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

[Lee A Stewart]

Originally Posted by bhampton

Serious Question for Lee, - You have suggested Disney+ will be "profitable" soon .... Does that mean cut the losses to zero or actually make up for them because if it's the latter

Disney has forecasted they will make a profit by the end of 2024 - meaning that is when Disney+ will make money every single quarter going forward.

Disney is not on a calendar year (Jan-Dec.) Their 4th quarter for 2024 will end October 18th. So the 1st quarter of 2025 ending January is when Disney+ will be in the black.

[Steedeel]

2025 now! It’s getting later! What next, before 2030?

[Lee A Stewart]

Originally Posted by Steedeel

2025 now! It’s getting later! What next, before 2030?

EOY 2024 falls inside their first quarter 2025. They ONLY report on a quarterly basis.

BTW - it's only 18 days after EOY 2024. That's when they report: January 18, 2025

Did you study drama at school BTW?

[Steedeel]

Originally Posted by Lee A Stewart

EOY 2024 falls inside their first quarter 2025. They ONLY report on a quarterly basis.

BTW - it's only 18 days after EOY 2024. That's when they report: January 18, 2025

Did you study drama at school BTW?

No, I have two sisters, enough drama without me!

[bhampton]

So profit in this case means end of the major losses.

That is at least the possible option.

Maybe a decade or more away from actually breaking even if that ever would happen.

[Lee A Stewart]

Originally Posted by bhampton

So profit in this case means end of the major losses.

The end of losses and the beginning of making profits. IMO the losses will shrink each quarter for the next four quarters. The fifth quarter is when it goes from red to black as I outlined above.

Maybe a decade or more away from actually breaking even if that ever would happen.

No - much sooner. They currently have 100 million paid subscribers. Taking the average price between SVOD ($14) and AVOD ($8) = $11 X 100M = $1.1 billion every month.

That's just Disney+. Hulu is already profitable and Disney will own 100% of it by the end of the year. Then there is ESPN+ another profit maker.

Disney+ is available in 69 countries. Netflix = 190. Plenty of growth left for Disney+ outside of the USA.

I'd say less than 5 years to recover all the losses prior.

EDIT:

I made an error on the sub count which is 164.2 million not 100 million. Using the same average $11 per sub = $1.804 billion per month.

[bhampton]

Only time will tell.

They have cut the loses down a bit but I expect they are being over optimistic.

Not long till we find out though.

I bet they will be happy when it's less than a billion dollars lost per quarter. That will be a great milestone.

Taylor Swift has now made a billion dollars and could keep Disney+ running for 3 months.
(If she wanted to go broke)

[cheez avenger]

Blue Beetle was awesome and the 4K disc rocked hard!

[Ender14]

Originally Posted by crutzulee

There's a lot of moaning on it's dedicated thread, but IMHO, it has never looked or sounded better.

I'm the non cinephile that loves the DC with the ATMOS track. It was AWESOME!

I received my UK UCE of The Exorcist and must say it is one of the best packages I've seen from a major label. It rivals anything in my collection from Second Sight, Arrow and other boutique labels. It comes in a glossy rigid slipcase that houses the SteelBook, Art Cards, Book and poster. The SteelBook itself is quite beautiful, with the original poster art against a matte black background. The book is the same as the one included with my Digibook Blu-ray, but it's nice to have everything in one package.

With that being said, I have run into a problem with one of the discs. The UHD of the Theatrical cut freezes in Chapter 7 on my Panasonic DP-UB820. I've cleaned the disc and looked for any scratches but the disc is pristine. So to test I played it in my Sony UBP-X800 and chapter 7 played without issue. I checked the Panasonic hoping there might be a firmware update but nothing so far. I also have not seen any other reports of this issue so I may just be the lucky one. I'll have to check the other discs and hope it is isolated to just the theatrical one. Kind of an annoyance with an otherwise brilliant package.

And I agree regarding the image quality on this one. Disappointed there is no Dolby Vision but the picture is stunning.

[Wendell R. Breland]

Originally Posted by Ender14

The UHD of the Theatrical cut freezes in Chapter 7 on my Panasonic DP-UB820. I've cleaned the disc and looked for any scratches but the disc is pristine. So to test I played it in my Sony UBP-X800 and chapter 7 played without issue.

Since there is no DV do you see any difference between the 800 and 820? If not I would chalk it up to an annoyance , it may play just fine in the next 820 and hang in the next 800.

Sometimes there is a flaw in the disc and it just will not play over it no matter the player. Boardwalk Empire S5, last disc had a spot that caused problems for my two players and 3 different BD drives. Took Warner about 9 months to replace the disc.

[Ender14]

Originally Posted by Wendell R. Breland

Since there is no DV do you see any difference between the 800 and 820? If not I would chalk it up to an annoyance , it may play just fine in the next 820 and hang in the next 800.

Sometimes there is a flaw in the disc and it just will not play over it no matter the player. Boardwalk Empire S5, last disc had a spot that caused problems for my two players and 3 different BD drives. Took Warner about 9 months to replace the disc.

The players are connected to different TV's in separate rooms so it's hard to do a direct A/B comparison. But I will say the picture looked vibrant and healthy on both.

[bhampton]

Edit - I haven't tried looking at the theatrical cut with my Panasonic so maybe i can do that and report back about chapter 7.
Edit 2 - Check mine and found no issue. Currently using a Panasonic 150 so not the same player.

Generally, I would recommend trying to get another disc.

I try to watch movies in the first few days I buy them and my Panasonic player has been very reliable.

I have had to get a replacement from time to time though and as you say the disc can look perfect and play perfect in another player.

my UHD BD of Upgrade had some type of problem and Amazon instantly sent a replacement that played perfectly.

[Ender14]

Originally Posted by bhampton

Edit - I haven't tried looking at the theatrical cut with my Panasonic so maybe i can do that and report back about chapter 7.


Generally, I would recommend trying to get another disc.

I try to watch movies in the first few days I buy them and my Panasonic player has been very reliable.

I have had to get a replacement from time to time though and as you say the disc can look perfect and play perfect in another player.

my UHD BD of Upgrade had some type of problem and Amazon instantly sent a replacement that played perfectly.

I thought about that but I imported it through Amazon UK, so I'm not sure what international returns would look like for that. If I have issues with any of the other discs I will probably at least investigate if it is worth pursuing a replacement.

[t-mel]

Despite what I said about cinema viewings mostly being fine, I was shocked to find that the Leicester Square IMAX screening of Killers of the Flower Moon had the worst audience I can remember in a long time. Don't get me wrong, it didn't totally ruin the showing and I could watch the film and concentrate most of the time, but I wouldn't say I was never distracted. I even found out after that someone was vaping during the showing and people were telling them to stop. The person in front of me thought they could talk (and not even whisper) so I had to nudge their chair 4 times before they (mostly) got the message. They even said out loud to the person next to them

[Show spoiler] "Scorsese"

when he shows up.

I went again yesterday and amazingly the same thing happened where you could hear sporadic talking in the screening. The worst for me was a group of 3 a few empty seats down from me who again spoke without even bothering to whisper a lot of time. They even did the "pull out phone with white background at some point." I eventually moved over to them to tell them to stop talking. I guess they were quieter after that (but still spoke).

I can't understand why this film in particular had such a bad audience? The length? I saw Oppenheimer (at the BFI IMAX) and Avatar (in the same place) and that was fine. This type of film being shown at an IMAX?

I will say I am quite sensitive to these sorts of things though. The person I was with and next to me couldn't even hear that group talking.

Aside from being very obnoxious, I feel in a way bad for these people because I don't know how they can concentrate on a film when they talk so much. At least everyone else can mostly ignore it. The attitude that non dialogue scenes (although their talking was not limited to those) can be spoken over completely ignores any tone or atmosphere a film is trying to evoke, for example in the "burning" scene, which the second viewing had those people talking over it.

I really do hope I this comes out on disc so I can view it without those distractions...

[crutzulee]

Since my non DV player crapped out on me sometime pre covid, I don't even have a disc player in my HT stack..

Aside from an issue with my son's first attempt at making a single .mkv out of the AVATAR UHD discs (audio sync issue), I can't remember ever having a playback problem of a ripped title on my ZIDOO. I could never go back to handling discs.

I would however love to find a one box solution like I had with NVIDIA SHIELD that combines the playback quality of disc rips from the Zidoo with the SHIELD streaming quality... I'm anxiously awaiting word of the next NINTENDO SWITCH, so that a new SHIELD can be developed. In the meantime, the 2 box solution is hardly a hardship.

[Wendell R. Breland]

Originally Posted by crutzulee

I could never go back to handling discs.

Use these just a few minutes a day should insure that you could lift a disc and case without undue stress.

On a serious note, I'm in the process of swapping out my Z9X for a UHD5000. Received my 2U rack shelf and it was not formed properly so Amazon is going to send another. Also updated my MX-980 for the Zidoo. My first page, what do you think?

[Show spoiler]

[bhampton]

Originally Posted by crutzulee

I could never go back to handling discs.

I did and I've never been more satisfied with my system.

I had a media server setup for many years with all kinds of good overall systems like Plex, JRiver, Infuse, or Zidoo. It's fun and I don't have anything against it. It is just not for me these days.

I like the energy savings in not having a 40TB array of 16 4TB NAS hard drives running 24/7. I had solar panels installed on the house and one of the things I enjoy most about the system is I can get a read out in real time of the energy use via my watch or computer. It has been fun reducing the amount of energy I use while still not missing out on anything.

[crutzulee]

Originally Posted by Wendell R. Breland

Use these just a few minutes a day should insure that you could lift a disc and case without undue stress.

On a serious note, I'm in the process of swapping out my Z9X for a UHD5000. Received my 2U rack shelf and it was not formed properly so Amazon is going to send another. Also updated my MX-980 for the Zidoo. My first page, what do you think?

[Show spoiler]

I can't say for sure what the issues are as I haven't been following it that closely, but there seems to be a lot of unhappiness over on the ZIDOO forums with the newer Gen boxes.

If I had to guess, it actually has more to do with the updated Android version used rather than the newer chipset. IMHO, that's where the NVIDIA SHIELD lost it's way. That box was actually hampered by TOO MUCH support, if you can believe it. The newer versions of the OS actually made it's playback of full bitrate UHD rips with full range ATMOS prone to microstutters - imperceptible to most, but absolutely experience ruining to me..
As I said, I don't know if this is what plagues the newer boxes but you can read about them over on the ZIDOO forums.

I still have 2 NVIDIA SHIELDS that get daily use in my home, but my experience with them has almost cured me of my upgradeitus.... almost...

[crutzulee]

Originally Posted by bhampton

I did and I've never been more satisfied with my system.

I had a media server setup for many years with all kinds of good overall systems like Plex, JRiver, Infuse, or Zidoo. It's fun and I don't have anything against it. It is just not for me these days.

I like the energy savings in not have my 40TB array of 16 4TB NAS hard drives running 24/7. I had solar panels installed on the house and one of the things I enjoy most about the system is I can get a read out in real time of the energy use via my watch or computer. It has been fun reducing the amount of energy I use while still not missing out on anything.

I've created a completely blacked out environment in my HT in which my screen completely takes up my entire field of view without any other visual distractions... not even a glare off of my front Soundstage speakers since I went A/T..My equipment is a little inconveniently placed in the back of the room to facilitate this. In my next room in the "retirement " home, I'll probably have a completely separate equipment room. Physical discs just become a pain in my use case... That, coupled with my sausage fingers and penchant for not being careful with my things just makes the ZIDOO a prefect fit for me..

[bhampton]

Originally Posted by crutzulee

I've created a completely blacked out environment in my HT in which my screen completely takes up my entire field of view without any other visual distractions... not even a glare off of my front Soundstage speakers since I went A/T..My equipment is a little inconveniently placed in the back of the room to facilitate this. In my next room in the "retirement " home, I'll probably have a completely separate equipment room. Physical discs just become a pain in my use case... That, coupled with my sausage fingers and penchant for not being careful with my things just makes the ZIDOO a prefect fit for me..

My source components are outside the theater and the HT is completely blacked out as well.

At any rate, there's more than one way to feed a cat.