Oh noes teh sky is falling!

[Giant Machine]

Streaming is nice and all. But, it is not a replacement and/or successor to physical media. A stream will occasionally encounter buffering issues, and may not always be available through its source. A Blu Ray and/or DVD is there anytime I want it, and consistent in A/V quality.

[jwblu]

I've been using Netflix, Hulu & now Disney Movies Anywhere ( hey I bought the physical blu-ray) really's as a way to play catch up to shows I've missed since I don't have cable or dish.

still for me a physical disc is the way to go, less distance to my screen, better picture/sound & so forth.

[TLOE]

I prefer physical discs not only for the better A/V quality, but for a reason that most seem to miss: you can't transfer ownership of a download. If I buy a BD, I can sell or loan it to someone else, but downloaded movies are treated as consumables. I have never bought any streaming titles except for a few DVDs I did the VUDU "disc to digital" transition from. Certain movies I have were not available on BD but for some reason available in HD via UV. They were doing a 10 at once for $25 deal at the time (not sure about now), so I felt it was acceptable.

[Brian81]

Originally Posted by Steedeel

Makes me want to throw up.

Also, in the U.K own it digitally means iTunes or Amazon. We don't have a good UV storefront here.

Warner did that to HD DVD around the time they announced dropping support.

[YodasFootPowder]

Originally Posted by TLOE

I prefer physical discs not only for the better A/V quality, but for a reason that most seem to miss: you can't transfer ownership of a download. If I buy a BD, I can sell or loan it to someone else, but downloaded movies are treated as consumables. I have never bought any streaming titles except for a few DVDs I did the VUDU "disc to digital" transition from. Certain movies I have were not available on BD but for some reason available in HD via UV. They were doing a 10 at once for $25 deal at the time (not sure about now), so I felt it was acceptable.

Agreed. Not only that, but any time the internet goes down, Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime or other services have outages, which has happened with Netflix, plenty of times over the past several years... I can always pull out a disc and watch it. And not that it'd ever happen but if any of these streaming services ever get shut down, sold, merged with other companies, there's no guarantee you might not lose digital content that you've purchased. Nobody can ever take my discs away from me.

It's also just nice having a collection. I feel the same way about video games. I'm big into Nintendo, Super Nintendo, Genesis, etc... Anyone can go out and download the ROMS of those for free and play them on their computer. But, it's much more interesting when people come to my house and want to see or play my games and they can go to a shelf and look at the cartridge and flip through the manual, as opposed to going to a friend's house who plays ROMS and asking them to see their games and they say: "Oh, they're in a folder on my PC, wanna see the files?". LOL!

[PenguinMaster]

Originally Posted by CharlesD

So, I decided to see how true the "They have all of that on Netflix anyway" argument is. I took the top 10 highest grossing domestic films of 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, and 2016 and decided to see how many were on Netflix*. So bear in mind, that's seventy films. And not any niche indie movies either, we're talking Star Wars, Harry Potter, Transformers, etc. So, of all those seventy films, how many were on Netflix? Two. Zootopia (2016) and Minions (2015). This isn't a professional poll or anything, just something to show that not only does Netflix not have tiny, low-budget movies, they don't have blockbusters either.

*I used the U.S.'s Netflix since the highest grossing films were domestic anyway.

Originally Posted by eiknarf

Amazon Instant Video is better than Netflix for movies

Not by much. I tried looking for the same titles on Amazon Prime... three are available (Transformers: Age of Extinction, The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 1, and The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 2).

Both Netflix and Amazon Prime are mostly filled with unpopular movies. The rights to those are cheap so they easily pad out their numbers.

[PenguinMaster]

Originally Posted by TLOE

I prefer physical discs not only for the better A/V quality, but for a reason that most seem to miss: you can't transfer ownership of a download. If I buy a BD, I can sell or loan it to someone else, but downloaded movies are treated as consumables.

Transfer of ownership is by far the biggest advantage of physical media. It's the only way to ensure that titles remain available long after the studios have dropped support. Art should never be treated as a consumable, it should remain available forever. My signature clearly reflects this point of view.

[eiknarf]

Originally Posted by Cranston37

http://www.homemediamagazine.com/new...g-strong-38971

Informative article. Good stuff.

[HD Goofnut]

Originally Posted by eiknarf

Amazon Instant Video is better than Netflix for movies

I second that. Also, Amazon has more kids titles and documentaries, which are free with Prime.

[ScarredLungs]

[Show spoiler]

Originally Posted by CharlesD

So, I decided to see how true the "They have all of that on Netflix anyway" argument is. I took the top 10 highest grossing domestic films of 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, and 2016 and decided to see how many were on Netflix*. So bear in mind, that's seventy films. And not any niche indie movies either, we're talking Star Wars, Harry Potter, Transformers, etc. So, of all those seventy films, how many were on Netflix? Two. Zootopia (2016) and Minions (2015). This isn't a professional poll or anything, just something to show that not only does Netflix not have tiny, low-budget movies, they don't have blockbusters either.

*I used the U.S.'s Netflix since the highest grossing films were domestic anyway.

Originally Posted by YodasFootPowder

Agreed. Not only that, but any time the internet goes down, Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime or other services have outages, which has happened with Netflix, plenty of times over the past several years... I can always pull out a disc and watch it. And not that it'd ever happen but if any of these streaming services ever get shut down, sold, merged with other companies, there's no guarantee you might not lose digital content that you've purchased. Nobody can ever take my discs away from me.

It's also just nice having a collection. I feel the same way about video games. I'm big into Nintendo, Super Nintendo, Genesis, etc... Anyone can go out and download the ROMS of those for free and play them on their computer. But, it's much more interesting when people come to my house and want to see or play my games and they can go to a shelf and look at the cartridge and flip through the manual, as opposed to going to a friend's house who plays ROMS and asking them to see their games and they say: "Oh, they're in a folder on my PC, wanna see the files?". LOL!

Yes, to both of these comments. I love my phyiscal media and I will keep on buying as long as I can.

[JustThatPenguin]

Originally Posted by cvm

[Show spoiler]

Yes, to both of these comments. I love my phyiscal media and I will keep on buying as long as I can.

Yes yes. My feelings put into two comments.

[50strat54]

Originally Posted by Steedeel

Makes me want to throw up.

Also, in the U.K own it digitally means iTunes or Amazon. We don't have a good UV storefront here.

I don't really think it's that big of a deal, the studios are trying to entice viewers to digital by offering it 4 weeks ahead of physical release.

At this point it's a 3 tier release schedule: Theatrical, Digital, Physical [and most of the time they include digital to keep moving you along to the new format, and I always claim the digital as I've paid for it]

If it bothers you that much the lag time between Digital and Physical just go to the movie theater on a first run showing.

I've really grown accustomed to waiting.

1. I'll go to the theater w/movie money thru physical purchase [i.e. Star Trek Beyond, Wrath of Khan extended w/movie money]

2. Will buy any movie that I really want to see release week until September when I start waiting for Black Friday

3. If I've seen the film in the theater like Star Trek Beyond but it's coming out as a steelbook, bonus disc, digi book exclusive, even a November release date, I will pre-order and buy immediately, remembering Mad Max Fury Road.

4. If I've seen the film and there is no special edition I will wait for the $10 price before I buy.

The reason this thread exists is because we all love physical and we have all kinds of thoughts, opinions and justifications. But unfortunately none of us [any studio executives here?] work at a level at the studios to effect any kind of change.

I know a lot of people who work in the industry and in the distribution area. There is no doubt on their end where this is heading. Yes there's always room for Star Wars and Captain America and even animated films but consider a film like Room. In the future it may be only a digital release.

They are also licensing out more and more catalog TV and Movie titles. The licenses are only for a specific time. The boutique companies remaster and clean up the videos and the studios get all the benefit. They may continue to work with the smaller licensee and allow them to coordinate digital as long as their cut is profitable.

[PenguinMaster]

Originally Posted by 50strat54

I don't really think it's that big of a deal, the studios are trying to entice viewers to digital by offering it 4 weeks ahead of physical release.

That's the problem: studios are enticing people to switch to digital. I don't like that studios are giving digital arbitrary advantages. I don't mind waiting for physical, but if more and more people switch to digital then less and less titles will be released physically.

[50strat54]

Originally Posted by PenguinMaster

That's the problem: studios are enticing people to switch to digital. I don't like that studios are giving digital arbitrary advantages. I don't mind waiting for physical, but if more and more people switch to digital then less and less titles will be released physically.

Buy what you can. You can see a parallel in the music industry. Many of the catalog reissues with bonus track or bonus discs are out of print now.

What the music companies are doing now is letting catalog go out of print and keeping it available as digital only.

There's a cost to making another run of titles and storing them and paying rent to store the unsold inventory. Another reason studios would like to go digital is the cost of storage.

Also w/UV the studios control more of how the content is used. The fine print says a lot of stuff [like credit cards] where they have the right to withdraw the title and other things to their benefit. Like credit cards I don't read the fine print.

On this forum I noticed the bluray of Shane went out of print. The studio will most likely not do a second run and it's up to a boutique company to decide whether it's profitable enough to make it available again.

So again, buy it if you want it! Of course this will also benefit you if you become a third party seller and need to sell the collection for cash!!

[PenguinMaster]

Originally Posted by 50strat54

Buy what you can. You can see a parallel in the music industry. Many of the catalog reissues with bonus track or bonus discs are out of print now.

What the music companies are doing now is letting catalog go out of print and keeping it available as digital only.

There's a cost to making another run of titles and storing them and paying rent to store the unsold inventory. Another reason studios would like to go digital is the cost of storage.

Also w/UV the studios control more of how the content is used. The fine print says a lot of stuff [like credit cards] where they have the right to withdraw the title and other things to their benefit. Like credit cards I don't read the fine print.

On this forum I noticed the bluray of Shane went out of print. The studio will most likely not do a second run and it's up to a boutique company to decide whether it's profitable enough to make it available again.

So again, buy it if you want it! Of course this will also benefit you if you become a third party seller and need to sell the collection for cash!!

I'm not concerned about titles going out of print. The used market ensures that titles continue to be available.

But if more and more titles launch significantly earlier on digital than physical then their physical sales will drop. That leads to small titles not getting physical releases at all.

[50strat54]

Originally Posted by PenguinMaster

I'm not concerned about titles going out of print. The used market ensures that titles continue to be available.

But if more and more titles launch significantly earlier on digital than physical then their physical sales will drop. That leads to small titles not getting physical releases at all.

if it's OOP the price will be significantly higher in the used market. look at how much shane is going for now. $39

the second part: that's what the studios want and that is what's happening. It's like the music industry trying to stop mp3s and finally making a devil's deal with itunes or stopping streaming. It's a done deal.

digital is here. On demand on my cable provider is here. The novelty of owning movies is only for people on this forum or for people with kids.

given that being said, today I bought 3 Criterion titles and Woodstock box set. I will enjoy blurays until the end. UHD 4K I am much more reluctant to jump into those waters. If the combo 4K/Bluray is priced at around $20, I'd go for it then on the newer titles I want.

[PenguinMaster]

Originally Posted by 50strat54

if it's OOP the price will be significantly higher in the used market. look at how much shane is going for now. $39

the second part: that's what the studios want and that is what's happening.

OOP titles are only expensive if they didn't sell well in the first place (Shane obviously fits that criteria). Plenty of titles have gone out of print after selling well for many years. Those titles remain cheap and most people don't even realize they are out of print. Therefore many people think out of print always means expensive.

I recognize that studios want everyone to switch to digital and I recognize why that would be good for business. But I'm not trying to convince studios to support physical media, I'm trying to convince customers to support physical media. If customers aren't willing to buy digital (or aren't willing to spend as much on digital) than studios will no have no choice but to continue releasing physical media.

[50strat54]

Originally Posted by PenguinMaster

OOP titles are only expensive if they didn't sell well in the first place (Shane obviously fits that criteria). Plenty of titles have gone out of print after selling well for many years. Those titles remain cheap and most people don't even realize they are out of print. Therefore many people think out of print always means expensive.

I recognize that studios want everyone to switch to digital and I recognize why that would be good for business. But I'm not trying to convince studios to support physical media, I'm trying to convince customers to support physical media. If customers aren't willing to buy digital (or aren't willing to spend as much on digital) than studios will no have no choice but to continue releasing physical media.

Have fun convincing the consumer to continue to support physical media

It's been hard enough to get 'average joe and jane' to switch from dvd to bluray! they even did combo packs but it still wasn't enough. Lots of posts about the amount of DVDs at Target and Walmart. That's due to consumer demand for DVD.

[veritas]

Originally Posted by 50strat54

Have fun convincing the consumer to continue to support physical media

It's been hard enough to get 'average joe and jane' to switch from dvd to bluray! they even did combo packs but it still wasn't enough. Lots of posts about the amount of DVDs at Target and Walmart. That's due to consumer demand for DVD.

You know the thing is the average joe won't support digital copies either. They will support streaming and at best they will buy a few main stream videos once in a while but removing physical media basically removes like 90% of studios advertising power.

I think a digital future will have a similar effect on studios as to the effect amazon had book sellers. At first it looks great and you are selling more books but then you are dealing with monopoly and people have less ability to browse material leading to even less sales. I think physical sales and existence in b&m has positive impacts on video sales both physical and digital and any attempts to phase it out will negatively impact the industry but that is just my opinion seeing whats happening with the book market as bookstores close.

[MrHT]

I think what's hurting physical media the most is the fact that there are too many new movies always coming out and they come out so fast now. Back when I was a kid, you'd have a new movie on theaters and it would stay in movie theaters long enough for people to continue talking about. Then it finally comes out on home video and they you and your friends have time to buy it in order to rewatch that movie over and over again until another good movie comes out.

But today, there's no time to sit down, relax and rewatch a movie over and over. In the blink of an eye, there's always another new movie out there that's coming out. And then people forget that good movie that they saw a couple of months ago. So, it's hard for people today to justify buying and owning a movie when there's just going to be a bunch of other new movies to go and see. That is why people today have no desire to own a movie. They just want to watch it once, forget about it and then move onto watching another movie they haven't seen. It's the only way people today can keep up with the insanely fast pace at which movies today are being released.