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

[whipnet]

I sure am glad I've never used iTunes. Never linked my DMA account to them. All of my Disney movies are there and in HD as they should be. (The iTunes movies I have listed in my account here are just placeholders for the DMA titles)

UV came about BECAUSE of iTunes. The movie industry saw what iTunes did to the music industry (became the gatekeeper, single provider) and did not want that to happen to the movie industry.

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[BlakkMajik3000]

Originally Posted by whipnet

I sure am glad I've never used iTunes. Never linked my DMA account to them. All of my Disney movies are there and in HD as they should be. (The iTunes movies I have listed in my account here are just placeholders for the DMA titles)

UV came about BECAUSE of iTunes. The movie industry saw what iTunes did to the music industry (became the gatekeeper, single provider) and did not want that to happen to the movie industry.

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There were several on-line stores selling digital music before iTunes came along. So exactly what did Apple do to the music industry? They had a popular product (iPod) that they wanted to leverage to make additional income. So, they started an on-line store to sell content to the users of those devices. At no point did Apple force you to buy music from their store to play on the iPod or any other iDevice. Further, at no point were they the single provider; they were just the most popular.

By the time UV was concocted, all the major storefronts (not sure on VUDU) had redemption codes. The DECE decided they wanted control over the locker, so we got UV. The studios, on their own, could have easily integrated with the redemption systems of other major providers and offered a choice among them. No separate system, no consortium. This is essentially what Fox does now.

[whipnet]

Originally Posted by BlakkMajik3000

There were several on-line stores selling digital music before iTunes came along. So exactly what did Apple do to the music industry? They had a popular product (iPod) that they wanted to leverage to make additional income. So, they started an on-line store to sell content to the users of those devices. At no point did Apple force you to buy music from their store to play on the iPod or any other iDevice. Further, at no point were they the single provider; they were just the most popular.

By the time UV was concocted, all the major storefronts (not sure on VUDU) had redemption codes. The DECE decided they wanted control over the locker, so we got UV. The studios, on their own, could have easily integrated with the redemption systems of other major providers and offered a choice among them. No separate system, no consortium. This is essentially what Fox does now.

I wasn't aware that you could play music purchased from iTunes on any player. I was already far too fed up with Quicktime when iPods came out, never gave it a chance. I worked for Compaq back then who co-developed the MP3 compression format, so I went that route. Not a lot of Apple in my world back then. We were passing around MPEG2 audio and eventually MP3 files before the internet was public and iTunes was a Steve Jobs fantasy.

Anyway, I was only recalling something I read in an article. Taken with a grain of salt.

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[veritas]

Originally Posted by whipnet

I wasn't aware that you could play music purchased from iTunes on any player. I was already far too fed up with Quicktime when iPods came out, never gave it a chance. I worked for Compaq back then who co-developed the MP3 compression format, so I went that route. Not a lot of Apple in my world back then. We were passing around MPEG2 audio and eventually MP3 files before the internet was public and iTunes was a Steve Jobs fantasy.

Anyway, I was only recalling something I read in an article. Taken with a grain of salt.

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The drm on iTunes music was because of the music industry demanding it not apple. Apple did eventually get the studios to do away with the drm locked music so I suppose now you could play iTunes music on a none apple player now.

[BlakkMajik3000]

Originally Posted by whipnet

I wasn't aware that you could play music purchased from iTunes on any player. I was already far too fed up with Quicktime when iPods came out, never gave it a chance. I worked for Compaq back then who co-developed the MP3 compression format, so I went that route. Not a lot of Apple in my world back then. We were passing around MPEG2 audio and eventually MP3 files before the internet was public and iTunes was a Steve Jobs fantasy.

Anyway, I was only recalling something I read in an article. Taken with a grain of salt.

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Music purchased from iTunes, at that time, could only be played in an iPod. However, you could just load your iPod with your own music if you wanted. You never had to buy music directly from Apple.

Nowadays of course, it doesn't matter where you buy music or what device you play it on, for the most part. Just about every device can play either MP3 or AAC. The only special cases are lossless codecs, like FLAC, that have more limited player support.

My main point was, while iTunes is sometimes vilified, it was a huge development in the proliferation of people using legal digital music.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[squatting hen]

Originally Posted by veritas

The drm on iTunes music was because of the music industry demanding it not apple. Apple did eventually get the studios to do away with the drm locked music so I suppose now you could play iTunes music on a none apple player now.

I am not so sure about that. Amazon launched their music store in 2007 (I believe) the first to offer DRM free music for purchase. Apple followed....Over A Year Later. I am sure if Amazon didn't do it, Apple wouldn't have. I don't think "Apple got the studios to do away with it"....

I think Apple even charged users extra to upgrade their songs to DRM free.

[veritas]

Originally Posted by squatting hen

I am not so sure about that. Amazon launched their music store in 2007 (I believe) the first to offer DRM free music for purchase. Apple followed....Over A Year Later. I am sure if Amazon didn't do it, Apple wouldn't have. I don't think "Apple got the studios to do away with it"....

I think Apple even charged users extra to upgrade their songs to DRM free.

All the sources I have seen have it written as a stipulation placed by the music companies. At the very least that is the story directly from apple and none of the music companies ever contradicted it as far as I know.

http://macdailynews.com/2007/02/06/a...ghts_on_music/
Jobs was a control freak in a lot of respects and it sounds like he rather loathed the drm the music industry made apple add in.


it basically came down to the studios demanding drm or higher prices and it took time for a better deals to be made. They actually did get the the music industry to relent on a lot of the more stupid drm restrictions.

[squatting hen]

Originally Posted by veritas

All the sources I have seen have it written as a stipulation placed by the music companies. At the very least that is the story directly from apple and none of the music companies ever contradicted it as far as I know.

http://macdailynews.com/2007/02/06/a...ghts_on_music/
Jobs was a control freak in a lot of respects and it sounds like he rather loathed the drm the music industry made apple add in.


it basically came down to the studios demanding drm or higher prices and it took time for a better deals to be made. They actually did get the the music industry to relent on a lot of the more stupid drm restrictions.

It's possible. Although I don't follow Mac daily news, the name kinda sounds like their stories would lean one direction...
I remember it was big news when Amazon opened their store , DRM free. Apple followed, over a year later.

[stonesfan129]

I'm surprised people are still buying music. I buy all mine (either on 7Digital - which has 16-bit FLAC for a lot of stuff, or the CD obtained from eBay or some third-party source). I can't believe how some people still torrent stuff even though there are lots of fairly-priced, legal options available.

Back in the day, I remember Napster being a big deal, then Kazaa, then iTunes and how everybody either had an iPod or a Zune. These days I think iPods are kind of a rip off. I got a good deal on a lightly used one, but I use it for Spotify or streaming my VUDU stuff. I listen on a Fiio X1 which can take a microSD card and I don't need to buy a new device for more storage. I paid $79.99 for the Fiio and $99.99 for the 200gb microSD card a year or two ago. Much less expensive than an iPod. But you don't have WiFi so no streaming.

[BlakkMajik3000]

Originally Posted by stonesfan129

I'm surprised people are still buying music. I buy all mine (either on 7Digital - which has 16-bit FLAC for a lot of stuff, or the CD obtained from eBay or some third-party source). I can't believe how some people still torrent stuff even though there are lots of fairly-priced, legal options available.

Back in the day, I remember Napster being a big deal, then Kazaa, then iTunes and how everybody either had an iPod or a Zune. These days I think iPods are kind of a rip off. I got a good deal on a lightly used one, but I use it for Spotify or streaming my VUDU stuff. I listen on a Fiio X1 which can take a microSD card and I don't need to buy a new device for more storage. I paid $79.99 for the Fiio and $99.99 for the 200gb microSD card a year or two ago. Much less expensive than an iPod. But you don't have WiFi so no streaming.

Are you referring to the iPod Touch (or, the iPhone without the Phone as I call it)? I ask because as far as I know, the iPod Classic is a media player only and cannot stream content.

In any case, I wouldn't consider iPods a ripoff. The iPod, the Classic in particular, is a rock solid music player that will last ages. Even used, most recent models 5th and 6th gen still command a premium price. It's not uncommon to see one of these listed either near, at, or above the original retail. Part of this is due to the reputation of reliability the iPod Classic has, while the other part is rarity (Apple no longer makes the iPod Classic).

Apple still manufactures the iPod Touch, so those don't tend to command premium pricing as you can always buy a new one right from Apple.

[PCFan]

I'm seriously considering dropping blu-ray completely and using iTunes on my Apple TV as a replacement. iTunes codes are cheap and iTunes get good sales often on movies. No movie trailers and FBI warnings before a movie starts and auto resume is what I like about digital. I went from 200 movies to 273 movies in my iTunes library in one month mostly because of the numerous sales. I'm selling my whole blu-ray collection all together but I'm having a hard time getting a customer. I'm not willing to sell them one by one, day by day, and I have 225 SKUs I'm trying to sell. A local media store near me does not take in all blu-rays and they only give me $1.25 per a blu-ray on average whenever I sell to them and a pawn shop near me will only give $1 per a blu-ray even for triple blu-ray combos they count it as one blu-ray, and I got an offer from someone that emailed me for $1 per blu-ray if I can't sell them at what I'm asking for. I might be better off just keeping them if I'm not desperate for the money as I don't know if I will be using iTunes/digital permanently as a replacement for blu-ray and I would hate it if in the future I decide to stop using iTunes and want to go back to blu-rays but don't have my blu-rays anymore. I just can't let them go for $1 per blu-ray. It seems like most people don't want physical media these days and seems to be going the way of VHS.

[BlakkMajik3000]

Originally Posted by PCFan

I'm seriously considering dropping blu-ray completely and using iTunes on my Apple TV as a replacement. iTunes codes are cheap and iTunes get good sales often on movies. No movie trailers and FBI warnings before a movie starts and auto resume is what I like about digital. I went from 200 movies to 273 movies in my iTunes library in one month mostly because of the numerous sales. I'm selling my whole blu-ray collection all together but I'm having a hard time getting a customer. I'm not willing to sell them one by one, day by day, and I have 225 SKUs I'm trying to sell. A local media store near me does not take in all blu-rays and they only give me $1.25 per a blu-ray on average whenever I sell to them and a pawn shop near me will only give $1 per a blu-ray even for triple blu-ray combos they count it as one blu-ray, and I got an offer from someone that emailed me for $1 per blu-ray if I can't sell them at what I'm asking for. I might be better off just keeping them if I'm not desperate for the money as I don't know if I will be using iTunes/digital permanently as a replacement for blu-ray and I would hate it if in the future I decide to stop using iTunes and want to go back to blu-rays but don't have my blu-rays anymore. I just can't let them go for $1 per blu-ray. It seems like most people don't want physical media these days and seems to be going the way of VHS.

Why get rid of your discs? Unless they are taking up a huge amount of space, no harm in keeping them around. If you want to minimize their footprint, get one of those 4-sided spinning disc shelves (I have one of such a variety).

If you plan to move to iTunes, but do not care if all of your movies are actually in the cloud, you could easily turn your blu-rays into digital copies. Almost half of the movies I have in my iTunes "collection" are blu-rays that I converted myself.

That's one of the ironic things about switching to iTunes myself. I find myself buying a lot more blu-rays, especially for catalog releases that don't have codes.

[Kage]

Each time when I go to Best Buy, Fry's Electronics, Target, and Walmart; I see no one in the movie section, no one in music section, and no one looking in the bargain media bin. The customers are usually looking at streaming media boxes such as Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV, and Roku. Also the physical media section is shrinking at a rapid pace at Best Buy and Fry's Electronics, even its happening on Amazon.com but at a slower pace. At Walmart and Target, the physical media section is not growing or shrinking.

When I try to sell my blu-rays to second hand movie and music stores, they usually give a range of 50 cents to $2.00 on blu-rays, for tv shows on blu-ray maximum is $4.00, and sometimes they don't want the movies. A few years ago I tried to sell my music cds, they told me that they don't buy them anymore. I've been donating my music cds and blu-ray movies that the second hand media stores refuse to purchase to Salvation Army and to Goodwill stores.

I mostly watch digital hd now and its very convenient. I use iTunes as my primary movie source and use Netflix to watch mostly tv shows and if a tv show is not on Netflix, I usually get it from iTunes. I just need to finish watching a few more blu-rays and finish watching a complete series on a tv show than I'm done with physical media. For music, I use Apple Music.

[moviemagic22]

I have really started to buy more digital copies of movies. I occasionally buy a physical copy of a movie that I really like. For me, my decision to buy more digital is based on two reasons. First, it is the lack of space. I don't have the room for a big collection. Additional, what is the purpose of having a physical copy of a movie that I am only going to watch once or twice. I believe it is a waste of space. Moreover, the device to watch these digital movies are cheap, and the only thing a person has to do is download the app to access their library.

[whipnet]

Originally Posted by moviemagic22

what is the purpose of having a physical copy of a movie that I am only going to watch once or twice.

what is the purpose of having a digital copy of a movie that I am only going to watch once or twice?

At least with disk, you have something tangible that you can choose to sell or give away to someone.

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[Dustin44]

Originally Posted by stonesfan129

Does anyone take advantage of the "Movies On Us" section in VUDU? Sometimes they have okay stuff that is worth watching. And I don't mind sitting through a couple commercials if it's free.

I have a watched a few movies like that. I was worried there would be a ton of commericals, but there really weren't that many. So I was pleasantly surprised.

Originally Posted by Kage

Each time when I go to Best Buy, Fry's Electronics, Target, and Walmart; I see no one in the movie section, no one in music section, and no one looking in the bargain media bin. The customers are usually looking at streaming media boxes such as Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV, and Roku. Also the physical media section is shrinking at a rapid pace at Best Buy and Fry's Electronics, even its happening on Amazon.com but at a slower pace. At Walmart and Target, the physical media section is not growing or shrinking.

When I try to sell my blu-rays to second hand movie and music stores, they usually give a range of 50 cents to $2.00 on blu-rays, for tv shows on blu-ray maximum is $4.00, and sometimes they don't want the movies. A few years ago I tried to sell my music cds, they told me that they don't buy them anymore. I've been donating my music cds and blu-ray movies that the second hand media stores refuse to purchase to Salvation Army and to Goodwill stores.

Yeah, I remember when I first got into Blu-Ray's back in 2009-2010. When Best Buy had a huge physical media section. Now, it is tiny. It doesn't take anytime to look through the whole section.

Wal-Mart revamped their physical media section about a year ago and shrunk it even more.

Target is revamping their whole store and moved the physical media section to the very back of the store and shrank it also.

I don't go to Fry's that often because it is a bit of a drive. But last time I was there, their section seemed so much more empty. Lots of empty shelves.

My local used Movie Store closed in January, which didn't surprise me. Because for months when I went in there they didn't seem to be selling much. It was mostly people just coming in their to sell off their physical media.

I only know of one small video store near me that is still around. (And that store sells a lot of video games also. Like pretty much half the store is videogames/retro videogames.)

[bandit29]

I was at Wal-Mart today. They have been remodeling the store. Physical media section is about a third the size. CDs are just one rack now. Blu-ray section is very small. DVDs mostly gone. Videogames take up most of it. Similar to the Best Buy down the street. Haven't been in Target lately. Probably the same.

[twobelowpar]

Just a thought, but could some of these "shrinking physical media" departments also be due to the constant rise of online shopping?

[whipnet]

Originally Posted by twobelowpar

Just a thought, but could some of these "shrinking physical media" departments also be due to the constant rise of online shopping?

Good point. I buy most of my physical media from Walmart.com or Amazon.

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[Dustin44]

Originally Posted by twobelowpar

Just a thought, but could some of these "shrinking physical media" departments also be due to the constant rise of online shopping?

Oh, I agree. I am sure part of it is due to more people shopping on Amazon.