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

[cheez avenger]

Originally Posted by SammymeBlu

Paying for a streaming service with commercials or ads is just um wrong. If i want to watch those two things ,i will just watch regular over the air tv which is free. Why would you PAY to watch commercials and ads? Are they paying you to do so? You know what you do, you cancel your subscription along with everyone else and than lets see if they still make you pay for that crap service. I bet they change there way real quick when the cancelations and complaints roll in.

Because cancelling outright limits my access. This is MY compromise. I'm not gonna lose sleep over it, and believe me, I've been ad-free all my streaming life, until Disney sprung this over us. Now I'm gonna reward them with that extra $7 per month? Sorry, no.

When the ad hits, I'll grab a drink/snack, toilet break, or I'll check my phone/laptop. No one is forcing me to watch ads.

[alchav21]

Originally Posted by Wendell R. Breland

Just curious, how many here have a A/V server connected to their LAN? A server can be in several forms like a Synology NAS, a Windows share (UPnP [DLNA]) and/or SMB, a DIY computer based NAS, etc. If you have a server what media player do you use?

For me, this started in the early 2000's with the MIT MDP-100 ATSC tuner card and Twinhan DVB-S (Ku band satellite) tuner card.

I tried this also in the early 2000's with my Backup Files. I don't see a need for it with all my Movies and TV Shows on Amazon, MA, and Vudu!

[Lee A Stewart]

Originally Posted by SammymeBlu

Paying for a streaming service with commercials or ads is just um wrong. If i want to watch those two things ,i will just watch regular over the air tv which is free. Why would you PAY to watch commercials and ads? Are they paying you to do so? You know what you do, you cancel your subscription along with everyone else and than lets see if they still make you pay for that crap service. I bet they change there way real quick when the cancelations and complaints roll in.

https://www.statista.com/statistics/...0two%20options.

[bhampton]

They will have more of this type of data when they bet the farm people will be willing to pay money to watch ads. I think the amount of losses they have had so far will be nothing compared to the amount of losses they will have by-

- Losing demand due to the end of the pandemic
- Raising the prices
- Making account share more difficult
- Removing original and reducing the new content creation and the ongoing strike
- Adding ads expecting people to pay to see them

I really don't gave a darn about the future of streaming. Looks like it's on a crash course to oblivion.

[Lee A Stewart]

Originally Posted by bhampton

They will have more of this type of data when they bet the farm people will be willing to pay money to watch ads. I think the amount of losses they have had so far will be nothing compared to the amount of losses they will have by-

- Losing demand due to the end of the pandemic

The pandemic ended almost 2 years ago

- Raising the prices

The prices were too low to begin with. Anyone could see that.

- Making account share more difficult

Working out for Netflix - their sub count has gone up because of the crack down.

- Removing original and reducing the new content creation and the ongoing strike

The strike will mostly affect anything after June 2023 as far as production. The content finished prior will be ready for 3rd and 4th quarters this year.

- Adding ads expecting people to pay to see them

The chart is right there. They are already doing it. And you can clearly see the majority is electing AVOD and not SVOD. They want to save money. That's their priority.

[bhampton]

Originally Posted by Lee A Stewart

They want to save money. That's their priority.

They are helping me save money as I cancel them.

You say The prices were too low to begin with ... I don't see many people in the D+ thread complaining about it not costing enough and relieved that they are taking actions to fix that. I haven't been thinking "I wish this was more expensive what can I do with this extra cash?" but I'm not everyone.

Most of the reaction I've seen is more like

Originally Posted by Tony208

What happened to $1 hikes, they jumped too much with this one.

Originally Posted by bookcase

I don't use D+ enough to make this new price hike worth it, so I just canceled. Since Disney is also hiking Hulu, I dumped that, too. I could save money doing ad-supported, but I refuse to do that.

Originally Posted by Diesel

The service isn’t even worth its current standalone price…

Originally Posted by cheez avenger

Now I'm gonna reward them with that extra $7 per month? Sorry, no.

Originally Posted by R3P0

Honestly when they go to 13.99 im done with D+ I think. I will just resub 1x per year to get my content.

This year ill have dropped

HBO Max 19.99
Netflix 19.99
D+ 13.99
and Amazon Prime 14.99

Once Strange New Worlds concludes Ill drop Paramount + as well 9.99

Thats near 100 bucks a month in streaming content, way to much money.

[Lee A Stewart]

Originally Posted by bhampton

You say The prices were too low to begin with ... I don't see many people in the D+ thread complaining about it not costing enough and relieved that they are taking actions to fix that. I haven't been thinking "I wish this was more expensive what can I do with this extra cash?" but I'm not everyone.

They are consumers. I strongly doubt any of them - not a single one was thinking as a corporate executive saying" This is too cheap - these low entry prices aren't going to last."

Brian - there is a whole wide world outside of BD.Com. But you refuse to accept it - like that chart I posted which addresses the AVOD preference over the SVOD . . . THOROUGH OUT THE WORLD!

[Anthony P]

Originally Posted by bhampton

Some series are made with commercial breaks but an actual movie - no way, I would rather wait until I can enjoy it.

sorry to hijack your post, a small, ad brake is one thing but to me what I real don't understand is when people are annoyed when they can't "resume" a film much later. I have never thought I will watch half today and half tomorrow and if I must stop watching(since life happens) I prefer starting from the beginning instead of continuing the film from where I left off.

[Anthony P]

Originally Posted by SammymeBlu

Paying for a streaming service with commercials or ads is just um wrong. If i want to watch those two things ,i will just watch regular over the air tv which is free.

News while I am eating and hockey games are the only times ads play when I watch OTA. The rest of the time it is recorded and I skip the ads. No one is forcing you with regular TV (be it OTA/Cale, fiber) to wait while those ads are playing.

[Wendell R. Breland]

Originally Posted by bhampton

They will have more of this type of data when they bet the farm people will be willing to pay money to watch ads.

I was always at outs with the cable co. then DirecTV then Dish about a la carte programming. Told all of them I’m not paying to watch a bunch of adds. Dish did let me do a la carte with HBO, Showtime, Starz and their music programming. In 2006 we started keeping tabs on how much we watched and the amount was not worth the price we were paying so we dropped Dish and singed up for Netflix by mail.

That ended the trips to Blockbuster, Hollywood Video and others plus we have saw much more new content via this method. Next month I will sign-up with Gamefly for the two at a time disc (DVD & Blu-ray) for $14.95, may up it to the Elite for $19.95 because it includes UHD Blu-ray.

[Steedeel]

Originally Posted by Anthony P

News while I am eating and hockey games are the only times ads play when I watch OTA. The rest of the time it is recorded and I skip the ads. No one is forcing you with regular TV (be it OTA/Cale, fiber) to wait while those ads are playing.

My satellite provider SKY, (the biggest pay tv service in U.K.) wants customers to switch to their new IPTV service and pay £5 extra per month to get rid of forced ads that we can currently skip via the set top box. Unbelievable.

[dhwm]

I subscribed to Max during Amazon Prime Day, which was 50% off for two months. I cancelled before the second month started. Wasn't worth $$$ for the second month. Didn't see hardly any new movies which they always were getting previously. Showtime is currently having Free Preview Weekend and I found more movies there for free than paying for Max.

[cheez avenger]

Originally Posted by Wendell R. Breland

I was always at outs with the cable co. then DirecTV then Dish about a la carte programming. Told all of them I’m not paying to watch a bunch of adds. Dish did let me do a la carte with HBO, Showtime, Starz and their music programming. In 2006 we started keeping tabs on how much we watched and the amount was not worth the price we were paying so we dropped Dish and singed up for Netflix by mail.

That ended the trips to Blockbuster, Hollywood Video and others plus we have saw much more new content via this method. Next month I will sign-up with Gamefly for the two at a time disc (DVD & Blu-ray) for $14.95, may up it to the Elite for $19.95 because it includes UHD Blu-ray.

Also, if you stay a member on Gamefly for a year, or maybe less, they'll open up the 3-4 at time tiers. I'm at 4 at time with them.

[Vilya]

Originally Posted by Ender14

I actually quite enjoyed that movie. Hoping for a 4K at some point.

It looks like you got your wish:

Originally Posted by MifuneFan

Coming to 4K September 19th!

I watched my digital copy and while I found the movie to be mildly amusing I do not think that I need to own this one on disc. I doubt that I will ever watch it again.

[Vilya]

I haven't rented a disc since 2007. Glad that it is still easy to do for those that like having this option.

[bhampton]

Originally Posted by Lee A Stewart

They are consumers. I strongly doubt any of them - not a single one was thinking as a corporate executive saying" This is too cheap - these low entry prices aren't going to last."

Heads up though -> It's the consumers who are asked to pay the price and therefore the one's whose opinion matters in this case.

I think that's painfully obvious but I've never been outside of BD.com before so what would I know.

From your posted graph, 48% of the people in Japan answering "don't know/no opinion" made me wonder if the polling person maybe didn't speak Japanese very well.

[bhampton]

Originally Posted by Vilya

I watched my digital copy and while I found the movie to be mildly amusing I do not think that I need to own this one on disc. I doubt that I will ever watch it again.

My BD came with the digital copy and I've seen the Blu Ray version about 3 times so far. I think it's fun and funny and enjoy watching it with anyone who hasn't seen it.

Will up buy it again? Probably. Along with X and Promising Young Woman and all the other titles they pretended were going to be stuck on Blu Ray. Having the Blu and the Online copy already I can wait for a sale or pick up a used copy on UHD.

[Anthony P]

Originally Posted by Lee A Stewart

The pandemic ended almost 2 years ago

what are you8 talking about? do you mean deaths form it? it is still one of the leading causes. Do you mean the WHO, that was a few months ago that they accepted it is everywhere and nothing can be done to curb it.

Do you mean as related to this discussion? I don't agree with you. I beleive that ttravel has completely bounced back, but restaurants and bars ,at leastr here, are a lot better but still a lot lower than before. My nephew is in University before Covid everything was in person, during the worst of tthe pandemic everything was on-line but even for next season starting in Sept students are allowed to follow courses on-line instead of in person if they want but they need to do exams in person (minus exceptions). My wife in 2020 was asked to work from home, if I remember correctly jan 2022 they were asked to go in once a week and Jan 2023 it was moved to twice a week that means she has more free time (to watch stuff) and saves on lunches and transportation.


people still have more time at home watching stuff but as time becomes scarcer it also makes rationing streaming providers more enticing.

he chart is right there. They are already doing it. And you can clearly see the majority is electing AVOD and not SVOD. They want to save money. That's their priority.

the chart might be there, but such charts are completely useless. Let me ask you this (since you are the data expert, what % of Netflix/Disney subscriptions are with/without ads does it help support that chart?

let me explain why such charts (surveys) are useless. If I were to ask would you rather A) pay 1000$ a month without ads or B) 1$ a year with 2 minutes of ads a month, I am sure all of us would pick B (big savings, little time wasted with ads). Now if I ask A) pay 10$ a month without ads or B) 9.99 a month with ads where after every ad you get to watch the equivalent of content no one will pick B and everyone will pick A. Vague questions don't show choice but assumptions made by the person answering.

the other issue is there are also free with ad choices that makes pay with ad choices sting even more.

[Lee A Stewart]

Originally Posted by bhampton

Heads up though -> It's the consumers who are asked to pay the price and therefore the one's whose opinion matters in this case.

So will they all cancel? Or will they just bit*h and complain and pay the higher rate.

I think that's painfully obvious but I've never been outside of BD.com before so what would I know.

There are times I firmly believe that.

From your posted graph, 48% of the people in Japan answering "don't know/no opinion" made me wonder if the polling person maybe didn't speak Japanese very well.

Would it surprise you to learn that YouTube is the most popular streaming service in Japan - the free version. Followed by Prime and Netflix

[Lee A Stewart]

Originally Posted by Anthony P

the chart might be there, but such charts are completely useless. Let me ask you this (since you are the data expert, what % of Netflix/Disney subscriptions are with/without ads does it help support that chart?

Is the chart useless because it doesn't defend your opinion?

Do your own research - present it and we will tear it apart - just like you do.