WB potentially phasing out physical media in 2022 ( Rumor )

[Dr Lenera]

I find it baffling the number of people who don't know that if they supposedly 'buy' a film on download they don't actually own it. And I find it even more baffling that, after I've told them this, they usually just shrug their shoulders and aren't bothered.

[Eidolon]

It's just another myth that's already been discussed and debunked repeatedly on social media already.
Another one to add to the 'VHS tapes are worth thousands' type of nonsense.

[Class316]

I really hope this doesn't affect Tex Avery vol 3.

In regards to physical media, whether or not this has any truth to it we have to accept that it is on the decline. Soon a blu or 4K disc will become a novelty. People generally prefer to stream. Most common folks don't even care about the quality increase from DVD to blu much less blu to 4K.

[joonskeezle]

Originally Posted by Dr Lenera

I find it baffling the number of people who don't know that if they supposedly 'buy' a film on download they don't actually own it. And I find it even more baffling that, after I've told them this, they usually just shrug their shoulders and aren't bothered.

There are some cases where it doesn't bother me.

I've been exclusively e-book for like ten years. I know I don't "own" the ebooks I "buy." (Strictly speaking I know there are DRM-removal programs I could use to resolve that, but it's just not worth the trouble.)

The big fear is that amazon will "take away" those books at any time for any reason. And in ten years that has never happened to me once. In fact, there was one story of it ever happening that I can recall, and they admitted it was a mistake and undid it.

So considering that there's virtually zero chance I'll ever lose access to those ebooks, then as far as I'm concerned I "own" them.


Now, digital movies/TV are another story. Because there are different concerns. The fear is not exactly about the stuff being "taken away."

First, it's about the provider/host just going away. We have to hope that when one provider pulls the plug (i.e. Vudu), another will be there to take over (i.e. Movies Anywhere). So far that's held (at least to an extent), but the glut of digital providers is such a mess that it's hard to really trust any of them.

The second, which has affected me personally, is the aggressive unreliability of a particular digital provider's proprietary apps. In this case, it's Google TV. There was a period when I went all in digitally for TV shows (not movies, always physical with movies). Mostly because so many TV shows never got blu ray releases. I picked Google, went all in, and over the years I have been locked out of the app more than I've been able to use it.

They keep messing with the app, it keeps breaking for me and locking me out, their support aggressively refuses to help, and I'm out of luck until a future update manages to give me access back. (Yes, I could watch on Youtube, and have, but watching it on Youtube sucks.) I've had limited success accessing it with Roku. I haven't tried Google's own TV-stick yet.


All this is to say that you're right about digital movies/TV. With the way the landscape is right now, I don't trust any digital provider to actually hang around or keep their delivery systems functioning.

[Class316]

Originally Posted by joonskeezle

There are some cases where it doesn't bother me.

I've been exclusively e-book for like ten years. I know I don't "own" the ebooks I "buy." (Strictly speaking I know there are DRM-removal programs I could use to resolve that, but it's just not worth the trouble.)

The big fear is that amazon will "take away" those books at any time for any reason. And in ten years that has never happened to me once. In fact, there was one story of it ever happening that I can recall, and they admitted it was a mistake and undid it.

So considering that there's virtually zero chance I'll ever lose access to those ebooks, then as far as I'm concerned I "own" them.


Now, digital movies/TV are another story. Because there are different concerns. The fear is not exactly about the stuff being "taken away."

First, it's about the provider/host just going away. We have to hope that when one provider pulls the plug (i.e. Vudu), another will be there to take over (i.e. Movies Anywhere). So far that's held (at least to an extent), but the glut of digital providers is such a mess that it's hard to really trust any of them.

The second, which has affected me personally, is the aggressive unreliability of a particular digital provider's proprietary apps. In this case, it's Google TV. There was a period when I went all in digitally for TV shows (not movies, always physical with movies). Mostly because so many TV shows never got blu ray releases. I picked Google, went all in, and over the years I have been locked out of the app more than I've been able to use it.

They keep messing with the app, it keeps breaking for me and locking me out, their support aggressively refuses to help, and I'm out of luck until a future update manages to give me access back. (Yes, I could watch on Youtube, and have, but watching it on Youtube sucks.) I've had limited success accessing it with Roku. I haven't tried Google's own TV-stick yet.


All this is to say that you're right about digital movies/TV. With the way the landscape is right now, I don't trust any digital provider to actually hang around or keep their delivery systems functioning.

Personally, I either have a physical copy or I have a copy on my disk space that I can do any damn thing I want with. I will never accept anything else. I will never buy a digital copy that can, at least in theory, be taken away from me for one reason or another. Be it for rights issues, censorship issues, the company folding, or any other reason.

[Brad1963]

Can we please stop these "the sky is falling" posts.

[joonskeezle]

Originally Posted by Brad1963

Can we please stop these "the sky is falling" posts.

The sky may not be falling.

But there are definitely noticeable flaws in the structural foundation of the...erm...sky.

[Warwick]

Originally Posted by reason108

I see what is happening at the store level and it's looking bleak. It doesn't matter if it's Best Buy, Barnes & Nobel or Wal Mart. The shelves are bare. Funny enough, Walmart`s vinyl section is bigger than both their dvd & blu-ray section. Maybe it's just where I live, IDK. But, no matter where I go in the city, there's only a row or two now where the music and dvd/blu-ray section were several rows long. Of course, online physical purchases are still there. But, it's the retail world that is getting it's butt kicked!

This is simply indicative of more consumers purchasing physical media online. Why go to a physical Target or Best Buy store where there is a limited selection, when these stores (and Amazon) have a far greater selection online?. Outside of the occasional Shout! Factory release, all boutique options are online. Catalog titles can pretty much be only found online. Then you had COVID, which likely led to a portion of consumers who frequented brick and mortar, finding online as their preferred option. This isn’t just isolated to physical media, I think there will be a point where brick mortar is there for essentials while niche items are pretty much all online.

[dvining]

Originally Posted by joonskeezle

There are some cases where it doesn't bother me.

I've been exclusively e-book for like ten years. I know I don't "own" the ebooks I "buy." (Strictly speaking I know there are DRM-removal programs I could use to resolve that, but it's just not worth the trouble.)

The big fear is that amazon will "take away" those books at any time for any reason. And in ten years that has never happened to me once. In fact, there was one story of it ever happening that I can recall, and they admitted it was a mistake and undid it.

Microsoft's eBook store got folded a few years ago, and everyone's content vanished overnight.

Amazon will be as dominant as long as IBM and AT&T were. That is to say, Amazon will be king until it's not. Who knows what the future will bring?

I worked at a T-Mobile retail store more than ten years ago. We had a tablet for display purposes that we used the store account to purchase movies to play on the thing in order to draw eyes. It was a buggy piece of shit and had to keep getting reset, but we were able to recover every movie we had bought until suddenly we couldn't. I, Robot wouldn't download anymore for some reason.

I haven't trusted licenses since. They're a fine backup that can provide some ease of access from time to time, but I don't trust my access to be there forever.

[dylrichard02]

Originally Posted by sfmarine

If this happens, can we please get A Clockwork Orange and Eyes Wide Shut on 4K before they get out of the game?

This was my biggest concern. I need A Clockwork Orange on 4K!

[Professor Echo]

Originally Posted by Markgway

I don't think fans have misunderstood. It seems more like Jerry Beck is backtracking on his comments. The text in that original post is pretty clear about Warner's plans to stop producing physical media next year. If it's not true he shouldn't have said it.

I totally agree. I just love the smell of back pedaling in the morning. He publicly posts a very ambiguous statement, loaded with potentially alarming news for the industry, then slobbers all over himself trying to blame OTHERS for misinterpreting it. Hear that sound, Jerry? It’s your credibility sailing out the window.

[Class316]

Originally Posted by dvining

Amazon will be as dominant as long as IBM and AT&T were. That is to say, Amazon will be king until it's not. Who knows what the future will bring?

Good point. Remember AOL and Yahoo were once the titans of the Internet.

[joonskeezle]

Originally Posted by dvining

Microsoft's eBook store got folded a few years ago, and everyone's content vanished overnight.

Amazon will be as dominant as long as IBM and AT&T were. That is to say, Amazon will be king until it's not. Who knows what the future will bring?

I worked at a T-Mobile retail store more than ten years ago. We had a tablet for display purposes that we used the store account to purchase movies to play on the thing in order to draw eyes. It was a buggy piece of shit and had to keep getting reset, but we were able to recover every movie we had bought until suddenly we couldn't. I, Robot wouldn't download anymore for some reason.

I haven't trusted licenses since. They're a fine backup that can provide some ease of access from time to time, but I don't trust my access to be there forever.

A few things:

1. Microsoft's ebook store was barely ever up, didn't sell much, and apparently refunded customers who bought ebooks.

2. There has never been a company in the history of the planet as big as Amazon. We are in uncharted territory. We have no idea how long they'll be king, because there is nobody alive who knows, even theoretically, how they could be beat.

3. Historically, a provider losing/relinquishing the license to sell something has not affected people who already bought the thing: they still have it. It just can't be bought by other people going forward.

[Comicfan]

Then you had COVID, which likely led to a portion of consumers who frequented brick and mortar, finding online as their preferred option. This isn’t just isolated to physical media, I think there will be a point where brick mortar is there for essentials while niche items are pretty much all online.

This is me minus the online option to be preferred.I don't like ordering online for several reasons most of which have come to pass since I started this regularly.

The only reason I started buying online exclusively during the pandemic is because I was born with CVID.I can't make antibodies so I'm a high risk.I limit the amount of places I go as a result during this pandemic.Even with getting the vaccine,I'm not in the clear.I get my second shot on Thursday(Pfizer).But my doctors told me I might not get any protection from the vaccine.They are doing blood work a month after this second shot to see if I have any immune response(they hope for atleast a limited response if we're lucky) but honestly,they think I'm going to have to rely on us reaching herd immunity which scares me since I'm not confident we'll reach it due to not enough people getting vaccinated.That means I'm going to have live like this probably for a loooooooong time.

That's the only reason why I'm still continuing buying my physical media online.I prefer going to the store but even with the vaccine,I still have to play things like last spring.

[AgentOrange]

Originally Posted by Dr Lenera

I find it baffling the number of people who don't know that if they supposedly 'buy' a film on download they don't actually own it. And I find it even more baffling that, after I've told them this, they usually just shrug their shoulders and aren't bothered.

I generally still prefer to buy discs, but how many things that have been "owned" in a person's account have actually been taken away? I'm aware of a few, but generally speaking even if the main services have to delist something due to rights issues or transfer over to a different service, it stays in your account history and you do still "own" it. It's horrible PR when they take things away, you'd think by now they'd figure out the legal mumbo jumbo to make purchases permanent. The exceptions do make you wonder about the legal issues (the potential for it to be more widespread), but the math to this point is probably similar to how many discs are eventually lost to "disc rot". So either way, in 10 or 20 years you might lose a small % of your "owned" collection. There is no 100%.

*I guess in theory entire services can be shut down, and you lose your entire account. But I've never dealt with anybody except UV, VUDU, and iTunes for redeeming codes, and when UV shut down it all transitioned over so as far as I now I kept everything. Of course like I said, I prefer to own discs so I admittedly don't even pay much attention to my digital library. I see it almost as a backup LOL.

[Eurbane132]

Okay remember the last time, a studio made fake news about stopping releases on physical media? So let’s forget the whole thing and go about our business.

[AgentOrange]

Originally Posted by joonskeezle

A few things:

1. Microsoft's ebook store was barely ever up, didn't sell much, and apparently refunded customers who bought ebooks.

2. There has never been a company in the history of the planet as big as Amazon. We are in uncharted territory. We have no idea how long they'll be king, because there is nobody alive who knows, even theoretically, how they could be beat.

3. Historically, a provider losing/relinquishing the license to sell something has not affected people who already bought the thing: they still have it. It just can't be bought by other people going forward.

There were a few rare cases (I think on iTunes) where even "owners" lost the content. I don't remember the exact titles in question, but I remember it happened since this is more alarming vs. when something simply gets "delisted". Usually it's like you say, when they delist something the previous "owners" still have it in their account and can still download it or watch it like usual, it only puts a halt to potential future buyers.

[Jackie Scanlon]

As others have said, physical media probably won't ever disappear, it will just become more specialist (and, ergo, more expensive). I imagine it'll follow a similar path as vinyl.

[Batman90]

Originally Posted by PenguinInfinity

You must think that most people are crippled by having to make choices in every aspect of their lives. Most people seem to have no problem buying TVs, socks, cars, cereal, ketchup, houses, phones, pants, beer, toasters, and everything else even though they all have multiple choices in different price ranges.

Why should physical media be any different?

Cause the people I know they all still buy DVD’s. I’ve asked them why and they all said pretty much the same thing. Why buy Blu-ray’s cause now there’s 4K and they know nothing about 4K and they said they don’t feel like having to replace all their current collection when everytime they turn around theres a new format every 2 or 3 years. Let’s be honest dvd should have died out years ago. It’s no different when studios forced everyone to switch from VHS to dvd they eventually quit making VHS a few years after dvd was out.

[Batman90]

Originally Posted by Jackie Scanlon

As others have said, physical media probably won't ever disappear, it will just become more specialist (and, ergo, more expensive). I imagine it'll follow a similar path as vinyl.

CD’s only told over cause everyone can but them and they didn’t need to have internet to use it. Physical media isn’t going anywhere. Yeah the movie selection in stores are shrinking specially in Best Buy and Walmart they have more older releases then they have new ones.