Physical & Digital EST: The Future of Home Video Discussion Thread

[Fiffy]

Originally Posted by Steedeel

No, I will take your word for it. So, my guess would be ITunes, Amazon then Google Play.

I can't share the numbers I have, but I can tell you that Google Play is not #3. There are successful players that would probably be surprising to many people on this forum, such as Comcast's EST service ...

[SarahS]

Originally Posted by Steedeel

can you supply confirmation of that near 40 million customers please?

By the way, there are forum members from many different countries. Your attitude stinks. Are you saying U.K, Australia, Germany, Spain etc.. don't matter?

No I mean that the US drives the majority of the entertainment market.

[SarahS]

Originally Posted by Steedeel

How can it drive the market? It's only available in the U.S. It doesn't have any space for growth. Netflix, yeah they drive the market. Vudu? Not so much.

By the way, I subscribe to several A/V magazines and they all describe Vudu as a 'niche American only service' '

38 million subscribers is not niche.

[Steedeel]

Originally Posted by SarahS

No I mean that the US drives the majority of the entertainment market.

Not for long. China are creeping up.

[Steedeel]

Originally Posted by SarahS

38 million subscribers is not niche.

Evidence please? I asked you earlier but no show.

[Greyman]

Originally Posted by hariseldon

Even if 38M is the number (no reason to think otherwise) that wouldn't necessarily mean much other than registrations. Anyone with a UV redemption who registered with VUDU, anyone with WalmartIW/Vudu, etc

It doesn't mean it's being actively used. It also doesn't distinguish those individual people with multiple accounts. It's probably not typical, but lots of folks here have mutliple accounts they use to redeem free credits -- make a new account then merge them, repeat.

For what it's worth the number is closer to 28 million at best. Still nothing to sneeze at.

Originally Posted by Greyman

This article says 28 million UV accounts which is probably world wide, so 38 million Vudu accounts is not likely.

Originally Posted by echopulse

I found this article about UV account numbers and the Ultraviolet system

http://www.crossroadstoday.com/story...ystem-for-dece

castLabs is keen to support and improve the infrastructure, which currently handles more than 28 million accounts with nearly 250 million movies and TV shows, and facilitated a peak of 1.7 million transaction per hour in late December.

[Steedeel]

Originally Posted by Greyman

For what it's worth the number is closer to 28 million at best. Still nothing to sneeze at.

Yeah well Sarah couldn't provide the figures so I assumed it was BS anyway.

[Jumpman]

Originally Posted by Vor4

Where I live, Best Buy, Walmart, and Target all cleared out their physical media section except for PS4 and XBox One games. I think it has to do low sales and I see no one browsing at movies and music anymore. I even heard rumors that Walmart might sell Vudu movie code cards within the next few months. I also heard from one of the workers at Best Buy that Best Buy looking into their start their own video streaming service that is tied to the UV locker.

As an employee at Best Buy, I can tell you that gaming last holiday took a major hit at Best Buy. We just didn't sell many games or consoles as projected. It seems that Digital Gaming is taking a chunk out of our business.

Having said that, Best Buy has decided to get into the collectibles business after Game Stop made a killing on that stuff last holiday season. It's the reason why you're seem more and more of that stuff and toys at Best Buy. Untapped market for us, especially with gaming and media taking a hit. Having said that, being the media guy at my store, movies do move when it's a release everyone wants. That has never changed. This is my second stint at Best Buy. I worked media back during the boom of DVDs and what I see now is what I saw back then; if it's a really popular movie, the people will still buy on disc. It's just not in the same quantities as it use to be.

[stonesfan129]

I can't believe VUDU is still not supported on Linux distributions. I'm tired of being tied to Windows just to use things like VUDU, my iPod, etc. As for digital games -- I'm not buying them, for the same reason I won't buy digital movies. You have zero control over the content. A provider just has to stop letting you access it and then too bad. And as far as physical sales, I thought DVD still outsold Blu-ray and UHD disc formats. At the end of the day, I think Blu-ray still provides the best quality for the money too.

[Steedeel]

Originally Posted by stonesfan129

I can't believe VUDU is still not supported on Linux distributions. I'm tired of being tied to Windows just to use things like VUDU, my iPod, etc. As for digital games -- I'm not buying them, for the same reason I won't buy digital movies. You have zero control over the content. A provider just has to stop letting you access it and then too bad. And as far as physical sales, I thought DVD still outsold Blu-ray and UHD disc formats. At the end of the day, I think Blu-ray still provides the best quality for the money too.

control is going to mean something different soon. There is a growing element of society that want to censor our films for all violence (ruins about 1 million films right there!) sex, nudity and gore. Sony are pushing for it with their 'clean versions' and several start ups are wanting to provide filters for content to illiminate all 'adult themes'. We are going to end up with family friendly dull films being the ONLY ENTERTAINMENT AVAILABLE if this trend is allowed to continue. Before people get on my back, many people from various film blogs think this is a risk also. The digital age really does suck!

[Steedeel]

One thing I have noticed. Vudu guys have not commented about the clean versions by Sony. I know they have been been wiped (see how quickly the studios can do that) but did anyone watch any of the clean versions before hand? If so, what did you think?

[Texan26]

Originally Posted by Steedeel

One thing I have noticed. Vudu guys have not commented about the clean versions by Sony. I know they have been been wiped (see how quickly the studios can do that) but did anyone watch any of the clean versions before hand? If so, what did you think?

They are still there if you bought the movie during the time the clean version was available. It shows up as it's own title now instead of as an extra. They're just not available for new purchases.

[Texan26]

Originally Posted by Steedeel

control is going to mean something different soon. There is a growing element of society that want to censor our films for all violence (ruins about 1 million films right there!) sex, nudity and gore. Sony are pushing for it with their 'clean versions' and several start ups are wanting to provide filters for content to illiminate all 'adult themes'. We are going to end up with family friendly dull films being the ONLY ENTERTAINMENT AVAILABLE if this trend is allowed to continue. Before people get on my back, many people from various film blogs think this is a risk also. The digital age really does suck!

And I'm not sure why you call clean versions as part of the digital era. Growing up in the 80s, I remember seeing a lot of originally rated R movies on network tv or basic cable that were heavily edited. They still do it. It's nothing new.

[whipnet]

Originally Posted by Texan26

And I'm not sure why you call clean versions as part of the digital era. Growing up in the 80s, I remember seeing a lot of originally rated R movies on network tv or basic cable that were heavily edited. They still do it. It's nothing new.

Smokey and the Bandit was the best with its terrible overdubs.

*

[flyry]

Space is becoming a real issue. I'll probably have to go digital early next year as I'll be out of room.

[Steedeel]

Originally Posted by Texan26

They are still there if you bought the movie during the time the clean version was available. It shows up as it's own title now instead of as an extra. They're just not available for new purchases.

So they introduced them and days later took the option away for new purchases. Don't get me wrong, I am delighted about that, but it just shows how easilly content is taken away because of studio interference.

[Steedeel]

Originally Posted by flyry

Space is becoming a real issue. I'll probably have to go digital early next year as I'll be out of room.

Hope you like kids films? That's all you may have access to down the line if these small but very loud minorities keep popping up. I can envisage a time when a new law is passed that says all content (film and tv) must be suitable for general audiences.

[Steedeel]

Originally Posted by Texan26

And I'm not sure why you call clean versions as part of the digital era. Growing up in the 80s, I remember seeing a lot of originally rated R movies on network tv or basic cable that were heavily edited. They still do it. It's nothing new.

Yes, but social media didn't exist then. Small but loud groups have a voice now. Also, thesechsve never actually been sold as extras before. It's almost like Sony want to promote censorship.

[Texan26]

Originally Posted by Steedeel

So they introduced them and days later took the option away for new purchases. Don't get me wrong, I am delighted about that, but it just shows how easilly content is taken away because of studio interference.

There have been Blu-rays and DVDs recalled days later because of something that was on the disc and not approved. Nothing new. I remember Wrong Turn 6 being recalled and the new versions have a blurred out picture in a scene. A Led Zeppelin blu-ray was recalled and then brought back missing an interview. Devil's Advocate DVD was recalled and then rereleased censored because of a sculpture in the film. The blu-ray version is still censored. I'm sure there are plenty more that I can't remember.

[Kage]

I've being thinking about switching back to blu-ray from iTunes lately, but I just can't see myself buying blu-ray discs anymore, and my iTunes collection is growing. Recently, when I tried to sell 5 blu-ray movies to two second hand movie stores, they offered me from 25 cents to $1.00 per movie, which was enough to pay for one gallon of premium unleaded fuel for my car. Other words, right now I'm too committed to iTunes.