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

[Anthony P]

Originally Posted by russweiss1

My main point was that life in general is currently so expensive that the average (especially younger) person can't afford to spend money on discs.

Originally Posted by Steedeel

But they can afford several streaming subscriptions.

a lot of younger people (and others) "share" their parents (kids, friends...) accounts that is why streaming companies started cracking down And charging extra for people that live outside your address. And a lot of people have started cutting down on streaming services.

[Steedeel]

Originally Posted by russweiss1

Streaming is a lot cheaper. I only pay for Netflix and Prime but the monthly cost is less than one UHD. I spend about 25X more on physical media each month.

But they could still buy Blu-ray which is cheaper.

[cheez avenger]

Someone mentioned "Atlas" on Netflix, which I do want to watch, because it reminds me of the videogame Titanfall 2 - with the mechs and all.

Furiosa was great. Not quite as good as Fury Road, but it was a good time. It's a shame that it's going to bomb according to box office reports.

I rented Ferrari on BD from Gamefly, so may watch that one today.

[Vilya]

Originally Posted by Anthony P

1) a lot of people are looking at sales numbers from back in the day at the height of DVD and assume the numbers are c0omparable. They are not those numbers also included a lot of copies sold to rental places. Something that has actually collapsed, and is still collapsing

I am not sure that rental copies were *all* necessarily sold to rental stores, so much as they were just leased to them to rent to the public.

When I worked part-time at Blockbuster in 2007, we would get instructions from corporate to destroy excess copies of popular new releases once their popularity had waned. We might have started off with 100 copies of a given title and then a few weeks after its release we would get orders to destroy 90 of them. We had special little gizmos that looked like tiny portable disc players that would spin and scratch the discs to oblivion. I must have dumped bushels of discs into the dumpster during my time working there.

Sometimes it did appear that Blockbuster owned some of the titles as we would sell off excess rental copies as used, but when it came to the really big hit movies, we were usually told to destroy the vast majority of our copies once interest in them had dropped off sharply.

As there are precious few disc rental options now, I doubt that they have much impact on the disc market at all. The Digital Entertainment Group for the first time this year no longer even bothers posting data on physical rental revenue; it has become that trivial.

[Vilya]

Originally Posted by russweiss1

My main point was that life in general is currently so expensive that the average (especially younger) person can't afford to spend money on discs.

I have noticed price increases on many, many things, but disc prices seem pretty stable to me and there are plenty of sales to take advantage of; my "promotions" email tab gets sales event offers regularly.

Your main point is the crux of it all: when you have less discretionary income to spend after paying for essentials, the price of life's little luxuries can become out of reach no matter how stable, or not, the prices of those things have been.

[Vilya]

I have been carrying on over in the Feedback Forum, namely the "New Advertising System" thread if anyone wants to see what mischief I have been stirring up.

I begin at post #324, but my latest one illustrates how ridiculous the ads are on this site:

https://forum.blu-ray.com/showpost.p...&postcount=336

[crutzulee]

Originally Posted by Vilya

I am not sure that rental copies were *all* necessarily sold to rental stores, so much as they were just leased to them to rent to the public.

When I worked part-time at Blockbuster in 2007, we would get instructions from corporate to destroy excess copies of popular new releases once their popularity had waned. We might have started off with 100 copies of a given title and then a few weeks after its release we would get orders to destroy 90 of them. We had special little gizmos that looked like tiny portable disc players that would spin and scratch the discs to oblivion. I must have dumped bushels of discs into the dumpster during my time working there.

Sometimes it did appear that Blockbuster owned some of the titles as we would sell off excess rental copies as used, but when it came to the really big hit movies, we were usually told to destroy the vast majority of our copies once interest in them had dropped off sharply.

As there are precious few disc rental options now, I doubt that they have much impact on the disc market at all. The Digital Entertainment Group for the first time this year no longer even bothers posting data on physical rental revenue; it has become that trivial.

Reaction of Bluray.com members to this post...

[crutzulee]

Originally Posted by Boccaccio

I just bought the 4K disc of True Lies today and immediately watched it to see what all the commotion was about.
It's certainly an adjustment watching the movie this clean.

Did it have problematic scenes ? Sure
Did some of the faces have a weird shiny look to them ? Yes
Was the tinkering necessary ? I don't think so.

Faces from further away were more problematic than the close-ups imo.

But this was far from the disaster I expected it to be. And definitely not unwatchable.
I'll just swap the BD in it with the Spanish BD and keep those two but honestly, I think I'll go with the 4K from now on.

I'm happy to have the Cameron titles in 4K and will watch THE ABYSS and TRUE LIES this way in future...but I'll watch my ALIENS Bluray going forward... The 4K can share space with my 4K of FRIDAY THE 13th...

[Steedeel]

Originally Posted by Vilya

I have noticed price increases on many, many things, but disc prices seem pretty stable to me and there are plenty of sales to take advantage of; my "promotions" email tab gets sales event offers regularly.

Your main point is the crux of it all: when you have less discretionary income to spend after paying for essentials, the price of life's little luxuries can become out of reach no matter how stable, or not, the prices of those things have been.

I have always said disc until the end, and I’m standing by that.

[Boccaccio]

Originally Posted by Steedeel

I have always said disc until the end, and I’m standing by that.

I'll stand right beside you. As long as they keep selling discs, I'll keep buying them.

[cheez avenger]

Watched Ferrari on BD and it was ok. Nothing special but leaps and bounds better than Michae Mann's Blackhat. The Atmos on the BD was great. Not bad for a GameFly rental.

[Steedeel]

Originally Posted by Boccaccio

I'll stand right beside you. As long as they keep selling discs, I'll keep buying them.

Good man.

[CV19]

Originally Posted by crutzulee

I'm happy to have the Cameron titles in 4K and will watch THE ABYSS and TRUE LIES this way in future...but I'll watch my ALIENS Bluray going forward... The 4K can share space with my 4K of FRIDAY THE 13th...

Me too, I'm delighted that the Cameron titles have finally been released. I'll still hang on to my Spanish blu-ray of True Lies.....for nostalgic reasons.

[sapiendut]

Okay, I’m going crazy here. I watched Rings of Power (Amazon Prime) while testing the upcoming JVC NZ800.

O
M
G

I don’t know how they did it, the picture quality on the 120” screen was so good I thought I was watching a disc. I thought I’d never ever be satisfied with streaming.

[Wendell R. Breland]

Originally Posted by sapiendut

I don’t know how they did it, the picture quality on the 120” screen was so good I thought I was watching a disc. I thought I’d never ever be satisfied with streaming.

When I checked sometime back Rings of Power was 20 Mbps for video and 448 Kbps for audio. It was the ONLY video on Prime at that rate. Most of their other originals is 15 Mbps for video and 192 Kbps for audio. Most movies there is even worse off.

[Steedeel]

Originally Posted by sapiendut

Okay, I’m going crazy here. I watched Rings of Power (Amazon Prime) while testing the upcoming JVC NZ800.

O
M
G

I don’t know how they did it, the picture quality on the 120” screen was so good I thought I was watching a disc. I thought I’d never ever be satisfied with streaming.

Originally Posted by Wendell R. Breland

When I checked sometime back Rings of Power was 20 Mbps for video and 448 Kbps for audio. It was the ONLY video on Prime at that rate. Most of their other originals is 15 Mbps for video and 192 Kbps for audio. Most movies there is even worse off.

They boost the bit rates for their exclusives. Jeremy Clarkson on the farm is also pretty solid looking I noticed.

[bhampton]

Originally Posted by sapiendut

Okay, I’m going crazy here. I watched Rings of Power (Amazon Prime) while testing the upcoming JVC NZ800.

O
M
G

I don’t know how they did it, the picture quality on the 120” screen was so good I thought I was watching a disc. I thought I’d never ever be satisfied with streaming.

Streaming could be at disc quality.

Let me know when and if that ever happens.

Disc reliability is just as critical as the quality. If I have a known good disc that's my favorite way to enjoy content.

[gotmule]

Originally Posted by sapiendut

Okay, I’m going crazy here. I watched Rings of Power (Amazon Prime) while testing the upcoming JVC NZ800.

O
M
G

I don’t know how they did it, the picture quality on the 120” screen was so good I thought I was watching a disc. I thought I’d never ever be satisfied with streaming.

What are your impressions with the new projector overall? I am contemplating leaving my NZ8 with the house if it comes to that, and grabbing the new one once things are up and running with the new house.

[sapiendut]

Originally Posted by gotmule

What are your impressions with the new projector overall? I am contemplating leaving my NZ8 with the house if it comes to that, and grabbing the new one once things are up and running with the new house.

I will make a video about it on my channel for next week. Suffice to say it is quite a big jump over the NZ8.

[bhampton]

Originally Posted by gotmule

What are your impressions with the new projector overall? I am contemplating leaving my NZ8 with the house if it comes to that, and grabbing the new one once things are up and running with the new house.

I may be interested in buying the house. Where is it located.