Oh noes teh sky is falling!

[TravisTylerBlack]

The unfortunate reality is that serious film collectors in search of the highest quality releases (IE blu-ray disc, hard copies) are a niche, albeit fairly widespread market that's rapidly shrinking. This is due to a variety of factors such as shifting technology preferences, economic stress, and a current youth generation which ultimately values convenience above all else.

Frustratingly, many people still haven't shifted from DVD to blu or even more have shifted straight to digital services like itunes, bypassing the highest quality format altogether. To be blunt most of these people don't care about presentation quality the way we do or cannot see the the differences which are so glaringly obvious to home theatre aficionados. Even more maddening is that most DVD-only households have DVD players hooked up to their sparkly HDTVs using standard definition cables. Yep. How many of you have had to explain to family or friends how to properly attach a player via HDMI after seeing their 16 year old PS2 hooked up to a 50 inch Samsung? I know I can't be alone here.

The worst culprits, bar non, are companies like Apple that set technological trends and stress minimalism in their "ecosystem" of products. Apple in particular has done more to kill off physical media than any studio initiative. Their decision to exclude disc drives in all future MacBooks some years ago did much to steer a broad range of users towards their itunes storefront. It also helped foster the current stigma among 20-somethings that disc are now archaic. A brilliant/horrific stroke of subversive manipulation.

That being said, the general demand for disc based media is still going strong, especially among the 30+ crowd. People long accustomed to purchasing tangible copies are far more likely to continue doing so rather than shifting to digital. Despite home video stores closing by the dozens, the big push for Ultraviolet has fallen mostly flat. The major studios have ignored their customers and apparently learned nothing from Apple's domination of music distribution.

I keep reading sover and over on various sites that blu-ray is basically becoming the current equivalent to what the Laserdisc was in the 1990s. As time passes that is only going to become more true. Parent studios are going to continue licensing out titles in greater volume to distributors like Criterion, Shout! Factory and (hopefully to a lesser extent) Twilight Time. This will continue to be both a blessing and a curse as we see shorter and shorter print runs of titles being sold at higher price points but hopefully with extra care put into each release.

Where is all of this headed? Is the writing on the wall for blu-ray? I don't think know. I hope not. I want a physical library which will be an invaluable personal archive for the rest of my life. Not one tied to a server or dependent on an internet connection of any kind. Titles are going out of print right and left and for the first time I'm scared it may be permanent for some.

Ultimately I believe it will be up to the spending decisions of the passionate collectors and not that of the rapidly-shifting average consumer. If we want to see the format survive for years to come we have to vote with our wallets. That's why I've made it a point in the last year to buy as many titles as I can comfortably afford and throw my support towards the excellent efforts of the aforementioned independent distributors.

Whether it's the end of times for physical media or a transition to more niche phase, now is the time to buy disc and buy them aggressively. It's the only way we can be heard. It's the only way to insure ownership of titles that may never get another hard copy release down the road.


*steps off soap box*

[bigdaddyhorse]

Originally Posted by GasmaskAvenger

The best I can describe Boll is that he made a bunch of utter crap, one decent film (Rampage) and two crappy sequels that undid the good will of his one decent movie.

Some of that crap is legend though. House of the Dead is the best unintentional comedy of our age and will probably remain so.
I also thought both Rampage sequels were very good (the making of on the last one is where this rant about quitting comes from).

Originally Posted by Sleazeaddict

Postal is great !!

Agreed, his best (and only by my recollection) intentional comedy. Seed is another very good horror movie.

Don't forget a couple years ago when he challenged any critic to a boxing match! Love Uwe, will be sad to not see anything else from him as he was turning into a decent filmmaker.

[eiknarf]

Originally Posted by TravisTylerBlack

The unfortunate reality is that serious film collectors in search of the highest quality releases (IE blu-ray disc, hard copies) are a niche, albeit fairly widespread market that's rapidly shrinking. This is due to a variety of factors such as shifting technology preferences, economic stress, and a current youth generation which ultimately values convenience above all else.

Frustratingly, many people still haven't shifted from DVD to blu or even more have shifted straight to digital services like itunes, bypassing the highest quality format altogether. To be blunt most of these people don't care about presentation quality the way we do or cannot see the the differences which are so glaringly obvious to home theatre aficionados. Even more maddening is that most DVD-only households have DVD players hooked up to their sparkly HDTVs using standard definition cables. Yep. How many of you have had to explain to family or friends how to properly attach a player via HDMI after seeing their 16 year old PS2 hooked up to a 50 inch Samsung? I know I can't be alone here.

The worst culprits, bar non, are companies like Apple that set technological trends and stress minimalism in their "ecosystem" of products. Apple in particular has done more to kill off physical media than any studio initiative. Their decision to exclude disc drives in all future MacBooks some years ago did much to steer a broad range of users towards their itunes storefront. It also helped foster the current stigma among 20-somethings that disc are now archaic. A brilliant/horrific stroke of subversive manipulation.

That being said, the general demand for disc based media is still going strong, especially among the 30+ crowd. People long accustomed to purchasing tangible copies are far more likely to continue doing so rather than shifting to digital. Despite home video stores closing by the dozens, the big push for Ultraviolet has fallen mostly flat. The major studios have ignored their customers and apparently learned nothing from Apple's domination of music distribution.

I keep reading sover and over on various sites that blu-ray is basically becoming the current equivalent to what the Laserdisc was in the 1990s. As time passes that is only going to become more true. Parent studios are going to continue licensing out titles in greater volume to distributors like Criterion, Shout! Factory and (hopefully to a lesser extent) Twilight Time. This will continue to be both a blessing and a curse as we see shorter and shorter print runs of titles being sold at higher price points but hopefully with extra care put into each release.

Where is all of this headed? Is the writing on the wall for blu-ray? I don't think know. I hope not. I want a physical library which will be an invaluable personal archive for the rest of my life. Not one tied to a server or dependent on an internet connection of any kind. Titles are going out of print right and left and for the first time I'm scared it may be permanent for some.

Ultimately I believe it will be up to the spending decisions of the passionate collectors and not that of the rapidly-shifting average consumer. If we want to see the format survive for years to come we have to vote with our wallets. That's why I've made it a point in the last year to buy as many titles as I can comfortably afford and throw my support towards the excellent efforts of the aforementioned independent distributors.

Whether it's the end of times for physical media or a transition to more niche phase, now is the time to buy disc and buy them aggressively. It's the only way we can be heard. It's the only way to insure ownership of titles that may never get another hard copy release down the road.


*steps off soap box*

Pretty well said.
Yeah it seems like Digital/Streaming vs Blu-ray is the equivalent of VHS vs Betamax. Betamax was superior, but VHS won.

About the 30+ crowd being the one's keeping Blu-ray alive; Good! Twenty-year olds don't have any money. Of course they want cheap.

I'd hate to give Apple credit for killing physical media. When scientists are studying diseases, and researching... when NASA is building a rocket or controlling a Space Probe millions of miles away...etc they ain't using a Mac.

[motorheadache95]

I got a good laugh at the standard cables comment. If I didn't hook up my mom's Blu-Ray player to her HDTV for her she probably would have used the yellow composite cable. She also doesn't give a crap about the picture, as she'll still just rent DVDs from the Redbox, even if the Blu-Ray is available, to save that 50 cents,


Also in college I had a girlfriend who still lived at home, and I'd watch movies with her there sometimes. Their TV had that Smooth-motion setting turned on, which drives me ape shit. So I'd turn it off when I was there, then turn it back on after. One time I forgot to turn it back on, and a week later it was still off and nobody noticed. So I just left it that way!

[TravisTylerBlack]

Originally Posted by eiknarf

I'd hate to give Apple credit for killing physical media. When scientists are studying diseases, and researching... when NASA is building a rocket or controlling a Space Probe millions of miles away...etc they ain't using a Mac.

Fair point! Truly though I don't give them all the credit so much as I harbor the greatest level of resentment towards them for being the most aggressively anti-disc company on the block. Not a healthy mindset, I know. Excuse me while I go yell at some young people and clean the keyboard of my PC with an old toothbrush.

[frogjunk65]

There was a time I couldn't walk out of BB, Target, Walmart, etc... w/o a few movies. Now I always walk out with nothing. There's nothing to choose from or I can buy double the amount on-line compared to their prices. It doesn't help any when staff have no idea what movies are. In BB a couple of weeks ago I asked an employee about Friday the 13th. If they could check in the back for it, I had the SKU for the tin. I know everyone has different tastes but he didn't even know I was talking about a movie.

[MrHT]

Originally Posted by frogjunk65

There was a time I couldn't walk out of BB, Target, Walmart, etc... w/o a few movies. Now I always walk out with nothing. There's nothing to choose from or I can buy double the amount on-line compared to their prices. It doesn't help any when staff have no idea what movies are. In BB a couple of weeks ago I asked an employee about Friday the 13th. If they could check in the back for it, I had the SKU for the tin. I know everyone has different tastes but he didn't even know I was talking about a movie.

At the Best Buy I go to, the employees are great. When I ask if they carry a certain movie, right away they answer, "no, we don't have it in stock." Amazing how they remember their inventory off the top of their head.

[TravisTylerBlack]

Originally Posted by frogjunk65

In BB a couple of weeks ago I asked an employee about Friday the 13th. If they could check in the back for it, I had the SKU for the tin. I know everyone has different tastes but he didn't even know I was talking about a movie.

You think that's bad? I literally had to argue at length with a Target employee to price match all 8 Harry Potter films (with the new slipcovers) with Amazon because he didn't understand why I was "buying 8 copies of the same movie". You can't make this stuff up sometimes.

[mredman]

Originally Posted by DetroitSportsFan

I can see why Uwe Boll can't make money on movies. It's not because of the physical media market.

Yeah his movies are shit even in the glory days of DVD his movies sold like crap because nobody wanted them. Now this fool is just blaming it on physical media. yet Blu-Ray has increased 12% from last year. And last time i checked Blu-Ray is a physical media.

[PenguinMaster]

Originally Posted by MrHT

At the Best Buy I go to, the employees are great. When I ask if they carry a certain movie, right away they answer, "no, we don't have it in stock." Amazing how they remember their inventory off the top of their head.

If having to buy most physical media releases online is a sign that physical media is dying then digital must really be in trouble... I can't find any of those releases in stores.

[eiknarf]

Originally Posted by PenguinMaster

If having to buy most physical media releases online is a sign that physical media is dying then digital must really be in trouble... I can't find any of those releases in stores.

Haaaaaa very good!

[veritas]

Originally Posted by TravisTylerBlack

now is the time to buy disc and buy them aggressively.

We need to buy aggressively when titles we want are cheap or at least fairly priced. We also need to not buy at all any releases that are ridiculously over priced like I love lucy or aniplex titles. We need to show that we as consumers are price elastic or the studios will take advantage of our wallets. This whole thing is a two way exchange that we need to make sure studios don't take advantage of which by their nature they are inclined to do.

Originally Posted by MrHT

At the Best Buy I go to, the employees are great. When I ask if they carry a certain movie, right away they answer, "no, we don't have it in stock." Amazing how they remember their inventory off the top of their head.

Easy when a store has no inventory.

[LeeFanatic007]

As others have posted the current younger generation, the millennials in particular, want convenience over anything. A lot of them are just down right lazy because everything is available to them at a few taps of their fingers on their phones or tablets or whatever, if it's not on Netflix or other streaming services then they don't need to see it, or they don't want to see it. My brother-in-law won't watch movies from before he was born as they are too old.

A lot of these younger people are also not going to the movies either, sure they show up for the big super hero films (which I like as well) but they aren't going to the other stuff, even potentially big blockbuster films tanked this year because people aren't going, they are spoiled by streaming despite the fact that a large percentage of popular movies aren't available to view on those sites.

I also suspect pirating is at a high, lots of people downloading movies and TV shows from torrent sites and watching that way. Had a friend that did it all the time until his computer was hit with virus multiple times, eventually he quit because of the costs to get his computer cleaned up, but I worked with people who would buy pirated copies of films before they were in theaters in the US, they can do this for cheap and stay at home. The younger people don't have social skills, so they want to stay home.

It's very frustrating that a lot of people just don't really get interested in the film world, but I suppose it's always been that way, I'm just noticing more the past few years. But without a doubt people aren't flocking to the theaters like they did 20 years ago. You get the big superhero films, animated kid flicks and major franchise releases are what pulls in the money, nothing else right now.

I'll support physical media until they do away with it or I just can't afford to any more.

[LeeFanatic007]

Originally Posted by frogjunk65

In BB a couple of weeks ago I asked an employee about Friday the 13th. If they could check in the back for it, I had the SKU for the tin. I know everyone has different tastes but he didn't even know I was talking about a movie.

I've had this happen before, forget what movie it was but they thought I was talking about a video game.

[TravisTylerBlack]

Originally Posted by veritas

We need to buy aggressively when titles we want are cheap or at least fairly priced. We also need to not buy at all any releases that are ridiculously over priced like I love lucy or aniplex titles.

I wasn't suggesting people spend beyond their means or support titles with a ridiculous MSRP. Lucy is a good/frustrating example of that. No one could afford what the studio wanted per season so now we're not getting any more Lucy on blu-ray.

My overall point is that if people want to see blu-ray stick around for much longer they should probably start picking up titles on a very regular basis. The majority of the catalogue titles I buy are $10 and almost never over $15.

However, I will continue giving my business to smaller distributors such as Twilight Time and the somewhat larger Shout! Factory who have a higher price point for valid reasons.

[Mr. Mojo]

Originally Posted by LeeFanatic007

As others have posted the current younger generation, the millennials in particular, want convenience over anything. A lot of them are just down right lazy because everything is available to them at a few taps of their fingers on their phones or tablets or whatever, if it's not on Netflix or other streaming services then they don't need to see it, or they don't want to see it. My brother-in-law won't watch movies from before he was born as they are too old.

A lot of these younger people are also not going to the movies either, sure they show up for the big super hero films (which I like as well) but they aren't going to the other stuff, even potentially big blockbuster films tanked this year because people aren't going, they are spoiled by streaming despite the fact that a large percentage of popular movies aren't available to view on those sites.

I also suspect pirating is at a high, lots of people downloading movies and TV shows from torrent sites and watching that way. Had a friend that did it all the time until his computer was hit with virus multiple times, eventually he quit because of the costs to get his computer cleaned up, but I worked with people who would buy pirated copies of films before they were in theaters in the US, they can do this for cheap and stay at home. The younger people don't have social skills, so they want to stay home.

It's very frustrating that a lot of people just don't really get interested in the film world, but I suppose it's always been that way, I'm just noticing more the past few years. But without a doubt people aren't flocking to the theaters like they did 20 years ago. You get the big superhero films, animated kid flicks and major franchise releases are what pulls in the money, nothing else right now.

I'll support physical media until they do away with it or I just can't afford to any more.

The old "back in my day" mentality.

None of this is particularly accurate. Hell, look at this site and you'll see a lot of 20-somethings deeply passionate about film and physical media. And plenty of adult-skewing films have done particularly well this year. Sully, Don't Breathe, Bad Moms, Sausage Party, 10 Cloverfield Lane, etc. Are these movies making hundreds of millions of dollars like Batman v Superman or Finding Dory? No, but they're making a nice chunk of change, especially relative to their budgets. That's largely the way it's always been. You have the big tentpole films. In yesteryear it used to be star-driven films, now it's genre and animated films and then you have the well reviewed and modestly budgeted films like I mentioned above. Your generalizations about an entire generation of people is largely skewed towards only your limited interaction with people of said generation, so let's not go overboard with calling an entire generation lazy with no social skills just because they're different, okay? Good. Thanks.

[tylerc904]

I won't call millennials lazy, as I am one, but I don't have a single friend that still buys movies. I think I have some addiction where I must collect, as I have 4,000+ CD's and am building a Blu-Ray collection pretty steadily.

If it isn't on Netflix, I'll get a text "do you have the newest Hunger Games movie I can borrow?" or "can I log into your prime account to watch it".

Music is interesting because I think fans are willing to shell out for their fav artists. For example, none of my friends ever go out and buy music but I had 4 of them go out and get the new GaGa album. Movies have similar exceptions, like my friend who will buy anything Harry Potter. I just think it's a dying breed, those who want physical products. It's a shame.

[eiknarf]

Originally Posted by tylerc904

I won't call millennials lazy, as I am one, but I don't have a single friend that still buys movies. I think I have some addiction where I must collect, as I have 4,000+ CD's and am building a Blu-Ray collection pretty steadily.

If it isn't on Netflix, I'll get a text "do you have the newest Hunger Games movie I can borrow?" or "can I log into your prime account to watch it".

Music is interesting because I think fans are willing to shell out for their fav artists. For example, none of my friends ever go out and buy music but I had 4 of them go out and get the new GaGa album. Movies have similar exceptions, like my friend who will buy anything Harry Potter. I just think it's a dying breed, those who want physical products. It's a shame.

Do those friends go to concerts, or is that a dying fad, too? Just curious.

[Arch Stanton]

The majority are definitely lazy.

A major upvoted post on reddit recently to do with Netflix was "If it's not on Netflix I just won't watch it."

[Mr. Mojo]

Originally Posted by Arch Stanton

The majority are definitely lazy.

A major upvoted post on reddit recently to do with Netflix was "If it's not on Netflix I just won't watch it."

Is it that they're lazy or just unaccustomed to physical media because they didn't grow up with it? Human beings are creatures of habit. A lot of judgement being passed in this thread on millions of people with no real verifiable proof.