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

[Dustin44]

Originally Posted by ctujackbauer

Fast forwarding and playing the parts of a movie that he likes the most? I do the same.

I have done that before too.

[meremortal]

Not sure about uhd disc vs uhd stream, but I often find hdx and blu pretty close. Even lower bitrate streams from Netflix and Hulu often look pretty solid. The audio might be a bigger gap.

[StaticVic]

Originally Posted by meremortal

Not sure about uhd disc vs uhd stream, but I often find hdx and blu pretty close. Even lower bitrate streams from Netflix and Hulu often look pretty solid. The audio might be a bigger gap.

I feel the same way aswell. HDX looks pretty close to Blu-ray if not damn near exact.

Hulu 4K streams look pretty damn good aswell but there catalog of 4K movies and shows are minimal last I checked.

[StaticVic]

Originally Posted by alchav21

With Vudu you don't have to fast forward, they break it down into Scenes, you can forward to the Scene that you want.

On my Nvidia Shield I use VLC media player it really doesn’t take that long at all to fast forward to a scene I’m looking for. Nothing like the time it would take back in the VHS days. VLC even gives me the option to go to an exact moment in the movie. For example, Let’s say I like the scene that’s precisely at 1hr48min12seconds into the movie. I can input that exact time frame and wala I’m there. Vudu’s chapter selection is nice, convenient and fast but not so much that it makes VLC look like it’s lacking.

[zarquon]

Originally Posted by Steedeel

Not really close. Disc is double the bitrate normally. As for audio, different league.

Originally Posted by Zu Nim

The audio sitch is definitely different between disc and streaming. If you (or your setup) demand the best audio bitstream, disc is the only thing that will deliver it. Some streaming providers offer Dolby Atmos audio so that may also make a difference.

Originally Posted by meremortal

Not sure about uhd disc vs uhd stream, but I often find hdx and blu pretty close. Even lower bitrate streams from Netflix and Hulu often look pretty solid. The audio might be a bigger gap.

Discussions like this often leave audio out of the equation, or dismiss it as unimportant. That makes me wonder if the most ardent digital-only folks, on average, tend to watch with just the TV speakers, or a soundbar (as opposed to a full surround setup)?

[StaticVic]

Originally Posted by zarquon

Discussions like this often leave audio out of the equation, or dismiss it as unimportant. That makes me wonder if the most ardent digital-only folks, on average, tend to watch with just the TV speakers, or a soundbar (as opposed to a full surround setup)?

Sound Bars over the years have become very popular to the general public for its sound quality improvement compared to tv speakers and the fact that it takes up less space compared to actual surround sound. Also tend to be cheaper compared to surround sound.

[StaticVic]

Still not better then actual surround sound but does the trick if you live in an apartment or college dorm and got limited space.

I use a sound bar in my bed room and used one in my dorm when I was in undergrad.

[moviegeek1992]

Originally Posted by zarquon

Discussions like this often leave audio out of the equation, or dismiss it as unimportant. That makes me wonder if the most ardent digital-only folks, on average, tend to watch with just the TV speakers, or a soundbar (as opposed to a full surround setup)?

In regards to sound. I have a 5.1 setup, however I'm not too bothered by sound quality as long as I can hear everything that's being said. I remember when I rented The Avengers blu-ray a couple of years back the 7.1 sound was annoying because the sound effects were super loud compared to the dialogue scenes, so I was constantly turning the volume up and down. With streaming services like Netflix etc, their 5.1 sound is decent, sound effects and dialogue are equal. For those who love to blast sound then yes you'd require disc and the appropriate speaker setup for those who live in apartments or next to neighbours, you sometimes don't get that luxury (not that I require it in the first place anyway).

I imagine for the majority of people it's easier to see a difference in picture quality than one in audio. I've even watched modern movies in stereo audio (from Google Play rental as they don't have all movies in 5.1) and it was fine. I wasn't getting the effect that helicopters were whooshing past my ear, but that didn't ruin my enjoyment of the movie as long as I could hear everything fine.

[zarquon]

Originally Posted by StaticVic

Sound Bars over the years have become very popular to the general public for its sound quality improvement compared to tv speakers and the fact that it takes up less space compared to actual surround sound. Also tend to be cheaper compared to surround sound.

I didn't mean to imply there's anything wrong with using a soundbar, I know they can sound excellent. I was just wondering if there's any correlation between the preference for streaming vs disc, and the type of sound system being used; the audio differences would be more apparent on a full surround setup, so maybe, on average, physical media is still preferred by those who use such systems.

[Zu Nim]

Originally Posted by Steedeel

What you are ignoring is the coming rise of 5G mobile broadband. The trend will be to offer mobile and home 5G in one package for (perceiveably) less money. Several companies are planning this route as a direct competitor to FTTC. Now from what I understand, fixed mobile broadband doesn’t have the latency or reliability to match fibre even when 5G is established but I don’t think it matters. I think most people will be happy just to watch in HD or even SD. They may even be happy to simply cast a few shows or films to their TV set every now and again. Mobile operators want their customers tied in to a complete package. They want to challenge the big guns home broadband delivery. As we know, the mainstream don’t give a chuff about quality, so 4K may be off the table altogether come 2022 when 5G will have more of a foothold. We are moving towards a mobile world and big screen content will just be a occasional afterthought (or luxury if you only on a mobile broadband allowance of say, 150 GB a month.
Also, the interest in GB fibre has cooled off.

There's nothing to ignore. There are no prices or packages; nobody has rolled it out. I could cherry-pick 5G announcements and tell you that Samsung is offering a 4Gbps 5G home router but it's not like you want to hear anything positive about the future...

Video content does not require low latencies, it requires bandwidth. And you have zero information about reliability because there are no customers.

Gigabit interest hasn't cooled off, it's only grown. The question is who's willing to provide more of it. Verizon rolled it out. Comcast is rolling it out. AT&T is rolling it out. Don't forget Google Fiber. And there are even more gigabit providers here in the U.S. Google and Verizon now want to use different technologies instead of fiber. Nothing wrong with trying to find a cheaper tech to get you to the same place.

Doesn't making dire predictions in the face of continuous improvement get old for you?

[Steedeel]

Originally Posted by Zu Nim

There's nothing to ignore. There are no prices or packages; nobody has rolled it out. I could cherry-pick 5G announcements and tell you that Samsung is offering a 4Gbps 5G home router but it's not like you want to hear anything positive about the future...

Video content does not require low latencies, it requires bandwidth. And you have zero information about reliability because there are no customers.

Gigabit interest hasn't cooled off, it's only grown. The question is who's willing to provide more of it. Verizon rolled it out. Comcast is rolling it out. AT&T is rolling it out. Don't forget Google Fiber. And there are even more gigabit providers here in the U.S. Google and Verizon now want to use different technologies instead of fiber. Nothing wrong with trying to find a cheaper tech to get you to the same place.

Doesn't making dire predictions in the face of continuous improvement get old for you?

Well, Blu-ray is a improvement but people are flocking to all you can eat buffets, sometimes in HD, sometimes not. Sometimes on their phone, sometimes not.
People flock to cheap, not improvement.

[Zu Nim]

Originally Posted by Steedeel

Well, Blu-ray is a improvement but people are flocking to all you can eat buffets, sometimes in HD, sometimes not. Sometimes on their phone, sometimes not.
People flock to cheap, not improvement.

The problem is that you are blind to the improvements that other people are seeing. People are getting more, better entertainment for less. They're not being locked in to discs that they buy and can't take anywhere. In the short run is there reduced quality? Sure. But that doesn't mean it's not an improvement, and it doesn't mean that quality won't go up - especially since it always has, even in the last year.

[Steedeel]

Originally Posted by Zu Nim

The problem is that you are blind to the improvements that other people are seeing. People are getting more, better entertainment for less. They're not being locked in to discs that they buy and can't take anywhere. In the short run is there reduced quality? Sure. But that doesn't mean it's not an improvement, and it doesn't mean that quality won't go up - especially since it always has, even in the last year.

Let’s see. I think broadband will give way to 5G and possibly not even fixed 5G at that. More and more companies will push this all in one service. The poor capacity will mean much lower quality than we have now also. Mobile operators are gunning for cable and the collateral maybe the home TV set.

[The_Donster]

Having a moment of clarity right now. So going to break it down like this. How many of you that are pro disc also use cable-satellite for viewing? If so, isn't hypocritical to argue against streaming? I learned when we picked up our 55" LG that they compressed the hell out of it and I can honestly say I've not run into this with streaming. Is it as good as a physical disc? Depends on the source, but I enjoy both whenever I want in my room. While my cable might be crappy, my internet isn't.

[Steedeel]

Originally Posted by The_Donster

Having a moment of clarity right now. So going to break it down like this. How many of you that are pro disc also use cable-satellite for viewing? If so, isn't hypocritical to argue against streaming? I learned when we picked up our 55" LG that they compressed the hell out of it and I can honestly say I've not run into this with streaming. Is it as good as a physical disc? Depends on the source, but I enjoy both whenever I want in my room. While my cable might be crappy, my internet isn't.

No, because cable is just for tv and sometimes that can be cooking shows, news, sit coms. Stuff that doesn’t need high quality. My argument has always been films. Films to me need to be experienced in the best quality.

[The_Donster]

Originally Posted by Steedeel

No, because cable is just for tv and sometimes that can be cooking shows, news, sit coms. Stuff that doesn’t need high quality. My argument has always been films. Films to me need to be experienced in the best quality.

Once again, totally missing the point and a weak argument as usual. My points stand. If you are so holier than thou than you strictly watch discs and nothing else. Otherwise you are a hypocrite

[brentsg]

Originally Posted by The_Donster

Having a moment of clarity right now. So going to break it down like this. How many of you that are pro disc also use cable-satellite for viewing? If so, isn't hypocritical to argue against streaming? I learned when we picked up our 55" LG that they compressed the hell out of it and I can honestly say I've not run into this with streaming. Is it as good as a physical disc? Depends on the source, but I enjoy both whenever I want in my room. While my cable might be crappy, my internet isn't.

Streaming is fine for non-critical viewing. The issue is that you can't guarantee it won't suck. I have 2 ISP's at my house and the better one is 230Mb down. Still, Vudu is forcing us into SD on multiple devices. We can switch to the other ISP and it does not help. The local network is solid, and no other services are affected.

Basically it isn't within my power to fix, yet I have have hundreds of movies on the service. I haven't had an issue like this in years, yet here it is.

Originally Posted by StaticVic

I feel the same way aswell. HDX looks pretty close to Blu-ray if not damn near exact.

Hulu 4K streams look pretty damn good aswell but there catalog of 4K movies and shows are minimal last I checked.

Oh good grief, HDX is nowhere near exact. I have to cringe on a regular basis while trying to ignore the compression artifacts, particular on dark scenes. I intentionally avoid certain movies on Vudu because of it.

And yes I'm referring to properly working Vudu, not the shit I have now.

[Steedeel]

Originally Posted by The_Donster

Once again, totally missing the point and a weak argument as usual. My points stand. If you are so holier than thou than you strictly watch discs and nothing else. Otherwise you are a hypocrite

How am I missing the point. The point is, why would anyone care about watching cookery shows or news in the very best HD quality? If it’s GOT or some other high production show I would get the Blu-ray. If it’s some once only deal, why would I care. I watch sports in HD but you can’t buy boxing matches or football on Blu-ray.

You know I’m discussing films, as in that case we are talking home cinema.

Finally I don’t think I’m better than anyone else but if it fits your hateful agenda, go for it. Whatever makes you happy.

[MachoKing]

I guess opening this thread was a mistake. smh

[moviegeek1992]

Can the mods please merge this thread with the Physical Copies or Digital? thread.