Panasonic To Cut 10K Jobs, Exit Businesses

[sherlockjr]

Originally Posted by cgpublic

Between this news and the Harman aka Samsung deal, the writing is on the wall:

Masimo buying Sound United for $1 billion in 2022 never made any sense. Masimo is a medical devices company--mostly for hospital level devices--they were never a consumer electronics company. And they were certainly never a home audio company. It seems that purchase was some personal project of the then Masimo CEO, not one that made any business sense. And the current Masimo management thinks the same.

Home audio has been in decline for several decades. That's why Sounds United was available in the first place. When was the last time you saw a standalone retail "stereo" store? Cheaper home audio devices have gotten surprisingly better sound quality. Not great, but good enough that most consumers don't see the point in spending thousands when they get good enough for a couple hundred. Which is kind of what's been happening with streaming home video, too.

Sounds United brands moving to a well capitalized company in a division that specializes in audio--including some of the best pro audio--likely extends the life of their product lines. So good for consumers like me who might still spend to get that quality, including for "home theater". Their products haven't had a whole lot to do directly with video--at least not in my memory--so the sadly continuing decline of disk sales likely hasn't been a major part of that equation.

[cgpublic]

Originally Posted by sherlockjr

Sounds United brands moving to a well capitalized company in a division that specializes in audio--including some of the best pro audio--likely extends the life of their product lines. So good for consumers like me who might still spend to get that quality, including for "home theater". Their products haven't had a whole lot to do directly with video--at least not in my memory--so the sadly continuing decline of disk sales likely hasn't been a major part of that equation.

That's a good point. But on the other hand, Sound United under Masimo gave the impression they were more or less left to run the brands as they saw fit.

Under Samsung, well, the brand is Samsung. And while I do agree with you Samsung has a talented audio team and a strong soundbar line-up, it would be unfortunate if Samsung cherry picks the best people and related assets to compete with say, Apple or Sonos in the connected home space and lets separates whither on the vine.

As a long-time Denon fan and someone who does not own any Samsung products, I'll just take it easy at this point and maybe pick up one of those heavily discounted AVRs.

[ronand]

What are all these streaming fan boys/ physical media doom & gloom merchants doing here?

[thejoeman2]

Originally Posted by ronand

What are all these streaming fan boys/ physical media doom & gloom merchants doing here?

John Campea invading this forum.

[Telemachus]

rip the bidness

[Anthony P]

Originally Posted by Naiera

Not sure why you’re so eager for this to happen.

It is Alchav. There is a lot of hatred there for some reason (my guess jealousy) he has been been at it for the 15 years he has been here.

[alchav21]

Originally Posted by Anthony P

It is Alchav. There is a lot of hatred there for some reason (my guess jealousy) he has been been at it for the 15 years he has been here.

No Hatred or Jealousy, just simple Logic. I have moved on from Discs, with a Fiber connection IMO Streaming looks just as good as Disc. I have always said Streaming from a Server can be just as good as Streaming from a Disc!

[Telemachus]

Originally Posted by alchav21

I have moved on from Discs

But not from posting on a discs forum? Just simple logic!

[Naiera]

Originally Posted by alchav21

No Hatred or Jealousy, just simple Logic. I have moved on from Discs, with a Fiber connection IMO Streaming looks just as good as Disc. I have always said Streaming from a Server can be just as good as Streaming from a Disc!

LOL. You should have your eyes checked. The connection makes zero difference, as long as it’s fast enough.

[Steedeel]

Originally Posted by alchav21

No Hatred or Jealousy, just simple Logic. I have moved on from Discs, with a Fiber connection IMO Streaming looks just as good as Disc. I have always said Streaming from a Server can be just as good as Streaming from a Disc!

This is a point that you continue to ignore, no matter how many times people tell you, I have outstanding fibre, I also have a great ping for gaming, but unlike gaming, films aren’t like for like. The streaming services are heavily compressed, and no matter how good your internet is, that’s not going to influence bit rates.
The streaming services shave bit rates off, to save money and to ensure they aren’t going to exceed carbon use when taxes come.
So picture quality can’t compete, and audio suffers even more.

This is a fact, even if it’s a fact you refuse to acknowledge. Not a single streaming service will increase their bit rates in the future, they will reduce or keep it the same, relying on new codecs, the masses (like yourself) don’t care about fine details and the best quality, but some of us do.

[Chad Rouch]

Originally Posted by Steedeel

This is a point that you continue to ignore, no matter how many times people tell you, I have outstanding fibre, I also have a great ping for gaming, but unlike gaming, films aren’t like for like. The streaming services are heavily compressed, and no matter how good your internet is, that’s not going to influence bit rates.
The streaming services shave bit rates off, to save money and to ensure they aren’t going to exceed carbon use when taxes come.
So picture quality can’t compete, and audio suffers even more.

This is a fact, even if it’s a fact you refuse to acknowledge. Not a single streaming service will increase their bit rates in the future, they will reduce or keep it the same, relying on new codecs, the masses (like yourself) don’t care about fine details and the best quality, but some of us do.

I can't speak for everyone, but when I say "streaming" I mean titles purchased/rented from Apple (iTunes) on an Apple TV box, not the platforms like Netflix and Hulu.

With that established, when I compare titles between the disc and Apple the differences aren't that stark to me, especially for brighter, daytime scenes. So for movies that are primarily daytime, the streaming looks great, like when I recently watched "Pale Rider."

Although primarily darker movies, like "Seven" I got the disc, full-well knowing streaming would struggle with it.

It's also just a reality that with so many boutique labels releasing titles exclusively in 4K on disc, I have to maintain a small disc library.

But I accept that we are on the downslope of the physical media era. It's inevitable that it will go away. It seems that Apple is genuinely interested in improving its services so I hope that when discs die they will have improved their codecs to deliver similar quality. For instance, I wouldn't be surprised if Dolby TrueHD is on their roadmap.

I'm pretty happy with my hybrid library and feel it's future-proofed for ate least a few more years.

[Steedeel]

Originally Posted by Chad Rouch

I can't speak for everyone, but when I say "streaming" I mean titles purchased/rented from Apple (iTunes) on an Apple TV box, not the platforms like Netflix and Hulu.

With that established, when I compare titles between the disc and Apple the differences aren't that stark to me, especially for brighter, daytime scenes. So for movies that are primarily daytime, the streaming looks great, like when I recently watched "Pale Rider."

Although primarily darker movies, like "Seven" I got the disc, full-well knowing streaming would struggle with it.

It's also just a reality that with so many boutique labels releasing titles exclusively in 4K on disc, I have to maintain a small disc library.

But I accept that we are on the downslope of the physical media era. It's inevitable that it will go away. It seems that Apple is genuinely interested in improving its services so I hope that when discs die they will have improved their codecs to deliver similar quality. For instance, I wouldn't be surprised if Dolby TrueHD is on their roadmap.

I'm pretty happy with my hybrid library and feel it's future-proofed for ate least a few more years.

But the only profitable market is subscription streaming, and even then it will settle on the small amount that do make a profit, look how long it’s taken for Netflix to show profit from when they launched for example, so that’s where the movies will be, especially with exclusives being the pull amongst various services. Digital sales flatlined last year, which is way too early in the format’s life. So I believe that going forward, there will be extra expense IF the data centre’s continue access to digital libraries. Maybe force ads or a monthly charge.

Digital HD was touted as disc’s replacement but the mass market has said “we don’t care about owning movies, we just want access to watch them then move on to the next big release”.
‘New cable or next gen cable (that’s what subscription streaming is)) is disc’s replacement, and we return to the 80’s with essentially, the rental system but online, and no tapes to send back)

As for Apple, they are no different to any other service, they will look to codecs to shave bit rates, not add to them. Although I do agree they are the best of the streamers/service providers. It ain’t no UHD disc though, the bit rates are significantly higher on disc. Apple aren’t going to match those bit rates, not now and not in the future.
It doesn’t particularly appeal to me to be thinking how films will only look good if they are shot in daylight or outside. No such worries with UHD or Blu-ray for that matter. It’s a flawed approach for quality lovers.

For me personally, digital has no value collection wise, so I would just be one of those renters picking and choosing the latest offerings from several services, and of course continue watching my large disc collection and enjoying the better quality, even if I would be mourning the ability to watch brand new films in the best possible quality.

However, that is not imminent, we are years away from that.

[Deadend45]

The typical hysteria not based on hard facts I have been reading for 10 years.

Streaming services went through massive lay offs last year, go get hysterical over that.

[IndyMLVC]

Originally Posted by Deadend45

Streaming services went through massive lay offs last year, go get hysterical over that.

There's less historical data for us to examine.

[Naiera]

[kingreed]

I have to disagree about how streaming is better because it's not. A perfect example of this is paramount plus they hardly stream a lot of movies. I cancelled paramount plus because of that. Peacock TV is not much better. HULU live TV streams movies but like most streaming services they aren't streaming much these days. Discs are still the best way to watch movies and other stuff.

[Steedeel]

Originally Posted by kingreed

I have to disagree about how streaming is better because it's not. A perfect example of this is paramount plus they hardly stream a lot of movies. I cancelled paramount plus because of that. Peacock TV is not much better. HULU live TV streams movies but like most streaming services they aren't streaming much these days. Discs are still the best way to watch movies and other stuff.

Who says streaming is better? It’s inferior in every department

[Streamingsux]

Say my naaame, say my name!

[Naiera]

Yes, they weren't charging enough for them.

[cochon]

Originally Posted by Naiera

Yes, they weren't charging enough for them.

How do you know that, do you have any data to back that up or are you just pulling that out of a hat?