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

[Steedeel]

Originally Posted by dublinbluray108

Hi guys. I haven't frequented this thread for a while. I have some sad news to give to you. One of my aunts had died in hospital from breast cancer on Wednesday. Her private funeral mass had taken place in Dublin on Friday morning. I only got the news tonight after one of my other aunts told my mother over the phone. It has left me completely stunned. I asked my mother did she have Covid-19 before she died. She said to me that 'no, she had died of cancer'. I hope she is at peace now from her pain.

I can only echo what Vilya said, sorry for your loss. I had a uncle die a while back so I know what you are going through. Everything is raw but I believe you will find peace as time goes by and remember all the good times you had with your aunt.

Take care.

[gotmule]

Originally Posted by dublinbluray108

Hi guys. I haven't frequented this thread for a while. I have some sad news to give to you. One of my aunts had died in hospital from breast cancer on Wednesday. Her private funeral mass had taken place in Dublin on Friday morning. I only got the news tonight after one of my other aunts told my mother over the phone. It has left me completely stunned. I asked my mother did she have Covid-19 before she died. She said to me that 'no, she had died of cancer'. I hope she is at peace now from her pain.

So sorry to hear about your family’s loss. Grieving takes on a different set of circumstances with the state of the world today. Cancer sucks.

[Boccaccio]

Originally Posted by dublinbluray108

Hi guys. I haven't frequented this thread for a while. I have some sad news to give to you. One of my aunts had died in hospital from breast cancer on Wednesday. Her private funeral mass had taken place in Dublin on Friday morning. I only got the news tonight after one of my other aunts told my mother over the phone. It has left me completely stunned. I asked my mother did she have Covid-19 before she died. She said to me that 'no, she had died of cancer'. I hope she is at peace now from her pain.

I'm sorry to hear about your aunt's death. My deepest condolences.
Stay strong in these difficult times.

[bhampton]

I agree with all the nice things so far.

Sorry for your loss.

[Member-425016]

Without treading through 1,100 + pages of this thread I'm not sure if this has been discussed already.

There has been a lot of talk about digital content stays with you forever, and you will most likely never lose it once purchased. In my case that was a lesson hard learned to be 100% not true. I bought a bunch of titles from Microsoft on the XBox 360 in the infancy of HD content. Mainly HD Star Trek TOS episodes, and some WB movies. They are gone, and cannot be retrieved since 2014 I believe. From the time I purchased until it was taken away was roughly 7 years. Sure, it was a lengthy bit of time to watch them, but had I known Microsoft Movies would be discontinued I never would have purchased "to own" in the first place. I was never notified, or offered a partial refund.

I'm sure iTunes is more stable, and safer for the long run, but the argument that purchased content does not disappear is simply not true. It can, and has happened to me, and I will forever be cautious in purchasing more digital content, except for a rental occasionally.

[bhampton]

This is exactly why I don't buy Virtual Assets or I try not to.

Gamers know already eventually the in game content you buy vanishes. Sometimes you can Download and keep stuff but the things you can't download can be lost.

I love to buy movies so I make sure to buy movies I know I can keep and the online copy is kind of a backup for me. (My kids view the online library on their own stuff.)

[Member-425016]

Originally Posted by bhampton

This is exactly why I don't buy Virtual Assets or I try not to.

Gamers know already eventually the in game content you buy vanishes. Sometimes you can Download and keep stuff but the things you can't download can be lost.

I love to buy movies so I make sure to buy movies I know I can keep and the online copy is kind of a backup for me. (My kids view the online library on their own stuff.)

With video games I'm learning that digital is a mistake too. I have been purchasing almost exclusively digital for the past couple years (I never revisit games after I finish them...simply too many games and not enough time).

The last three games I purchased I didn't really care for. $180 gone, and no physical copies to sell and try to get even half of that money back by selling them.
For that reason alone I'm 100% physical again.

[Boccaccio]

Originally Posted by Filmfan73

Without treading through 1,100 + pages of this thread I'm not sure if this has been discussed already.

There has been a lot of talk about digital content stays with you forever, and you will most likely never lose it once purchased. In my case that was a lesson hard learned to be 100% not true. I bought a bunch of titles from Microsoft on the XBox 360 in the infancy of HD content. Mainly HD Star Trek TOS episodes, and some WB movies. They are gone, and cannot be retrieved since 2014 I believe. From the time I purchased until it was taken away was roughly 7 years. Sure, it was a lengthy bit of time to watch them, but had I known Microsoft Movies would be discontinued I never would have purchased "to own" in the first place. I was never notified, or offered a partial refund.

I'm sure iTunes is more stable, and safer for the long run, but the argument that purchased content does not disappear is simply not true. It can, and has happened to me, and I will forever be cautious in purchasing more digital content, except for a rental occasionally.

You have spoken wise words. Most of the people in this thread will agree with you.

Most. Not all.

[zarquon]

Originally Posted by Filmfan73

With video games I'm learning that digital is a mistake too. I have been purchasing almost exclusively digital for the past couple years (I never revisit games after I finish them...simply too many games and not enough time).

The last three games I purchased I didn't really care for. $180 gone, and no physical copies to sell and try to get even half of that money back by selling them.
For that reason alone I'm 100% physical again.

Harder to stay strictly physical with games, though; many, many games that are from smaller publishers and independent developers are distributed only digitally. At least for PC gaming, not sure if that's the case on consoles, I've never really been a console guy.

[Boccaccio]

Originally Posted by zarquon

Harder to stay strictly physical with games, though; many, many games that are from smaller publishers and independent developers are distributed only digitally. At least for PC gaming, not sure if that's the case on consoles, I've never really been a console guy.

Yep, for consoles too. Mostly indies which are PSN games (only digital).

[Vilya]

I have never had any digitally distributed video games disappear.

I have been a member of Steam for 10 years now and all 172 of my downloaded games are available and playable.

All of my 94 downloaded games from GOG still work.

Even the four games that I downloaded to an SD card for my Nintendo Wii still work.

The complimentary games downloaded to my PS3 still worked the last time that I checked them, too.

Consider also that I very rarely buy a video game myself. 96% of these games were gifts from friends of mine.

Nonetheless, I am in favor of buying games on physical media where possible. I have not bought a game myself in probably two years, but I just wanted to chime in that I have never lost a single one of my downloaded games and some of these games I have had for over a decade.

[Vilya]

Originally Posted by PenguinInfinity

The Wii shop was closed. No one can buy any digital Wii games and Nintendo has stated that the option to re-download previous purchases will soon be removed as well.

https://en-americas-support.nintendo...hannel-content

I am aware of that, but the games that I already downloaded are fine. I can clone my existing SD card if I need to do so.

I forgot about my original Xbox 360; the old arcade games downloaded to it, no more than five or six, still worked the last time that I played them although that has been about three years ago. I will have to check them again sometime, but I am not too concerned as there are many emulated versions of these games available for, you guessed it, download to a pc.

[Vilya]

Originally Posted by PenguinInfinity

But they all have DRM that connects them to your Wii. If that Wii stops working you'll still be able to play all of your discs on another Wii but none of your downloaded games will be playable.

Emulated versions exist of these 4 games, too, and these are games that I have played off and on for decades since they first appeared on their respective consoles.

I can still buy these 4 vintage games on physical media along with the old consoles that played them if I do not want to fool with emulators.

[bhampton]

I bought Donkey Kong Country for my Wii but the emulated version I have was much much better. The whole 2 player thing didn't work in the virtual console version. You had to pass the player 1 controller back and forth and I don't think it was like that with SNES. As I remember the SNES rom worked better.


Either way, It's been a long time since I've played any video games. I tried Apple Arcade and didn't like it and none of my kids liked or played it. I should go through some of the games I have backlogged some day.

Lately though I'm finding UHD BD deals to keep me busy in my entertainment time.

-Brian

[Vilya]

Originally Posted by bhampton

I bought Donkey Kong Country for my Wii but the emulated version I have was much much better. The whole 2 player thing didn't work in the virtual console version. You had to pass the player 1 controller back and forth and I don't think it was like that with SNES. As I remember the SNES rom worked better.


Either way, It's been a long time since I've played any video games. I tried Apple Arcade and didn't like it and none of my kids liked or played it. I should go through some of the games I have backlogged some day.

Lately though I'm finding UHD BD deals to keep me busy in my entertainment time.

-Brian

I found a "few" deals this month myself.

[Vilya]

Originally Posted by PenguinInfinity

So they are all Virtual Console titles? Those are all just re-releases of games that have been available on physical media for decades.

Unfortunately there are also plenty of WiiWare games that are now completely unavailable to buy and will soon be unable to re-download as well.

There have also been hundreds of games that have disappeared from Steam, PlayStation Network, and Xbox Live and can no longer be bought. Without a secondary (used) market digital content can disappear at any time.

I understand what you are saying, but a game no longer being available for purchase is not the same thing as no longer being able to be played. All of my 172 downloaded Steam games still work regardless of whether I can still buy them or not.

In my case, all of the games that I downloaded to my Wii and to my original Xbox 360 are what you would call "virtual console titles" that first appeared on vintage consoles.

The complimentary games downloaded to my PS3 are exactly that: freebies that I only downloaded out of curiosity and that I really do not care about at all.

It is curious to me that the big console makers, Nintendo, Sony, and Microsoft, have such questionable long term support of their digitally distributed games when games offered on Steam and GOG endure quite well.

[Vilya]

It's the weekend, so where's Anthony P? I enjoy his weekend installments.

[stonesfan129]

Originally Posted by Filmfan73

Without treading through 1,100 + pages of this thread I'm not sure if this has been discussed already.

There has been a lot of talk about digital content stays with you forever, and you will most likely never lose it once purchased. In my case that was a lesson hard learned to be 100% not true. I bought a bunch of titles from Microsoft on the XBox 360 in the infancy of HD content. Mainly HD Star Trek TOS episodes, and some WB movies. They are gone, and cannot be retrieved since 2014 I believe. From the time I purchased until it was taken away was roughly 7 years. Sure, it was a lengthy bit of time to watch them, but had I known Microsoft Movies would be discontinued I never would have purchased "to own" in the first place. I was never notified, or offered a partial refund.

I'm sure iTunes is more stable, and safer for the long run, but the argument that purchased content does not disappear is simply not true. It can, and has happened to me, and I will forever be cautious in purchasing more digital content, except for a rental occasionally.

I have never 'lost' any digital movie/TV purchases although it is not impossible. I have lost access to online music purchases through 7Digtial (where I cannot re-download a past purchase). I only buy things on these services when I can get good deals (like the Vudu In-Mobile D2D where you scan the UPC then get an HDX copy for $2/ea) or if I can get good deals on new releases for around $5 or so. I know iTunes purchases you can download them and store the files off on a HDD somewhere, but you still need the iTunes app and an authenticated iTunes account to play them. So even if you store them offline, all they have to do is shut down that authentication server and you're locked out for good. My "ideal" system would be to be able to buy digital purchases and download them without any DRM for offline viewing wherever and whenever I want like I can do with music purchases. I wonder how long non-DRM-protected music purchases will stick around before everything is subscription-only. I have a feeling the end of CDs is not far off either.

[stonesfan129]

Originally Posted by PenguinInfinity

I've been hearing that for more than adecade but there are still thousands of new CDs released every year.

Diversification is the key to success. Movie studios and record companies will continue to support all profitable revenue streams.

True but the digital music files are not DRM-protected so there is actually a viable alternative in place if they do decide to nix production of physical media for music. With movies there is not. Look, if they are so damned paranoid about piracy that they cannot trust me to fairly use a non-DRM'd movie file, why am I giving them my money?

[Anthony P]

Originally Posted by alchav21

Then get ready to add more rooms and storage space for your Collection.

normally I would have a great laugh at this and point out that if someone is really short on space they can always get rid of the cases and fit over 1k disks in 1 cube foot and so more than 10k in a closet. But with Covid-19 I decided it is safer to social distance my films so I just put them on the top and bottom shelf and each case 6' apart and so instead of building more rooms I just bought my neighbors house to store them in.

Since 4K UHD will be the last Physical Media you might be in luck.

it seems like just yesterday 3d BD was going to be the last and before that BD and before that DVD....