Oh noes teh sky is falling!

[octagon]

Originally Posted by Nocturnaloner

As far as physical media goes, I'm buying extra region free players, and taking good care of my burners. I will be the old man with the antique discs that have movies on them. That's my plan.

I'm hoping to be the old man who at some point finally gets around to copying all his discs to some sort of magnetic medium.

Burning all my CDs and DVDs was really freaking tedious but the end result was great. The discs are all tucked away in binders (except the DVDs I used for Best Buy's upgrade and save program, anyway) and the content is all extremely accessible.

I would love to get around to that with a lot of my BDs.

[motorheadache95]

It is interesting though because for me personally, the amount of movies/shows I feel compelled to own have gone down since the old DVD/early Blu-Ray days of 2001-2008ish. Like, way WAY down.

I don't know if it's just buying fatigue or what, but I used to love buying movies and tv show sets that I liked. I would be out to Best Buy or Frys or wherever all the time buying up discs and paying attention to sales ads and releases.

Now I barely buy stuff, unless I really love the film and feel like its the type of movie I want to watch fairly often in the best quality. And that isn't that often. Even most films I enjoy now I figure I can catch them again sometime down the line if they show up on Netflix. I guess a lot of other people are doing the same thing which is why physical media isn't what it used to be.

[Scarface32]

Originally Posted by octagon

And one day the sun will explode.

But it is not this day.

So who the hell cares.

Actually what the sun does currently is explode. Every day hundreds of atoms are bumping into each other in the sun, exploding, which is why the sun is a mass of flames. I think what you meant to say is one day the sun will run out of atoms, causing the explosions to stop, resulting in us freezing to death?

[PenguinMaster]

Originally Posted by Blu-21

If physical media was fading to death anytime soon we wouldn't have UHD discs and players. Sure UHD will be a niche within a niche, but the point stands. Physical media may be weakening in some ways, but that doesn't mean it's death bed has been layed out.

Physical media isn't going away anytime soon for major releases. But more and more TV shows and indie movies will only get digital releases.

[JimDiGriz]

Originally Posted by PenguinMaster

Physical media isn't going away anytime soon for major releases. But more and more TV shows and indie movies will only get digital releases.

Those digital only releases wont make anywhere near as much money. I wont buy digital downloads of films/TV shows full stop and I dont think Im the only one!

[AmrlKJaneway]

Originally Posted by Scarface32

Actually what the sun does currently is explode. Every day hundreds of atoms are bumping into each other in the sun, exploding, which is why the sun is a mass of flames. I think what you meant to say is one day the sun will run out of atoms, causing the explosions to stop, resulting in us freezing to death?

It'll go supernova first. Expanding to many times its current size and swallowing the closer planets, including us.

We only have five billion years before this happens. So enjoy your blu-ray's for now, you won't get to have them forever!

[Rodney-2187]

Originally Posted by mredman

Rodney is clearly a digital/streamer troll...

I'm definitely not a troll. I do like the convenience of streaming, but I still want the quality of the discs as well. I like having both.

I don't want to see physical media decline, but I think it will. There is a cost associated with the manufacture and distribution of physical media which is why studios prefer digital. Even theaters have gone digital.

Will it disappear entirely? Will it become a niche market with higher prices? It's an interesting conversation especially suited for a blu-ray forum.

[Rodney-2187]

As for the sun expanding in 5 million years, humans will likely have left earth by then. I wonder if they will pack multiple physical discs or just stream content to save room on spacecrafts?

[k_huntington]

Originally Posted by motorheadache95

It is interesting though because for me personally, the amount of movies/shows I feel compelled to own have gone down since the old DVD/early Blu-Ray days of 2001-2008ish. Like, way WAY down.

I don't know if it's just buying fatigue or what, but I used to love buying movies and tv show sets that I liked. I would be out to Best Buy or Frys or wherever all the time buying up discs and paying attention to sales ads and releases.

Now I barely buy stuff, unless I really love the film and feel like its the type of movie I want to watch fairly often in the best quality. And that isn't that often. Even most films I enjoy now I figure I can catch them again sometime down the line if they show up on Netflix. I guess a lot of other people are doing the same thing which is why physical media isn't what it used to be.

I'm kind of the opposite, I buy more now than I ever have before, and 90% of it is blind buys, so I don't even buy crap I know I'll watch a lot. I just buy stuff cause it looks cool.

The streaming model would be fine if they sold eternal licenses. Sell me a license for 10 bucks, and guarantee me I will have access to that license no matter what, until I die. If the platform changes, roll over my license. That's the missing link. We are at the mercy of Netflix's license agreemnet, instead of our own as a customer.

[Member-222782]

Originally Posted by PenguinMaster

They will absolutely co-exist, but as digital becomes more popular more and more titles will only be available digitally. Vinyl, CDs, magazines, and books used to be the standard and everything was released on those formats. Now many titles skip them and are only available digitally.

I believe the majority of digital-only releases will be comprised of new Hollywood output, much of which is lame disposable entertainment anyway and of which there will never be a shortage of, and not established classics and back catalogue titles. We may have a tougher time finding the older stuff but they'll never be digital-only. I don't think it'll be a major loss if movies like Sharknado are only viewable on a cell phone in 24 hour blocks.

[rickah88]

Originally Posted by Nocturnaloner

I'm not going to bother to Google this, but in about 1978 they told me that our sun didn't have enough mass to go supernova, but it would go red giant, and expand so large that it would burn up the earth. I think that theory still holds.

As far as physical media goes, I'm buying extra region free players, and taking good care of my burners. I will be the old man with the antique discs that have movies on them. That's my plan.

I don't believe you! Wanna bet?
Funny all this talk of the sun, and the death of physical media. All it would take is one good solar flare, a very real possibility, to wipe out most, if not all, digital content. While physical media, for the most part, would be humming right along!

[Nocturnaloner]

Originally Posted by rodneyfaile

As for the sun expanding in 5 million years, humans will likely have left earth by then. I wonder if they will pack multiple physical discs or just stream content to save room on spacecrafts?

Asking the real questions. By the way, your new Oculus Rift setup in your avatar looks dope.

[WhySoBlu?]

Originally Posted by rodneyfaile

I'm definitely not a troll.

Then why did you bump this long-dormant thread to post an article from two years ago?

[PenguinMaster]

Originally Posted by rodneyfaile

As for the sun expanding in 5 million years, humans will likely have left earth by then. I wonder if they will pack multiple physical discs or just stream content to save room on spacecrafts?

Discs would be even more essential in that situation. I assume all the humans aren't going to be on one spacecraft so they'd have to stream from the other spacecrafts where the studios and providers have set up their servers. Are you not concerned about being out of range or the other spacecrafts being destroyed?

[Rodney-2187]

Originally Posted by WhySoBlu?

Then why did you bump this long-dormant thread to post an article from two years ago?

Because it was a subject I felt like talking about and I thought it was better than starting a new redundant thread. I was looking at the article on my phone and did not notice how old the article was.

[Bates_Motel]

Originally Posted by JimDiGriz

Those digital only releases wont make anywhere near as much money. I wont buy digital downloads of films/TV shows full stop and I dont think Im the only one!

Pure speculation with no facts to back that up, but...

They also won't cost as much money to produce, since the cases, cover art, etc is the most expensive part of making a physical disc. Also, no shipping charges or overstock at warehouses. So in the end, they will actually save more money even if they sell less copies.

Just because you refuse to buy digital doesn't mean million of the repose won't. In fact, numbers show they are starting to prefer it. Digital music has proven to do just fine, and soon movies will as well.

[Rodney-2187]

I especially like the digital streaming if I want to binge watch a tv show without changing a bunch of discs, but the blu Ray always looks superior so when it's a movie I really care about, I always watch the blu-ray.

[Rodney-2187]

Originally Posted by PenguinMaster

Discs would be even more essential in that situation. I assume all the humans aren't going to be on one spacecraft so they'd have to stream from the other spacecrafts where the studios and providers have set up their servers. Are you not concerned about being out of range or the other spacecrafts being destroyed?

I think wi-fi will have greatly improved by then, as would storage space. You might be able to carry every movie ever on a flash drive, or just stream it directly to your brain in 5d with smell and temperature effects.

[AgentOrange]

Originally Posted by Bates_Motel

Pure speculation with no facts to back that up, but...

They also won't cost as much money to produce, since the cases, cover art, etc is the most expensive part of making a physical disc. Also, no shipping charges or overstock at warehouses. So in the end, they will actually save more money even if they sell less copies.

Just because you refuse to buy digital doesn't mean million of the repose won't. In fact, numbers show they are starting to prefer it. Digital music has proven to do just fine, and soon movies will as well.

The warehousing/distribution and risk of loss is probably the biggest detractor. Digital eliminates that risk. Mass produced discs cost very little, and I don't think a slip of paper and $.10 worth of generic plastic case is going to change that. The whole package for a standard blu-ray is surely not much more than $1.00 - plus some overhead costs involved in the design and disc authoring. The cost of authoring doesn't just go away because you aren't replicating discs - you still need to create a "master file" to distribute to whomever you are doing a digital distribution deal with.

A bigger benefit to studios is not having to deal with the "used" market. If you buy digital, there are no second hand sales - EVERY sale is 1st hand. IMO the push for digital is more about control, rather than the actual cost to press a disc. Of course, even if there are "pennies" being saved by moving to all digital - the studios will surely grab those pennies (which over 10's of millions of units, can add up substantially).

[surfdude12]

LOL soon we'll be reading "streaming in rapid decline" when in the future VR headsets put us in the movies (i.e. Total Recall). We'll look back and tell our grandkids about how we used to "stream" movies and they'll tell us how we're so "old fashioned"