Oh noes teh sky is falling!

[mzupeman]

Originally Posted by Bates_Motel

Not true. There are already Internet services designed, using current cables, that can download an HD movie in 3-4 seconds. The technology is already there. Also, streaming 4K with the new h.265 codec can look as good as a disc.



And I'm glad getting a physical disc, physically putting it in a machine is more convenient than just flipping on the remote and streaming a movie.

It exists but it isn't widespread, nor will it be. At least, not without redoing a LOT of infrastructure.

[Arch Stanton]

Discs will never totally disappear but the market will grow more and more niche. I think it's potentially more worrying for newer films (specifically the more independent ones) because they may well never get physical releases and purely be rolled out as downloads/streamed services.

[balthazar_bee]

Originally Posted by cakefactory

I will admit to watching some things on netflix when I own the discs, just because if I'm binging on a show, having to switch the disc every 4 episodes is more annoying than Netflix just automatically playing them!

Boy, every time I start to think that I'm watching too much television, and qualify as one who binges, I read something like this, and realize I've still got a way to go! Switching discs every four episodes is an inconvenience?!

As with the practice of wearing track pants out of one's own home, this is really a glorious time to watch hours' worth of TV at a time -- it's even become a point of pride to boast about, say, having watched an entire season in a day. More than anything else, I think imagining my parents' reaction to such full-scale binge-ing is what has kept me strictly amateur.

[cakefactory]

Originally Posted by balthazar_bee

Boy, every time I start to think that I'm watching too much television, and qualify as one who binges, I read something like this, and realize I've still got a way to go! Switching discs every four episodes is an inconvenience?!

As with the practice of wearing track pants out of one's own home, this is really a glorious time to watch hours' worth of TV at a time -- it's even become a point of pride to boast about, say, having watched an entire season in a day. More than anything else, I think imagining my parents' reaction to such full-scale binge-ing is what has kept me strictly amateur.

Yeah, I mean, if I am going to watch episodes 4-6 of a show that has disc breaks every four episodes, I'm not going to go look for the DVD, find the two discs I want to watch, and then get up after the first 25 minutes to watch the darn thing when I could see the same thing in HD without having to find the discs or switch them out :P

If it's something where PQ/AQ actually matters AND I have it on blu-ray I'll go for the disc, or if I want to watch the deleted scenes. But with something like "The Office," or any of the numerous shows that I only have on DVD, yeah, Netflix all the way!

[segagamer12]

Originally Posted by cakefactory

Yeah, I mean, if I am going to watch episodes 4-6 of a show that has disc breaks every four episodes, I'm not going to go look for the DVD, find the two discs I want to watch, and then get up after the first 25 minutes to watch the darn thing when I could see the same thing in HD without having to find the discs or switch them out :P

If it's something where PQ/AQ actually matters AND I have it on blu-ray I'll go for the disc, or if I want to watch the deleted scenes. But with something like "The Office," or any of the numerous shows that I only have on DVD, yeah, Netflix all the way!

I just disconnected my Netflix. I find it odd there are people who are still excited for it. I guess for TV shows it's still sort of a bargain but not once they lose Star Trek after losing Doctor Who theres just not much reason to keep going. Five years ago Netflix was awesome but today it's barely passable.

The only thing that kept me tied to Netflix was the outrageous price of Star Trek and Doctor Who discs made keeping it a bargain but that isn't the case any more and I can get most of my favorite TV shows on DVD that Netflix doesn't even have. Their movie selection is garbage, they have maybe 25 movies year round I would watch, usually I have them all on disc anyways. Their TV selection has been getting worse all the time too. They turned into TBS for the internet and now they suck.

I would never wish for physical media to ever fully disappear especially with all the streaming and digital services going out of business, consolidating or losing content all the time, I just can't see it as a viable option anymore.

I don't mind the disc breaks to be honest, it gives me a chance to get up and stretch my legs every couple of hours. Maybe I am not as lazy as some people then?

[HD Goofnut]

Originally Posted by segagamer12

I just disconnected my Netflix. I find it odd there are people who are still excited for it. I guess for TV shows it's still sort of a bargain but not once they lose Star Trek after losing Doctor Who theres just not much reason to keep going. Five years ago Netflix was awesome but today it's barely passable.

The only thing that kept me tied to Netflix was the outrageous price of Star Trek and Doctor Who discs made keeping it a bargain but that isn't the case any more and I can get most of my favorite TV shows on DVD that Netflix doesn't even have. Their movie selection is garbage, they have maybe 25 movies year round I would watch, usually I have them all on disc anyways. Their TV selection has been getting worse all the time too. They turned into TBS for the internet and now they suck.

I would never wish for physical media to ever fully disappear especially with all the streaming and digital services going out of business, consolidating or losing content all the time, I just can't see it as a viable option anymore.

I don't mind the disc breaks to be honest, it gives me a chance to get up and stretch my legs every couple of hours. Maybe I am not as lazy as some people then?

I'm down to to one BD at a time. I am looking at moving into a larger house soon. If I do I may just dump Netflix and go with Redbox if there's a new title I have to see.

[doctor_who]

Originally Posted by segagamer12

I just disconnected my Netflix. I find it odd there are people who are still excited for it. I guess for TV shows it's still sort of a bargain but not once they lose Star Trek after losing Doctor Who theres just not much reason to keep going. Five years ago Netflix was awesome but today it's barely passable.

The only thing that kept me tied to Netflix was the outrageous price of Star Trek and Doctor Who discs made keeping it a bargain but that isn't the case any more and I can get most of my favorite TV shows on DVD that Netflix doesn't even have. Their movie selection is garbage, they have maybe 25 movies year round I would watch, usually I have them all on disc anyways. Their TV selection has been getting worse all the time too. They turned into TBS for the internet and now they suck.

I would never wish for physical media to ever fully disappear especially with all the streaming and digital services going out of business, consolidating or losing content all the time, I just can't see it as a viable option anymore.

I don't mind the disc breaks to be honest, it gives me a chance to get up and stretch my legs every couple of hours. Maybe I am not as lazy as some people then?

I find it odd that you find it odd. Netflix is flush with great original programming and a good mix of other stuff that is constantly changing. I have it for their original programming alone but there's plenty of other stuff, including 4k material.

[cakefactory]

Netflix has an increasingly lousy selection of films and classic TV, and they've become really volatile with stuff disappearing all the time. Their peak was a few years ago, it's all been downhill since then. I keep it because once every couple of months I want to watch something that's on it, and it's cheap enough I tend to forget that I'm paying for it. I could NEVER get in the mindset of people that are content to limiting themselves to watching whatever is available on Netflix. If you're a serious film fan with eclectic tastes, it becomes very bad very quickly once you've exhausted their selection of quality films.

Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt is basically my favorite currently airing show, so I guess I want to fund them for that too? Even though obviously I only need to pay for the service one month a year to watch it.

[DavePS3]

Back in the mid-80's, I was managing a video rental store and I could see it boiling down to just a new release business. By that time, it was getting to a point that everyone had rented and watched the older titles a few times and would call at the beginning of the week to reserve the newer titles that would arrive that week. Blockbuster as well as many other video chains saw it happen too late. Since a new title was costing the retailer upwards to 80.00 for a single VHS (or Laserdisc in '88), it was taking too long to even brake even when a rental on that title was $3.99. The rental of a few older titles along with that release dwindled so the supplemental income dropped significantly.

I've always loved owning a physical copy. Anything I want at my fingertips 24/7 and wasn't reliant on my data plan or even if the internet was up or not. I stream from Netflix for things I have no intention of adding to my collection. Netflix is great... documentaries, Archer (which I collect anyway)... Family Guy... Better Call Saul etc. and while I appreciate what that service has to offer, I love having my own collection that I am not reliant on anything or anyone to watch whenever I want. Uncompressed video, great sound... yeah I will continue to own until they don't feel it's viable in cost to produce physical media but until that time - I'm supporting the retailers on media and if they don't carry the title, Amazon but if we want the media to survive, we need to fully support the physical. If we don't, you'll see pricing jump big time on streaming and data usage because... there's nowhere else to go.

[PenguinMaster]

Originally Posted by cakefactory

Yeah, I mean, if I am going to watch episodes 4-6 of a show that has disc breaks every four episodes, I'm not going to go look for the DVD, find the two discs I want to watch, and then get up after the first 25 minutes to watch the darn thing when I could see the same thing in HD without having to find the discs or switch them out :P

I can't tell if this is sarcasm. It sounds like you're making fun of yourself.

[ArmyOfDarknessAW]

I can actually relate to the not wanting to deal with discs for shows. I don't binge shows much. I may watch 3 or 4 episodes and watch more a couple weeks later. Because of this I pretty constantly forget where I left off. I do like how Netflix tracks where I left off even if it is 6 months later.

[HD Goofnut]

Originally Posted by ArmyOfDarknessAW

I can actually relate to the not wanting to deal with discs for shows. I don't binge shows much. I may watch 3 or 4 episodes and watch more a couple weeks later. Because of this I pretty constantly forget where I left off. I do like how Netflix tracks where I left off even if it is 6 months later.

I called it in 2008 or so way before Netflix officially debuted their streaming service that it would be a great supplement for TV shows, documentaries, and kids stuff. However, streaming selection stunk for movies when it started heavily in 2010 on and it still stinks now. Don't even get me started on the PQ, AQ, subtitle support, and extras.

[McCrutchy]

Originally Posted by HD Goofnut

I called it in 2008 or so way before Netflix officially debuted their streaming service that it would be a great supplement for TV shows, documentaries, and kids stuff. However, streaming selection stunk for movies when it started heavily in 2010 on and it still stinks now. Don't even get me started on the PQ, AQ, subtitle support, and extras.

Well, the end game for Netflix is literally becoming part of television, which is why their streaming service was just a really stupid idea in the first place. Eventually, Netflix's "bubble" will either get so large (and/or burst) that they'll be bought out by one of the massive conglomerates that owns a cable company (e.g. Comcast) and their original programming will just be incorporated into a cable provider's set top box. After all, it's not as though a company like that is going to let Netflix get in the way of television, since the way we route television to consumers is already far cheaper and better-structured for those companies than allowing "the internet" to take it over in the first place.

[cakefactory]

Originally Posted by ArmyOfDarknessAW

I can actually relate to the not wanting to deal with discs for shows. I don't binge shows much. I may watch 3 or 4 episodes and watch more a couple weeks later. Because of this I pretty constantly forget where I left off. I do like how Netflix tracks where I left off even if it is 6 months later.

Yup, it has a very, very long-lasting resume function and all seasons on hand right there. Considering all my DVDs are buried in a cardboard box in the back of my storage room, Netflix is much easier to deal with considering it's the same damn thing in higher quality. The lack of having to switch discs all the time is a just a minor additional bonus.

Now, MOVIES, I never, ever watch on Netflix if I have a disc. I guess I would in the very unlikely event I had a DVD only and Netflix had it in HD.

[octagon]

Originally Posted by Ray Jackson

Yeah I suppose.

But if the majority of my film collection was comprised of VHS tapes today, I would not be a very happy person.

I think the transformation from physical media to digital is a paradigm shift-in-the-making that's almost unprecedented in our technological history.

...therefor it's harder to predict the future.

Even if we assume the constant death knells for physical media are at all justified (and they're not) I'm not sure a move from physical media to non-physical media would be all that huge a shift. Would it be a big deal for a certain subset of consumers? I suppose. But in any kind of macro sense I'm not sure it would be all that big a deal.

It would essentially be a shift from one form of video-on-demand to another and I don't think that kind of shift would be nearly as game-changing as the introduction of video-on-demand itself was.

[octagon]

Originally Posted by quickdraw

Who's to say that in the future they determine that they don't want anyone to own any film or music as physical or digital product and only will license it as a rental, where does that lead?

It would basically lead to where we are right now: property owners asking a certain price for their goods or services and consumers choosing to pay that price or not.

[Arch Stanton]

Originally Posted by segagamer12

I just disconnected my Netflix. I find it odd there are people who are still excited for it. I guess for TV shows it's still sort of a bargain but not once they lose Star Trek after losing Doctor Who theres just not much reason to keep going. Five years ago Netflix was awesome but today it's barely passable.

The only thing that kept me tied to Netflix was the outrageous price of Star Trek and Doctor Who discs made keeping it a bargain but that isn't the case any more and I can get most of my favorite TV shows on DVD that Netflix doesn't even have. Their movie selection is garbage, they have maybe 25 movies year round I would watch, usually I have them all on disc anyways. Their TV selection has been getting worse all the time too. They turned into TBS for the internet and now they suck.

I would never wish for physical media to ever fully disappear especially with all the streaming and digital services going out of business, consolidating or losing content all the time, I just can't see it as a viable option anymore.

I don't mind the disc breaks to be honest, it gives me a chance to get up and stretch my legs every couple of hours. Maybe I am not as lazy as some people then?

I cancelled my subscription this week too. Some good content on there but I've hardly used it over the past year (only really for the new episodes of Better Call Saul and the first season of Fargo) and I can't justify it any more. There aren't many shows on there I'm interested in watching at this point in time and I've got quite a lot of Blu Rays to get through so it's unlikely I'd use it again for some time.

[classicmaterial]

As somewhat of a hoarder of physical media I hope it doesnt go away forever. I still have cassettes, CDs and DVDs that I'll never get rid of. I also frequently keep the digital copies of movies I download even if I buy the blu because I want easy access to it on all my devices (internal cloud network) but to me there's always been a pride in my collections of physical media.

My sister is cloae to 50 and recently told me she tossed all her DVD cases and artwork in favor of just putting the discs in those binders and I cringed for multiple reasons.

I will say though that as much as I purchase TV shows I really really love on physical format (I own the complete Wire series on DVD and Blu) I always download them too as people mentioned earlier it's much easier to go through a season on digital than to pop in disc 4 of 5.

I also am half mad as I expected Blu to the last format that would have me repurchasing titles I've owned on VHS and DVD but alas this 4K thing makes me wonder if I'll be rebuying the same stuff all over again

I have noticed (and love) that collectors editions of cult classics almost seem to be getting more popular (kind of like the vinyl resurgence which I love too) so as long as physical media is around I'll be here to purchase it

[knight17]

Originally Posted by MrHT

When I see Best Buy's BD/DVD sections getting slimmer, it scares me about the future of physical media. I admit, I got into streaming last Fall and like it very much. But I still can never give up physical media because there are certain movies and TV shows I would like to keep; especially ones that I grew up watching.

I do wish they will release tv shows shot on videotape as SD on Blu ray at the very least so that I could complete my collection. Blu rays are also much harder to bootleg as opposed to DVDs and takes up far less space.

Far too many holes in my childhood collection as most of the stuff are yet to be released on blu ray.

[AgentOrange]

Originally Posted by doctor_who

I find it odd that you find it odd. Netflix is flush with great original programming and a good mix of other stuff that is constantly changing. I have it for their original programming alone but there's plenty of other stuff, including 4k material.

It's on the decline, some of us that have had it for many years basically have exhausted the "good" content. The movie selection is particularly bad now. The last argument was how much TV content their was.

Personally, I don't think the "changing" content is enough, including their original content which I am rather indifferent about (mostly). It's certainly becoming less and less viable as any type of alternative to physical media.

I know some people that used to use Netflix as basically their only home video viewership tool for movies (with an occasional Redbox rental for new releases). That is just mind boggling to me, considering how little Netflix offers in the way of films. I wonder if the shrinking selection has changed their tune any.