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

[Anthony P]

Originally Posted by bhampton

I wish video games could not make and sell their own version of money. Kind of seems like legal counterfeiting and it's awesome for money laundering.

true about money laundering but anything can be that way. But even if we forget that, in game currency is just way too lucrative. It is like credit cards at a higher degree, it creates a disassociation between your real money and what you are paying in game.

what I mean is if you spend 100$ to get 90^ in game and then spend 88^ in game to buy something and he seller changes back to cash for 80$ it is all very visible and you will easily say "is it worth that the game gets 10% of my 100?" "is it worth it that 88^ I am spending" and the guy that gets it "why does the game get 10% of what I charged.


But on the other hand 100$ to get 18000^ spend 17600^ and the guy changes it back to 80$ and what the game gets and how much $ you paid is a lot more lost on everyone outside the game.

[Anthony P]

Originally Posted by Vilya

I just wanted to let everyone know that I will be busy with a flurry of medical appointments this month. A lot of travel is involved as each one is 85-110 miles away from my home. All of this poking and prodding plus all the travel will leave me exhausted and as a result I probably won't be posting much. The adventures begin Friday at the ungodly hour of 5 A.M.

hope they all go well.

[Lee A Stewart]

Originally Posted by Anthony P

your analogy makes no sense what so ever. The benefit of a buffet is you pay a fixed price and then you get to eat all the different stuff you want. It is more like an insane food court where you need to go and wait at different stalls and pay at each to get what you want (instead of one place to get burger fries and drinks with the discounted combo price you need to go to the burger place and then the fries place and then the drinks place because there is no stall that has all three.

And you accuse me of not making sense? Hey Pot!

[Anthony P]

Originally Posted by Lee A Stewart

And you accuse me of not making sense? Hey Pot!

what don't you understand? maybe I can dumb it down for you

[Lee A Stewart]

Originally Posted by Anthony P

what don't you understand? maybe I can dumb it down for you

Or maybe you really don't understand streaming at all. I think that's the answer.

You add Disney+. Are you really expecting to see Wonder Woman or Aquaman or Superman or Batman movies? You want those - you add HBO Max.

The average TV viewer pays for 4 to 5 different streaming services. Plus they have an additional 3 to 4 free AVOD streaming services.

And each service offers thousands of movies and TV episodes. And THATS where the buffet analogy comes from - duh!

[Anthony P]

Originally Posted by Lee A Stewart

Or maybe you really don't understand streaming at all. I think that's the answer.

You add Disney+. Are you really expecting to see Wonder Woman or Aquaman or Superman or Batman movies? You want those - you add HBO Max.

The average TV viewer pays for 4 to 5 different streaming services. Plus they have an additional 3 to 4 free AVOD streaming services.

And each service offers thousands of movies and TV episodes. And THATS where the buffet analogy comes from - duh!

Isn't that the point I have never been to a buffet where I need to be in the Disdney+ line up to get the fries and if I want the batman Burger i have to go to the HBO Max stall and if I want a drink I go to netflix stall....

that is not more choices, like you just admitted more service providers means forcing people to pay and use more services 0or give up on choices. and it si not just streaming there is content only available on some forms of physical media and other choices that are only available OTA....

what you are trying to camouflage as choice is really something that limits choices.

[cheez avenger]

Eternals was awesome in IMAX. Also watched 5 episodes of Narcos: Mexico S3 on Netflix before the show.

[Lee A Stewart]

Originally Posted by Anthony P

Isn't that the point I have never been to a buffet where I need to be in the Disdney+ line up to get the fries and if I want the batman Burger i have to go to the HBO Max stall and if I want a drink I go to netflix stall....

that is not more choices, like you just admitted more service providers means forcing people to pay and use more services 0or give up on choices. and it si not just streaming there is content only available on some forms of physical media and other choices that are only available OTA....

what you are trying to camouflage as choice is really something that limits choices.

No one's forcing people to do anything. That is your assumption. People choose what they want. Pay for what they want.

My own personal experience - I have had at one time or another, all the different SVODs - just not all at the same time. In fact I just cancelled HBO Max and added Shudder (for my son) and Paramount+ (for me) for the same month fee ($15). Ran out of content that I felt was worth paying $15 a month for.

Used to have Amazon Prime Video. Cancelled it after about 6 months. Will reup when the Jack Reacher TV series gets added and catch up on all the new content that came after the cancellation.

Now have Disney+, Paramount+, Peacock and Shudder. And 4 AVODs which cost nothing.

So what's my out of pocket monthly cost? $33 a month. For thousands of movies and tens of thousands of TV episodes. If that isn't choice then I don't know what is.

[flyry]

I know it's been mentioned before, but I went to Target last night to look for Scream 4K (standard) and their media section is so small i almost missed it. literally just one small square of a section. I asked the rep are there movies anywhere else or is this it? and he's like everyone streams and buys digitally now.


edit: didn't see lee's article on the last page when i posted this

[Steedeel]

Originally Posted by flyry

I know it's been mentioned before, but I went to Target last night to look for Scream 4K (standard) and their media section is so small i almost missed it. literally just one small square of a section. I asked the rep are there movies anywhere else or is this it? and he's like everyone streams and buys digitally now.


edit: didn't see lee's article on the last page when i posted this

What he should have said is ‘all the serious collectors buy online because it’s piss easy to buy even limited edition packaging and steel books now’.

If everyone is buying digital, why aren’t we seeing bigger numbers? The maths don’t add up.

Also, what happened with Vudu via Walmart? Oh yeah, sank like the Titanic.

EST has always been a dead end, unlike subscription.

[Lee A Stewart]

Originally Posted by Steedeel

If everyone is buying digital, why aren’t we seeing bigger numbers? The maths don’t add up.

They don't add up because people are not buying as much as they used to. That should be obvious.

Also, what happened with Vudu via Walmart? Oh yeah, sank like the Titanic.

That was a case of a corporation buying something they has zero experience with. This has happened many times. Like AT&T buying DirecTV. The result is always the same - they sell it off to someone who has the experience and knows what to do with it.

EST has always been a dead end, unlike subscription.

And yet last year EST racked up $5.4 billion in sales. More than twice what PM did ($2.4B). How is that a dead end?

[Vilya]

Originally Posted by Lee A Stewart

And yet last year EST racked up $5.4 billion in sales. More than twice what PM did ($2.4B). How is that a dead end?

Nope. You read that wrong.

Physical media PLUS EST combined totaled $5.449 billion.

Physical media was $2.451 billion.
EST was $2.997 billion.

EST only exceeded physical media by 22.3%.

[Lee A Stewart]

Originally Posted by Vilya

Nope. You read that wrong.

Physical media PLUS EST combined totaled $5.449 billion.

Physical media was $2.451 billion.
EST was $2.997 billion.

EST only exceeded physical media by 22.3%.

Thank you for that clarification.

So - is EST really a dead end as Steedeel claims?

[Wendell R. Breland]

Originally Posted by Lee A Stewart

So what's my out of pocket monthly cost? $33 a month.

My sub cost is similar to yours except access also cost about $60 a month. Bringing my monthly streaming cost close to $100 a month. I could get by with a much cheaper plan if not for streaming, as is, $80 for ISP. When my mobile provider updates their coverage I could drop the ISP all together if we did not stream.

[Vilya]

Originally Posted by Lee A Stewart

Thank you for that clarification.

So - is EST really a dead end as Steedeel claims?

I don't think so. If it was, they wouldn't bother with it.

Discs and EST are offered because they are both worthwhile ways to sell content.

[Wendell R. Breland]

Originally Posted by Lee A Stewart

So - is EST really a dead end as Steedeel claims?

It is for Best Buy, Target and Walmart. I would guess Apple and Amazon are doing fairly well with EST.

[Lee A Stewart]

Originally Posted by Wendell R. Breland

It is for Best Buy, Target and Walmart. I would guess Apple and Amazon are doing fairly well with EST.

When were Best Buy and Target in the EST business? How about iTunes/Apple?

[Steedeel]

Originally Posted by Lee A Stewart

Thank you for that clarification.

So - is EST really a dead end as Steedeel claims?

Of course it is.

[Lee A Stewart]

Originally Posted by Steedeel

Of course it is.

No . . . it's not

[Wendell R. Breland]

Originally Posted by Steedeel

What he should have said is ‘all the serious collectors buy online because it’s piss easy to buy even limited edition packaging and steel books now’.

It appears some still does not know the convince of disc acquisition. Never bought a movie title off a B&M rack, the few that I have purchased (Best Buy, Target and Walmart) have been shipped to my front door or shipped to my local store for pickup. All Barnes & Noble orders have been shipped to my front door.