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

[Dynamo of Eternia]

Originally Posted by whipnet

He's correct. Taped media is analog. Laserdisc, CD's, DVD's, HD-DVD, Blu-rays, hard drives, flash drives are all forms of digital media. 1's and 0's.

A bluray player streams the data from the disk, processes it and displays it. A Roku streams from a server, processes it and displays it.

Digital video from a server from current providers is compressed and does not stream at the same bitrates of a disk. But it's all digital.

*

Yes, it is technically all digital. I'm not denying that, and I don't think anyone else is either. That said, there are still major differences that have been repeatedly stated that he continues to ignore or sidestep.

[Dynamo of Eternia]

Originally Posted by flyry

I've streamed about 30 episodes of 4K tv the past month and hit 700 gb of my 1tb monthly limit.

I can't imagine how much data 8K will use in the future

And that right there is a worrisome aspect of streaming. Not that it hasn't been brought up before. In terms of time spent watching content, 30 episodes in a month is nothing.

If someone is "cutting the cord" from cable, and opting to use subscription streaming services and/or buy movies/TV shows through services like Vudu and stream them, they'll be hitting those caps in no time.

And since most of the big internet providers are also the big cable/satelite television providers (i.e. Comcast, At&T, etc.), they have no real incentive to remove data caps or be more liberal with them. If people are cutting out one service from them, then they are going to try to collect all of the money that they can through the other.

And they tend to cut better overall deals to those who combine multiple services through them on the same bill (i.e. phone/tv/internet). So it's basically a damned if you do, damned if you don't scenario with digital IMO.

I have Hulu and Netflix. They have a lot of positives. But for now they are more of a supplemental part of my overall entertainment consumption rather than the main focus. And I don't see that changing for a number of reasons.

[flyry]

Originally Posted by Dynamo of Eternia

And that right there is a worrisome aspect of streaming. Not that it hasn't been brought up before. In terms of time spent watching content, 30 episodes in a month is nothing.

If someone is "cutting the cord" from cable, and opting to use subscription streaming services and/or buy movies/TV shows through services like Vudu and stream them, they'll be hitting those caps in no time.

And since most of the big internet providers are also the big cable/satelite television providers (i.e. Comcast, At&T, etc.), they have no real incentive to remove data caps or be more liberal with them. If people are cutting out one service from them, then they are going to try to collect all of the money that they can through the other.

And they tend to cut better overall deals to those who combine multiple services through them on the same bill (i.e. phone/tv/internet). So it's basically a damned if you do, damned if you don't scenario with digital IMO.

I have Hulu and Netflix. They have a lot of positives. But for now they are more of a supplemental part of my overall entertainment consumption rather than the main focus. And I don't see that changing for a number of reasons.

The funny part is that my ISP has a page that says all you can do with 1TB a month:

140 2 hour HD movies
100 half hour SD() episodes
1500 3 min videos
2000 hrs of web surfing
500 hours of music streaming (or 7500 4 min songs)

However none of this mentions 4K/UHD. Which is a bit silly and really should be factored into the equation since pretty much every show I watch on Netflix or Amazon is in 4K.

[veritas]

Originally Posted by flyry

The funny part is that my ISP has a page that says all you can do with 1TB a month:

140 2 hour HD movies
100 half hour SD() episodes
1500 3 min videos
2000 hrs of web surfing
500 hours of music streaming (or 7500 4 min songs)

However none of this mentions 4K/UHD. Which is a bit silly and really should be factored into the equation since pretty much every show I watch on Netflix or Amazon is in 4K.

Of course those are the numbers assuming digital stays lower quality then blu ray. If digital ever tried to match blu ray in uncompressed glory it would work out to around 20 hd movies a month before you would hit the data cap. That's part of the problem people are saying digital will improve but their isn't a incentive to improve quality (digital buyers already settled for the lower quality option) theirs a incentive to lower quality (without being to noticeable) to save data.

[WestMan]

And with net neutrality going away, there will be even more pressure for these big streaming services to keep their videos highly compressed.

[flyry]

Originally Posted by veritas

Of course those are the numbers assuming digital stays lower quality then blu ray. If digital ever tried to match blu ray in uncompressed glory it would work out to around 20 hd movies a month before you would hit the data cap. That's part of the problem people are saying digital will improve but their isn't a incentive to improve quality (digital buyers already settled for the lower quality option) theirs a incentive to lower quality (without being to noticeable) to save data.

I still argue that these shows in native 4k HDR look better than most of my discs

[jhrobinson]

I watching “Blade Runner 2049” last night on iTunes. The movie stopped several times, probably due to internet issues. I doubt if I would have had the problem on a Blu-Ray disc.

[Dynamo of Eternia]

Originally Posted by alchav21

Talking about Home Theaters, as it relates to Disc or Digital, here is an interesting Interview with an Expert in my Sound & Vision Magazine. It seems even the Experts don't want to commit to answering the question Disc or Digital. The consensus seems to be, it's too early to tell. Discs are on the decline, but the last Format being UHD is in question.

https://www.soundandvision.com/conte...inment-heading

Originally Posted by alchav21

Thanks Whipnet, because the Bitrates on Streaming keep going up, and when they match Disc the argument will be Bunked. All that is needed are better access and location of Servers, and more Bandwidth. With all the Providers going Streaming, these two things will happen sooner than later.

Originally Posted by alchav21

collecting Discs is Ancient

I put these three quotes above because at some point or another in this post I'll be hitting on some aspect of each of them.

I'm also going to quote a few points from that article (which is interesting overall)...

Convenience will win every market when it comes to mass consumers. Consumers have repeatedly shown they are willing to trade-off quality for a more seamless experience that integrates into their lifestyle. At the same time, quality audio and video experiences are proliferating as technology is increasingly accessible to the average consumer.

Digitization has democratized quality and consumers have gained greater access to higher quality experiences. Over the very long run, all consumers will shift towards a high-end, high performance, high quality experience. Consider the path of earlier technologies. In the beginning of the automotive age, only the very rich owned cars. Today there is near ubiquitous access to vehicles and ownership rates are high with 95 percent of U.S. households owning a car. The same trend has played out with technologies like cellular telephony. In the early years of cellphones, the technology was expensive and only the rich had access. Today it is widely available.

The experience economy suggests consumers are most interested in high quality experiences. Over time, that will transcend a wide range of experiences. To understand what the future will look like, look at what technologies the rich consume today.

We are still in a massive period of experimentation when it comes to how consumers will acquire and use content and this period of experimentation will not end anytime soon. Business models are still being built around a new environment of digital devices and streaming services. Companies are still discovering consumer preferences and determining how to leverage digitized information.

Though this info shouldn't be news to anyone who has seen many of my posts in this thread, I just want to reiterate a few basic points from my standpoint in all of this:

-I still maintain that physical media offers the overall best options in terms of quality. The quality of streaming does continue to increase, but for various reasons (discussed in other recent posts, among many past ones) having file sizes equal to that of Blu-Ray or 4K Blu-Ray being streamed is not realistic for a number of reasons. Even if infrastructure across the board improves to actually allow for files of that size to be streamed (and A LOT of it needs to be upgraded to accommodate that), data caps and so forth are a major issue.

-I'm not against streaming or digital in all capacities. I do have Netflix and Hulu accounts that I use fairly regularly.

-While I stand behind my quality bullet point, there are other reasons why I prefer physical media for the content that I buy, mostly knowing that I have it and own that copy and that short of something like theft or fire, it's not going to be taken away from me. With that being the case, even if a piece of content isn't available on Blu-Ray, I will still opt to buy it on DVD over Digital HD.

-If that same piece of content ends up being available for a time through Netflix or Hulu at better quality than the DVD, then I'll happily opt to watch it through those services while the option exists, but will stick with the DVD as my fail-safe.

-My current main television is a 64" Samsung F8500 Plasma 1080p set. It's the last high end Plasma that was made. Due to what I spent on it, it will be a good while before I upgrade it to 4K.


-------------


So, all of that was mostly build up to the actual meat of my post (sorry, as you can already tell, it's not going to be a short one).

-I'm going to start with a very recent experience that I had (less than a week ago) regarding physical media.


For roughly the last month or two, I was already kicking around the idea of getting a 4K Blu-Ray player. Even though I don't have a 4K TV, I have been buying 4K combo packs where applicable since the format launched. I figured this way I could get the most out of what I otherwise have now, including using some of those 4K discs. But I know that HDR to SDR conversion can be a major issue. In researching different player models, I found that Panasonic tends to be best in that regard, having the most robust options in that respect. Their player is also more on the high end of 4K players. The current model available was on sale in December through Best Buy for $450 (down from $600). I wanted to wait until after the start of the new year to buy it, mostly for maintaining my Elite membership with Best Buy. Then right after the new year started, the price jumped back up to $600, so I decided to hold off.

Fast forward to early last week. My wife and I were watching a Blu-Ray. The Sony Blu-Ray player that has been our main player for almost a decade crapped out. As a quick fix, I hooked up my PS3, but because I don't like using gaming systems for watching movie discs (mostly for wear and tear on the system, which I'd rather save for gaming), I wanted to get a new player sooner rather than later. Later that night, I checked Best Buy again, and the Panasonic 4K player was back down to $450. So, I placed an order for in store pick up (it had to be sent to the store). It came in on Thursday.


I got it home, and hooked it up. Here's the very positive thing about this player that I was honestly NOT expecting. I have not yet actually tried any 4K discs in it (I'm waiting until I really have time to sit down to mess with the whole HDR to SDR thing). But we have watched a couple of regular Blu-Ray movies in it since we got it (specifically Iron Man 2 and Thor... we are gradually re watching all of the MCU movies in prep for Infinity War).

The picture using this player is nothing short of phenomenal! I'm using the same 1080p TV that I've had for a few years now (albeit a high end one), and the same 1080p discs that I've had for several years. This 4K player made a substantial difference in the picture quality. In addition to the Sony player that was our main one used, at one time or another I've used a few different game systems and at least one other stand alone player on this same TV, and tweaked the settings as needed. While they always gave us really good performance, it was nothing like this.

Let me put it this way...
My wife isn't into this stuff to the same extent that I am. She's not one of those to roll her eyes at it or complain about my movie collecting like the stories some others have had on these forums. And she actually does like this stuff to an extent. But she tends to be far less likely to notice differences in certain things than I am. There have been times in the past when something odd happens visually that bugs me that I'm trying to fix, she doesn't even see the problem in the first place.

SHE was wowed by the picture that this was putting out. She noticed it immediately.

To put this in further perspective, our TV is a smart TV. It has the apps for Netflix, Hulu, Vudu etc. built into it (and I have used Vudu to an extent with digital copies that I've redeemed from my combo packs, just to try it out). So we don't even need things to be coming from/passed through an external box to use them. And when we use those services, when the quality is at it's full capacity (meaning not counting when it drops here and there), things do look rather good. But even with the previous player, I noticed a difference and found Blu-Ray to be better overall. Now this blew the performance of our previous players out of the water.

Out of curiosity, I do plan to try out Netflix through the new player and see if I notice any improvement there. This player has relatively limited streaming options (it lacks Hulu for example, and the main criticism against the player in reviews was the lack of streaming apps, but I wasn't buying it for those anyway), but I do want to test out the options that it does have.

But none the less, I'm getting better quality out of my existing discs being played on my existing TV than I thought possible. I got the player with the intent to use 4K discs with it (which I still plan to try). I honestly didn't expect a major improvement when watching regular Blu-Rays.

So my point is this... short of this device working a miracle with Netflix streaming from it, I'm getting better picture quality on my existing TV by watching discs through this player than I've gotten from the streaming apps built directly into the TV.

Given all of the things that have to happen in order for streaming to catch up with that in all respects (bigger file sizes, improved infrastructure, ISPs with no data caps or ones large enough to allow much bigger file sizes to be streamed in large quantities without hitting said caps, etc.), I'm not holding my breath on all of the stars aligning in that regard anytime soon.

---------

So, to make some further points in response to the quotes above, as well as some general recurring topics in this thread...

I see no reason for me to stop supporting physical media, regardless of the decline. I'm still getting a superior experience from it, and it comes with the level of control that I desire.


This idea that "discs are ancient" is ridiculous IMO. Why should anyone feel that way? Because discs of some form or another have been around for years? Because the general masses are buying them less than they once did?

Since when is what the general masses are doing necessarily the basis for what people more interested in quality experiences should opt for?

For years Laserdisc offered much better PQ and AQ than VHS, but never amounted to more than a niche format. Does that mean that the people who were into it and really enjoyed it shouldn't have been?

The only time that what the masses were doing roughly lined up with what enthusiasts were doing was when DVD became the dominate format (both in available quality and in general sales popularity), and with the general roll out of HDTVs.... though the latter was due in part to SD TVs being discontinued, but also general interest in the additional quality they can provide (but that the end consumer doesn't necessarily get depending on what they are doing).

To reiterate one of the quotes from that article:

The experience economy suggests consumers are most interested in high quality experiences.

Consumers are interested in high quality experiences. It doesn't mean that they fully understand what it takes to get them. And they are often in denial about not having a quality experience at present.

I'm talking about the kind of people who some years back would buy an HDTV (regardless of how high end it is, but more often than not is some kind of moderate set bought from Walmart or the like), leave the picture to it's default overly bright picture mode meant for store displays, with those god awful Truemotion/Smooth motion features turned on, which they hook their existing DVD player to using yellow/red/white composite cables (or even get something like a PS3 that they also hook up using composite cables)... and because they hate black bars of any kind on the screen (including those of widescreen movies with wider aspects ratios than 16:9), they would opt for the fullscreen DVD and stretch it out.

And they would assume that they are getting the same quality picture as someone with a high end TV, Blu-Ray player, sound system, and Blu-Ray discs, and that the person who spent all of that money on those items was just crazy for doing so.

Now, to be fair, a lot of the more technical aspects can be confusing (some at the more extreme end even have my head spinning from time to time). And honestly I wish most TVs would come with more reasonable default color settings and those smooth motion features turned off. It would be nice if there was less of a guessing game in that regard, and would make things easier on the average end consumer.

But still, there is a lot of stuff that is pretty basic when it comes to home theater experiences (i.e. hooking up a PS3 or Blu-Ray Player with an HDMI cable instead of composite), and shouldn't be that hard for people to understand... but yet it is.

While these days the masses are more likely getting a better picture by way of Smart TVs having streaming apps built in and newer devices (i.e. Rokus, current game systems) only having HDMI outputs, there are still many things that they are ill informed about and aren't getting the full benefit of, even within the realm of streaming. Heck, a good chunk of them probably assume that the quality of streaming is substantially better than that of physical media because they went from watching full screen DVDs stretched out via a composite cable connected player to streaming movies from apps built into a newer TV or from a device with better default settings that requires an HDMI connection to even work.

My point is that what the masses are doing shouldn't be the basis for what people who care about quality to some extent or another should do.

--------


To be fair to most of the pro-digital people posting in this thread...

For the most part you are at least making reasonably informed decisions. You generally understand how this stuff works, you know the pros and cons, and you opt for digital because for you the quality difference isn't enough for you to want to buy physical media that will take up space, and you like the convenience of digital. And you generally know what you need to do to get the best out of what you have.

The problem comes in when alchav21, for example, makes statements about how discs are ancient and the like, and is basically using the same masses currently using streaming who in the past thought that they were getting an HD picture through composite cables (and are fundamentally no more informed now than they were then) as the basis for why "discs are ancient" and those collecting them to get the better experience and have more control over their content are "crazy." He sees walking across the room to put a disc in a player, as opposed to pushing a few buttons on a remote to bring up a digital file, to be ridiculously crazy, but at the same time advocates for people uprooting their lives and moving just to get the best internet support that they can to get the best quality out of those button pushes. If there was an argument that said that people would get better quality from streaming if they just stand on their head while drinking a glass of water and saying the alphabet backwards, he would be arguing in favor of it and would act like that's somehow more reasonable than using discs.

And to be clear, most of the the pro-digital folks in this thread are not doing the same thing as him in that regard. Most are just debating the overall pros and cons, and explaining why they've opted to go in the direction that they have.




The thing is that it doesn't have to be all or nothing. Honestly I think there is a degree of short sidedness in some people completely ditching physical media. I get the space issue, and I get not wanting to own THOUSANDS of titles, especially if you won't watch most more than once. But owning a dozen, a few dozen, maybe even ultimately 100 or so titles? I don't think it's THAT crazy. And space can be further reduced if you remove the discs from their original cases and use something like slim CD cases for storing them (if you don't care about the original packaging). Especially supporting any niche titles that you love on these formats. Not that you shouldn't collect the big blockbusters (I certainly do), but those are the things that will always sell at least well enough to justify being made available.

There are just so many variables with digital (be it quality, accessibility, relying on several companies including the studios, the services the titles are distributed through, the ISPs and their caps, etc.) that can change at any time for the worse, and I think that even many of you here who are otherwise generally well informed don't fully grasp the potential issues that could happen, or just take for granted that there won't be any problems (let alone the masses who don't get the quality difference between an HDMI cable and composite cables, and therefore have absolutely NO clue about this stuff whatsoever). Meanwhile with physical media, if you take care of it, it will at least remain the same and can be used as long as you have electricity.

That's just my opinion on the matter, anyway.

[PCFan]

Originally Posted by jhrobinson

I watching “Blade Runner 2049” last night on iTunes. The movie stopped several times, probably due to internet issues. I doubt if I would have had the problem on a Blu-Ray disc.

You can always download the movie from iTunes to a PC/Mac and use iTunes Home Sharing for your iTunes purchases. That way you don't have to depend on an internet connection while watching. However, my experiences with iTunes Home Sharing are not good but at least I didn't need an internet connection for it to work . It may be a better experience using a Mac instead of a PC for iTunes Home Sharing. This does not work for 4k however since you can't download 4k.

[Fiffy]

Holy wall of text, Batman. Impossible to reply to all of it, but this part stuck out to me while skimming over the posting:

Originally Posted by Dynamo of Eternia

Given all of the things that have to happen in order for streaming to catch up with that in all respects (bigger file sizes, improved infrastructure, ISPs with no data caps or ones large enough to allow much bigger file sizes to be streamed in large quantities without hitting said caps, etc.), I'm not holding my breath on all of the stars aligning in that regard anytime soon.

Looking back, how has the Internet developed over the past decades? Files sizes got bigger, infrastructure was improved, data caps went up along with bandwidth. I see absolutely no reason why these trends would change anytime soon. On the contrary, the industry is currently investing heavily in CDNs and other infrastructure for efficient video delivery.

Given the current trajectories, the stars don't have to align to make these things happen; they'd have to align (in a negative sense) for them *not* to happen. Just as one metric, here's a graph showing average Internet connection speed over the last 10 years in the US, showing unabated exponential growth:

https://www.statista.com/statistics/...eed-in-the-us/

Note that the requirements for streaming video are roughly tracking these numbers (e.g. when iTunes introduced 1080p videos requiring ~5Mbps in 2012, that was also the average connection speed; Netflix 4K streams today require around 20 Mbps available bandwidth, which again happens to be the average connection speed). It's not difficult to extrapolate into the future.

[Dynamo of Eternia]

Originally Posted by Fiffy

Looking back, how has the Internet developed over the past decades? Files sizes got bigger, infrastructure was improved, data caps went up along with bandwidth. I see absolutely no reason why these trends would change anytime soon. On the contrary, the industry is currently investing heavily in CDNs and other infrastructure for efficient video delivery.

Given the current trajectories, the stars don't have to align to make these things happen; they'd have to align (in a negative sense) for them *not* to happen. Just as one metric, here's a graph showing average Internet connection speed over the last 10 years in the US, showing unabated exponential growth:

As odd as it would seem (even though I bring this up to make the opposite argument), my response to this is to bring up alchav21's point about fiber wiring or something similar to it.

Internet speeds have increased over the years, and certain aspects of infrastructure have improved. But by and large the data is being sent over the same kind of phone and cable wiring that has existed for many, many years. And to alchav21's point (that yes, I've criticized previously, though mainly because he tends to shoe-horn it into conversations where it's relevance is somewhere in the neighborhood of minimal to non-existent), that kind of wiring is outdated.

In order for there to be substantial improvements in this regard, that aspect of infrastructure needs to be updated across the board. And that's a lot of wiring to replace. That won't happen overnight, and at least outside of major cities and the like, I could see it taking many, many years to reach most places, if it gets to some places at all.


Even if that were to happen, then it would require the services to stream files that are the equivalent of Blu-Ray or 4K disc in all respects. I'm not holding my breath on that happening anytime soon. I anticipate streaming to some extent or another to roughly follow the laws of "good enough," and even with future improvements, still stream files that are compromised to some extent or another to their disc counterparts. And even if time proves me wrong on that, then at best they'll maybe match the disc versions, in which case I'm still getting the same quality from my discs, and when they come with them, I'll continue redeeming the codes from my combo packs and have the titles digitally anyway.



And sure, data caps may increase... for a price. While internet service in general has improved over the years, with cord cutting gradually gaining more traction, and with companies like AT&T and Comcast (who offer both TV and internet services) seeing more customers cancel their cable/satellite service in favor of streaming, they aren't going to offer top of the line high speed internet service with no data cap (or a cap that is only hit after using A LOT of data) for some relatively small, nominal fee.

ISPs have little incentive to not try to maximize profits in this regard. The speeds needed to accommodate this may eventually get here... but it won't be cheap.

[Vilya]

Forgive me for returning to the thread so soon after saying I would step back for awhile; I will again for allowing myself this exception. But I will still visit it as I like reading the comments here.

Four days ago, I was planning my disc purchases for February; my birthday is then and I usually have extra money to spend on my most beloved hobby.

Last night I was in the emergency room and I was informed that I could become permanently blind in my left eye in as little as 6 weeks, maybe sooner. I will spare everybody the details as I doubt anyone is that interested. I, however, am having a lot of trouble coming to terms with the idea. I am worried, even scared.

Thinking about how this possible outcome would affect my collecting offers me a little diversion from the more grievous consequences, so this post is a needed distraction in that sense.

Would you still pursue this hobby? Would it make you favor your existing preference more? Or would you favor the other option? Would you stop collecting altogether? If you did would you keep your collection, reduce it, even eliminate it? Sell it? Donate it?

I type this in a room surrounded by shelf after shelf of discs. The irony of it is a bit cruel and it feels like I am being mocked. I just bought a 4K 3D capable TV in May 2017 and I have added many 3D titles since and they may be completely useless to me before Spring.

I do want to apologize to alchav21 and flyry for the times here where I was unkind and rude. I want to be better than that.

I want to thank Dynamo Of Eternia for that exceptional, exquisite essay that you recently shared with us. Your posts are consistently excellent and I look forward to reading more of them.

If I am rambling, if am being pathetic, melodramatic, nonsensical, please consider it is 6:50 AM here and I am on pain medication. But I really am interested in how such a potential personal tragedy would affect how you collect and enjoy video content.

[Zu Nim]

Originally Posted by Vilya

Last night I was in the emergency room and I was informed that I could become permanently blind in my left eye in as little as 6 weeks, maybe sooner. I will spare everybody the details as I doubt anyone is that interested. I, however, am having a lot of trouble coming to terms with the idea. I am worried, even scared.

I will be hoping for the best outcome for you and that you have the strength to get through any upcoming challenges.

Back in the day I spent enough in CDs to buy a small car. I bought movies on VHS and LaserDisc but didn't go crazy. I bought more DVDs because they became cheap but I'd really learned my lesson by then. The CDs were ripped over a decade ago (in FLAC) and I haven't watched the DVDs in nearly as long; they've been packed away ever since and I'm finally considering getting rid of them. Most of the Blu-rays I ever acquired have been donated to a hospital so patients can be entertained while they sit through multi-hour procedures. The collecting physical stuff phase of my life is over.

I can't emphasize enough how much I appreciate my collection not taking up physical space. If I decide tomorrow I don't want or need my video collection there's nothing to deal with. And that's true for my family after I'm gone - no disposing of a bunch of stuff they don't want.

[Dynamo of Eternia]

Vilya,

I'm genuinely sorry to hear about the issue with your eye. I really hope that everything goes as well as it can, and that hopefully you don't fully lose your sight in that eye.

To answer some of your questions, if I were in that position, after getting through the actual health issue, of course (which is what is most important), I don't know if I would necessarily change the way that I do things. The case might be different if I were going completely blind in both eyes.

The difference, though, is that I'm not really all that into 3D. While I do have a handful of 3D titles in my collection, most were not bought specifically for the 3D disc. There's only one or two titles that I bought specifically for the 3D option (and my TV does do 3D, though I rarely use it).

So for me, since I'd still be able to watch my movies in 2D, I would otherwise continue on in the same manner. Of course dealing with the fact of losing sight in one eye would still be very difficult.


But since you are into 3D and since you are actually going through this health issue, I'm not sure if my thoughts on this really give you much comfort.

From a movie viewing perspective, while I understand that you are a fan of 3D and that you obviously prefer having that option, at least you will still be able to watch movies in 2D.

If I were in the position of being a fan of 3D and going through this, I guess after coming to terms with everything, I would just by titles in 2D going forward. At least it would make the decision between buying a 3D combo pack OR 4k combo pack a lot easier(since it's very rare that both 3D and 4k are in the same pack).



But right now you have far more important things to worry about than collecting movies in any form (3D or 2D..... on disc or digitally distributed). I hope everything goes as well as it possibly can.

[Petra_Kalbrain]

Originally Posted by Vilya

Forgive me for returning to the thread so soon after saying I would step back for awhile; I will again for allowing myself this exception. But I will still visit it as I like reading the comments here.

Four days ago, I was planning my disc purchases for February; my birthday is then and I usually have extra money to spend on my most beloved hobby.

Last night I was in the emergency room and I was informed that I could become permanently blind in my left eye in as little as 6 weeks, maybe sooner. I will spare everybody the details as I doubt anyone is that interested. I, however, am having a lot of trouble coming to terms with the idea. I am worried, even scared.

Thinking about how this possible outcome would affect my collecting offers me a little diversion from the more grievous consequences, so this post is a needed distraction in that sense.

Would you still pursue this hobby? Would it make you favor your existing preference more? Or would you favor the other option? Would you stop collecting altogether? If you did would you keep your collection, reduce it, even eliminate it? Sell it? Donate it?

I type this in a room surrounded by shelf after shelf of discs. The irony of it is a bit cruel and it feels like I am being mocked. I just bought a 4K 3D capable TV in May 2017 and I have added many 3D titles since and they may be completely useless to me before Spring.

I do want to apologize to alchav21 and flyry for the times here where I was unkind and rude. I want to be better than that.

I want to thank Dynamo Of Eternia for that exceptional, exquisite essay that you recently shared with us. Your posts are consistently excellent and I look forward to reading more of them.

If I am rambling, if am being pathetic, melodramatic, nonsensical, please consider it is 6:50 AM here and I am on pain medication. But I really am interested in how such a potential personal tragedy would affect how you collect and enjoy video content.

Damn! I’m sorry to hear about your vision situation. I hope the transition that will be occurring is more seamless and easier than you fear it to be.

As for your query? I personally would be of a mindset that I would have to give up the 3D aspect of my collection and future collecting. An unfortunately logical unavoidable factor in the equation of life moving forward. However, you will still have the ability to see and hear. This fact would certainly keep me from being dissuaded to pursue my hobby. I can see where the adjustment to viewing with 1 eye may be jarring and distracting at first, but I believe that I would be able to get use to it relatively auickly. Perhaps I would watch a plethora of films that I already know extremely well to help me transition before trying to tackle previously unseen content. Already having all of the plot/visual information would help easily train my 1 eye to compensate with new content.

That’s my take on it though. I like to think that I have the strength of will to persevere in the face of a life altering challenge. Many pthers have taken on far bigger challenges and soared to greatness.

Bottom line in this entire tragic scenario though is to make certain that you take actions that you deem are worthy of making yourself happy! Don’t make decisions out of frustration, fear, or lack of self-confidence. Look at the top of the mountain as a destination to reach and not as an unattainable task!

Do what makes YOU happy!

[Fiffy]

Originally Posted by Dynamo of Eternia

Internet speeds have increased over the years, and certain aspects of infrastructure have improved. But by and large the data is being sent over the same kind of phone and cable wiring that has existed for many, many years.

Actually, cable has been upgraded several times over the last decades, both physically and with more efficient protocols. It doesn't necessarily mean that they will have to dig up the cables all the way to your house, as there are several types of mixed fiber/copper deployments (FTTX). DOCSIS 3.1 (which will bring speeds up to 1Gbps over copper cable in some scenarios) is right around the corner. Even today's DOCSIS 3.0 deployments go up to a few hundred Mbps, which is more than UHD Blu-ray's maximum bitrate. So the last mile is actually not the bottleneck in many cases.

DSL over phone wiring is rapidly losing market share (which is why e.g. AT&T is investing in fiber and wireless access).

In order for there to be substantial improvements in this regard, that aspect of infrastructure needs to be updated across the board. And that's a lot of wiring to replace.

Not really. New buildouts are of course happening, but there are are also many ways to keep increasing the bandwidth incrementally, just like it was done over the last decades. It's mainly a question of money, and the money is in video.

And sure, data caps may increase... for a price. While internet service in general has improved over the years, with cord cutting gradually gaining more traction, and with companies like AT&T and Comcast (who offer both TV and internet services) seeing more customers cancel their cable/satellite service in favor of streaming, they aren't going to offer top of the line high speed internet service with no data cap (or a cap that is only hit after using A LOT of data) for some relatively small, nominal fee.

Caps will not save them, and they know it. What they are really doing is getting in on the business by acquiring their own media assets.

[alchav21]

Originally Posted by Vilya

Last night I was in the emergency room and I was informed that I could become permanently blind in my left eye in as little as 6 weeks, maybe sooner. I will spare everybody the details as I doubt anyone is that interested. I, however, am having a lot of trouble coming to terms with the idea. I am worried, even scared.

I do want to apologize to alchav21 and flyry for the times here where I was unkind and rude. I want to be better than that.

I'm sorry for your problems with your eye, I'm sure things will get better. No need to apologize it makes for lively discussions. I tend to hit sensitive nerves, and it all seems to come out in the wash. Get better and I hope to hear a lot more from you.

[master gandhi]

Hoping for the best, Vilya. Just follow the advice of the doctor to make sure you’re doing what’s best for your vision, but I doubt they’ll advise you to stop watching movies. Keep doing what you love the best you can. I definitely wouldn’t stop collecting/watching movies.

[The_Donster]

Sorry to hear about your health issues Vilya. Hope things work out for the best.

[dublinbluray108]

Vilya; I do want to say that I do sympathize with you on your recent health problem. My own mother was told the bad news after she went for a very simple eye test recently in a opticians store. She told me this news while we were at home just before the end of last year. This news came to her while she was only aged in her early 50's. I hope this does not cause too many issues for you in the future & you will continue to be very happy with what you do in life.

Take it easy & look after yourself.