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

[Steedeel]

Originally Posted by veritas

They stopped giving free points for dmi. Stopped giving points for seeing films in theaters for most movies. They stopped selling physical media in Australia. They closed the disney movie club. I believe they stopped making physical media and are doing it though sony now eventually. They cut back movie production by around 75% this year. They also cut spending on disney plus again cutting media production to the straight to plus productions. They skipped having a sale for both black friday and prime day so they haven't had a sale to push media in like a year in a half. They had no 4k general release for most of their films made in 2023.

They are also adding ads and trying to stop sharing on disney plus and hulu though those are more normal greed.

But they have theme parks that need the media, they would never pull away from media altogether. It was already known their film output would be cut.

[Vilya]

Originally Posted by veritas

warner archive is putting out a ton of shows while warner strips and expires digital copies and combo packs lose the combo portion.

It seems that Warner Bros. only includes a blu-ray with their 4K steelbooks, which cost about $5 more than the regular edition. Another option is to import their 4K discs, which include a region free blu-ray, but these do not include a digital code.

It is annoying that they decided to enforce the expiration dates on their digital codes, but that's kind of the whole point of having expiration dates in the first place.

Originally Posted by veritas

digital sales seem to be worse and happening less.

Digital sales increased a modest 4.95% in 2023. After the first quarter of 2024, digital sales were dead flat with a 0.0% change.

Vudu (FAH) changes their sales selection every Tuesday and they have weekend specials along with occasional "Deal Of The Day" events. I don't know what the other digital storefronts offer or the frequency of them.

Originally Posted by veritas

ads and hoops for all your streaming entertainment.

The big streaming services give us the option to pay more to not be annoyed by ads. It is still easy to join and cancel services. I recommend the latter.

[Vilya]

Originally Posted by Steedeel

The issues I run into in terms of access are minute compared to the options I have via U.K., Germany, France, Italy, Finland, Australia and all region USA. I don’t really want to introduce a new player at this stage, for a very small percentage of titles.

Depending on the player that you have, some can be region free modified by the user.

Having the ability to play discs from anywhere, and Region A is not a small region, is worth the nominal cost of a region free blu-ray player to me. If there is a movie that I want to see and own, I do not want to be stopped by something as ridiculously simple to overcome as region coding. That's so 2007.

[cheez avenger]

Originally Posted by gotmule

A show that has pleasantly surprised me with how much it has grabbed me is True Detective Night Country. I am right at the last episode (only 6 of them) and will be wrapping it up tomorrow. Not the feel good hit of the summer as some bad things happen to a lot of people, but it is worth checking out as it plays at times more like an X Files series. It is nowhere as good as the first True Detective season but way better than the 2nd and better than the third….even if you have to watch Jodie Foster having sex in it.

Side note is that I think it is a toss up between the first season of True Detective and the Haunting of Hill House as the best single season show of all time.

The reason it plays like an X-Files episode is that it was originally supposed to be a stand alone mini-series called Dark Country. The studio decided to brand it as part of the True Detective franchise. In doing so they also had to pay Nic Pizzolatto, even though he had nothing to do with Dark Country, but I guess he's entitled to residuals from them using the True Detective marquee.

[cheez avenger]

Originally Posted by Vilya

Depending on the player that you have, some can be region free modified by the user.

Having the ability to play discs from anywhere, and Region A is not a small region, is worth the nominal cost of a region free blu-ray player to me. If there is a movie that I want to see and own, I do not want to be stopped by something as ridiculously simple to overcome as region coding. That's so 2007.

I have a Sony region free BD player that I bought for about $99 -- looks like they cost more nowadays:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

[Vilya]

Originally Posted by cheez avenger

I have a Sony region free BD player that I bought for about $99 -- looks like they cost more nowadays:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

220 Electronics offers a Sony model without 3D capability for as little as $145. There's also the used market to peruse if an even cheaper price is desired.

To me, you can't put a price on freedom... and that includes the freedom to watch any movie that I want.

[stonesfan129]

Got a gift in the mail today:

https://www.arrowvideo.com/narc-limi.../15244568.html

Watching now, looks really nice. Next on my "expecting" list is Mad Max Furiosa on August 13. I thought about picking up The Bikeriders as well when it releases.

[Wendell R. Breland]

Originally Posted by gotmule

Side note is that I think it is a toss up between the first season of True Detective and the Haunting of Hill House as the best single season show of all time.

We really liked Haunting of Hill House, never watched True Detective so I may look into it. Just finished Outer Range on Prime.

[bhampton]

Originally Posted by Vilya

220 Electronics offers a Sony model without 3D capability for as little as $145. There's also the used market to peruse if an even cheaper price is desired.

To me, you can't put a price on freedom... and that includes the freedom to watch any movie that I want.

Technically I don't have a region free player. And it hasn't been an issue.

My only Region 2 Blu Ray is The Big Blue and the MKV plays fine on my Panasonic disc player from a flash drive.

[russweiss1]

Originally Posted by Vilya

Their customer service has always been pretty bad in my experience, but they never failed to wish me a magical day- right after denying whatever request I made.

I've often heard the phrase "It's the thought that counts."

[Steedeel]

Originally Posted by cheez avenger

I have a Sony region free BD player that I bought for about $99 -- looks like they cost more nowadays:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Originally Posted by Vilya

Depending on the player that you have, some can be region free modified by the user.

Having the ability to play discs from anywhere, and Region A is not a small region, is worth the nominal cost of a region free blu-ray player to me. If there is a movie that I want to see and own, I do not want to be stopped by something as ridiculously simple to overcome as region coding. That's so 2007.

I think I always worry that multi region and modded players won’t have the longevity of regular players when it comes to the future. I don’t want to be left with a bunch of coasters.

[Ender14]

Originally Posted by Steedeel

I think I always worry that multi region and modded players won’t have the longevity of regular players when it comes to the future. I don’t want to be left with a bunch of coasters.

I've had my region free player for about 3 years now and never had an issue. I think it cost me about $120 from 220-Electronics. But the discs it has allowed me to collect are invaluable. All the Second Sight, Arrow UK, Indicator\PH, Eureka, BFI etc. releases I have are some of my most prized editions. If my region free player ever craps out I will but a new one within the week. Well worth the investment.

[Ender14]

Originally Posted by gotmule

A show that has pleasantly surprised me with how much it has grabbed me is True Detective Night Country. I am right at the last episode (only 6 of them) and will be wrapping it up tomorrow. Not the feel good hit of the summer as some bad things happen to a lot of people, but it is worth checking out as it plays at times more like an X Files series. It is nowhere as good as the first True Detective season but way better than the 2nd and better than the third….even if you have to watch Jodie Foster having sex in it.

Side note is that I think it is a toss up between the first season of True Detective and the Haunting of Hill House as the best single season show of all time.

The Haunting of Hill House is a yearly watch in October for us. Definitely in my top 5 favorite shows of all time. Very glad it got a physical release so I'm not dependent on Netflix.

[PenguinInfinity]

Originally Posted by Steedeel

I think I always worry that multi region and modded players won’t have the longevity of regular players when it comes to the future. I don’t want to be left with a bunch of coasters.

Then buy a region A player. I don't know of anything that's exclusively available in region C so Blu-ray basically only has 2 regions. It's easy to have separate players for each region.

[Vilya]

Originally Posted by Steedeel

I think I always worry that multi region and modded players won’t have the longevity of regular players when it comes to the future. I don’t want to be left with a bunch of coasters.

My region free Oppo 93 is now 12 years-old and it is working just fine.

My region free Sony BDP-S6700 is probably about 3 years-old now and it is doing great, too. The build quality could be a lot better, but that has nothing to do with it being region free. It was very inexpensive, too (<$200).

You could take Penguin's advice, too, but then you would probably have to have a voltage converter for your Region A player to play nice with your British power outlets.

Another advantage of a region free blu-ray player is that they are also region free for DVDs. A Region A blu-ray player would be locked to playing Region 1 DVDs. That may, or may, not matter depending on how often you watch DVDs, but I wanted region free capability for both formats.

[Vilya]

Originally Posted by Ender14

The Haunting of Hill House is a yearly watch in October for us. Definitely in my top 5 favorite shows of all time. Very glad it got a physical release so I'm not dependent on Netflix.

I have almost bought that a few times. Maybe I will get it done one of these days?

I did stream it, so I do know that I like it already. I liked it much better than the second one, The Haunting Of Bly Manor.

[Ender14]

Originally Posted by Vilya

I have almost bought that a few times. Maybe I will get it done one of these days?

I did stream it, so I do know that I like it already. I liked it much better than the second one, The Haunting Of Bly Manor.

Hill House is well worth the purchase. It has extended director's cuts of 3 episodes and an Audio Commentary by Flanagan on another one.

Agreed. Was rather disappointed with that one as well. But I chalk it up to Flanagan only directing the first episode. I know he created the concept but according to IMDB only wrote one of the scripts. I've learned that anything he does 100% is amazing. Anything he splits duties on can be hit or miss.

FYI, he just started an awesome Podcast called Director's Commentary. Only 2 episodes so far but the first is an interview with the Radio Silence guys and the second is them doing a full commentary while watching Ready or Not. Look forward to future episodes.

[cheez avenger]

Originally Posted by Steedeel

I think I always worry that multi region and modded players won’t have the longevity of regular players when it comes to the future. I don’t want to be left with a bunch of coasters.

You can always buy two at a time. My first Region free BD player was a Momitsu brand and it was about $400 about 15-16 years ago. It lasted a good long while before it died. Then I bought that Sony, which also lasted about 5 years before it died. I am now on my 2nd Sony region free player that cost $99. The day it dies I will just buy another one, because the ROI is so good.

As long as you don't connect it to the Internet, you should be good for many years to come.

[PenguinInfinity]

Originally Posted by Vilya

Another advantage of a region free blu-ray player is that they are also region free for DVDs. A Region A blu-ray player would be locked to playing Region 1 DVDs. That may, or may, not matter depending on how often you watch DVDs, but I wanted region free capability for both formats.

Any PC with a DVD drive can easily play DVDs from any region. And PCs can also easily fix the PAL speed-up issue that plagues so many European and Australian DVDs of American productions. Since Steedeel is from Europe I would hope that he is already using a PC to play his DVDs (if he watches DVDs at all).

[Vilya]

Originally Posted by PenguinInfinity

Any PC with a DVD drive can easily play DVDs from any region. And PCs can also easily fix the PAL speed-up issue that plagues so many European and Australian DVDs of American productions. Since Steedeel is from Europe I would hope that he is already using a PC to play his DVDs (if he watches DVDs at all).

There are lots of thing that I like to do with a computer, but watching a movie on one (assuming its connected to a typical sized computer monitor) is not among them. It is not convenient for me to connect my pc to my TV, but thankfully I have not found any need to, either.

I have not experienced any problems watching DVDs from other regions on my stand alone disc spinners including PAL discs. It is pretty easy to compensate for PAL differences with some simple adjustments and these do not require a computer to accomplish. I insist on watching movies with what I call my home theater and with my 85" TV.

I would never settle for watching a movie on my 32" 1440p computer monitors nor listen with my computer's simple stereo audio set-up when I have vastly superior options.

However a person wants to go about it, gaining the ability to be region free is easy and affordable.