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

[sapiendut]

@gotmule I will post the video tomorrow on my channel

[dcx4610]

Wow. UHD almost matched DVD in sales. This is a new record.



Definitely a good sign for the format and shows the collector's market is strong.

[Vilya]

^ We can thank the release of Dune Part II on 4K disc for UHD's great format market share for week ending 5-18-24.

Week ending May 18, 2024
Top20 4K 18May2024.jpg

Killer Klowns From Outer Space was #2!

[gotmule]

Originally Posted by bhampton

I may be interested in buying the house. Where is it located.

Lake Saint Louis, MO. I can see someone making an offer on the house but asking about the equipment, so I am preparing myself mentally for the decision on the projector. Screen is definitely staying and I am convincing myself on a reason to upgrade. Everything else is coming with me.

[bhampton]

I really don't like moving but I can't imagine going without my theater.

JVC has new projectors so if you can manage to manage an upgrade it could be worth it.

Hard to imagine though not having access to an amazing home theater for a while. Good Luck.

[crutzulee]

As a guy that is no longer an early adopter, I'm always glad to read of those starting to move on to the latest tech... it generally means that the after market ( where I live) will have sufficient stock...

[bhampton]

Originally Posted by crutzulee

As a guy that is no longer an early adopter, I'm always glad to read of those starting to move on to the latest tech... it generally means that the after market ( where I live) will have sufficient stock...

You have good taste in HT gear.

[crutzulee]

Originally Posted by bhampton

You have good taste in HT gear.

Thanks...as do you..

From what I've gathered, we're about the same age and have seen the same trajectory of innovation in this hobby over the years...from stereo outputs on VCRs, through LaserDiscs, 3 gun CRT projectors, 5.1 Dolby prologic, digital, DTS, to 7.1 to ATMOS/DTSX and beyond LOL.

In my younger days I was an early adopter - had some of the first PIONEER amps that could decode DD from an LD player that I modified, was the first person I knew of to get a DVD player (PANASONIC) etc.

When I became a father, and life gave me more important financial priorities, the hobby took an interesting shift towards building on value. I've had great luck (and a surprising amount of fun) constantly updating my theater in the aftermarket. Every piece of equipment I currently own is either a refurb, closeout, or bought from a forum member or local online swap site. My wife and kids are constantly looking over my shoulder to see what piece of equipment I'm going to buy next ( just "upgraded" my watch GALAXY X4 CLASSIC and phone S24..LOL).

The plan (now in a state of flux) was to go whole hog and build new from the ground up in the "retirement home" once the kids have settled... but the family have always been sure, that even given the opportunity, I'd probably still revert to scouring the internet for deals... I really do enjoy it.

My dad was a car, watch and camera guy (probably still is)... as hobbies go, I think HT is not so bad from a financial perspective

[HDTV1080P]

Best Buy is no longer carrying any physical media like 4K Blu-ray discs, 2K Blu-ray discs, or 480i DVD discs. While I did not stop in my closes Best Buy store to verify, going to the Best Buy website results in zero movie or TV series discs showing up in the DVD or Blu-ray category. Also pictures online are showing the Best Buy stores are all out of stock of physical optical movie media since they are no longer carrying the discs. Best Buy for now is still carrying 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray players. But keep in mind a few years after Costco and Sam’s club stopped carrying physical optical disc media, the stores within 18 to 24 months stopped carrying both Blu-ray players and DVD players. Hopefully Best Buy will continue to carry Blu-ray players two years into the future. Some people that went to Best Buy to purchase a new release movie for $30, also once and awhile ended up making an over $1,000 purchase in the home entertainment department or computer department.

One of the main reasons I went to the Best Buy website or Best Buy stores was to purchase or look at their physical media on optical disc. Since Best Buy has stopped carrying physical media, I hardly visit their website anymore. The average consumer buys a new TV once every 8 years and many time for items like computers the average consumer upgrades every 5 years and for some appliances 10+ years or longer. Since most people do not have a high-end Value Electronics store near them, the Best Buy Magnolia center stores are the ultimate Best Buy stores to visit nationwide for medium to high-end electronic selections including home entertainment products. Therefore, for major large purchases in the future I plan on visiting my local Best Buy store for kitchen appliances, home theater equipment, etc. Best Buy Magnolia centers carry some of the items found in a Value Electronics store. However, for high-end projectors and other neat ultra high-end electronics, Value Electronics is the ideal website and store to visit.

Back in the late 20th Century in the 1980’s and 1990’s, some consumers would once and awhile make complaints to video rental stores and video stores in general about some of the material in PG-13 and R rated movies. While I have not personally talked to any of the employees at Best Buy about some of the reasons why they got rid of physical media. There is a possibility that in the 21st Century that some customers might have written letters and made verbal complaints to Best Buy about some PG-13, rated R, and unrated movies that use to be in their stores. This is all speculation about Best Buy, but it is a well-known fact that in the 1990’s these complaints were being made nationwide at various video rental stores that carried PG-13 and R rated movies. My point is if Best Buy was getting a lot of complaints about carrying certain movies, perhaps one of the reasons they got rid of all physical optical media was to avoid these complaints. In the future renting and buying movies in the cloud from various streaming companies might one day in several years replace all physical media. By not carrying physical optical discs in the stores and online, retail stores can avoid getting complaints and having the hassle of checking ID’s when selling a R rated movie in order to make sure the person is 17 years old. But of course, most people when buying online with a credit card have to be at least 18 years old unless they get special permission from their parents to have a credit card for a minor. Without parents' permission one has to be at least 18 years old to have a credit card.

Some interesting select quotes from the article

“Best Buy May 30 reported first-quarter (ended May 4) entertainment revenue of $492.2 million on overall domestic revenue of $8.2 billion, which was down 20% from entertainment revenue of $616 million on total revenue of $8.8 billion in the previous-year period.”


https://www.mediaplaynews.com/best-b...ackaged-media/

[dcx4610]

Best Buy has had losses every quarter for a long time now. They are grasping at straws to find something that works. Physical media wasn’t profitable enough for them and took up a lot of space. It’s the beginning of the end for them. I think they still fill a niche for electronics but I people just aren’t shopping there.

[Areyakiddin]

FYI, plenty of Best Buys were still selling what they had left for physical movies after Christmas for approximately the first month/February (maybe up to March in some stores?) after Best Buy's Q1 started and were still selling movies online for the majority of the quarter.

So the full effect of Best Buy's decision to stop selling physical media won't be seen until next quarter.

[bhampton]

I only go to Best Buy to use the electronics recycling program.
And, I think I've recycled most of what I need to so I'm nearly done.

I'm not sure why they killed the rewards programs and started heavily pushing the BB credit card. They will someday be studied as a example of a business killing itself off. Step one -> Stop selling things that people buy.



But, .... My Best Buy is amazingly sad. All the employees are up front chatting and they ask why I am in the store like it's poisonous. My Best Buy does have a horrible manager from experience so that could be part of the problem.

[bhampton]

Originally Posted by sapiendut

@gotmule I will post the video tomorrow on my channel

It's a nice video so if you don't mind I will share it here...

EXCLUSIVE JVC NZ800 RS3200 First Glance Review and Observations - YouTube

And here's more good info... (though many of the big numbers in the specs of things like this are pure fiction.)

EVERYTHING You Need to Know About JVC's NEW Projectors! NZ800 & NZ900 - YouTube

[cheez avenger]

Catching Furiosa one more time tonight in theaters. Netflix has Godzilla Minus One in 4K/DV / Atmos, so will probably watch that tomorrow since I'm also working today.

[Anthony P]

Originally Posted by Vilya

I am not sure that rental copies were *all* necessarily sold to rental stores, so much as they were just leased to them to rent to the public.

When I worked part-time at Blockbuster in 2007, we would get instructions from corporate to destroy excess copies of popular new releases once their popularity had waned. We might have started off with 100 copies of a given title and then a few weeks after its release we would get orders to destroy 90 of them. We had special little gizmos that looked like tiny portable disc players that would spin and scratch the discs to oblivion. I must have dumped bushels of discs into the dumpster during my time working there.

Sometimes it did appear that Blockbuster owned some of the titles as we would sell off excess rental copies as used, but when it came to the really big hit movies, we were usually told to destroy the vast majority of our copies once interest in them had dropped off sharply.

As there are precious few disc rental options now, I doubt that they have much impact on the disc market at all. The Digital Entertainment Group for the first time this year no longer even bothers posting data on physical rental revenue; it has become that trivial.

agree 100% but to be clear I never meant to insinuate it was "all" that is why I said *a lot* and not *all*.

Originally Posted by Anthony P

1) a lot of people are looking at sales numbers from back in the day at the height of DVD and assume the numbers are comparable. They are not those numbers also included a lot of copies sold to rental places. Something that has actually collapsed, and is still collapsing

and I was not talking about the used copy but the original. Back in the early 80's when studios started releasing movies they were extremely expensive and it gave rise to the rental industry. Then in the mid 80's studios started the real consumer market as we now today and studios wanted a two stream industry expensive "rental copies" for rental shops (70-100) and cheap "consumer copies" (20-30$) for consumers to buy and own but some rental places started purchasing consumer copies and eventually it was big enough for the studios to try and stop it with legal action. Unfortunately for the studios they lost and it backfired so they strated stuff like profit sharing and cheap copies. But for smaller rental places, when the rental place wants more copies fast, small studio they don't have an agreement with, store has discounted retail copies..... they would just go out and buy copies at the retail stores. It is not a big issue for th studios since if the copy is procured from Walmart or their "for rental" or purchased for home owner ship, rental or lending t a library. they need just need to know how many copies to produce. But it is important if the actual consumer market shrinking and by how much.

[Anthony P]

Originally Posted by dcx4610

Wow. UHD almost matched DVD in sales. This is a new record.



Definitely a good sign for the format and shows the collector's market is strong.

nice

[Anthony P]

Originally Posted by Vilya

^ We can thank the release of Dune Part II on 4K disc for UHD's great format market share for week ending 5-18-24.

But isn't the important fact that when something is worth buying people are still buying and more and more people are buying higher quality.

there are some people that say
a)"I would rather watch in the best quality and constantly re-buy everything

b)" older format was good enough but I will buy anything new in the new format"

c) "older format was good enough and I can save money by buying new stuff on older format"

and wich of those three groups people fall in is not necessarily fixed.

[bhampton]

Originally Posted by cheez avenger

Catching Furiosa one more time tonight in theaters. Netflix has Godzilla Minus One in 4K/DV / Atmos, so will probably watch that tomorrow since I'm also working today.

I want to see both of those. I wonder if Godzilla Minus One will be available on disc soon.

Quaden Bayles, the kid who was bullied in that viral video a few years ago is in Furiosa!

[Anthony P]

Originally Posted by dcx4610

Best Buy has had losses every quarter for a long time now. They are grasping at straws to find something that works. Physical media wasn’t profitable enough for them and took up a lot of space. It’s the beginning of the end for them. I think they still fill a niche for electronics but I people just aren’t shopping there.

they sell mass market stuff, unless the BB location is convenient , the thing you are buying is small and you need it immediately you are usually better off going somewhere else to buy the exact same thing. It is not like food where someone will say "I want to pick the fruit I will buy" or cloths where someone might say "I want to try it on for the fit"

and they can keep ion trying more and more easily available stuff where their pricing is not competitive,

[cheez avenger]

Originally Posted by bhampton

I want to see both of those. I wonder if Godzilla Minus One will be available on disc soon.

I doubt Godzilla Minus One will be available on English friendly disc soon, because it seems Netflix has acquired the worldwide streaming rights. It is available for purchase via all digital platforms, as well. The only edition to get a physical edition has been Japan, but that one is not English friendly.

I'll take what I can get at this point since I missed Godzilla in theaters.