Blu-ray Vs Streaming/downloading

[42041]

"Owning" movies never made much sense to me. If internet bandwidth increases by an order of magnitude or two, I'll happily throw my blurays in the trash.

[mikeyfridebuzz]

Originally Posted by remake

The majority of the hick people I know are still digging through $5 DVD bins and using RedBox so good luck getting them to stream.

This.

I love where I live because I feel like I usually have the pick of the litter when I walk in to the Blu ray section of any store. It's almost always left practically untouched and everyone's huddled around the discount DVD bins.

Blu is the last format that I will be buying, hence why I am at 1424 and counting. I like having control of what I want to watch without relying on streaming services and the content that appears and mysteriously vanishes at random sometimes. I was watching Roseanne on Netflix and got to season 4 and they pulled the seasons. I went out and bought the Mill Creek cheap seasons. They don't look wonderful but I like it being there when I get the whim to watch them.

My wife's friend was over at the house and she is the type of person who downloads the top 40 songs of the day from Itunes, hates buying albums and doesn't see the need to buy movies when she can stream on Netflix. My wife is the same way and doesn't understand my obsession. So my wife's friend is looking through my collection and taking DVD copies of movies that come with Blu rays (I generously offered because I will never use them) and then she says to me, "why do you collect all these movies when the majority of them are on netflix". If I didn't like her as a person so much I would have kindly rescinded my offer of free DVDs and confiscated the stack that she had collected from me.

[WyldeMF]

There's also the people that just automatically assume absolutely everything is on Netflix, when that's not even close to the case.

[mikeyfridebuzz]

Originally Posted by WyldeMF

There's also the people that just automatically assume absolutely everything is on Netflix, when that's not even close to the case.

yes. and there are people that don't care what they watch so they will go in and pick any random movie on netflix regardless of the quality of the plot, acting etc.

[Operation Swordfish]

I haven't read through everyone's comments but I'm sure most of this has been mentioned. I'm not really keen on ever planning to download/stream everything that I want to watch or own.

For one, what happens if the hard drive or whatever you are storing everything on crashes or breaks? Then you are out all of that money. I always want to have a physical copy of everything in my hand. That probably is why I rarely ever download any music. I still purchase just about everything on CD. I would say I only purchase about 5% of my music digitally yearly. After I purchase it on CD, then I copy it to my computer, but I'll always still have the original physical copy. As far as movies go, I have never purchased one digitally. Ever. I use the digital copies blu-rays come with, but again I wouldn't purchase it digitally without having the hard copy in hand.

The big problem I have with streaming services like Netflix is they don't have nearly everything that I want to watch. I'd say sometimes they rarely have anything that I want to watch. And I would say that the "HD" quality of streaming is still nowhere near as good as Blu-Ray.

I really hope that 4K will offer a way to purchase content on some form of media instead of downloading everything to a hard drive. I have had way too many problems with computers and hard drives in my life to realize that everything you put on there won't be there forever.

[Jegærn]

Originally Posted by kdawq

Does anyone get upset when someone tells you bluray is a dying format, and that physical media will be a thing of the past???? A co-worker of mine is always telling me that streaming is the next thing, which I can see but it gets under my skin because I love having the actually media in my hands. Am I a dinosaur??? lol

I agree 100% ! ! !

I have 800 blurays in my collection, and I like having the physical media in my hands...The artwork...everything. The world is ,as of now, NOT ready for streaming. My brother streams everything on APPLE TV and many many times during a movie it freezes and stops...."Buffering". I just hate it!

The quality of streaming is just not the same as a razor sharp Bluray disc.

...AND I just don`t like the thought of not really owning what I have bought. What if I bought 10 movies via some streaming company on the internet, and one day the company goes bankrupt. What then?!?! Where can I watch the films I bought fair and square???

I like paying for and keeping what I buy so I can use/watch it whenever or wherever I want!

[pro-bassoonist]

Originally Posted by 42041

"Owning" movies never made much sense to me. If internet bandwidth increases by an order of magnitude or two, I'll happily throw my blurays in the trash.

The idea that Big Brother must know what I watch and when I watch it, or worse determine what I watch, never made sense to me. Naturally, for more than 30 years "owning" films (and books) made sense to me.

There is zero chance I will change my mind regardless of bandwidth increases. Period.

I will continue to buy physical media (Blu-ray and DVD) for as long as I can watch films.

I enjoy my library (soon to be 4000 films) very much.

Pro-B

[pagemaster]

Originally Posted by kdawq

Does anyone get upset when someone tells you bluray is a dying format, and that physical media will be a thing of the past???? A co-worker of mine is always telling me that streaming is the next thing, which I can see but it gets under my skin because I love having the actually media in my hands. Am I a dinosaur??? lol

I would not call blu ray a dying format, however, I will say that streaming is the future and from the looks of it, 4K will be streamed or downloaded.

I don't care much for the ownership experience of blu ray, I can't stand the cases the blue on the cover is lame and product promo for iTunes on the back is a little too cute for my liking, however I do like the picture quality.

I think that laserdisc and dvd had better cover art and was more fun to collect, the gate folds and extra inserts inside the sleeves etc where what I really like about them and it was fun to have to go out of your way to buy them.

If blu ray would offer something like that, I might want to start collecting them more.

[KRW1]

Originally Posted by pro-bassoonist

The idea that Big Brother must know what I watch and when I watch it, or worse determine what I watch, never made sense to me. Naturally, for more than 30 years "owning" films (and books) made sense to me.

There is zero chance I will change my mind regardless of bandwidth increases. Period.

I will continue to buy physical media (Blu-ray and DVD) for as long as I can watch films.

I enjoy my library (soon to be 4000 films) very much.

Pro-B

No, me either, and you've hit upon another problem for them there. The collectors amongst us spend a fortune on discs. I know I do. There is zero chance I will spend more than a tenner a month on something like Netflix. Take the discs away, I'm not suddenly going to start spending the same money on downloads. I'll either 'steal' them or not bother. More likely to be not bother as I've got close to 1000 discs at the moment and if they stopped making them tomorrow, I'd just spend the next 20 years buying all the discs I've not gotten around to buying yet. Got a bluray player, sound system and projector. I simply don't need or want their downloads.

[Draeve]

I'm hoping that the next physical format will be something along the lines of flash media or Solid State Drive. No moving parts would prevent any damage like scratching of Blu-ray discs (doesn't happen if you take care, which most of us do, buy always a possibility).

[pagemaster]

Originally Posted by Draeve

I'm hoping that the next physical format will be something along the lines of flash media or Solid State Drive. No moving parts would prevent any damage like scratching of Blu-ray discs (doesn't happen if you take care, which most of us do, buy always a possibility).

What would be the diff if you downloaded form a hard drive (bought at the store) or downloading online?

[wormraper]

Originally Posted by Draeve

I'm hoping that the next physical format will be something along the lines of flash media or Solid State Drive. No moving parts would prevent any damage like scratching of Blu-ray discs (doesn't happen if you take care, which most of us do, buy always a possibility).

doubt it. they are nowhere NEAR getting SSD or Flash drives to have the same longevity as pressed discs. or the same prices. it's exponentially more expensive to do flash drives than it is for pressed media

[KRW1]

Originally Posted by wormraper

doubt it. they are nowhere NEAR getting SSD or Flash drives to have the same longevity as pressed discs. or the same prices. it's exponentially more expensive to do flash drives than it is for pressed media

Yes, Bluray has been around now for so long it's essentially still the cheapest, most reliable and easiest way to store GB and to get it from one place to another. It's much easier for me to store my discs than have 50+ hard drives knocking about.

[pagemaster]

Originally Posted by kdawq

bluray is a dying format, and that physical media will be a thing of the past????

Here is a story that supports the idea that physical media is dying.


L SEGUNDO: The closure of about half of Blockbuster's stores in the U.K. is set to cause a 22-percent drop in Blu-ray and DVD rental revenues in the country to £202 million this year, according to IHS.

DVD rentals will drop 53.2 percent to 15.4 million, and Blu-ray rentals will take a larger hit, dropping 61.3 percent to 2.8 million. By the end of the year, there will be 264 Blockbuster stores operating in the U.K., down from 530 in 2012 and 892 in 2006. Physical media rental revenues are expected to continue to fall over the next few years, reaching £172.7 million in 2017, IHS predicts.

“The year 2013 is set to become a watershed for the U.K. video rental market as a result of the wholesale closure of Blockbuster UK stores,” said Tony Gunnarsson, senior video analyst at IHS. “The massive downturn in the store-based video rental market represents a significant loss to the video market and will result in a major decline and radical transformation of the U.K. video market overall. From 2013 on, the U.K. physical-video rental business increasingly will be dominated by online rent-by-mail subscription services.”

http://www.worldscreen.com/articles/...al-blockbuster

[cricepng]

Originally Posted by pagemaster

[Show spoiler]Here is a story that supports the idea that physical media is dying.


L SEGUNDO: The closure of about half of Blockbuster stores in the U.K. is set to cause a 22-percent drop in Blu-ray and DVD rental revenues in the country to £202 million this year, according to IHS.

DVD rentals will drop 53.2 percent to 15.4 million, and Blu-ray rentals will take a larger hit, dropping 61.3 percent to 2.8 million. By the end of the year, there will be 264 Blockbuster stores operating in the U.K., down from 530 in 2012 and 892 in 2006. Physical media rental revenues are expected to continue to fall over the next few years, reaching £172.7 million in 2017, IHS predicts.

“The year 2013 is set to become a watershed for the U.K. video rental market as a result of the wholesale closure of Blockbuster UK stores,” said Tony Gunnarsson, senior video analyst at IHS. “The massive downturn in the store-based video rental market represents a significant loss to the video market and will result in a major decline and radical transformation of the U.K. video market overall. From 2013 on, the U.K. physical-video rental business increasingly will be dominated by online rent-by-mail subscription services.”

http://www.worldscreen.com/articles/...al-blockbuster

That article cannot even be consistent in percentages. Is it 22% or more than 50%? And it is pure speculation that the rental revenue will be completely lost. If the customers go to an alternative rental scheme (either by mail, other B&M stores, or vending machines), there will still be rental revenue that isn't lost.

And the loss of rental revenue doesn't necessarily mean a decrease in revenue from sales of physical media. I never rent movies so when the local Blockbusters closed, sales revenue from my purchases was not impacted in the slightest.

[Kaiju]

It's hard to say... I personally only buy certain films I know I'll want to watch more than once.

But with streaming, you can access a whole database of films. At in most cases, streaming in HD can look just as good as a Blu-ray.

I'll always prefer physical media for the movies I love, but if I only want to watch a movie once, streaming/downloading seems like the most logical option.

[spanky87]

I will never believe it til I see it, but if Physical media is really dying, then I will go out with it to the bitter end.

Physical media for life.

[BJKH]

If/When we get to the time where all media is only available from streaming, that's when I will start "stealing".

[42041]

Originally Posted by Draeve

I'm hoping that the next physical format will be something along the lines of flash media or Solid State Drive. No moving parts would prevent any damage like scratching of Blu-ray discs (doesn't happen if you take care, which most of us do, buy always a possibility).

Never gonna happen. Using solid-state storage instead of pressed discs has absolutely no advantage for the studios and is less reliable anyway.

[octagon]

Originally Posted by 42041

"Owning" movies never made much sense to me. If internet bandwidth increases by an order of magnitude or two, I'll happily throw my blurays in the trash.

Control.

When it comes to BDs I like physical packaging and displaying and organizing my collection but when I buy CDs (or much more rarely DVDs) the first thing I do is rip them and put the disc in a folder in a closet.

If I could buy flac copies of CDs without having to worry about rights restrictions on copying them to various devices I wouldn't be all that averse to abandoning physical discs.

I think I kind of left out the point of the comparison - once I buy a disc it's mine. I don't need anybody's permission to watch it, I can lend it out, I can resell it, I can put it in whatever player I like...once it's mine it's pretty much mine. If I could get that same degree of control and flexibility with downloaded files I would be much more inclined to consider that route.

Originally Posted by pagemaster

From 2013 on, the U.K. physical-video rental business increasingly will be dominated by online rent-by-mail subscription services.

The fact that people will be paying less to rent discs by mail than they were paying to rent them from Blockbuster isn't evidence that physical media is dying. It's evidence that Blockbuster is dying.