What's your current digital movie strategy? - Blu-ray Forum

sea2000 · 11-01-2019, 08:26 PM

Adapting a line from Airplane, "Looks like I picked the wrong year to quit...physical media."

I decided to shift to digital movies about a year ago, after collecting physical media for two decades. Based on all that's occurred this past year, it's obvious I arrived late at the digital locker party and the subscription model is already supplanting it. However, I plan to ride it out, in the hope that the digital locker and subscription models will end up co-existing.

For the time being, this is my strategy:

1. Buying digital movies primarily on iTunes during their $4.99-or-under sales, now that there's an Apple app on Roku.

2. Buying digital movies on Prime Video in those rare cases where they have a good sale price that's not just an iTunes match.

3. Buying digital movies on Vudu only if there's a good sale price and/or I've earned a credit. The movies must be MA, since UV is gone and Vudu's future is uncertain. (I've already completed all my D2D buying.)

4. Avoiding Google Play and Microsoft for the most part, as I have thus far, since they rarely have favorable pricing and have little to recommend them. Same with FandangoNow, in terms of buying, but I will continue to use them for viewing non-MA/formerly UV movies (they sometimes have better prints than Vudu).

5. Keeping Blu-rays of my favorite movies (particularly non-MA ones) and those not available digitally. Same if the sound is better on the Blu-ray (e.g., 5.1 versus stereo). I'll continue to avoid buying any new Blu-rays, though.

How has what's occurred this past year changed your strategy?

mlparham · 11-03-2019, 04:10 PM

I have been purchasing them for VUDU a while now. They play fine on my Roku but not at all on my Fire TV. I tried the work around for Fire TV, but it only played them in SD. I have been buying physical disc ever since they started coming and have over 1000 movies on disk. I converted a lot of them using the VUDU disc conversion times. I have purchase3d many more in the digital realm. VUDU is my primary player so all but 1 movie is on VUDU. My original War of the Worlds came up on Amazon Prime but not VUDU. None of the TV series I purchased on VUDU show up in the other groups. I linked my VUDUI with several other groups in the hops they will be playable through other sites but there is a large discrepancy between the number of movies that showed up on VUDU versus the other sites. I don’t buy for iTunes because they don’t play on Roku or Fire TV. I saw you mentioned there is an Apple app out now for Roku, I will have to check it out. I keep a database and here are the number of movies per site and you can see how many are missing from other sites.

VUDU – 961
Amazon Prime – 611
Google Play – 607
iTunes – 607
Movies Anywhere - 638
YouTube – 613
Fandango – 219

As you can see the difference between VUDU and Movies Anywhere, second largest collection, is more than 300 movies lost.

sea2000 · 11-04-2019, 05:35 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mlparham

I saw you mentioned there is an Apple app out now for Roku, I will have to check it out.

Here's a link to it: https://channelstore.roku.com/details/551012/apple-tv

You've got a lot of Vudu-only content. Fingers crossed about Vudu's future.

akaun6899 · 11-03-2019, 04:16 PM

I used to redeem the codes included with Blu-ray sets and no more, but recently I've been buying the occasional digital film, usually something I already have on disc, but occasionally something I don't already own in any form or is only on disc in the wrong aspect ratio. I've also gotten a couple freebies through promotions.

sea2000 · 11-04-2019, 05:42 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by akaun6899

I used to redeem the codes included with Blu-ray sets and no more, but recently I've been buying the occasional digital film, usually something I already have on disc, but occasionally something I don't already own in any form or is only on disc in the wrong aspect ratio. I've also gotten a couple freebies through promotions.

It started that way for me too, but I quickly expanded my purchasing. For example, I've bought a number of digital movies for $4.99 that I wouldn't have paid $15+ for on disc.

Guydowood · 11-04-2019, 09:42 AM

I’ve been collecting movie’s since the VHS days and once digital codes began being issued I usually just tossed them in the garbage. As the digital platforms expanded I decided to redeem them and VUDU is my largest collection as of right now at 758 titles. A few months ago I got the Apple TV 4K with anticipation of their Apple TV+ and having read many threads regarding folks digital collections getting free 4K-UHD upgrades was a nice incentive as well to open my iTunes account. After being in the fence for a few years about streaming anything my attitude has changed regarding quality of streaming content. It’s certainly not perfect (yet) but my overall experience has been positive. I will continue to support physical media purchases until the day comes that the final discs will be issued and everything is strictly digital. My digital purchasing plan has been and will remain to buy titles that are not on Blu-ray and are on sale for under $10. Considering the recent development of VUDU possibly being sold off or shut down completely has got me abandoning ship my wishlist on that sight and creating it on iTunes because at the end of the day if any digital platform survives it will be iTunes and Movies Anywhere. Hell even Playstation Vue is shutting down its TV subscription service in January.....

meremortal · 11-04-2019, 02:34 PM

The main method has probably been d2d through Vudu. For the few first years of the program I was kind of skeptical and never really used it. In retrospect, it was one of those things I started to regret since they offered a half-off bulk discount after you scanned at least ten. Before md2d rolled out it was one of those things that was a real hassle since I had to lug the desktop pc out of the closet just for Vudu And by the time I really started to use it they debuted md2d and then the bulk discount was no longer offered. But now there are a lot of dvds I'm less enthusiastic at scanning for $5.50 each after fees. However, now that there's speculation that Wal Mart may sell Vudu and it kind of makes me nervous if they would continue dvd/md2d and if all of the content will carry over.

zen007 · 11-07-2019, 04:45 PM

Since convenience is important to me, I will look to buy (or as some call it "to lease") more digital esp. if a sale is on. The strategy would be to go with iTunes and Google Play. These two are among the key options in Canada. Many times, I just rent a film out esp. if I am unsure of the repeat value.

pab1219 · 11-07-2019, 05:33 PM

MoviesAnywhere and Vudu. Than iTunes Amazon/GP occasionally.

kurtis21 · 11-07-2019, 05:51 PM

I purchase UHD's....then redeem the digital copies...Via Apple, MA & then Vudu. I have Apple 4K tv...and will watch on there occasionally. But my primary use for digital is for when I travel and watch on my iPad Pro. (Which is about twice a month on average) But mostly I watch UHD in my theater!

BlurayX · 11-07-2019, 08:04 PM

I buy codes, blu-rays & 4K blu-rays with digital codes and redeem the codes on MA, VUDU, iTunes & GP. I also buy movies & TV shows on VUDU & iTunes. I do VUDU D2D & MD2D as well. I use an Apple TV 4K, Roku Ultra and Amazon Fire TV.

jgo435 · 11-07-2019, 08:34 PM

My strategy has pretty much always been iTunes first, primarily because of the free 4K upgrades and I'm pretty invested in the Apple ecosystem. It just makes everything work together. I'll purchase every now and then from Vudu, FandangoNow, and Google Play only if they have MA titles on sale (I believe Google Play had The Man from UNCLE on sale not too long after it was released before any of the other providers, so I snatched it up then). I find that Google Play and FandangoNow don't have very good sales at all, so I don't bother checking them that often unless someone gives me a heads up. If I purchase codes, I generally buy iTunes codes or 4k MA codes, so that still leaves a lot of movies I have to wait to go on sale.

sea2000 · 11-08-2019, 06:56 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jgo435

My strategy has pretty much always been iTunes first, primarily because of the free 4K upgrades

I forgot to mention that, but that is another good reason to prefer iTunes. (And by the way, I'm not an Apple guy; I don't own any Apple devices.)

Quote:

Originally Posted by jgo435

I find that Google Play and FandangoNow don't have very good sales at all, so I don't bother checking them that often unless someone gives me a heads up.

Same here.

alchav21 · 11-08-2019, 04:27 PM

I have a big Collection in Vudu, but with MA I'm not worried. So I will stick with Vudu, Amazon, and MA along with all the other Streaming Providers except Apple. I also have Netflix, so I think all is well!

sea2000 · 11-08-2019, 06:09 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by alchav21

I have a big Collection in Vudu, but with MA I'm not worried. So I will stick with Vudu, Amazon, and MA along with all the other Streaming Providers except Apple. I also have Netflix, so I think all is well!

You're not worried about your non-MA titles in Vudu, with Vudu's future uncertain?

alchav21 · 11-08-2019, 07:49 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sea2000

You're not worried about your non-MA titles in Vudu, with Vudu's future uncertain?

Not really, but I'll have to see which Movies don't Port over. I still have a big Collection of Back-up Blu-ray and DVD Discs.

ColinD · 11-09-2019, 09:38 AM

10 Years into buying Digitally using AppleTV 4k
UK iTunes (450)
US iTunes (1350)

Buy discounted titles or codes. Movies Anywhere is nice but secondary.
Big Apple user however so as said before everything just works from PC/Phone/Tablet/AppleTV etc

bhampton · 11-09-2019, 10:58 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ColinD

10 Years into buying Digitally using AppleTV 4k

You've had the ATV4K for ten years... man you have connections!

CrowKiller · 11-09-2019, 11:19 AM

My strategy is to pretty much say F digital and support physical. Yeah streaming is typically more convenient and you don't have a bunch of discs to find a place for, but you can't trust it. People act like their digital collection can't be taken away. It can and possibly will, even if it's just one movie at a time over a long period of time.

I had to get a new PS3 not too long ago and as I was redownloading stuff, I was noticing I was finding things I bought before where unavailable to redownload. Thankfully nothing I really cared about, but still an eye opener. Yet, if I had physical copies if they where available, I'd still have them.

IMO anyone who pays money for digital that's more than a rental or not a subscription service is a sucker. Sure physical can have disc rot, theft (which could also happen digitally with your account/password), or nature. Of course If those are serious factors, you might want to store stuff elsewhere. I've never had a disc rot. Nevermind that you actually own something you buy, instead of digital where you just have a privilege that some ahole can take away at anytime. It also looks worse than discs.

Yes, I have a decent size digital collection but it was all free and didn't pay a penny for any of it, unless you count codes that come with physical discs I buy. Seriously... support physical. You'll regret not doing it in the end. When all these companies sword fight with their penises over rights to films, locking them into vaults, and other shenanigans, you'll wish you could pull out that disc and play it anytime you want. Regardless of internet collection or rights issues. 1,000s of discs take up very little space in reality if you put them on shelves. Looks sexy AF too.

Buy physical to own, and use streaming for rentals and cheap subscriptions. Mark my word you will regret it one day going all digital.

mastadge · 11-09-2019, 11:51 AM

Hmm. Uncertain. I enjoyed iTunes but with the upgrade to Catalina and the TV app everything seems to have taken a major step backwards.

11-01-2019, 08:26 PM	#1
sea2000 Active Member Member since:Apr 2011 Blu-ray reviews:14 Trading Score:2	What's your current digital movie strategy? Adapting a line from Airplane, "Looks like I picked the wrong year to quit...physical media." I decided to shift to digital movies about a year ago, after collecting physical media for two decades. Based on all that's occurred this past year, it's obvious I arrived late at the digital locker party and the subscription model is already supplanting it. However, I plan to ride it out, in the hope that the digital locker and subscription models will end up co-existing. For the time being, this is my strategy: 1. Buying digital movies primarily on iTunes during their $4.99-or-under sales, now that there's an Apple app on Roku. 2. Buying digital movies on Prime Video in those rare cases where they have a good sale price that's not just an iTunes match. 3. Buying digital movies on Vudu only if there's a good sale price and/or I've earned a credit. The movies must be MA, since UV is gone and Vudu's future is uncertain. (I've already completed all my D2D buying.) 4. Avoiding Google Play and Microsoft for the most part, as I have thus far, since they rarely have favorable pricing and have little to recommend them. Same with FandangoNow, in terms of buying, but I will continue to use them for viewing non-MA/formerly UV movies (they sometimes have better prints than Vudu). 5. Keeping Blu-rays of my favorite movies (particularly non-MA ones) and those not available digitally. Same if the sound is better on the Blu-ray (e.g., 5.1 versus stereo). I'll continue to avoid buying any new Blu-rays, though. How has what's occurred this past year changed your strategy? Last edited by sea2000; 11-04-2019 at 08:34 PM.

11-09-2019, 11:19 AM	#19
CrowKiller Banned Member since:Feb 2017 4K collection:276 Blu-ray collection:2504 DVD collection:1190 Trading Score:2	My strategy is to pretty much say F digital and support physical. Yeah streaming is typically more convenient and you don't have a bunch of discs to find a place for, but you can't trust it. People act like their digital collection can't be taken away. It can and possibly will, even if it's just one movie at a time over a long period of time. I had to get a new PS3 not too long ago and as I was redownloading stuff, I was noticing I was finding things I bought before where unavailable to redownload. Thankfully nothing I really cared about, but still an eye opener. Yet, if I had physical copies if they where available, I'd still have them. IMO anyone who pays money for digital that's more than a rental or not a subscription service is a sucker. Sure physical can have disc rot, theft (which could also happen digitally with your account/password), or nature. Of course If those are serious factors, you might want to store stuff elsewhere. I've never had a disc rot. Nevermind that you actually own something you buy, instead of digital where you just have a privilege that some ahole can take away at anytime. It also looks worse than discs. Yes, I have a decent size digital collection but it was all free and didn't pay a penny for any of it, unless you count codes that come with physical discs I buy. Seriously... support physical. You'll regret not doing it in the end. When all these companies sword fight with their penises over rights to films, locking them into vaults, and other shenanigans, you'll wish you could pull out that disc and play it anytime you want. Regardless of internet collection or rights issues. 1,000s of discs take up very little space in reality if you put them on shelves. Looks sexy AF too. Buy physical to own, and use streaming for rentals and cheap subscriptions. Mark my word you will regret it one day going all digital. Last edited by CrowKiller; 11-09-2019 at 11:24 AM.

11-03-2019, 04:10 PM	#2
mlparham New Member Member since:Aug 2018 Location:Austin, Texas Trading Score:15	I have been purchasing them for VUDU a while now. They play fine on my Roku but not at all on my Fire TV. I tried the work around for Fire TV, but it only played them in SD. I have been buying physical disc ever since they started coming and have over 1000 movies on disk. I converted a lot of them using the VUDU disc conversion times. I have purchase3d many more in the digital realm. VUDU is my primary player so all but 1 movie is on VUDU. My original War of the Worlds came up on Amazon Prime but not VUDU. None of the TV series I purchased on VUDU show up in the other groups. I linked my VUDUI with several other groups in the hops they will be playable through other sites but there is a large discrepancy between the number of movies that showed up on VUDU versus the other sites. I don’t buy for iTunes because they don’t play on Roku or Fire TV. I saw you mentioned there is an Apple app out now for Roku, I will have to check it out. I keep a database and here are the number of movies per site and you can see how many are missing from other sites. VUDU – 961 Amazon Prime – 611 Google Play – 607 iTunes – 607 Movies Anywhere - 638 YouTube – 613 Fandango – 219 As you can see the difference between VUDU and Movies Anywhere, second largest collection, is more than 300 movies lost.

11-03-2019, 04:16 PM	#4
akaun6899 Special Member Top contributor Member since:Jan 2015 4K collection:195 Blu-ray collection:980 DVD collection:411	I used to redeem the codes included with Blu-ray sets and no more, but recently I've been buying the occasional digital film, usually something I already have on disc, but occasionally something I don't already own in any form or is only on disc in the wrong aspect ratio. I've also gotten a couple freebies through promotions.

11-04-2019, 09:42 AM	#6
Guydowood Blu-ray Ninja Top contributor Member since:Aug 2008 Location:Guydowood 4K collection:1438 Blu-ray collection:3256 DVD collection:74 MA collection:1256 Digital collection:1623 iTunes collection:1514 Prime collection:1267 Blu-ray reviews: 4292 Trading Score:53	I’ve been collecting movie’s since the VHS days and once digital codes began being issued I usually just tossed them in the garbage. As the digital platforms expanded I decided to redeem them and VUDU is my largest collection as of right now at 758 titles. A few months ago I got the Apple TV 4K with anticipation of their Apple TV+ and having read many threads regarding folks digital collections getting free 4K-UHD upgrades was a nice incentive as well to open my iTunes account. After being in the fence for a few years about streaming anything my attitude has changed regarding quality of streaming content. It’s certainly not perfect (yet) but my overall experience has been positive. I will continue to support physical media purchases until the day comes that the final discs will be issued and everything is strictly digital. My digital purchasing plan has been and will remain to buy titles that are not on Blu-ray and are on sale for under $10. Considering the recent development of VUDU possibly being sold off or shut down completely has got me abandoning ship my wishlist on that sight and creating it on iTunes because at the end of the day if any digital platform survives it will be iTunes and Movies Anywhere. Hell even Playstation Vue is shutting down its TV subscription service in January.....

11-04-2019, 02:34 PM	#7
meremortal Blu-ray Champion Member since:Jan 2012 Location:Bedford Falls Trading Score:258	The main method has probably been d2d through Vudu. For the few first years of the program I was kind of skeptical and never really used it. In retrospect, it was one of those things I started to regret since they offered a half-off bulk discount after you scanned at least ten. Before md2d rolled out it was one of those things that was a real hassle since I had to lug the desktop pc out of the closet just for Vudu And by the time I really started to use it they debuted md2d and then the bulk discount was no longer offered. But now there are a lot of dvds I'm less enthusiastic at scanning for $5.50 each after fees. However, now that there's speculation that Wal Mart may sell Vudu and it kind of makes me nervous if they would continue dvd/md2d and if all of the content will carry over.

11-07-2019, 04:45 PM	#8
zen007 Power Member Member since:Oct 2019 Location:Canada Trading Score:1	Since convenience is important to me, I will look to buy (or as some call it "to lease") more digital esp. if a sale is on. The strategy would be to go with iTunes and Google Play. These two are among the key options in Canada. Many times, I just rent a film out esp. if I am unsure of the repeat value.

11-07-2019, 05:33 PM	#9
pab1219 Blu-ray Samurai Member since:Apr 2008 4K collection:330 Blu-ray collection:2293 Trading Score:60	MoviesAnywhere and Vudu. Than iTunes Amazon/GP occasionally.

11-07-2019, 05:51 PM	#10
kurtis21 Power Member Top ranked HT gallery Top contributor Member since:Feb 2008 Location:Southern NJ Home Theater Gallery:44 4K collection:198 Blu-ray collection:786 iTunes collection:1	I purchase UHD's....then redeem the digital copies...Via Apple, MA & then Vudu. I have Apple 4K tv...and will watch on there occasionally. But my primary use for digital is for when I travel and watch on my iPad Pro. (Which is about twice a month on average) But mostly I watch UHD in my theater!

11-07-2019, 08:04 PM	#11
BlurayX Senior Member Member since:Jan 2018 Location:USA Trading Score:221	I buy codes, blu-rays & 4K blu-rays with digital codes and redeem the codes on MA, VUDU, iTunes & GP. I also buy movies & TV shows on VUDU & iTunes. I do VUDU D2D & MD2D as well. I use an Apple TV 4K, Roku Ultra and Amazon Fire TV.

11-07-2019, 08:34 PM	#12
jgo435 Active Member Top contributor Member since:Aug 2010 Blu-ray collection:844 DVD collection:48 iTunes collection:147 Trading Score:70	My strategy has pretty much always been iTunes first, primarily because of the free 4K upgrades and I'm pretty invested in the Apple ecosystem. It just makes everything work together. I'll purchase every now and then from Vudu, FandangoNow, and Google Play only if they have MA titles on sale (I believe Google Play had The Man from UNCLE on sale not too long after it was released before any of the other providers, so I snatched it up then). I find that Google Play and FandangoNow don't have very good sales at all, so I don't bother checking them that often unless someone gives me a heads up. If I purchase codes, I generally buy iTunes codes or 4k MA codes, so that still leaves a lot of movies I have to wait to go on sale.

11-08-2019, 04:27 PM	#14
alchav21 Blu-ray Samurai Member since:Apr 2009 Location:ST George, Utah Blu-ray collection:1 Digital collection:2 iTunes collection:2 Trading Score:52	I have a big Collection in Vudu, but with MA I'm not worried. So I will stick with Vudu, Amazon, and MA along with all the other Streaming Providers except Apple. I also have Netflix, so I think all is well!

11-09-2019, 09:38 AM	#17
ColinD Active Member Member since:Jan 2010 Location:Narnia Trading Score:157	10 Years into buying Digitally using AppleTV 4k UK iTunes (450) US iTunes (1350) Buy discounted titles or codes. Movies Anywhere is nice but secondary. Big Apple user however so as said before everything just works from PC/Phone/Tablet/AppleTV etc

11-09-2019, 11:51 AM	#20
mastadge Expert Member Member since:Aug 2012 4K collection:19 Blu-ray collection:952 DVD collection:8	Hmm. Uncertain. I enjoyed iTunes but with the upgrade to Catalina and the TV app everything seems to have taken a major step backwards.

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