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

[Vilya]

Originally Posted by crutzulee

I've sent down a few smaller bits (media players etc) with them over the years for their place in Florida.... but I wouldn't think you would be allowed to own any Canadian PARADIGM gear down there as the neighbours might get out their pitchforks.... They've stopped eating at THE CRACKER BARREL and they certainly aren't going to put up with any woke speakers

They probably would not even know what the word "paradigm" means yet alone where the speakers were made.

[Vilya]

Originally Posted by Steedeel

Yeah, not for me.

"Free" isn't always the bargain people think it is if both the AV quality is lower and the movie is being interrupted by ads every 10-15 minutes. You are definitely paying for it with a ruined viewing experience. Imagine trying to read a book and someone constantly stops you to pitch car insurance or erectile dysfunction medicine; it destroys the narrative flow. It's like the late comedian Bill Hicks said, and I paraphrase: Commercials are like a turd in my drink.

To make it worse, with Tubi you often have to endure the exact same ad over the entire course of the movie; that can mean stomaching the same commercial 8 times during a two hour movie. It can be maddening. It's no way to watch a movie...or anything.

[the-pi-guy]

Lower quality wouldn't necessarily be a deal breaker for me, but I am pretty darn thrilled to not have to watch any ads.

[crutzulee]

Everyone has their red lines...commercial interruptions is at the very top of my list...

[russweiss1]

Originally Posted by Vilya

"Free" isn't always the bargain people think it is if both the AV quality is lower and the movie is being interrupted by ads every 10-15 minutes. You are definitely paying for it with a ruined viewing experience.

Personally I agree with this. I don't however believe the average movie viewer does.

[Vilya]

Originally Posted by russweiss1

Personally I agree with this. I don't however believe the average movie viewer does.

Who ever aspired to be average?

The average viewer does not care about a great many things: AV quality, ad interruptions, correct aspect ratios, censored or altered cuts not approved by the director, DNR, grain removal, AI tinkering, exclusion of the original audio or other audio errors, to name a few.

[Vilya]

A new record reached today: my 81st medical appointment of the year...with plenty of year left.

[Steedeel]

Originally Posted by russweiss1

Personally I agree with this. I don't however believe the average movie viewer does.

The average movie goer thinks black bars are a bad thing and zooms the screen to compensate. Enough said.

[Steedeel]

Originally Posted by Vilya

"Free" isn't always the bargain people think it is if both the AV quality is lower and the movie is being interrupted by ads every 10-15 minutes. You are definitely paying for it with a ruined viewing experience. Imagine trying to read a book and someone constantly stops you to pitch car insurance or erectile dysfunction medicine; it destroys the narrative flow. It's like the late comedian Bill Hicks said, and I paraphrase: Commercials are like a turd in my drink.

To make it worse, with Tubi you often have to endure the exact same ad over the entire course of the movie; that can mean stomaching the same commercial 8 times during a two hour movie. It can be maddening. It's no way to watch a movie...or anything.

That’s exactly it, “ruined experience”.

[bhampton]

Patiently waiting for today's mail because there's a movie out for delivery.

[crutzulee]

Originally Posted by Steedeel

The average movie goer thinks black bars are a bad thing and zooms the screen to compensate. Enough said.

Even on the 32 inch 4:3 Trinitron I had back in university, I would seek out letterboxed LaserDiscs for OAR... It would make my girlfriend crazy. We had a BLOCKBUSTER less than 30 yards from the front of our apartment, but I would make her wait 3 to 6 months and have to take a 30 min car ride to rent the "new" releases on LD..

[CV19]

Originally Posted by Steedeel

The average movie goer thinks black bars are a bad thing and zooms the screen to compensate. Enough said.

You reminded me of when I read an article many years ago which was about when the BBC experimented with widescreen broadcasts in the late 1960's/early 70's. They showed some films in their original Cinemascope format with a warning telling viewers not to adjust their TV sets and that the film presentation was exactly as would have been seen in the cinema. It appears some viewers, who clearly didn't understand ratios, thought that the black bars were blocking out the top and bottom of the picture. As a result, they kept pan-and-scan transmissions for several years after.

[Steedeel]

Originally Posted by CV19

You reminded me of when I read an article many years ago which was about when the BBC experimented with widescreen broadcasts in the late 1960's/early 70's. They showed some films in their original Cinemascope format with a warning telling viewers not to adjust their TV sets and that the film presentation was exactly as would have been seen in the cinema. It appears some viewers, who clearly didn't understand ratios, thought that the black bars were blocking out the top and bottom of the picture. As a result, they kept pan-and-scan transmissions for several years after.

Yes, sounds familiar!

[gotmule]

Originally Posted by crutzulee

Absolutely LOVE the PARADIGM sound... Due to free access to Canadian government funded R&D facilities in Ottawa, many Canadian speaker companies of a certain era were able to put out products of very high quality at competitive price points and enjoy unparalleled confidence in their listed specs at a time when the industry was full of snake oil..

There have been times over the years where I've bought someone's complete set just to get a speaker or two that I've wanted as I've upgraded. My in-laws complete 5.1 living room setup is made up of spare speakers and gear that I've acquired over the years...LOL..

I've sent down a few smaller bits (media players etc) with them over the years for their place in Florida.... but I wouldn't think you would be allowed to own any Canadian PARADIGM gear down there as the neighbours might get out their pitchforks.... They've stopped eating at THE CRACKER BARREL and they certainly aren't going to put up with any woke speakers

I had a Paradigm Reference setup previously with a pair of Studio 100s anchoring things up front, and really enjoyed them. When I get a question from someone about which speaker line they should look at, I always nudge them towards Paradigm as a good place to start looking and listening. It is a shame however that fewer people seem to be asking such a question these days.

[Maddox121]

Originally Posted by crutzulee

Absolutely LOVE the PARADIGM sound... Due to free access to Canadian government funded R&D facilities in Ottawa, many Canadian speaker companies of a certain era were able to put out products of very high quality at competitive price points and enjoy unparalleled confidence in their listed specs at a time when the industry was full of snake oil..

There have been times over the years where I've bought someone's complete set just to get a speaker or two that I've wanted as I've upgraded. My in-laws complete 5.1 living room setup is made up of spare speakers and gear that I've acquired over the years...LOL..

I've sent down a few smaller bits (media players etc) with them over the years for their place in Florida.... but I wouldn't think you would be allowed to own any Canadian PARADIGM gear down there as the neighbours might get out their pitchforks.... They've stopped eating at THE CRACKER BARREL and they certainly aren't going to put up with any woke speakers

CB reverted their logo as of late.

[crutzulee]

Originally Posted by Maddox121

CB reverted their logo as of late.

I know... but the whole thing is ridiculous and could not have happened anywhere else or at any other time in human history....the modern American represents the evolution of the species and we are truly in regression... we are demonstrably less intelligent than we were a generation ago... and getting dumber by the minute.

[CV19]

Originally Posted by crutzulee

Even on the 32 inch 4:3 Trinitron I had back in university, I would seek out letterboxed LaserDiscs for OAR...

Although I never owned any Laserdiscs, I still purchased VHS videos in widescreen if they were available despite me only having a 29 inch 4:3 Sony at the time. As you can imagine, virtually all video releases were in pan-and-scan. However I would say from around the early to mid 1990's there were widescreen editions being released, including back catalogue titles that were previously issued in full screen.

I had quite a few widescreen VHS's before I eventually made the switch to DVD. The first 3 Alien movies were my favourite, and I also bought The Longest Day in 1994 which Fox released to mark the 50th anniversary of the D-Day landings.

[crutzulee]

Originally Posted by CV19

Although I never owned any Laserdiscs, I still purchased VHS videos in widescreen if they were available despite me only having a 29 inch 4:3 Sony at the time. As you can imagine, virtually all video releases were in pan-and-scan. However I would say from around the early to mid 1990's there were widescreen editions being released, including back catalogue titles that were previously issued in full screen.

I had quite a few widescreen VHS's before I eventually made the switch to DVD. The first 3 Alien movies were my favourite, and I also bought The Longest Day in 1994 which Fox released to mark the 50th anniversary of the D-Day landings.

If memory serves, the only widescreen VHS I can recall owning was PULP FICTION, which a well meaning friend has bought me not realizing that my viewing was exclusively on Laserdisc by that point.

The rapid uptake of VHS was one of the best things to happen to cinephiles at the time. The decision to move to letterbox presentation was made in order to keep the format relevant in the face of VHS clearly winning over the masses. Even the introduction of DVD provided a bit of a boon for us LD collectors. In the very early days of that format, it offered no technological improvements over LD other than the ability to avoid having to flip or change the disc... the blue screen animation while my dual sided player flipped sided being only mildly more irritating than the momentary freeze of my DVD player at the layer change...
What the new format meant for me, was that more and more LDs were being offered day and date without the wait time that had become a source of fiction between me and my girlfriend..lol...The transfers were often the same and I could pickup whichever was more readily available at a lower price..I think my LD collection grew at a faster pace at that time as I picked up a few people's collections as they were being dumped in anticipation of catalogue titles being put out on DVD.
It wasn't until DVDs started being put out in progressive scan, and I bought a capable player ... and I figured it a "squeeze" trick on my old SONY 3 gun CRT projector that I really started moving my new purchases wholly to DVD which had made purchases of new titles more affordable than they ever were with LD...
Ironically, even though I was amassing more physical media than ever before, that was the time that I stopped considering myself a "collector"...I still miss gatefold packaging of vinyl and LD...I haven't given a rat's ass about how my movies or music have been delivered to me in years...

[cheez avenger]

Watched the 88 Films 4K of Hackers -- that was pretty good The film is beyond silly but what elevates the 4K over the previously released Shout Factory version is the inclusion of an Atmos soundtrack. Wow, it's reference audio disc.

I also watched Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2003) on 4K and that was also great. Knocked out all the brand new special features. If one watches the new composer's interview be warned that it has spoilers because he also composed the score to the follow up and they use footage of that one as well. I'll probably watch the sequel tonight.

[crutzulee]

Originally Posted by cheez avenger

Watched the 88 Films 4K of Hackers -- that was pretty good The film is beyond silly but what elevates the 4K over the previously released Shout Factory version is the inclusion of an Atmos soundtrack. Wow, it's reference audio disc.

I also watched Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2003) on 4K and that was also great. Knocked out all the brand new special features. If one watches the new interview composer's interview be warned that it has spoilers because also composed the score to the follow up and they use footage of that one as well. I'll probably watch the sequel tonight.

I saw HACKERS opening night at the cinema and remembered really hating it! I've often wondered if I should give it a second chance over the years... maybe the reference sound might be the reason...

I have the new TCM movies on hold for pickup at a local retailer this week... it'll be an October watch..