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

[bhampton]

Had to go to town for groceries so I stopped into Best Buy to help them get rid of physical media.



I'm so excited for The Dead Zone as it's a all time favorite of mine that I haven't had on disc for years.

Of course, Rain Man is a masterpiece also. This version of War of the Worlds was a blind buy but I think it was on sale.

Time for Walken in a winter wonderland.

[CV19]

Originally Posted by bhampton

I'm so excited for The Dead Zone as it's a all time favorite of mine that I haven't had on disc for years.

Three great films you've chosen there. I haven't seen The Dead Zone in a long, long time. I love the original War of the Worlds, but have to say I wasn't really keen on the remake (even though in my book Tom Cruise very rarely ever puts a foot wrong).

[CV19]

Originally Posted by Lord-Oakbeard

I think the Channel 4 season was called Monster Horrors. I remember recording The Bodysnatcher and House Of Dracula and several others on to BASF E-240 VHS tapes. I was so chuffed as I’d never seen those two films before. I have subsequently owned them on official released VHS, DVD and Blu-ray.

Yes, the 'Monster Horrors' name rings a bell now you mention it. Cheers for that.

Back in the late 1970's and early 80's, the BBC used to show horror double-bills (not related to the Moviedrome seasons) which often consisted of a classic American horror followed by a British Hammer or Amicus film. Sadly we didn't have a video recorder in those days, but I sure enjoyed staying up late to watch them.

By the way Steedeel, loved that Scotch tape advert too and remember it well.

[Steedeel]

Originally Posted by CV19

Yes, the 'Monster Horrors' name rings a bell now you mention it. Cheers for that.

Back in the late 1970's and early 80's, the BBC used to show horror double-bills (not related to the Moviedrome seasons) which often consisted of a classic American horror followed by a British Hammer or Amicus film. Sadly we didn't have a video recorder in those days, but I sure enjoyed staying up late to watch them.

By the way Steedeel, loved that Scotch tape advert too and remember it well.

Did we have something called Friday Fright Night in the 80’s? I seem to recall horror films being shown on a regular basis every Friday, mostly hammer horror I think. I just can’t recall all the films, my memory is shocking.

[CV19]

Originally Posted by Steedeel

Did we have something called Friday Fright Night in the 80’s? I seem to recall horror films being shown on a regular basis every Friday, mostly hammer horror I think. I just can’t recall all the films, my memory is shocking.

I think ITV did have a season called 'Fear On Friday' - it would have been in the 80's but don't recall the exact year. I don't know if that's the one you're thinking of. It was mostly British films as you say, but there were some American ones mixed in there as well. In my neck of the woods, it would have been Granada TV - I'm assuming yours would have been Tyne-Tees TV.

[Steedeel]

Originally Posted by CV19

I think ITV did have a season called 'Fear On Friday' - it would have been in the 80's but don't recall the exact year. I don't know if that's the one you're thinking of. It was mostly British films as you say, but there were some American ones mixed in there as well. In my neck of the woods, it would have been Granada TV - I'm assuming yours would have been Tyne-Tees TV.

Fear On Friday, that’s it thanks.

[cheez avenger]

My Conan Chronicles 4k set arrived today, along with The Prophecy 1-3 4K (non-box edition for $36 via Amazon), and War of the Worlds 4K disc.

[HDTV1080P]

REDBOX has over 34,000 automated rental machines nationwide to rent at in many retail stores like Walmart and various gas stations. They offer 4K Blu-ray rentals for $2.50 and standard Blu-ray and DVD rentals for $2.25. However, they are the last nationwide rental place to rent physical optical disc media. After the REDBOX and Chicken Soup for the Soul Entertainment merger in 2022 the stock symbol is called CSSE. But since the stock is only trading at around 20 cents a share on the Nasdaq, they are in danger of being delisted from the Nasdaq in the future. The company should consider applying for a 20 for one reverse stock split and if approved those that hold 10,000 shares with each share being worth 20 cents each would then hold 500 shares with each share being worth $4.00 (the value stays the same at $2,000 in stock but the only thing that changes is less shares available to trade since the stock becomes a low float stock with a low number of shares). Any positive earnings or news would cause a short squeeze on a low float stock. But the main reason to do a 20 for 1 reverse stock split is to stay listed on the Nasdaq exchange (but that has to be approved by the owners of the company and the Nasdaq).

If REDBOX nationwide optical disc rentals ends one day or if Walmart stops selling physical optical disc media one day, if one of those events happens the end of physical media will occur. Streaming, Cable TV, and Satellite TV have both a rental and purchase option for movies. Even Kaleidescape that offers 4K Blu-ray downloads that are bit for bit the same as the studio master has both rental and purchase option.

So go find a REDBOX and rent some 4K Blu-ray and standard 2K Blu-ray discs at least a few times a month. With a $1.25 coupon that they sometimes send in a email the rental price is only $1.00 instead of $2.25 for a 2K Blu-ray. REDBOX is normally withing 5 to 10 minutes of ones home. With over 34,000 automated machines and 700 optical discs in each machine, that is around 23.8 million optical discs in those machines.

https://variety.com/2022/digital/new...nt-1235338943/

https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/CSSE....tsrc=fin-srch

https://www.redbox.com/

[bhampton]

Preordered The Abyss, Aliens and True Lies from links here on Blu Ray dot com so that I can help support my favorite website.

[Steedeel]

Originally Posted by bhampton

Preordered The Abyss, Aliens and True Lies from links here on Blu Ray dot com so that I can help support my favorite website.

Brave choices!

Welcome to the club (the brave souls about to encounter A.I tinkering!)

[gotmule]

Originally Posted by bhampton

Preordered The Abyss, Aliens and True Lies from links here on Blu Ray dot com so that I can help support my favorite website.

Ordered the trio as well.

[Steedeel]

Originally Posted by gotmule

Ordered the trio as well.

Three members now!

Seriously though, I’m intrigued to see if the A.I storm whipped up in the 4K threads is justified. I’m hoping not.

[Boccaccio]

Originally Posted by Steedeel

Three members now!

Seriously though, I’m intrigued to see if the A.I storm whipped up in the 4K threads is justified. I’m hoping not.

I have learned a few things here lately.

Stay out of the 4K threads. Stay out of the Star Wars threads. Stay out of the Marvel threads.

Your sanity will thank you.

[Steedeel]

Originally Posted by Boccaccio

I have learned a few things here lately.

Stay out of the 4K threads. Stay out of the Star Wars threads. Stay out of the Marvel threads.

Your sanity will thank you.

I think you are right.

[stonesfan129]

Originally Posted by HDTV1080P

REDBOX has over 34,000 automated rental machines nationwide to rent at in many retail stores like Walmart and various gas stations. They offer 4K Blu-ray rentals for $2.50 and standard Blu-ray and DVD rentals for $2.25. However they are the last nationwide rental place to rent physical optical disc media. After the REDBOX and Chicken Soup for the Soul Entertainment merger in 2022 the stock symbol is called CSSE. But since the stock is only trading at around 20 cents a share on the Nasdaq, they are in danger of being delisted from the Nasdaq in the future. The company should consider applying for a 20 for one reverse stock split and if approved those that hold 10,000 shares with each share being worth 20 cents each would then hold 500 shares with each share being worth $4.00 (the value stays the same at $2,000 in stock but the only thing that changes is less shares available to trade since the stock becomes a low float stock with a low number of shares). Any positive earnings or news would cause a short squeeze on a low float stock. But the main reason to do a 20 for 1 reverse stock split is to stay listed on the Nasdaq exchange (but that has to be approved buy the owners of the company and the Nasdaq).

If REDBOX nationwide optical disc rentals ends one day or if Walmart stops selling physical optical disc media one day, if one of those events happens the end of physical media will occur. Streaming, Cable TV, and Satellite TV have both a rental and purchase option for movies. Even Kaleidescape that offers 4K Blu-ray downloads that are bit for bit the same as the studio master has both rental and purchase option.

So go find a REDBOX and rent some 4K Blu-ray and standard 2K Blu-ray discs at least a few times a month. With a $1.25 coupon that they sometimes send in a email the rental price is only $1.00 instead of $2.25 for a 2K Blu-ray. REDBOX is normally withing 5 to 10 minutes of ones home. With over 34,000 automated machines and 700 optical discs in each machine, that is around 23.8 million optical discs in those machines.

https://variety.com/2022/digital/new...nt-1235338943/

https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/CSSE....tsrc=fin-srch

https://www.redbox.com/

I would love for Redbox to come back. There are probably five or six of these kiosks in my area, but not a single one has any movies newer than Barbie. They don't even carry films from most major studios anymore. And when you can get a new movie there, it's on DVD. I think maybe one or two ever have a Blu-ray. None of them have 4K Blu-ray.

[stonesfan129]

Originally Posted by bhampton

Preordered The Abyss, Aliens and True Lies from links here on Blu Ray dot com so that I can help support my favorite website.

I think it's just going to be The Abyss for me. I already like the Aliens Blu-ray I have, it's not DNR'd to death like this new one. Same with True Lies. I have the Spanish boot and like it just fine, not DNR'd to death. The only other version of The Abyss is that old DVD. It's watchable (my player or TV or something stretches it) but I will take a decently done HD version any day over it.

[Vilya]

Originally Posted by HDTV1080P

Even Kaleidescape that offers 4K Blu-ray downloads that are bit for bit the same as the studio master has both rental and purchase option.

The underlined portion is absolute nonsense. The studio master is far, far larger than anything offered to consumers via any method. Kaleidescape bitrates are on par with a 4K disc, but those also are nothing remotely close to the bitrate of a studio master file.

A 4K disc might see a bitrate approaching 100 Mbps whereas the Digital Cinema Package (DCP) shown at commercial theaters is about 250 Mbps and even a DCP is not anywhere close to a studio master file.

The largest file size on a 4K disc is 100 GB. A typical DCP is 200 GB or larger. The DCP for Spiderman: No Way Home is about 500 GB.

A DCP is "encoded frame-by-frame in JPEG-2000" and the audio is "24-bit linear PCM uncompressed multichannel WAV file." No home video format offers this whatsoever.

No home video option offers anything close to the bitrate of a DCP, yet alone a studio master.

https://massive.io/file-transfer/dcp...inema-package/

https://2pop.calarts.edu/student-han...-deliverables/

[Vilya]

The Interoperable Master Format (IMF) is:

"IMF, the file extension and acronym for the Interoperable Master Format, is defined by the ST 2067 family of SMPTE (Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers) standards in order to streamline the management and processing of multiple versions of primary or "master" audiovisual content, such as feature films, short-form content, television or episodic content, advertisements, and more to be "efficiently represented, managed, played back, processed and transformed on file-based systems." IMF is designed to facilitate the internal or business-to-business (B2B) distribution chain and is not intended to function as the mechanism for final delivery to the end consumer."

https://www.loc.gov/preservation/dig...dd000535.shtml

"IMF is a file-based media format that simplifies the delivery and storage of audio-visual masters intended for multiple territories and platforms. It is particularly well-adapted for delivery to today’s global content platforms. IMF works with any finished audio-visual masters, including long-form movies..."

https://www.smpte.org/standards/st2067

"The size of IMF packages can easily vary from a few hundred gigabytes to a few terabytes, which means processing these media files can be extremely time consuming."

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/effic...nterra-systems

Nothing available to the home consumer, not Kaleidescape, not 4K discs, is anywhere near equivalent to an IMF or a DCP.

[Vilya]

The fate of Redbox will not determine the fate of physical media; they won't even determine the fate of disc rentals as they are not the only choice for the comparatively few people that still rent discs at all.

Losing Walmart would be a blow to physical media sales, but it wouldn't kill discs, either. Physical media is quite resilient and it has very enthusiastic supporters. It was pronounced dead over a decade ago by doomsayers (and every year since) that were equally certain of their prophecies, too.

[Vilya]

Originally Posted by Steedeel

Three members now!

Seriously though, I’m intrigued to see if the A.I storm whipped up in the 4K threads is justified. I’m hoping not.

I've wishlisted them; I am waiting until closer to release date to pull the trigger.