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

[Vilya]

Originally Posted by Wendell R. Breland

^^^

Darn, I intended to post earlier but forgot. Many of the Applebee restaurant's offer a free meal to vets on the 11th. Proof required (VA ID, DD214, etc.)

Nice gesture on their part, but you'd have to pay me to dine at Crapplebee's.

[Wendell R. Breland]

Originally Posted by Vilya

The motivation is to get the free codes, or the deeply discounted ones, offered by many of our fellow disc collectors.

I don't encourage this kind of behavior, the free giving away of codes especially, but I am just one person and my decisions are rightfully limited to just myself.

My fingers and gray matter got disconnected in that post.

I have given quite a few away but stopped that practice mainly out of indifference by recipients. Most of my codes are for A titles but folks have showed little interest in them. I have tried to give away codes at the library, doctors offices, dentist offices, siblings, you name it - and nobody seems interested.

[Vilya]

Originally Posted by Wendell R. Breland

My fingers and gray matter got disconnected in that post.

I have given quite a few away but stopped that practice mainly out of indifference by recipients. Most of my codes are for A titles but folks have showed little interest in them. I have tried to give away codes at the library, doctors offices, dentist offices, siblings, you name it - and nobody seems interested.

I gave away two, maybe three, codes, after someone told me a sob story, but that was quite awhile ago. I have since hardened both my heart and my head and now all such attempts at pulling my heartstrings are met with maniacal laughter.

[Wendell R. Breland]

Originally Posted by Vilya

Nice gesture on their part, but you'd have to pay me to dine at Crapplebee's.

Never partook myself!!

In my young years we used to visit the crabapple tree's with salt shaker in hand when they were fruiting.

[cheez avenger]

My main motivation was to declutter from physical media. Life is too short to let it define you by how big your Blu-ray collection is. As I said before, I'll still buy an occasional BD but I stick mainly to digital formats now. I also have a Sinemia membership, so I catch a lot of films in theaters for very minimal costs now.

[alchav21]

Originally Posted by Steedeel

Ok so it’s not disc versus Digital HD now? It’s disc versus soon to be exclusive films on exclusive services. You will need several different subscriptions and very soon you will need exclusive hardware. You may need three or four streaming boxes to access all the content you want.

Apple will make certain films exclusive to their Apple TV box. This will start the trend. I guarantee this will happen.

That’s the future that you guys who buy digital will have brought on us. Short form and exclusives are coming. I just hope movies survive the war.

Well as you know I have never been an Apple Guy, so no STB for them. The only STB I have is from my ISP for IPTV. My Sony UHD TV has Android Apps to access all my Streaming Providers. It seems for Subscription I'll have Amazon and Netflix. So bring on Streaming, I'm more than ready!

[Steedeel]

Originally Posted by cheez avenger

My main motivation was to declutter from physical media. Life is too short to let it define you by how big your Blu-ray collection is. As I said before, I'll still buy an occasional BD but I stick mainly to digital formats now. I also have a Sinemia membership, so I catch a lot of films in theaters for very minimal costs now.

Life is too short to deprive myself of the best quality for my number one passion.

[Steedeel]

DigitalHD is dead format walking. Those yearly percentages are not healthy for such a young format.

You guys are not only losing AV quality but throwing good money away for space dust.

[cheez avenger]

Originally Posted by Steedeel

Life is too short to deprive myself of the best quality for my number one passion.

Been there, done that. Found out that there's more to life than a Blu-ray collection.

Now if that's your #1 passion, good for you. To just blankly state that Digital HD is going away anytime soon is completely wrong. It's not going anywhere - it's only going to flourish.

[Steedeel]

Originally Posted by cheez avenger

Been there, done that. Found out that there's more to life than a Blu-ray collection.

Now if that's your #1 passion, good for you. To just blankly state that Digital HD is going away anytime soon is completely wrong. It's not going anywhere - it's only going to flourish.

It’s not going to flourish man, how can it? It isn’t really growing. Just 3% growth this year. It’s going to be around but don’t kid yourself it’s been a hit. It hasn’t imo.

As for the ‘more to life’, this is a Blu-ray forum. We aren’t talking about our private lives, our loved ones, our jobs here. It’s our hobby, and the discussion is relevant to that. Movies are my passion as with most in the forum. If they aren’t very important to you, you are on the wrong forum buddy.

[cheez avenger]

Originally Posted by Steedeel

It’s not going to flourish man, how can it? It isn’t really growing. Just 3% growth this year. It’s going to be around but don’t kid yourself it’s been a hit. It hasn’t imo.

As for the ‘more to life’, this is a Blu-ray forum. We aren’t talking about our private lives, our loved ones, our jobs here. It’s our hobby, and the discussion is relevant to that. Movies are my passion as with most in the forum. If they aren’t very important to you, you are on the wrong forum buddy.

I know what kind of forum it is. I'm still here, right? I've embraced digital hd as one component to my media hobby. What I'm trying to get across, not that it matters, is that I am not letting my hobby define me. Now if the hobby was making me money or was my main source of income then yes, I would let it define me a bit more.

I see it in terms of practicality and as a guy who brings women back home. I don't want some birds I bring back home stumbling over my BD's or collectibles. As cool as the "40 Year Old Virgin's" man cave was, that's not going to fly nowadays. Especially if you want to bang hot chicks. Now if you find yourself a smoking hot nerd chick, well, then that's a different variable. I'm afraid of turning into a hoarder, which is why I keep my physical media needs in check. I am a fan of efficiency and digital hd helps in that regard along with Netlfix and other streaming services.

[Steedeel]

Originally Posted by cheez avenger

I know what kind of forum it is. I'm still here, right? I've embraced digital hd as one component to my media hobby. What I'm trying to get across, not that it matters, is that I am not letting my hobby define me. Now if the hobby was making me money or was my main source of income then yes, I would let it define me a bit more.

I see it in terms of practicality and as a guy who brings women back home. I don't want some birds I bring back home stumbling over my BD's or collectibles. As cool as the "40 Year Old Virgin's" man cave was, that's not going to fly nowadays. Especially if you want to bang hot chicks. Now if you find yourself a smoking hot nerd chick, well, then that's a different variable. I'm afraid of turning into a hoarder, which is why I keep my physical media needs in check. I am a fan of efficiency and digital hd helps in that regard along with Netlfix and other streaming services.

[cheez avenger]

Originally Posted by Steedeel

That hurts.

[Vilya]

Originally Posted by Steedeel

It’s not going to flourish man, how can it? It isn’t really growing. Just 3% growth this year. It’s going to be around but don’t kid yourself it’s been a hit. It hasn’t imo.

As for the ‘more to life’, this is a Blu-ray forum. We aren’t talking about our private lives, our loved ones, our jobs here. It’s our hobby, and the discussion is relevant to that. Movies are my passion as with most in the forum. If they aren’t very important to you, you are on the wrong forum buddy.

EST (digital purchase) has grown 12.44% this year, not 3%. You are misrepresenting the facts here. Last year EST growth was 5.74%. The rate of growth between year-end 2017 and after three quarters of 2018 has more than DOUBLED from 5.74% to 12.44%. That's a big change and not even my pro disc bias can blind me to it.

https://forum.blu-ray.com/showthread...273322&page=38

^2017 year-end data

https://www.degonline.org/wp-content...ver-Note-1.pdf

^3rd Quarter 2018 data

As much as I prefer disc, I will not falsify the sales data to try and make it show something it doesn't. Who exactly would I be fooling, anyway?

Digital is not going anywhere; it now represents 39.2% of all purchases. At the end of 2017, digital comprised 31.3% of all purchases. Digital's share of total purchases is up 25% so far this year as compared to its share last year.

Still, all purchases combined are down 5.61% this year. Last year all purchases were down 8.73%.

Subscription streaming continues to be where the sustained, year after year, strong growth exists, up 30% so far this year vs being up 31% last year. Subscription streaming revenue alone is slightly more than twice that of all purchases combined, $9.423 billion vs. $4.591 billion.

The difference gets worse when you look at all digital revenue (purchases, rental, subscriptions) which stands at $12.794 billion vs. physical media purchases which stands at just $2.79 billion. Even if you add-in physical rental, physical revenue still totals just $4.155 billion. All of this as of the end of the 3rd quarter 2018.

Using the figure for all physical revenue compared to all digital revenue and it becomes plain to see that $3.08 are spent on digital for every single dollar spent on physical.

4K discs are doing great, up 87%, but they are still a small part of total disc purchases. Despite their success, total disc purchases are down 14.46% to date vs. being down 14.1% last year.

These are the facts and I will not fudge them simply because I prefer a different result. You shouldn't, either.

[avs commenter]

Originally Posted by Steedeel

DigitalHD is dead format walking. Those yearly percentages are not healthy for such a young format.

You guys are not only losing AV quality but throwing good money away for space dust.

you're joking right?

digital is not going anywhere. it's also cheaper than physical so maybe you are the one throwing away money.

[Wendell R. Breland]

Originally Posted by Vilya

These are the facts and I will not fudge them simply because I prefer a different result.

I agree except I would never lump in SVOD with physical or digital sales and rentals revenue. I know DEG does this and IMO they do this to make that group look good.

Subscription VOD should be reported like all other subscription video. Linear pay TV is the one losing to SVOD as seen here. The real question is how profitable is SVOD. Hulu has always lost money (by design?), Netflix is now in debt for > 8 billion $ and obligated for > 16 or 17 billion $ and Amazon won't say because Prime includes shipping.

[Steedeel]

Originally Posted by avs commenter

you're joking right?

digital is not going anywhere. it's also cheaper than physical so maybe you are the one throwing away money.

Exactly, digital isnt going anywhere. Its just there. If you are a HT enthusiast you should all be ashamed for picking this format.

[Wendell R. Breland]

Do any of you remember when Warner announced they would become Blu-ray exclusive and drop the HD-DVD format? Someone posted a video on YouTube that you may get a chuckle from.

WARNING: Adult language in subtitles

The downfall of HD DVD - YouTube

[Wendell R. Breland]

Originally Posted by Steedeel

Exactly, digital isnt going anywhere. Its just there. If you are a HT enthusiast you should all be ashamed for picking this format.

I believe Vilya is right, a lot of Blu-ray.com members come to this site just for the cheap UV/MA codes that are for sale.

[cheez avenger]

Originally Posted by Steedeel

Exactly, digital isnt going anywhere. Its just there. If you are a HT enthusiast you should all be ashamed for picking this format.

Adding it to the repertoire is what it's about.