Oh noes teh sky is falling!

[octagon]

Originally Posted by bigshot

I'm in the process of digitizing my DVD collection so I can have the movies in a format that can be backed up and transcoded if necessary.

That's a tedious process to be sure but it's well worth it. I'm currently between HTPCs right now but I really miss having all my DVDs literally at my fingertips. It was particularly cool for TV series. Being able to browse graphical season/episode guides for ever series I have on DVD and then just start an episode with a press of the remote was pretty awesome.

I (obviously) love BD but it's not hard to understand the appeal of VOD or streaming services.

[AnamorphicWidescreen]

I don't see physical media going away any time soon whatsoever.

This board/forum is proof of this - new Blu's are coming out all the time, and now 4K is getting more popular.

And, HD TV's are just getting bigger (not smaller) & are better designed than in the past, etc.

I.e., if someone had told me 15 years ago that I could buy a huge, flat-screen TV that was 1) High-def; 2) Reasonably priced and 3) so light that I could carry it myself from the store, to my car, up my steps, and to my second floor...I would have laughed in their face. However, these days that's the reality.

[eiknarf]

Originally Posted by AnamorphicWidescreen

I don't see physical media going away any time soon whatsoever.

This board/forum is proof of this - new Blu's are coming out all the time, and now 4K is getting more popular.

And, HD TV's are just getting bigger (not smaller) & are better designed than in the past, etc.

I.e., if someone had told me 15 years ago that I could buy a huge, flat-screen TV that was 1) High-def; 2) Reasonably priced and 3) so light that I could carry it myself from my car, up my steps, and to my second floor...I would have laughed in their face. However, these days that's the reality.

True. And nothing's getting smaller.
The movie Zoolander had everyone thinking the future meant everything was awesome if it was smaller.

How'd that pan out?
Every smart phone is larger today than just four years ago. Tablets are getting bigger, laptops are better if they're bigger, and TVs will always sell larger. Actually TVs sell best at the 50" size, because homes wall spaces aren't getting bigger.

[octagon]

Originally Posted by eiknarf

Tablets are getting bigger,...

Not only are tablets bigger than tablets used to be, they're bigger than many televisions used to be.

When I young 12" black-and-white portables were very common bedroom TVs.

And we liked it, dammit

[HD Goofnut]

Originally Posted by octagon

Not only are tablets bigger than tablets used to be, they're bigger than many televisions used to be.

When I young 12" black-and-white portables were very common bedroom TVs.

And we liked it, dammit

I remember when my parents got a 12" color TV for their bedroom with stereo, rather than mono. Talk about a difference. A couple years later I found an old 26" color TV from about 1970 that I had for several years. That thing was awesome, but weighed a ton and took about 10 seconds to completely turn on.

[Infernal King]

Originally Posted by Steedeel

Many were mocked for believing the world was not flat, no?

Yep, you're just like Galileo!

[AnamorphicWidescreen]

To add to my last post:

1) Yes, physical media is becoming more niche, and in many cases it's tough/impossible to find some Blu's/DVD's @ retail stores. But, I don't see Blu's/DVD's ever going away completely - the sales may end up going either primarily or only online only, which is already happening to a great extent - especially for older films/TV series. Plus, as has been stated before, when stores want to advertise how good the PQ is on TV's, they will use Blu's/4K Blu's as examples - not streaming.

2) That being said, there is nothing wrong with streaming - and I'm glad it's gotten so much faster & more popular in the past several years. I do prefer Blu-ray's/DVD's, but do stream some newer shows that I either don't want to buy, or aren't on home video (yet).

There's nothing that says you can't stream & also watch DVD's/Blu's.

[StingingVelvet]

Originally Posted by motorheadache95

To be fair, we're currently in a time where I feel television has really gotten better creatively than it ever was before, and the movie industry feels like its getting worse. There's plenty of good movies coming out, of course, but it seems like TV is starting to be the place to go where the more creative things are happening and risks are being taken. A perfect example is looking at Marvel's Netflix shows versus their films. I mean, I like my MCU movies, but any of their Netflix shows are IMO way superior to, say, Avengers: Age of Ultron.

I actually feel the opposite, most serialized shows today seem super drawn out and boring to me. I take film 99 times out of 100 and prefer when TV is the "movie every week" style. I know I am in a minority right now though.

Originally Posted by cakefactory

I think just the fact this topic is on this board is making it pointless, as it's the absolute most biased respondent category possible. Try starting the topic on any board not aimed at older physical media obsessives, and the poll would be probably 80% going "people still buy DVDs??" (yes, not blu-rays, a lot of people forgot there is even a thing called blu-rays) and the other 20% a mix of "yeah, it's screwed" and "i still buy them so it's great."

I don't think anyone is saying discs are still mainstream or will be for much longer anyway. Especially for catalog material. What we're saying is they are far from dead. They'll go on as a more and more niche market for a long time to come.

[baheidstu]

Originally Posted by StingingVelvet

I actually feel the opposite, most serialized shows today seem super drawn out and boring to me. I take film 99 times out of 100 and prefer when TV is the "movie every week" style. I know I am in a minority right now though.

Re: TV. Everyone says that TV is in a golden age right now and maybe it is in terms of stronger writing compared to stuff from the past where they just repeated the same formula each and every episode (see Batman or Columbo) but man things really seem to lose steam fast. The first couple of episodes or seasons start off strong but with no formula to fall back on, they lose their momentum or just go ludicrously off the rails. I still prefer to watch films because with the rare exception, they present a story that's already mapped out from beginning to end.

[motorheadache95]

Originally Posted by StingingVelvet

I actually feel the opposite, most serialized shows today seem super drawn out and boring to me. I take film 99 times out of 100 and prefer when TV is the "movie every week" style. I know I am in a minority right now though.

Fair enough, but we'll have to agree to disagree on that. I actually think TV is way better now than it was earlier when everything was network "story of the week" format and ran 22-26 episodes a year until people stopped watching. We still have plenty of those shows, of course, like the procedural format series, but there's so many great shows now that run about 10-13 episodes and focus more on each episode being like a chapter of a novel.

[Arch Stanton]

TV is considerably better than it used to be and the scope is now there for it to really challenge movies, but I think we're getting more and more shows that are basically exploitative enterprises and really buying in to streaming & binge watch culture, so it's a bit of a mixed thing at the moment and the potential isn't always being reached.

[Steedeel]

Originally Posted by WhySoBlu?

Thanks. And it should come as no surprise to anyone, but you've grossly misrepresented the data in the (nearly year-old) article. In addition to the bit about it being a plateau and not indicative of any sort of sharp decline, it also has nothing to do with your typical "concerns."

If you bothered to read the article, it goes on to say that the increase is due to low-income households using the internet from their phone service in order to save money and also to people in rural areas who don't have access to the same fast broadband that those of us in cities have. It's also because of the high cost of super-fast internet service in general. In other words, it's mostly a cost-cutting measure, not a paradigm shift.

This is why these periodic outbursts from you are so frustrating...

I would love you to offer your views in the topic started by me named 'where we are headed with Digital' some of the talk bout 5g ties in with this discussion very tightly.

Especially your point about (articles point) about cost cutting measures. Once 5g gets to a stage where we can stream HD on a steady connection and watch tv like we can now with cable or Netflix, won't that just mean we have a mass codes from fibre to 5g. Just paying for a phone contract is a heck of a saving from also paying for a fibre connection to the home. We will find out how many people care about the big screen by 2025 when 5g should be in mainstream use.

[Joe Karlosi]

Originally Posted by mar3o

Exactly. According to Sony, the VCR was going to destroy Hollywood. Thankfully the courts saw it differently and Sony lost. Did the VCR kill movies?

No. Lousy movies have killed Movies.

[Giant Machine]

Television has never been better. We have been spoiled over the past 15 years.

[BluBonnet]

Originally Posted by Giant Machine

Television has never been better. We have been spoiled over the past 15 years.

I think "spoiled" is an understatement. There's more good stuff out there than many of us have time to watch

[Steedeel]

But how will we be watching in future? That's what concerns me.

[wonderer99]

People say that the general public are not interested in new tech and are "happy" with DVD and SD TV. I don't believe this completely. Since DVD arrived tech has moved so fast that people are just not willing to support something which could be considered a dead format three years later. The worst thing that happened to Blu Ray was that DVD continued to be supported.

At the point that HD TV channels really took off 4K started to be discussed and before that even opened its eyes 8K appeared. You just cant expect the masses to adopt a new tech every few years. That is why streaming is rapidly growing and will ultimately become the standard. Not only is it the easiest option, it is also the safest. Nobody wants to spent thousands on a physical library to have it dropped soon after. I'm saying this a a massive supporter of physical media.

[Steedeel]

Originally Posted by wonderer99

People say that the general public are not interested in new tech and are "happy" with DVD and SD TV. I don't believe this completely. Since DVD arrived tech has moved so fast that people are just not willing to support something which could be considered a dead format three years later. The worst thing that happened to Blu Ray was that DVD continued to be supported.

At the point that HD TV channels really took off 4K started to be discussed and before that even opened its eyes 8K appeared. You just cant expect the masses to adopt a new tech every few years. That is why streaming is rapidly growing and will ultimately become the standard. Not only is it the easiest option, it is also the safest. Nobody wants to spent thousands on a physical library to have it dropped soon after. I'm saying this a a massive supporter of physical media.

Well I adopted DVD and it's still here 16 year later. It will probably make it to 20 years.

[DCW]

Originally Posted by BluBonnet

I think "spoiled" is an understatement. There's more good stuff out there than many of us have time to watch

So true, my Netflix watchlist is so long I don't even know where to start on it. It's intimidating, lol.

[wonderer99]

Originally Posted by Steedeel

Well I adopted DVD and it's still here 16 year later. It will probably make it to 20 years.

Er...yes. I'm not sure I understand?