between DVD and Blu-ray. A recent movie's DVD played in a Blu-ray player looks more than good enough to most people. It isn't just age/eyesight related either; it's flat-out apathy in most cases.

[HD Goofnut]

Originally Posted by imsounoriginal

An alarming number of people I know personally either can't see, or just don't care about, the difference in quality between DVD and Blu-ray. A recent movie's DVD played in a Blu-ray player looks more than good enough to most people. It isn't just age/eyesight related either; it's flat-out apathy in most cases.

Bingo. Unfortunately, this applies to probably 80+% of the western world population