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

[CV19]

Originally Posted by Wendell R. Breland

Region mod's have been around for quite sometime so if there was a reliability issue we most likely would be hearing a lot more about it.

I don't have many non A region titles but I plan to add more as it seems a lot of US big catalog titles will never see a region A release.

Thank you. It's something I've been sitting on the fence for quite some time now. The only US titles I've bought up until now are all region-free (for example Twilight Time and Vinegar Syndrome), but the Scream/Shout Factory label do region-lock their discs if I'm not mistaken, and they do have some great titles which unfortunately don't all get a UK release by a UK boutique label.

I have to be careful though - I spend too much as it is, and I can do without having even more temptation thrown my way.

Originally Posted by cheez avenger

I've only ever seen/heard of this scenario when folks run their region free player via the wifi and update the firmware. I always suggest to not connect your region free Blu-ray player to the internet, or even update the firmware. Sometimes it will brick the player or revert it back to its original region.

Thank you, that's a good point. I have heard connecting a player and receiving updates can sometimes cause issues that weren't previously there. Take for example the Sony X-800 (region-B only), which I've had for nearly 4 years now. There's a thread somewhere in which quite a lot of owners have posted problems with this particular player, but yet I've never once had anything go wrong with mine. It's always played every disc flawlessly and this machine has been used near enough constantly. However I have never connected it to the internet nor had any firmware updates installed.

[CV19]

Originally Posted by ThanatosPT

In my experience it's a lot cheaper to just buy another player for the region you want.

I live in Portugal (Region B) and besides a Sony X700 I bought a Panasonic UB-820 from Amazon USA and an electric converter (sorry I don't know the exact name for the hardware but it converts portuguese electricity to one acceptable by the player): total cost less than 400 euros. Some sites that sell modded players ask over 500 euros + shipping for the same model.

So I now have two players and just buy whichever region I want/need.

Thanks, yes that's a good alternative. Actually I have looked at some voltage step up/step down transformers on Amazon UK - a couple of them made by a firm called Lvyuan and another one by Orion, so these would allow a US electrical product to be used over here in the UK.

[JohnAV]

Of interest today is a major scientific event available to watch though many mediums
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCLA...fKNvjuUpBHmylQ

The NASA Perseverance rover has been on a nearly 300 million-mile journey since it left Earth more than 6 months ago. If all goes well, it's expected to land on Mars around 3:55 p.m. ET

Watch NASA’s Perseverance Rover Land on Mars! - YouTube

Mission Control Live: NASA Lands Perseverance Mars Rover (360 video) - YouTube

4K 360 degree video

[bhampton]

Physical vs digital is simply fidelity vs economy

I guess it’s greed that makes people want tons of content for little price. Or just priorities. Like other stuff needs the money more.

The content suffers though. Great art is expensive.

[Steedeel]

Originally Posted by bhampton

Physical vs digital is simply fidelity vs economy

I guess it’s greed that makes people want tons of content for little price. Or just priorities. Like other stuff needs the money more.

The content suffers though. Great art is expensive.

That’s how I feel. A point I brought up in another thread. (4K streaming v Blu-ray).

[JohnAV]

Originally Posted by bhampton

Physical vs digital is simply fidelity vs economy

I guess it’s greed that makes people want tons of content for little price. Or just priorities. Like other stuff needs the money more.

The content suffers though. Great art is expensive.

I don't agree with this. Physical versus Digital is not fidelity versus economy. While there is the amount of money you spend with each, most people that watch movies on media are not videophiles or even audiophiles. You can easily tell that from their setups. Some are attempting to totally recreate a movie theater experience, but movie theaters are the last place you find audiophile audio quality. We could also say there are a lot of movie theater digital setup where the picture quality is not that great either. Its more of the enormous screen with loud sound experience that those fans love. There are blu-ray collectors that spend a lot of money and there are streaming junkies that have enormous amount on digital content that they are licensed for as well as numerous subscriptions. The quality of their HT setup effects how good each format is reproduced.

Too often this discussion settles into someone trying to get by with a reasonable about of content for entertainment and the opinions are only centered concerning the amount of money they spend. Well wake up you can have millionaires that's use whatever provides the content they desire at acceptable quality standpoints.

Obviously 4K UHD media can provide superior to what's in a movie theater if you got a great setup.

This really boils down to one's values. You have total control over the media you buy, its a known performance standard. Streaming, the quality varies depending on what the studio provides, and the provider is able to achieve using their transcoding/codec techniques.

But in comparison to art, I doubt none of you own much in the way of actual art. Most art is viewed in a museum or represented online. Yes a film is considered a work of art legally, but the quality varies greatly.

If you want any true comparisons compare collecting media and digital content to how someone previous collected books or paperbacks. Thats kinda how media and streaming is. One is longer lasting, more quality, the other is more convenient, and no issues with you damaging it.

[Ender14]

Originally Posted by JohnAV

If you want any true comparisons compare collecting media and digital content to how someone previous collected books or paperbacks. Thats kinda how media and streaming is. One is longer lasting, more quality, the other is more convenient, and no issues with you damaging it.

It's funny you mentioned this. I have always been an avid reader and a few years ago I decided to go digital with my books. I have 2 big bookcases full of books with many more tucked away in boxes and thought it might be a good way to save space. I first had a Nook (because I was a BN member) then I got a Kindle. But an amazing thing happened; I started reading less and less. I had plenty of books that I got cheap or free digitally but I had no desire to read them on a screen.

Once I realized this I went back to physical books and haven't looked back. So if anyone wants a Kindle that's a couple of years old PM me . It even has a nice leather cover.

[bhampton]

I wouldn’t have much in the way of actual art if one of my childhood friends was not a artist

I do enjoy trying to reproduce media to the best of my understanding and thankfully there’s usually a lot more to learn.

[Vilya]

I am still receiving birthday gifts eight days after my birthday! The winter storms have prolonged it as gifts continue to arrive. I suspect that my medical problems may have something to do with this unprecedented generosity, too.

In addition to items that are not movies, I have been given the following discs:

Game Of Thrones The Complete Series 4K Steelbook edition
Back To The Future Trilogy 4K Steelbook edition
Midsommar Director's Cut 4K edition (A24)
The Beastmaster 4K
Tremors 4K
John Carpenter Collection: Escape From New York, They Live, The Fog, Prince Of Darkness 4K
Total Recall 4K
Whiplash 4K
Love And Monsters 4K
Black Panther 4K
The Avengers 4K
Wreck It Ralph 4K
The Lion King (1994) 4K

and on blu-ray:

The Court Jester
Greenland
The Little Prince
Mouse Hunt

It's madness, I tells ya, and I have been told to expect still more!

[JohnAV]

Originally Posted by Vilya

It's madness, I tells ya, and I have been told to expect still more!

Mouse Traps - Mousehunt (3/10) Movie CLIP (1997) HD - YouTube

[JohnAV]

Originally Posted by Vilya

It's madness, I tells ya, and I have been told to expect still more!

Mousehunt (6/10) Movie CLIP - The Bug Bomb Goes Off (1997) HD - YouTube

[Vilya]

Mouse Hunt is such a fun movie. I am very happy to have it on blu-ray; it is getting some high praise over in its own thread.

[JohnAV]

Originally Posted by Vilya

Mouse Hunt is such a fun movie. I am very happy to have it on blu-ray; it is getting some high praise over in its own thread.

Its one of the most underrated comedies out there, shame it took years to get from DVD to Blu-ray. Let me know how the how you like the BD uptick.

[sapiendut]

Wait... Mouse Hunt is available on Bluray?

[Vilya]

Originally Posted by sapiendut

Wait... Mouse Hunt is available on Bluray?

As of February 2nd:



https://www.blu-ray.com/movies/Mouse...Blu-ray/44114/

https://forum.blu-ray.com/showthread...=334464&page=5

Only $12.99, too.

[alchav21]

MouseHunt.jpg

It's available in 4K UHD in Vudu...$12.99!

[Vilya]

It figures Vudu would offer a 4K version well after I bought the HDX version.

Still, I wanted this excellent comedy on disc and the blu-ray includes a handful of deleted scenes that do not appear to be included with the digital version. By most accounts, the movie looks, and sounds, great on blu-ray, too.

[bhampton]

I prefer upconverted Blu Ray to 4K streaming (which can be upconverted also)

I also prefer iTunes to VUDU for a couple of reasons. (Mostly because I use a lot of Apple products and it’s integrated well with them.)

Game of Thrones is fun to revisit and in higher quality makes it kind of like seeing it for the first time.

[Better in Blu]

Originally Posted by bhampton

I prefer upconverted Blu Ray to 4K streaming (which can be upconverted also)

I also prefer iTunes to VUDU for a couple of reasons. (Mostly because I use a lot of Apple products and it’s integrated well with them.)

Game of Thrones is fun to revisit and in higher quality makes it kind of like seeing it for the first time.

Game of Thrones in 4K UHD is amazing. One of the best AV on disc

[Anthony P]

Originally Posted by kfbkfb

Will streaming (eventually) lower the expectations for physical media picture/sound quality?

Early in the CD era, the major record companies were careful about getting good sound quality on their CDs, in recent years, some (budget) CD masters were taken from vinyl discs (clicks and pops and all).

Same situation for some (budget) DVDs, they use damaged films (dirt, scratches, faded color, short edits) as the source material.

I'm mainly thinking about video and audio data reduction artifacts rather than poor source material (I've seen some VideoCDs with video artifacts, but no DVDs/Blu-rays with video artifacts).

Originally Posted by kfbkfb

Digital audio sound quality has been reduced from CD to MP3, the general public seem OK with it, why not video quality reduction?

yes the general public is Ok with bad MP3 as long as
a) it means more tunes on their device
b) it is being streamed at the lowest BW

but why does it matter? For people that prefer records there are records for them to buy and people that prefer CDs there are CDs and people that prefer itunes there is itunes ... there are products for every different taste out there and each product category is happy to create product for their clientel

Do you think because most people don't care about muscle cars that everyone that cares should be "Oh no muscle cars will dissdapear because most people don't cares enough to buy them.

Do you think foodies are " most people are happy with bad fast food so high end restaurants will disappear".

Most people don't have/want to pay 10M for a house, so do you think fancy castles and mansions will disappear?
....


yes during the days of DVD there was only one format (in NA since there was also VCD as a lower end product in some markets) but even then there was some differentiation (superbit....)and that does not matter for most stuff in the world there is stuff made for the person that wants the best and stuff for the person that wants the cheapest and companies that will make product for those different groups (or any other subgroup that exists)