4K Blu-ray Confirmed, Coming in

[PenguinMaster]

Originally Posted by Spike M.

I'm not disagreeing with you, but if you're even mildly clever you can save the file in a format that will stick with you until your hard drive dies.

But if you ever lose your copy and it's no longer offered you can't replace it. If I ever lose any of my Blu-rays or DVDs I can just buy another copy from one of the thousands or millions of people who has one.

[mredman]

One thing is certain with digital you are not in control over what happens. Its the studio and the online storage service its on that is in control and they can suddenly change things for you or the service can go belly up for a new faster online storage service that comes along. Its a given soner or later you are gonna be left in a real bag of hurt.

[Dylan34]

I don't understand why somebody would want to stream anything. Besides the poorer quality I don't like the idea that you really don't own it, that it can be taken away at any given time. I own nothing but physical media: CDs, DVD's, and of course blu-ray. Blu-ray is great!! Great picture, great sound. Close to cinema quality in your own home. My mother has a few movies she streamed ( mostly owns blu-ray like me) and the quality doesn't come even close. I'm looking forward to 4k blu-ray. I'm excited to see what it's going to be able do as far as PQ/AQ.

[KRW1]

Originally Posted by mredman

One thing is certain with digital you are not in control over what happens. Its the studio and the online storage service its on that is in control and they can suddenly change things for you or the service can go belly up for a new faster online storage service that comes along. Its a given soner or later you are gonna be left in a real bag of hurt.

I know people who have already been caught out when hard drives have failed leaving them to try to have re-download everything. All hard drives fail eventually and, to be safe, you're going to have to have a back up, but that's another pain entirely. I don't see the attraction.

The other issue is hard drives themselves. As more and more people turn away from PCs and towards Tablets and the 'cloud', the idea of even offering films for download is, perhaps not on the way out yet, but definitely looking a bit of a shaky long term prospect.

[Steedeel]

Originally Posted by KRW1

I know people who have already been caught out when hard drives have failed leaving them to try to have re-download everything. All hard drives fail eventually and, to be safe, you're going to have to have a back up, but that's another pain entirely. I don't see the attraction.

The other issue is hard drives themselves. As more and more people turn away from PCs and towards Tablets and the 'cloud', the idea of even offering films for download is, perhaps not on the way out yet, but definitely looking a bit of a shaky long term prospect.

Why? Some people have bad connections and I don't see that changing. If optical disappears movie night might not be possible (relying on connection working fine for 2 hours) plus, there are many who can't even get a connection.

[Cbeck]

Originally Posted by mredman

Actually you are completely wrong about digital there buddy. With digital its not yours forever. Service you have it stored on can go down, codes expire after some years, they can suddenly charge you everytime you wanna see it.
Or you get to have access to it 3 times and then you have to buy it again. Read up on the fear situations revolving digital purchase i assure you they are real there is even many here on this board about people not being able to watch or get access to what they purchased over a period of time.

Its a ruse you have no real control over what you buy so the studios can do whatever they want and they will so they can earn more money from you.

Physical is forever yours of course and you can watch it as many times as you want and they come with countless of bonus material and you can watch it every place that has a blu ray player, tv, pc, projector,dvd. You can borrow it out to friends and family ect.

I agree, and that is my concern about digital. But I do find the idea of storing my collection digitally and having it at my fingertips more appealing than buying another blu ray player and upgrading more discs. I suspect that even if 4k takes off to some extent as a disc format, we will still have some 4k (probably catalog titles) which are digital only.

[Anthony P]

Originally Posted by Spike M.

I'm not disagreeing with you, but if you're even mildly clever you can save the file in a format that will stick with you until your hard drive dies.

so your answer is pirating?

[Anthony P]

Originally Posted by KRW1

The other issue is hard drives themselves. As more and more people turn away from PCs and towards Tablets and the 'cloud', the idea of even offering films for download is, perhaps not on the way out yet, but definitely looking a bit of a shaky long term prospect.

good point, but don't forget that HDDs of some sort will always exist. Maybe everything (consumer) will be on the cloud but the cloud itself is made up of many HDDs you just don't know where that HDD's located.

[Blu-ray Neo]

Once the actual specs for the BD4K format come out, then I'll seriously consider upgrading.

My question....

1. Is BD4K going to be backwards compatible in regards to the standard BD format? (Can I play a standard BD on a 4K BD player)


I currently have a 60 inch Sharp Quattron. If Sharp makes an affordable 4K television, I'll be on it like a "bum on a bologna sandwich".

[schan1269]

Yes a 4K player will play CD, DVD and "normal" BD.

People are actually buying BD-Audio discs. I doubt Sony wants to sabotage that.

[Anthony P]

Originally Posted by Steedeel

Why? Some people have bad connections and I don't see that changing. If optical disappears movie night might not be possible (relying on connection working fine for 2 hours) plus, there are many who can't even get a connection.

he is not talking about physical media, he is saying that he believes as time goes by virtual media will eventually move to streaming being the only option.

It is a bit like the music world. There are people that buy records (and no one is leaving that option), there are people that buy CDs (and that is trickling down) but the real movement is people that used to use iTunes and other DL options that are moving to services like Spotify, Rhpsody, Pandora, Music unlimited (streaming)...


Or look at Vudu, when it started the only option was DL, now most devices don't even offer that option and you can only stream on them the film you bought.

[Anthony P]

Originally Posted by Cbeck

I agree, and that is my concern about digital. But I do find the idea of storing my collection digitally and having it at my fingertips more appealing than buying another blu ray player and upgrading more discs.

To me such arguments don't make any sense. I don't know what you use, but do you assume that your device will automatically play and output the 4k content? why is buying an other BD player a bigger deal than buying an other streaming player? And do you assume that the SD or HD copy of a movie you bought on a streaming or DL service will be automatically upgraded to 4K if they have it or would you need to upgrade it just as much as moving from 1080p BD to 4K BD?

[Anthony P]

Originally Posted by Blu-ray Neo

1. Is BD4K going to be backwards compatible in regards to the standard BD format? (Can I play a standard BD on a 4K BD player)

the specs are not out yet, but the answer should be yes. There is no reason why it should not be the case

[Blu-ray Neo]

Originally Posted by Anthony P

the specs are not out yet, but the answer should be yes. There is no reason why it should not be the case

I hope you're right. That would be a dealbreaker in most people's eyes. Mine included.

[Steedeel]

Originally Posted by Anthony P

he is not talking about physical media, he is saying that he believes as time goes by virtual media will eventually move to streaming being the only option.

It is a bit like the music world. There are people that buy records (and no one is leaving that option), there are people that buy CDs (and that is trickling down) but the real movement is people that used to use iTunes and other DL options that are moving to services like Spotify, Rhpsody, Pandora, Music unlimited (streaming)...


Or look at Vudu, when it started the only option was DL, now most devices don't even offer that option and you can only stream on them the film you bought.

I know what he is talking about Anthony. I'm talking about the same thing. Let's say you have a Internet connection but it is a temperamental one. You can download a movie when the connection seems fine and have the peace of mind that you can then enjoy that movie on movie night. Streaming, on the other hand is reliant on the connection for that two hours or whatever. If you suffer a dropout or problem the movie is ruined and you maybe have to try again a different night.

[KRW1]

Originally Posted by Anthony P

he is not talking about physical media, he is saying that he believes as time goes by virtual media will eventually move to streaming being the only option.

It is a bit like the music world. There are people that buy records (and no one is leaving that option), there are people that buy CDs (and that is trickling down) but the real movement is people that used to use iTunes and other DL options that are moving to services like Spotify, Rhpsody, Pandora, Music unlimited (streaming)...


Or look at Vudu, when it started the only option was DL, now most devices don't even offer that option and you can only stream on them the film you bought.

Yes, ITunes is a good point, I'd forgotten about that, moving from that to Spotify is a natural progression for a lot of digital owners. They've never felt particularly attached to an MP3 file so it makes no difference if they 'own' the file or are simply streaming it from somewhere else.

Originally Posted by Steedeel

I know what he is talking about Anthony. I'm talking about the same thing. Let's say you have a Internet connection but it is a temperamental one. You can download a movie when the connection seems fine and have the peace of mind that you can then enjoy that movie on movie night. Streaming, on the other hand is reliant on the connection for that two hours or whatever. If you suffer a dropout or problem the movie is ruined and you maybe have to try again a different night.

In practice, though, even on my old Xbox 360, if you downloaded something, you still needed some sort of internet connection to actually watch it, as it was embedded in the playback software to authenticate itself before playing. It was something to do with the software that allowed the playback of media files. I don't regularly buy and download films so no idea how it works but more and more devices seem to have to be connected to something to do almost anything. That's not going to stop any time soon and is only going to accelerate.

[Steedeel]

Originally Posted by KRW1

Yes, ITunes is a good point, I'd forgotten about that, moving from that to Spotify is a natural progression for a lot of digital owners. They've never felt particularly attached to an MP3 file so it makes no difference if they 'own' the file or are simply streaming it from somewhere else.




In practice, though, even on my old Xbox 360, if you downloaded something, you still needed some sort of internet connection to actually watch it, as it was embedded in the playback software to authenticate itself before playing. It was something to do with the software that allowed the playback of media files.

Apply that to the video world and we have a future rental only scenario. Movie execs will be nervous imo lol.

[Steedeel]

Originally Posted by KRW1

Yes, ITunes is a good point, I'd forgotten about that, moving from that to Spotify is a natural progression for a lot of digital owners. They've never felt particularly attached to an MP3 file so it makes no difference if they 'own' the file or are simply streaming it from somewhere else.




In practice, though, even on my old Xbox 360, if you downloaded something, you still needed some sort of internet connection to actually watch it, as it was embedded in the playback software to authenticate itself before playing. It was something to do with the software that allowed the playback of media files. I don't regularly buy and download films so no idea how it works but more and more devices seem to have to be connected to something to do almost anything. That's not going to stop any time soon and is only going to accelerate.

I was just going on the very limited experiences I have had. BBC iplayer etc.. Which don't need a connection to watch downloaded shows/movies.

[KRW1]

Originally Posted by Steedeel

Apply that to the video world and we have a future rental only scenario. Movie execs will be nervous imo lol.

That's pretty much where we're heading I think, digitally at least. For the physical collectors there will be 4k bluray et al.

Don't forget a sizeable amount of people originally wanted DVD to be rental only format - the DIVX thing, where you'd buy a disc for cheap and it would expire. That, for some, is the perfect format.

[Steedeel]

Originally Posted by KRW1

That's pretty much where we're heading I think, digitally at least. For the physical collectors there will be 4k bluray et al.

Don't forget a sizeable amount of people originally wanted DVD to be rental only format - the DIVX thing, where you'd buy a disc for cheap and it would expire. That, for some, is the perfect format.

Even then, people won't pay £4.99 for a rental. It's a potentially very depressing future for movies and means we are pretty much completely dependant on optical disc to keep going and going.