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

[Vilya]

Originally Posted by Wendell R. Breland

A little correction, BD is compressed, most BD titles use H.264 and UHD BD use H.265.

1 hour of 16 bit RAW from a Sony F65 camera can use 1 TB of data (2 TB for two hours). So the data has to be compressed to get that 2000 GB to fit on a 66 GB disc. By comparison Netflix would only use 10 GB for for that same 2 hours because it is much more compressed.

You mean before Netflix reduced their bitrates to their current abysmal levels? Now that 10 GB would be more like 5 GB.

[Wendell R. Breland]

Originally Posted by Vilya

Good thing I shop online... as I have mostly done for the last 10 years.

I believe Best Buy and Target is going to try really hard to emphasize online shopping for many items including movie disc. Not sure where Walmart is heading with movie disc as they have spent a lot of money on new DVD & BD displays.

[Wendell R. Breland]

Originally Posted by Vilya

You mean before Netflix reduced their bitrates to their current abysmal levels? Now that 10 GB would be more like 5 GB.

That was for 120 minutes of UHD at 11.43 Mbps. Have not checked in a while but it appears that are now in the 8 to 9 Mbps for UHD so for 8.5 Mbps it would be 7.65 GB or small fraction of a typical UHD BD.

[Vilya]

Originally Posted by Wendell R. Breland

I believe Best Buy and Target is going to try really hard to emphasize online shopping for many items including movie disc. Not sure where Walmart is heading with movie disc as they have spent a lot of money on new DVD & BD displays.

We have to remember that this has been a year like no other. There just have not been very many altogether new movies released this year on any format, so there is not much new merchandise for these stores to display.

While we are getting lots of catalog releases, few of these create the interest that a brand new movie would. Sure, new sets like the Back To The Future 4K trilogy and The Lord Of The Rings 4K trilogy will excite some people, but even such high profile catalog releases like these two are relatively few and far between. It has been a year of mostly catalog releases and brick and mortar stores do not stock a lot of catalog titles as they don't drive sales like brand new movies do.

[JohnAV]

Originally Posted by Phillip c. Niethe

Best buy just removed all there physical media racks save for the new release kiosk and a single steelbook rack...

I have two stores I visited recently locally and they have multiple joined racks with several independent ones for new and what they are pushing.

Not going be any different for the eight around silicon valley.

[JohnAV]

Originally Posted by Vilya

Good thing I shop online... as I have mostly done for the last 10 years.

I have not been in my local Best Buy store since before the pandemic began; I have no idea what they are doing these days, but I might check just out of curiosity sometime. Nothing has changed at my local Walmart.

Get out of your chair.

[Gretiem]

Originally Posted by Phillip c. Niethe

Best buy just removed all there physical media racks save for the new release kiosk and a single steelbook rack...

I was told it was to make room during holiday shopping but they will be back.

[JohnAV]

Originally Posted by Gretiem

I was told it was to make room during holiday shopping but they will be back.

Gee a month ahead, crazy.

Locally what they do here is have like a dozen or more pre stacked 4 sided racks setup in the store warehouse all setup that they wheel out just a few days before BF.

Its just amazing how crowded the store gets with boxes and boxes of TVs and everything else they are pushing on BF.

But most people don't rush to the store for specials anymore, its all online reserve, but still you can go the store and find most things quite readily even without going the online route.

[cheez avenger]

Quibi is toast!

Quibi Is Shutting Down Barely Six Months After Going Live

Quibi, the short-form entertainment service for mobile devices, will shut down operations just over six months after its launch, The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday.

The company, which was founded by Hollywood producer Jeffrey Katzenberg and former HP CEO Meg Whitman, raised $1.75 billion ahead of its launch in April. The app features short-form news and entertainment videos running 10 minutes or less in length. It attracted top Hollywood stars for its shows too, such as Chrissy Teigen and Idris Elba.

Shortly after Quibi’s launch, there were already signs that it had failed to sign up subscribers for its $4.99-per-month streaming service as it fell in Apple and Google’s app store rankings of popular apps. According to people familiar with the matter, Quibi originally projected it would have more than 7 million subscribers after its first year, but it only had about 500,000 subscribers as of a few weeks ago.

The app was originally pitched to appeal to a younger demographic eager to watch short videos while on the go. But Quibi launched just weeks after the coronavirus pandemic hit the U.S., and reviewers panned it for not having an option to watch on televisions. Meanwhile, established streaming services like Disney+ and Netflix saw their subscribers spike.

Since then, reports surfaced that Katzenberg and Whitten were seeking additional funding to keep Quibi afloat as subscriber numbers failed to meet expectations. On Tuesday, The Information reported that Katzenberg attempted to sell Quibi’s catalog of content to Facebook and NBCUniversal in an effort to avoid a bigger loss for the company’s investors.

According to people familiar with the matter, Quibi had difficulty selling itself to a larger company because it only owned its content for two years, meaning any potential buyer would just be purchasing Quibi’s technology.

But Quibi’s technology came with its own baggage. The company faced a lawsuit from the interactive video company Eko, which claimed Quibi violated Eko’s patents for mobile video technology. The Wall Street Journal reported in May that hedge fund Elliott Management financed Eko’s lawsuit.

https://www.cnbc.com/2020/10/21/quib...-6-months.html


I always did think Quibi was a lame concept. Never even tested the free trials either.

[tvine2000]

Originally Posted by Phillip c. Niethe

Best buy just removed all there physical media racks save for the new release kiosk and a single steelbook rack...

Walmart is doing the same

[alchav21]

Originally Posted by cheez avenger

Quibi is toast!

Quibi Is Shutting Down Barely Six Months After Going Live

I always did think Quibi was a lame concept. Never even tested the free trials either.

Hey Steedeel I'm surprised you didn't jump on this Bandwagon. Now it's too late, people love their iPhones but watching Movies on there didn't fly!

[alchav21]

Originally Posted by Phillip c. Niethe

Best buy just removed all there physical media racks save for the new release kiosk and a single steelbook rack...

Originally Posted by tvine2000

Walmart is doing the same

My Best Buy got rid of those racks years ago, all they have now are the cardboard ones for BD and 4K's. Walmart should do the same, because I never see anyone in those racks. Let's see what they do for the Holidays!

[Vilya]

Originally Posted by alchav21

My Best Buy got rid of those racks years ago, all they have now are the cardboard ones for BD and 4K's. Walmart should do the same, because I never see anyone in those racks. Let's see what they do for the Holidays!

The racks are for merchandise; you should never see any people in them.

For the 10,000th time what a store stocks varies with the location and the season. The Walmart in my area has not changed anything.

[Vilya]

Originally Posted by cheez avenger

Quibi is toast!

Quibi Is Shutting Down Barely Six Months After Going Live



https://www.cnbc.com/2020/10/21/quib...-6-months.html


I always did think Quibi was a lame concept. Never even tested the free trials either.

No surprise there; it's just like what happened with Verizon's similar Go90 service many years before it. A failed concept then and a failed concept now. Watching stuff on tiny screens sucks; paying to do so sucks even more.

[Vilya]

Originally Posted by JohnAV

[Show spoiler]

Get out of your chair.

You can't make me!

My chair is soooo comfy, too.

[Vilya]

Originally Posted by alchav21

Hey Steedeel I'm surprised you didn't jump on this Bandwagon. Now it's too late, people love their iPhones but watching Movies on there didn't fly!

Paying to watch Quibi's lame content is what didn't fly; people still watch plenty of stuff on their phones. Why is beyond me.

[JohnAV]

Originally Posted by cheez avenger

Quibi is toast!
I always did think Quibi was a lame concept. Never even tested the free trials either.

Whats was interesting was yesterday, Short form video streaming service Quibi was introducing an Apple TV app, allowing Quibi content to be watched on the Apple TV for the first time.

One day later shutting down their service.

[JohnAV]

Originally Posted by Vilya

Paying to watch Quibi's lame content is what didn't fly; people still watch plenty of stuff on their phones. Why is beyond me.

As you recall in 2018, a AT&T executive when they had just bought HBO suggested that HBO to make short videos instead of regular length content just like Quibi was doing (catering to phone users). Good thing someone with brains talked him out of it.

[Vilya]

Originally Posted by JohnAV

As you recall in 2018, a AT&T executive when they had just bought HBO suggested that HBO to make short videos instead of regular length content just like Quibi was doing (catering to phone users). Good thing someone with brains talked him out of it.

Now that Netflix has gutted their bitrates to save money watching their stuff on an itty bitty phone screen will be the only way to not notice their compression artifacts.

[Steedeel]

Originally Posted by JohnAV

Whats was interesting was yesterday, Short form video streaming service Quibi was introducing an Apple TV app, allowing Quibi content to be watched on the Apple TV for the first time.

One day later shutting down their service.

I wouldn’t be surprised if Apple get some of their content. It can be stitched together to make a feature or series. I think shudder will get the horror anthology but I’m sure Apple will snag a few things.