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

[russweiss1]

Originally Posted by Steedeel

It was sad to see previous hardcore collectors abandon the format for digital. Excuses such as ‘I don’t have to get up’ killed me. Like getting up and using muscles and getting blood pumping is a bad thing.

This is how I feel about people that don't go to theaters anymore. Technology certainly makes society lazy.

[Steedeel]

Originally Posted by russweiss1

This is how I feel about people that don't go to theaters anymore. Technology certainly makes society lazy.

I’m doing my bit for both methods!

[Wendell R. Breland]

From the Bits:

Heads-up Bits readers: Amazon Prime is holding a HUGE sale on Blu-ray, DVD & 4K Ultra HD titles (October 10th & 11th)!

And here’s a direct link to browse the individual Blu-ray and 4K Ultra HD titles that are currently part of the sale: https://www.amazon.com/s?k=blu-ray&i...f_=as_li_ss_tl

[bhampton]

Originally Posted by Steedeel

It was sad to see previous hardcore collectors abandon the format for digital.

I tried it
I didn't like it

Years ago I discovered that because of the way iTunes works I had like 50 or 60 of my movies upgraded free to 4K and at the time I had NO UHD movies.

I bought a Sony X700 and a couple of discs but the Sony player was defective. So I returned the player and sold the handful of UHD discs I had purchased and thought I would go all in with iTunes.

The quality though can be terrible and when you are "all in" it's what you get and that's that. I like to revisit things and if the quality is a distraction I can't get into it. Things like Game of Thrones, Lost, Weeds. ... All suffered in iTunes compared to great releases on Disc.

Then, the occasional times your movie reverts to HD for a few weeks or a new SKU means your movie doesn't get the UHD upgrade. And when you search the store it doesn't know what is in your library if the content has been updated.

I don't recommend going all in with digital. Unless you live in a tent or a van or on a sailboat.

[Steedeel]

Originally Posted by bhampton

I tried it
I didn't like it

Years ago I discovered that because of the way iTunes works I had like 50 or 60 of my movies upgraded free to 4K and at the time I had NO UHD movies.

I bought a Sony X700 and a couple of discs but the Sony player was defective. So I returned the player and sold the handful of UHD discs I had purchased and thought I would go all in with iTunes.

The quality though can be terrible and when you are "all in" it's what you get and that's that. I like to revisit things and if the quality is a distraction I can't get into it. Things like Game of Thrones, Lost, Weeds. ... All suffered in iTunes compared to great releases on Disc.

Then, the occasional times your movie reverts to HD for a few weeks or a new SKU means your movie doesn't get the UHD upgrade. And when you search the store it doesn't know what is in your library if the content has been updated.

I don't recommend going all in with digital. Unless you live in a tent or a van or on a sailboat.

I have a few documentaries on my iPad which look fine on a smart tv, but I wouldn’t buy films on the format (or any digital format)

[Steedeel]

Originally Posted by Ender14

I watched The Exorcist: Believer the other day. I enjoyed the first 2 DGG Halloween movies but loathed Halloween Ends. I was hoping The Exorcist would be a return to form for DGG but it ended up possibly being worse than Ends. Truly an awful continuation of the original and just a generally terrible movie. If Blumhouse wants to have any chance of salvaging the trilogy with the next 2 then they to replace DGG immediately. He should be kept FAR away from horror franchises for the rest of his career.

I actually enjoyed Ends, but I also really enjoyed RZ’s H2 (Directors cut) so I’m a little against the tide with those two.

I thought the new Exorcist film was slightly above average but nowhere near the brilliance of the original.

[t-mel]

Originally Posted by Lee A Stewart

Streaming gets exposure for the film.

Honestly, I don't buy this. You don't really have the numbers to defend that claim. What we do know is theatrical releases do about twice as well on streaming than straight to streaming films.

How could streaming give anything in particular popularity? It's a sea of stuff with everything just put on the front page for a brief window. It seems pot luck what gets huge there, but it's a handful of things relative to the number of shows. Apparently 599 shows were made in 2022. But how many could I name? Probably a handful.

Originally Posted by Steedeel

It was sad to see previous hardcore collectors abandon the format for digital. Excuses such as ‘I don’t have to get up’ killed me. Like getting up and using muscles and getting blood pumping is a bad thing.

While going to the cinema apparently is bad because you can't pause to get up and do whatever. I don't take these people seriously. If they are sitting for over 3 hours watching something they aren't doing anything good for their health.

[t-mel]

delete

[veritas]

Originally Posted by Lee A Stewart

How Much Is Cable Per Month?



https://money.usnews.com/money/perso...able-per-month

Cable is basically a tax on old people. The only people I know who still use it are elderly that cant handle a change to their technology. Ironically they are also mostly just watching free TV channels its just very difficult to change their environment in any way.

[veritas]

Originally Posted by Lee A Stewart

The Ugly Truth About Section 181 Tax Deduction For Filmmakers

https://www.forbes.com/sites/schuyle...h=519cce614561



Streaming gets exposure for the film. It will then enter money making revenue streams like PAY-TV, merchandising, digital and physical sales, linear TV etc.

Personally I think everyone would be better off in a world where streaming churns its films way more often at like half the price. I enjoyed elemental but I can watch it anytime i want on Disney plus so exposure is rather worthless. If sites like Netflix had like quadruple the catalog but only like 1/6th of it available at a time then exposure would actually mean something as instead of re watching on streaming you might have to go buy it.

Most people just don't blind buy that much stuff which is part of why cable was such an effective business for everyone. Let people sample a lot of stuff but leave an incentive to buy some stuff.

Netflix gets more variety at a lower cost, streamers get more variety from a bigger catalog over a given year, streamers save some money, streamers churn providers less as the catalog is changing either way and studios get more sales as people buy favorites that are only available 1/6th of the year or so.

[bhampton]

Originally Posted by veritas

I enjoyed elemental ..

I think I said I would blind buy Elemental. However, I ended up watching some of it on Disney+ but I couldn't finish it. I don't think there has ever been a Pixar movie that I had to simply shut off before.

The water dude character, Wade....I could not deal with him. He sounded a little like whining Seth Rogan and was so pathetic I can't in any way imagine anyone falling for him or even just being able to hang around him unless they were deaf which would have helped a lot.

[Dynamo of Eternia]

Originally Posted by bhampton

I tried it
I didn't like it

Years ago I discovered that because of the way iTunes works I had like 50 or 60 of my movies upgraded free to 4K and at the time I had NO UHD movies.

I bought a Sony X700 and a couple of discs but the Sony player was defective. So I returned the player and sold the handful of UHD discs I had purchased and thought I would go all in with iTunes.

The quality though can be terrible and when you are "all in" it's what you get and that's that. I like to revisit things and if the quality is a distraction I can't get into it. Things like Game of Thrones, Lost, Weeds. ... All suffered in iTunes compared to great releases on Disc.

Then, the occasional times your movie reverts to HD for a few weeks or a new SKU means your movie doesn't get the UHD upgrade. And when you search the store it doesn't know what is in your library if the content has been updated.

I don't recommend going all in with digital. Unless you live in a tent or a van or on a sailboat.

Those free upgrades are also kind of a catch-22. While many may be an improvement over the previous version, that may not always entirely be the case.

One example was Disney's The Sword in the Stone.

Before it was ever released on blu-ray, the version that was on iTunes was based on the same master as a previous DVD release. While not perfect, things like film grain and detail were intact.

Then the movie was "remastered" for HD, which was the master used for the Blu-Ray release. They REALLY botched it. DNR was applied so badly that in some instances it scrubs details from the image. Check out the review here on the site of the BD release and read the video quality section.

https://www.blu-ray.com/movies/The-S.../44743/#Review

What happened was around the same time as that Blu-Ray release, the iTunes version was "upgraded" to this same botched master. Anyone who had actually downloaded the previous version could still watch that specific file if they still had it. But any attempt to play it / re-download it from iTunes would have been this newer botched version. So if you didn't previously download it, you are stuck with the new, worse version of it.


I'm sure many would argue that the free upgrades are probably an improvement more often than not, so they'd rather have them than not, and I get that perspective. But I really dislike the inability of choice in the matter when occasions like this do happen.

[Panson]

Originally Posted by russweiss1

This is how I feel about people that don't go to theaters anymore. Technology certainly makes society lazy.

Sorry, Sir!

Reporting my most recent theater action, Sir!

Ford v Ferrari (2019). Good.
Barbie (2023). POS.

[veritas]

Originally Posted by bhampton

I think I said I would blind buy Elemental. However, I ended up watching some of it on Disney+ but I couldn't finish it. I don't think there has ever been a Pixar movie that I had to simply shut off before.

The water dude character, Wade....I could not deal with him. He sounded a little like whining Seth Rogan and was so pathetic I can't in any way imagine anyone falling for him or even just being able to hang around him unless they were deaf which would have helped a lot.

The main thing that annoys me in it is the design of the earth elementals. Fire and water had so much effort put into them while air and earth almost feel like after thoughts. Earth also has almost no purpose in the story.

[Steedeel]

Originally Posted by veritas

Cable is basically a tax on old people. The only people I know who still use it are elderly that cant handle a change to their technology. Ironically they are also mostly just watching free TV channels its just very difficult to change their environment in any way.

That’s not the reality here in the U.K. while Netflix, Disney+ and Amazon have been undoubted successes here, they are complimentary to Satellite and cable. Sky, which is our biggest pay tv service, still has 10 million customers (28 million households in U.K.) mainly due to having overwhelming rights to premier league football and championship. They also now offer the service through a streaming puck and have worked out a deal to include Netflix in their 4K movie, sport and premier channel (HBO and Warner content) package.

They have adapted very well.

[Steedeel]

Update from our friend Vilya, via PM this evening



I apologize for taking so long to reply.

I am having some difficulties of late. My fatigue is extreme; I am in bed nearly half of every day, sometimes more.

I also have 8 medical appointments this month and 6 of them involve travel to St. Louis (a 210 mile round trip). Four of these are next week. It leaves me utterly exhausted.

I have a cardiac MRI this coming Monday that will provide a new evaluation of my heart.

The experimental drug that I have been getting, the four hour long infusion, has been formally denied approval by the U.S. Food & Drug Administration. It has thrown my treatment into chaos.

How are your sister and nephew doing? I have not forgotten about them.

Thank you for asking about me. You may openly share whatever you choose from this message or not at all as you see fit.

[Lee A Stewart]

Originally Posted by t-mel

Honestly, I don't buy this. You don't really have the numbers to defend that claim.

I don't need numbers. All I need is two words - social media.

What we do know is theatrical releases do about twice as well on streaming than straight to streaming films.

Show us some numbers to back up your claim.

How could streaming give anything in particular popularity? It's a sea of stuff with everything just put on the front page for a brief window. It seems pot luck what gets huge there, but it's a handful of things relative to the number of shows. Apparently 599 shows were made in 2022. But how many could I name? Probably a handful.

Netflix's 'Squid Game' is a sensation. Here's why it's so popular.

The show is a hot topic on social media, where the hashtag "#SquidGame" on TikTok has been viewed more than 22.8 billion times.

"Squid Game" is more than just a runaway hit for Netflix — it's also the internet's favorite show.

Nielsen Streaming Top 10: ‘Suits’ Becomes First Show Ever to Cross 3 Billion Minutes Watched for Seven Weeks in a Row

“Suits” has been watched for 26.5 billion minutes total across Netflix and Peacock for the last eight weeks, with the Aug. 7-13 viewing window marking its seventh week in a row crossing the 3 billion minute-mark. Though “Stranger Things” still holds the record for highest viewing total in eight weeks — 35.5 billion minutes, set in 2022 with the two-part launch of its fourth season — “Suits” is the first title ever to stay above 3 billion minutes for this long.

[veritas]

Originally Posted by Lee A Stewart

I don't need numbers. All I need is two words - social media.



Show us some numbers to back up your claim.



Netflix's 'Squid Game' is a sensation. Here's why it's so popular.



Nielsen Streaming Top 10: ‘Suits’ Becomes First Show Ever to Cross 3 Billion Minutes Watched for Seven Weeks in a Row

You know the funny thing about suits is I'm one of the people watching it and honestly the only reason I'm rewatching it is because netflix has a better streaming service then prime. I could watch it on either service but netflix just runs so much cleaner that watching it on netflix is way more enjoyable then prime.

[PenguinInfinity]

For those who are interested in Suits but don't want to use a streaming subscription:

https://www.rarewaves.com/products/5...e-series-s1-s9

It's region-free.

[Steedeel]

Originally Posted by veritas

You know the funny thing about suits is I'm one of the people watching it and honestly the only reason I'm rewatching it is because netflix has a better streaming service then prime. I could watch it on either service but netflix just runs so much cleaner that watching it on netflix is way more enjoyable then prime.

Off subject but can you do me a favour and let me know if I have upset you in some way? I think I have replied to your posts around 6 times in the last year and every time you have ignored it. Your right to do so of course, but it would save me the effort of doing so again if I know there is a problem. Don’t want to waste my time.