Oh noes teh sky is falling!

[Canada]

I wouldn't worry because we have 2160p UHD HDR Blu-ray's coming down the pipe.

[Aclea]

Originally Posted by StingingVelvet

Even if disc media lasts 30 more years as a niche format there is going to be tons of less popular stuff that goes streaming only. So unless someone is a die-hard anti-streaming person we're all going to have a combination of both at some point.

I already do. A lot of mainstream French comedies and thrillers never get any kind of release in the UK but a few do get released on streaming services like Amazon, and since in most cases the French discs for those titles don't have English subtitles it's streaming or nothing.

[mar3o]

Originally Posted by cine74

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.

YES!! This!

I've been saying this for years. If retail stores had done a better job of switching over to blu-ray, people would have switched over. Like you said, you can't buy what the stores won't sell you. Most people have no idea how many blu-ray discs are available online. They think that they see in stores is all there is - a meager selection of random titles. Retail plays a big part in the failure of blu-ray's adoption. People buy DVDs because that's what's on store shelves. Do people buy CRTs any more? Or 4:3 PC monitors? No! Why not? Because stores stopped selling them, and people moved onto the next product that took its place - 16:9/16:10 monitors, HDTVs.

[42041]

Retailers are in the business of retail, not technological evangelism. I suspect that if blu-rays sold better than DVDs, retailers would stock more blu-rays. For that matter, I've never had problems finding blu-rays of new films in big box stores. Catalog is more dicey, but the selection is still good enough to put the lie to that theory.

[mar3o]

Originally Posted by gates70

Depends on the size of the screen you're watching on. On my 112", no matter how well a player upscales, DVD still looks like crap.

Non-anamorphic DVDs are unwatchable on modern HDTVs. They play windowboxed. That alone should have shifted people over, since many early DVDs were non-anamorphic.

Originally Posted by Lincoln6Echo

I have been highly tempted to box up all of my DVDs and either sell them or store them. I don't watch any of them any more.

The only DVDs I keep are the ones that are unavailable on blu-ray, or have good bonus material that isn't on the blu-ray. I have a bunch of tv series over the years that hold up pretty well on my 46" due to the 4:3 aspect ratio working in it's favor.

[mar3o]

Originally Posted by 42041

Retailers are in the business of retail, not technological evangelism. I suspect that if blu-rays sold better than DVDs, retailers would stock more blu-rays. For that matter, I've never had problems finding blu-rays of new films in big box stores. Catalog is more dicey, but the selection is still good enough to put the lie to that theory.

Sorry, but that's not what I'm seeing out there. Sure, Movie Stop still has a good selection of catalog titles. How many average movie goers go to Movie Stop? Compare that to Walmart and Target and Best Buy shoppers, where catalog titles are just a novelty item.

[mar3o]

Originally Posted by darkknightman

The majority of consumers are going to chose convenience over quality. It's just a fact. You need to look no further than the current generation of children and teens. They do not collect cd's, dvd's or any such physical media at all and are content on having their music in mp3 format and watching movies and shows via Netflix, or other such services. I am always amused at those collectors who get utterly angry at the inevitable decline of physical media. Personally, I purchased several copies of dvd's and blu rays and now face the reality that they are becoming worthless. I have sold much of my physical media and have only kept a few titles. I have over a hundred movies in UV and personally prefer the convenience of digital media. I have actually watched more older films now because I don't need to pull discs off my shelves any more. I am contemplating selling off the rest of blu rays and going all digital. I can tell you all this, blu rays aren't selling for nearly as much as they used to on Ebay. Physical media is coming to a close whether we like it or not.

Every time somebody posts how "convenient" streaming and digital is, I wonder if they've ever heard of bandwidth caps and data caps?

There was just an article yesterday on Arstechnica that Comcast is charging $30 more a month to remove their very low data cap (and I bet there's still a limit even if you pay the extra fee). Regular price for Comcast - $40 according to Arstechnica. Monthly charge with the data cap removed - $70!! How many homes are going to pay that much more?!? It's almost double in price to pay for what you should be getting anyways. Comcast even said the cap isn't anything related to any technical reason - it's just a "business decision"! Yeah - business, as in, put a cap on the service and charge more to remove it! I have FiOS and there is no data cap, and I don't have to pay more for unlimited data. But FiOS is absent across much of the country. Many are stuck with awful ISPs and ridiculous bandwidth and data caps.

As long as ISPs are implementing data caps, streaming and digital downloads are going to be of limited service. Unless people don't mind streaming Netflix at 480 resolution.

[Packerfan75]

I find the fact that slip covers, steelbooks and box sets are constantly being made available is recognition by studios and retailers that there is a market and demand for physical media. Exclusive deals require money to be paid up front by retailers for custom packaging which they would never do were they not sure they'd make it back and then some.
As others have said, the majority doesn't notice or care but being a minority doesn't mean insignificant. There's money to be made and studios know it. They've seen many of us repurchase the same movies (Star Wars) we already have for new features and custom packaging (see also: SW steelbooks). They know we're buying them so they keep supplying them. As long as there's demand, supply will keep coming.
Another thing we can do is educate our families and friends of the difference and superiority of the bluray format. That's reason #1 why most all of us do this. The picture and sound quality cannot be matched by streaming services. My parents didn't know or care until I showed them HD and the high quality of bluray over DVD and T.V. Now they have their own bluray player and movies that they purchased. For most people, seeing is believing whether they're enthusiasts or not.

[HonestJohn]

Originally Posted by schlock

(I've seen people watch 1.85:1 movies stretched out to 2.35:1 with black bars on top and bottom just because their sets are set to stretch.) And they don't even know anything's wrong! Trying to educate them that a Blu has more lines of resolution than a DVD is pretty much a pointless endeavor.

I see you've met my wife and it drives me nutz. Walked into the room and she's watching a 4:3 show stretched to fill the screen at 16:9 and I asked her, don't they look a little fat to you? So I adjust the TV to display 4:3 and she says it doesn't looks right to her ...

[42041]

Originally Posted by mar3o

Sorry, but that's not what I'm seeing out there. Sure, Movie Stop still has a good selection of catalog titles. How many average movie goers go to Movie Stop? Compare that to Walmart and Target and Best Buy shoppers, where catalog titles are just a novelty item.

Obviously they don't stock some 60s euro art films but my local Targets, Wal-Marts and Best Buys all have a reasonable selection of the usual catalog suspects (the likes of Star Wars, Pulp Fiction, Gladiator, etc). Blaming retailers is just wishful thinking: the demand is not there. The selection is shrinking because they're not selling well, not vice versa.

[mar3o]

Originally Posted by 42041

Obviously they don't stock some 60s euro art films but my local Targets, Wal-Marts and Best Buys all have a reasonable selection of the usual catalog suspects (the likes of Star Wars, Pulp Fiction, Gladiator, etc). Blaming retailers is just wishful thinking: the demand is not there. The selection is shrinking because they're not selling well, not vice versa.

And I disagree for the reasons I mentioned above.

What Best Buy and Target and Wal-mart stocks for catalog titles is nowhere close to a reasonable selection of catalog titles. Nowhere close. Walmart almost always stocks the DVD instead of the blu-ray for catalog titles. Sure, there are exceptions. But the vast, vast majority of catalog titles are only available online. The Walmart bins don't count because you could spend a half hour in those miserable things and even if your movie was in there you wouldn't find it.

I saw somebody in another thread the other day comment, "If it's a catalog title, it's an automatic Amazon order - I don't even bother trying to find it in retail anymore because they never have it".

[42041]

Originally Posted by mar3o

What Best Buy and Target and Wal-mart stocks for catalog titles is nowhere close to a reasonable selection of catalog titles. Nowhere close. Walmart almost always stocks the DVD instead of the blu-ray for catalog titles.

Ok, so why is that? Does Wal-Mart strike you as a business that loves leaving money on the table?

[murphywmm]

Netflix is so overrated, I always laugh to myself when I see young guys scoffing at those of us buying movies because "all that stuff is on Netflix". The selection on Netflix is a small drop in the bucket compared to what's out there.

[deltatauhobbit]

I remember the reason I switched to DVD in 1997, being able to buy movies at a decent price (typical $30-35) on release day. With VHS, you had to wait usually 6-12 months or whenever used copies for sale showed up at the rental store.

Didn't stop me from still buying VHS at the time though if there were some good used deals.

I didn't make the full switch over until I decided to watch Die Hard from my VHS trilogy set and was appalled by how it looked, all weirdly stretched, colors all off, tracking lines, etc. Went out and upgraded immediately to the DVD copy.

Similar path regarding my switch to blu ray. Bought a PS3 because I knew it could play blu's but mainly I wanted it for gaming. I did buy a movie the day I got the system to see how it looked, and it did look great, but that didn't stop me from completely abandoning DVDs right off. That came when I tried to watch Nightmare Before Christmas and Hocus Pocus, a similar revelation to the Die Hard VHS happened and the complete switchover to blu happened.

[mar3o]

Originally Posted by 42041

Ok, so why is that? Does Wal-Mart strike you as a business that loves leaving money on the table?

Oh, brother. This discussion could go in circles.

I have left Wal-mart countless times without a blu-ray when I walked in hoping to find it, because they either didn't have it, or just stocked the DVD. So yes, they are leaving money on the table. If they had it, I would have bought it. But because they only sold the DVD, I left without anything.

Many people obviously don't care, so they would just buy the DVD. But what would happen if the store had both? How can people choose when there is no choice? How many on this site walk out of retail stores without anything because they don't have the disc they wanted? Obviously, they're leaving money on the table. They think people only buy DVDs. People only buy DVDs because they don't give us the choice to buy blu-rays.

[Packerfan75]

Originally Posted by murphywmm

Netflix is so overrated, I always laugh to myself when I see young guys scoffing at those of us buying movies because "all that stuff is on Netflix". The selection on Netflix is a small drop in the bucket compared to what's out there.

Not to mention it's still so difficult to navigate just to see everything they have. I can't believe Netflix has gone this long without a better menu and directory to list movies by alphabetical order and genre. The fact that they also have time limits on their movies means here today, gone tomorrow. No service offers every movie you want to see on demand and if you know you're going to probably want to see it again in your lifetime, why not just buy it? That's my argument for the scoffers.

[Icemouth]

Originally Posted by mar3o

Monthly charge with the data cap removed - $70!! How many homes are going to pay that much more?!

I'd pay that in a second...go look up how much Canadian ISP's charge for slower, with caps...

[darkknightman]

Originally Posted by mar3o

Every time somebody posts how "convenient" streaming and digital is, I wonder if they've ever heard of bandwidth caps and data caps?

There was just an article yesterday on Arstechnica that Comcast is charging $30 more a month to remove their very low data cap (and I bet there's still a limit even if you pay the extra fee). Regular price for Comcast - $40 according to Arstechnica. Monthly charge with the data cap removed - $70!! How many homes are going to pay that much more?!? It's almost double in price to pay for what you should be getting anyways. Comcast even said the cap isn't anything related to any technical reason - it's just a "business decision"! Yeah - business, as in, put a cap on the service and charge more to remove it! I have FiOS and there is no data cap, and I don't have to pay more for unlimited data. But FiOS is absent across much of the country. Many are stuck with awful ISPs and ridiculous bandwidth and data caps.

As long as ISPs are implementing data caps, streaming and digital downloads are going to be of limited service. Unless people don't mind streaming Netflix at 480 resolution.

I don't have any data or bandwidth caps. People always assume that streaming technology is going to stagnate and never improve. This is just not the case with any technology. Netflix can already stream in 4K. Digital is going to surpass physical consumption. It's already happening. I am not necessarily for or against it, it is just a fact. The movie aisles in brick and mortars are empty. There are dump bins filled with discs that no one are really buying. Walmart, a major retailer is scaling back on blu rays and dvds. Why? Because sales are declining. Discs may never truly die, but they are becoming less and less relevant. Studios want people to switch to digital. It's the reason that for the last several years, every blu ray comes with a digital copy. It's the reason that movies are being released earlier then the physical copy. It's just a reality. I know collector's hate it and very irrational and angry about it. But it's a simple truth.

[Scarface32]

Originally Posted by RodChester

I came across this article on Flavorwire tonight and thought it was very well done and interesting. It goes pretty in depth about the current state of physical media and all the niche/cult home video companies that are releasing catalog titles. Well worth a read.

http://flavorwire.com/535883/the-pre...eping-it-alive

That guy has no organizational skills at all. The Blu-rays are mixed in with the DVDs. It's not alphabetized. It's just all over the place with the titles and formats.

[42041]

Originally Posted by mar3o

Oh, brother. This discussion could go in circles.

I have left Wal-mart countless times without a blu-ray when I walked in hoping to find it, because they either didn't have it, or just stocked the DVD. So yes, they are leaving money on the table. If they had it, I would have bought it. But because they only sold the DVD, I left without anything.

Many people obviously don't care, so they would just buy the DVD. But what would happen if the store had both? How can people choose when there is no choice? How many on this site walk out of retail stores without anything because they don't have the disc they wanted? Obviously, they're leaving money on the table. They think people only buy DVDs. People only buy DVDs because they don't give us the choice to buy blu-rays.

Wal-mart doesn't care about you. Sorry. They care about the aggregate consumer who spends $500 billion annually at their stores, and I think they have a pretty good handle on what people are buying. If catalog titles were selling like gangbusters, they would stock them. And if Wal-Mart for some reason decides to not service this important market segment, someone else would step up and be making all the catalog blu-ray money - but clearly, no one (in the brick and mortar world) is doing that, because there's little money to be made. How freakin' hard is this to understand?