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

[Wendell R. Breland]

Originally Posted by Vilya

By all means give it a watch. I think Albert Finney delivers the meanest portrayal of Ebeneezer Scrooge of any that I have seen; he just seethes with contempt for Christmas and for those that celebrate it.

Thanks for info. Added this and A Christmas Carol to my purchase list for next year.

[Vilya]

Originally Posted by Wendell R. Breland

Thanks for info. Added this and A Christmas Carol to my purchase list for next year.

Which "A Christmas Carol" did you add to your list besides Albert Finney's Scrooge 1970? There are many versions to choose from.

If you buy the 1951 Alastair Sim A Christmas Carol try to buy the latest pressing as the earlier ones contain an audio glitch on the 5.1 surround track where about 8 seconds of dialog are muted when Scrooge visits his nephew on Christmas Day. The glitch is not present on the original mono audio, which I prefer, anyways. Alastair Sim's performance is my favorite overall.

This is the latest pressing (there are three in total):

https://www.blu-ray.com/movies/A-Chr...Blu-ray/53438/

This title might be going OOP as VCI's website no longer lists it at all. If you want this one, I would get it sooner than later.

[Steedeel]

Originally Posted by Vilya

By all means give it a watch. I think Albert Finney delivers the meanest portrayal of Ebeneezer Scrooge of any that I have seen; he just seethes with contempt for Christmas and for those that celebrate it.

Originally Posted by Wendell R. Breland

It seems no matter how many times we point out the difference between EST, SVOD and AVOD disc haters just want to continue to lump all the streaming revenues together. They also continue to ignore the big elephant in the home entertainment spend is traditional pay TV.

Originally Posted by Vilya

I agree with the first half of your post, but digital purchases are not going away. They kind of compliment SVOD (as disc purchases and rentals once did for each other) and the infrastructure to deliver SVOD just as easily delivers digitally purchased content.

Thanks for your replies, I will answer in depth when I return.

My head is a mess so will see you all in new year. It’s been a day and a half

(Not related to my sister)

See you all in new year and have the best Christmas possible.

[PenguinInfinity]

Originally Posted by Vilya

I agree with the first half of your post, but digital purchases are not going away. They kind of compliment SVOD (as disc purchases and rentals once did for each other) and the infrastructure to deliver SVOD just as easily delivers digitally purchased content.

Digital purchases will never go away completely, but there are two major unknowns:

How many titles will be released exclusively on subscription services?
With extremely popular titles it may be more profitable for companies to keep people subscribing indefinitely instead of making a one-time digital sale.

How long will studios and digital providers continue to stream titles that are no longer selling?
In a decade or two Amazon, iTunes, etc. will have hundreds of thousands of titles and the overwhelming majority of them won't be making a cent. Will they be willing to pay the expense of storing them all on their servers or will unprofitable titles be deleted?

[Vilya]

Originally Posted by PenguinInfinity

Digital purchases will never go away completely, but there are two major unknowns:

How many titles will be released exclusively on subscription services?
With extremely popular titles it may be more profitable for companies to keep people subscribing indefinitely instead of making a one-time digital sale.

How long will studios and digital providers continue to stream titles that are no longer selling?
In a decade or two Amazon, iTunes, etc. will have hundreds of thousands of titles and the overwhelming majority of them won't be making a cent. Will they be willing to pay the expense of storing them all on their servers or will unprofitable titles be deleted?

I only consider physical media to be reliable long term both in that a title will not disappear from my collection and that it can not be edited in any way after my purchase.

To me, digital purchases are just leases of unknown duration.

[Lee A Stewart]

Updated Digital Copyright Act Brought Before Congress

https://www.tvtechnology.com/news/up...efore-congress

[Wendell R. Breland]

Originally Posted by Vilya

Which "A Christmas Carol" did you add to your list besides Albert Finney's Scrooge 1970? There are many versions to choose from.

The George C Scott version.

[PenguinInfinity]

Originally Posted by Vilya

Which "A Christmas Carol" did you add to your list besides Albert Finney's Scrooge 1970? There are many versions to choose from.

Personally I'd like to see the rest of this version (starts at 25 seconds):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=25&v...ature=youtu.be

[gotmule]

Originally Posted by Steedeel

Thanks for your replies, I will answer in depth when I return.

My head is a mess so will see you all in new year. It’s been a day and a half

(Not related to my sister)

See you all in new year and have the best Christmas possible.

I hope everything works out for you. Be safe.

[Ender14]

Originally Posted by Steedeel

Thanks for your replies, I will answer in depth when I return.

My head is a mess so will see you all in new year. It’s been a day and a half

(Not related to my sister)

See you all in new year and have the best Christmas possible.

You as well.

[ghoulies]

I’m thinking of getting Netflix as a Christmas present for a family member. That being said, since I have a 4K TV, is the Premium package worth it, and how do 4K content/movies on Netflix compare with seeing an actual 4K disc?

Thanks in advance.

[flyry]

Originally Posted by ghoulies

I’m thinking of getting Netflix as a Christmas present for a family member. That being said, since I have a 4K TV, is the Premium package worth it, and how do 4K content/movies on Netflix compare with seeing an actual 4K disc?

Thanks in advance.

do it. the majority of their original shows and movies are in 4K HDR or dolby vision depending on your setup. look great.

[Lee A Stewart]

[Vilya]

Originally Posted by ghoulies

I’m thinking of getting Netflix as a Christmas present for a family member. That being said, since I have a 4K TV, is the Premium package worth it, and how do 4K content/movies on Netflix compare with seeing an actual 4K disc?

Thanks in advance.

It will make for a very nice gift. A 4K disc looks better, but Netflix's 4K streams are pretty good and a gift subscription will give your family member access to a lot of content and much of that content is unique to Netflix.

[Wendell R. Breland]

Originally Posted by ghoulies

That being said, since I have a 4K TV, is the Premium package worth it, and how do 4K content/movies on Netflix compare with seeing an actual 4K disc?

There is very little UHD content on Netflix that is on disc so you can not do direct comparison. Like many disc Dolby Atmos is only on the Netflix UHD of titles that has immersive audio. No big loss for the HD version because most of the Netflix content with immersive audio tracks are lackluster.

Netflix UHD content like “The Crown” looks pretty good because it is mostly static. It is 25 frames per second and depending on equipment capabilities you may have frame drops.

Netflix and others have dropped their free trial periods so you have to subscribe. You can cancel at anytime but no refunds, your service will continue till the end of your billing cycle.

[Wendell R. Breland]

We changed from UHD on Netflix to HD and canceled Disney+ then subscribed to HBO Max for six months. There is some TV there the better half wants to watch.

WW84: The reviewer at High-Def Digest rated it a “For Fans Only” here.

[bhampton]

Originally Posted by Wendell R. Breland

We changed from UHD on Netflix to HD and canceled Disney+ then subscribed to HBO Max for six months. There is some TV there the better half wants to watch.

WW84: The reviewer at High-Def Digest rated it a “For Fans Only” here.

Who isn’t a Gal Gadot fan ?

Happy Hollidays my online buddies

[Wendell R. Breland]

Originally Posted by bhampton

Who isn’t a Gal Gadot fan ?

Have the first on UHD BD and 3D BD, also have her in Batman vs Superman. As always we will give WW84 a spin, erh, a stream and decide if it has PFRP (potential for repeat viewing, been using term since early days of home theater ).

Happy Holidays to readers of Blu-ray.COM, may good fortune smile upon you!!

[cheez avenger]

Watching The Shining on 4K disc. Will probably watch Wonder Woman on 4K disc to prep for tomorrow's WW84 debut.

The Shining looks fantastic.

[tvine2000]

Originally Posted by Vilya

That's the first average year over year price increase that I have seen in quite awhile. Even so, discs are still a bargain in my book.

Hi Lee we been around this debate more then a few times over the years. Still CD'S are around and DVD and Blu-ray and 4K blu-ray. The doom and gloom players are still spreading the same b.s they did before. Just new players. The studios keep putting them out , new players come out every year. Now why would manufactures and Studios keep doing this if it they were bleeding money. It amazes me ,once in awhile the end of physical media B.S. shows it's ugly head with no proof. Sure they throw a lot of numbers at you ,they appear real smart people. But in the end they are as always full of S*&(T.