This is the "future technologies forum". 4K isn't here and the only young technology growing in double digits is __________. By definition, bashing the new technology in a future technology forum is being a troll. The only concern of the owners of this website is if the future is not physical media because that's how they make money, kick back for sales when visitors here follow links to Amazon and make a purchase. Digital streaming isn't going to generate those sales, although they could make money if they linked to streaming devices on Amazon, there were 6 million of those sold in Q2 alone.
Home Media Magazine has a classification for articles called Digital Evolution. What kind of articles do you expect to find there? Do you know what EVOLUTION means?
Well, it's a jolly good thing that we have bluray loving film collectors isn't it? I will be linking when I purchase my batch later this year. It's only right when this site gives me fantastic reviews and detailed specs, not to mention a fantastic news section and a superb home cinema gallery. We are bluray and we ain't going anywhere. We will be on the beaches, to the last man and if we do die it will be clutching our blurays to our heart.
Well, it's a jolly good thing that we have bluray loving film collectors isn't it? I will be linking when I purchase my batch later this year. It's only right when this site gives me fantastic reviews and detailed specs, not to mention a fantastic news section and a superb home cinema gallery. We are bluray and we ain't going anywhere. We will be on the beaches, to the last man and if we do die it will be clutching our blurays to our heart.
Bluray forever
Never said it was going anywhere, you assume it's all or nothing and it's not. You think because another sector is rising, it's a threat, it's not. Both can co-exist. Streaming is a replacement for broadcast tv. The studios are pushing digital copies, scream at them. I'm waiting for Godzilla on Blu-ray although it's available for digital purchase now.
agreed Slick on this. In the meantime this is awesome for Blu Ray. Yet again a good week
It is.
But having said that, how come you never post the results when it's a bad week?
The fact remains that it's not any one week that matters - it's year to date units and revenue that count. And year-to-date, Blu-ray revenue is only 0.75% ahead of last year and units are only 3.21% ahead of last year. Blu-ray still has a only a 30.9% physical market share in revenue and a still astonishingly low 20.7% physical market share in units. DVD is still selling 79.3% of the units!
It is.
But having said that, how come you never post the results when it's a bad week?
The fact remains that it's not any one week that matters - it's year to date units and revenue that count. And year-to-date, Blu-ray revenue is only 0.75% ahead of last year and units are only 3.21% ahead of last year. Blu-ray still has a only a 30.9% physical market share in revenue and a still astonishingly low 20.7% physical market share in units. DVD is still selling 79.3% of the units!
It was 0.75% up two weeks ago wasn't it? Surely it should be a little higher than that?
On the flip side, how come you never post a positive week? Bluray will be fine regardless of your (IMO) negativity.
Well I think cassettes were "replaced" by CDs, and LD's were replaced by DVDs. HD DVD wasn't around long enough to be considered an "established" format worthy of considering. Anyway it was involved in a format war since the beginning and had a very tiny market share. On that note I wouldn't consider Betamax or Divx either as formats that were replaced by others, although Betamax is debatable.
The life and death of formats is an interesting topic for me...
lol, maybe to you, but for prolific users/acquirers there is a definite real world practical downside which is far from ‘interesting’, i.e. you run out of closet space if one can’t sell it on ebay or one simply can’t *let go* of old stuff…
In the meantime this is awesome for Blu Ray. Yet again a good week
For me: the release slate for the 3rd and 4th Q seems to be real weak. We need more tents like Potter, Pirates, 007, etc. to boost sales. YoY or QoQ sales numbers alone to not mean squat if one does not take into account the actual content available for sale.
I still find it amazing that Blu-ray commands ≈ 30% share of the physical market. I’m certanily glad it does so folks like us have the choice of buying said disc. Here’s hoping we have UHD BD sometime next year.
For me: the release slate for the 3rd and 4th Q seems to be real weak. We need more tents like Potter, Pirates, 007, etc. to boost sales. YoY or QoQ sales numbers alone to not mean squat if one does not take into account the actual content available for sale.
I still find it amazing that Blu-ray commands ≈ 30% share of the physical market. I’m certanily glad it does so folks like us have the choice of buying said disc. Here’s hoping we have UHD BD sometime next year.
Yep, but next year is mega! Have you seen how many big movies are out? It's going to be interesting.
There will be up and down weeks all year, but you can still get a pretty good idea of each week's performance by comparing what was released this year vs. last for that week. Also residual performance from the week(s) prior (for both years) can have a significant effect, especially if it was really strong (an extreme example would be the week following Frozen).
For me: the release slate for the 3rd and 4th Q seems to be real weak. We need more tents like Potter, Pirates, 007, etc. to boost sales. YoY or QoQ sales numbers alone to not mean squat if one does not take into account the actual content available for sale.
I still find it amazing that Blu-ray commands ≈ 30% share of the physical market. I’m certanily glad it does so folks like us have the choice of buying said disc. Here’s hoping we have UHD BD sometime next year.
On Friday, the Blu-ray Disc Association revealed at the IFA electronics trade show that the first 4K Blu-ray players should arrive in stores in time for Christmas 2015 (so not this year, but next year). You can read more on this here at CNet. Naturally, lots of Bits readers over the weekend emailed me to ask what I thought of Blu-ray 4K, and it inspired a pretty good discussion over on The Bits’ Facebook page. So… here’s what I think:
I personally love the idea of 4K. I’ve seen lots of 4K home display demos, including film content mastered and projected at 4K. Indeed, 4K digital projection is common to theatrical exhibition in theaters around the country. And I really love the idea that discs might continue to be relevant for another decade or more. The problem, I think, is two-fold. First, based on my twenty-plus years of observing the home video industry from within as editor of The Bits, and especially considering the directions I’ve seen the industry move in over the last five years or so, I see little reason to believe that Hollywood will give Blu-ray 4K anything other than cursory, short-term support. Second, I see scant evidence that consumers as a whole have any interest right now in resolutions beyond 1080p, which exacerbates that first problem. Let me elaborate on both points.
First, the industry. How many Blu-rays have you purchased recently and been disappointed by? I’m not talking about the fine work of great indie labels like Criterion, Shout! Factory, Olive, Twilight and the rest; I’m talking about the major Hollywood studio releases. How many of those Blu-rays have you seen in the last few years that have been dumbed down, released with badly Photoshopped cover artwork, generic menus, and little but a few EPK featurettes on board? How many times have you purchased one of these discs only to discover problems in the picture and glitches with the audio that have gone uncorrected? How often have you purchased a disc only to learn that some of the special features it should include have been given away to retail partners as exclusives? Or how about this: How many times have you started buying a favorite TV series on Blu-ray, only to discover that the studio has stopped releasing follow-on seasons on the format, opting instead for just DVD and digital? Or heard that a favorite TV series has been remastered in high-definition but no Blu-ray release is planned? And why are so many of these titles released on digital HD a few weeks before the disc versions street? These sorts of things happen a lot, don’t they? Ever wonder why? I’ll tell you.
More and more, in order to shave costs and increase profitability, the major studio’s home video operations have gotten slashed. Huge numbers of employees have been let go, including many of the very people who understood the home video enthusiast market best, who made sure that problems were corrected before the discs went to replication, and who were actually invested in their own product. Sony Pictures Home Entertainment almost exists in name only at this point. Paramount outsourced their almost their entire home video catalog operation to Warner Bros. Fox isn’t even bothering to send out review product to the press, and even Warner Bros recently shut down their press site. These are all signs of an industry that’s not really interested in promoting physical media anymore. Sadly, most of the studio home video executives who really built the DVD and Blu-ray business are gone – either laid off, downsized, retired or they’ve moved on to other things. They’ve been replaced with personnel from the theatrical side of the industry (which hasn’t exactly been well run of late – see this story at the L.A. Times), who have little experience with the home video business, little connection with the actual product they produce, and little understanding of the audience for that product (in other words… you). These people are naturally eager to make their mark with “the next big thing” while also increasing studio profits. Digital streaming serves both of those needs very nicely. Discs do not.
The impact of this industry-wide brain drain has been felt in a few ways. More and more you’ve seen discs devalued in favor of digital and streaming. You’ve seen your own importance to the industry as an avid consumer of movies on disc be devalued in favor of the studio’s partnerships with retailers. And the industry has had little patience for anything that takes their focus away from the digital goal, which why studio support for Blu-ray 3D is on the decline. Blu-ray 3D is a niche market, sure, but that’s what the home video business is these days. Look at Shout! Factory and Criterion – they’ve built a very nice business on finding and targeting niche audiences with great product. The big studios aren’t interested in this. They can’t be bothered with it.
The home video industry as it exists today is still willing to throw stuff at the wall to see what sticks, but when stuff doesn’t stick big the industry doesn’t stick around. So my fear with 4K Blu-ray is that the studios will offer a short-term, half-hearted commitment, encouraging consumers to spend money on new hardware, and then when 4K doesn’t reproduce the massive financial windfall of DVD (which it won’t), the industry will lose interest like it already has with Blu-ray 3D and we’ll be right back to where we started. The unfortunate truth is, Hollywood is just too hell-bent on building a future without discs.
Then there’s consumer interest in 4K. I just don’t see it. Many enthusiasts are excited for 4K, but even in the various enthusiast discussion forums online you see ongoing debates about the value of 4K in the home given typical viewing distances and the consumer viewing environment, etc. Sales of new 4K TV sets have been less than inspiring. Many consumers have only just recently upgraded to HD and regular Blu-ray. Judging by the number of people who continue to ask us questions about DVD releases, many of them still haven’t done so. And we tend to forget that American consumers lived with 4x3 NTSC analog television for fifty years – not because there weren’t better alternatives available but because it was simply good enough for most consumers. I suspect that digital streaming content in 1080p will be good enough for most people. There are many enthusiasts, myself included, who are excited about the idea of watching movies at home in 4K, but it’s probably at best a niche market. In other words, it’s a new laserdisc market. And there’s nothing wrong with that. Except I just don’t see that the major Hollywood studios are all that interested in catering to a niche market.
So I’m worried about the idea of 4K Blu-ray. I want it to be great, I want it to be the next big thing – the thing that saves physical media for another decade or more. But I just don’t trust the home video industry, as it currently exists, to offer the kind of visionary, long-term commitment that would be required to make that a reality.
To put this in a way X-Files fans will appreciate: Like Fox Mulder, I want to believe. But like Dana Scully, I need some serious convincing. I’m certainly willing to be surprised. We’ll see.
Speaking of which, where the hell is The X-Files on Blu-ray?
He always been so doom and gloom no news there. And i do not agree with him one bit ALL the big releases has had top tech presentation. So i really have no clue what that guy is babbling about.
He summed up my feelings perfectly.....niche product except for early adopters/enthusiasts. Catalog content, except for the usual biggies like GWTW, Oz, etc, will be non existent. If they won't do 'em for BD, no way they get released in 4k (streaming maybe cause that's where content providers want to go).
There's tons of catalogue stuff on bluray? I got ten delivered just this morning from the Amazon sale. All catalogue stuff. More to the point a lot of it was better than I expected. I thought Do The Right Thing was bare bones, I'd never expect a commentary let alone deleted scenes.
This is the exact same thing people said about bluray. It'll only be for Blockbusters and new releases, there won't be any older films in HD because DVD is good enough. I was told so often I lost count, that there'd be no cult releases in HD because it was too expensive and here we are, seven years later, drowning in cult films.
Already being discussed in the 4K BD thread. Did it really need linking to, other than to MAKE IT ABSOLUTELY CLEAR that you think 4K BD will die on its arse? I think we know where most people stand on the matter...
Personally, I think anyone who's ever said 'Bluray will be the last physical format' shouldn't even be allowed to express an opinion in any thread discussing it's successor.
There's tons of catalogue stuff on bluray? I got ten delivered just this morning from the Amazon sale. All catalogue stuff. More to the point a lot of it was better than I expected. I thought Do The Right Thing was bare bones, I'd never expect a commentary let alone deleted scenes.
This is the exact same thing people said about bluray. It'll only be for Blockbusters and new releases, there won't be any older films in HD because DVD is good enough. I was told so often I lost count, that there'd be no cult releases in HD because it was too expensive and here we are, seven years later, drowning in cult films.
You know it's funny, the cult releases seem to be outnumbering the actual studio catalogue titles at the moment! As with vinyl, it may well be the hardcore smaller labels who keep physical video media going rather than the big boys - although the big studios will certainly make sure to cash in on any anniversaries and whatnot (like Batmon and his brand new Ghostbusters vinyls).
We are told over and over again how new media will be great, movies with great picture and sound,and great special features. (go back and look at the early promos for Blu Ray) then as soon as we start buy the new items they replace the great pitcure with an o.k. picture. and the sounds are down graded, and special features can become just a trailer or 2 (when was the last time you heard about anything via BD-LIVE).
Side note: it was done with SACD and DVD-Audio also, told us they would be Multi - Channel sound which quickly became plain old 2 channel stero. Studios dropped the ball and consumers lost interest.
He always been so doom and gloom no news there. And i do not agree with him one bit ALL the big releases has had top tech presentation. So i really have no clue what that guy is babbling about.
Not so much "doom and gloom" as "facts and figures". If you interpret those facts and figures as doom and gloom, well that's another matter.
Read the article, he is excited about 4K and he wants it to be a success. He is simply making some perfectly reasonable observations.
Great article; I've always liked the Digital Bits site, and feel they truly have their hand on the pulse of the home video industry. I remember they called the winner of the Blu/HD format war long before Blu won out years ago. And, I've always found their articles and commentary well-written & intelligent.
I echo the concern about 4K, especially since Blu is a long way from becoming mainstream. As I mentioned in a recent post in the Retail/Shopping thread, it's unfortunate that Wal-mart (possibly the biggest retailer in the U.S.) seems to be supporting Blu even less than they were even a year ago; when I go into my local store they have very little Blu product...Sure, places like Target seem to be more supportive of the format, but overall, it seems you have to go out of your way to look for this in most stores. That being said, I have no idea about Blu online sales...
On a related point, as a collector/fan of movies/TV shows on Blu, it's irritating that there is still so much out there that hasn't been upgraded to Blu...to the point that if you want to get some of this material, you'd have to pay an arm and a leg for an OOP DVD. Cases in point: I am currently looking for Coffee and Cigarettes (Jim Jarmush, 2004) & the 2000/2001 Dune sci-fi channel mini-series on DVD, to get as gifts. In my searching for these items, I can't find any new copies for reasonable prices (they all seem to be $100 or more), and I am leery of buying used copies (especially online), since they have the potential to be scratched & therefore unwatchable as a result...As an aside, DVD scratches are the worst thing about the format, and I'm glad Blu has gone a long way to improving this issue...
In conclusion, the article is correct in the concern about the viability of 4K...If Blu is taking forever to be adopted by the general public, then what chance does 4K have?!
Last edited by AnamorphicWidescreen; 09-10-2014 at 07:01 PM.
All countries
Argentina
Austria
Belgium
Brazil
Bulgaria
Chile
China
Colombia
Cyprus
Czech Republic
Estonia
Denmark
Finland
Greece
Hong Kong
Hungary
Iceland
Indonesia
Ireland
Israel
India
Latvia
Lithuania
Malaysia
New Zealand
Norway
Philippines
Poland
Portugal
Romania
Russia
Singapore
South Africa
South Korea
Sweden
Switzerland
Taiwan
Thailand
Turkey
Ukraine
United Arab Emirates
Linear Mode
