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

[master gandhi]

Originally Posted by Steedeel

Doubt that. On both counts.

You doubt that streaming will improve? Since the start of this ongoing debate, streaming quality has improved quite a bit.

Looking at iTunes alone, it started out as SD-only, then 720p HD, then 1080p HD and now UHD HDR/DV. And the sound was stereo-only, became 5.1, and now has 7.1 (Dolby Atmos or something similar should happen next). The bitrates and overall quality keeps getting better on iTunes. VUDU’s also quite good.

[Indy64]

To the "average" every day Joe and Jane, Netflix quality is to them top notch and anything over that is gravy. And many of them, like me have "basic" cable or DSL internet speeds and can still run multiple devices with no issues.

[bladerunner1]

Originally Posted by IronSoldier

Sounds like you just need to use youtube for clips...

YT doesn't have what i have.

Originally Posted by Steedeel

It just sounds like clutching at straws to find reasons to champion digital to me.
If I am sitting down to watch something, I am watching it. Not arsing around with features or clips.

You are in the Digital section. Besides that, what didn't you get about "However when i'm settled in i will never hesitate to grab the disc first if I have it." ?

[Vilya]

I will cease to exist before physical formats do. Personally, that's good enough as I will not care at that point.

Streaming improves, but so does physical and physical continues to provide the best viewing and listening experience. Streaming in 4K is still way beyond what many of us can do out here in the hinterlands even if the quality between 4K discs and streaming were equal, which, of course, they are not.

Streaming can be your future. I will continue to pursue the highest quality possible.

p.s. my eye treatment is going well. In about 10 days, I hope to be able to watch a movie in a single sitting. From a disc, naturally.

[alchav21]

Originally Posted by moviegeek1992

It's not to do with concentration, it's when you want to watch a particular scene but would otherwise not bother if you had to go get the disc just to watch something for 5 minutes. It's particularly more useful when it comes to special features. Why pop in the disc to watch a mere 10 minute interview when you can do so with much more ease digitally.

Originally Posted by IronSoldier

Sounds like you just need to use youtube for clips...

Originally Posted by Steedeel

It just sounds like clutching at straws to find reasons to champion digital to me.
If I am sitting down to watch something, I am watching it. Not arsing around with features or clips.

I get it, I do this all the time, it has nothing to do with sitting down and watching a Movie all the way through. If you have hundreds of Digital Movies, it will take you forever to watch them all completely. So the first time I watch a Movie all the way through, but then I go back and watch the parts I like. I started to do this years ago when I backed up my DVD's to Hard Drive. The VOB Files were in sections, so I would Stream a particular section or scene that I liked. Now with Digital HD, especially Vudu you can pick scenes that you want to watch. It's just the perks of Digital HD, of course you can do it with a Disc but it's not as easy.

[moviegeek1992]

Originally Posted by Steedeel

It just sounds like clutching at straws to find reasons to champion digital to me.
If I am sitting down to watch something, I am watching it. Not arsing around with features or clips.

It's not a justification for digital, it's an example of one of the many conveniences it provides. Even I also sit down and watch the movie all the way through, but I always found I never watched any special features on the disc because I either didn't have time or I wanted to come back to it but didn't bother because it would require me to pop the disc back in and I'd rather just watch another film. With digital it's easy to drop into a film's special features, put on an interview or behind the scenes featurette and watch it.

[The_Donster]

Originally Posted by bladerunner1

In my situation i usually only have a few hours of "me time" and I have to balance that between different interests.

This is kind of me too. So I kind of see where moviegeek1992 and coming from. While I have a 2 disc BD Netflix plan, I also utilize Amazon, VUDU and their streaming services for the same reasons. As master gandhi said, there have been leaps and bounds in digital since this thread got started. Back then I was probably more casual user compared to know. While disc still wins out, I'm a bit more picky on what goes in the permanent library now.

[Steedeel]

It’s a sad state of affairs when so called ‘Home cinema enthusiasts’ blow quality out of the window because of sheer (imo) laziness. I’m sorry, but that’s just how I feel.

[Star Lord]

Physical. All day every day.

[acroyear2]

Tangentially related but Best Buy is planning to pull all audio CDs from their stores by July (with Target taking stringent action on CD sales).

How long after do we think DVD/Blu/4K will last in these stores?

[bfett9]

http://collider.com/why-you-should-k...rays-and-dvds/

[Petra_Kalbrain]

Originally Posted by bfett9

http://collider.com/why-you-should-k...rays-and-dvds/

Excellent write up!

[bladerunner1]

Originally Posted by Steedeel

It’s a sad state of affairs when so called ‘Home cinema enthusiasts’ blow quality out of the window because of sheer (imo) laziness. I’m sorry, but that’s just how I feel.

My collection count says I own 902 discs. Now that may not be a lot on this forum but to the general population i am a nut.

[Vilya]

Originally Posted by bladerunner1

My collection count says I own 902 discs. Now that may not be a lot on this forum but to the general population i am a nut.

If that makes you a nut, I should have an entire lunatic asylum named after me.

[master gandhi]

Originally Posted by bfett9

http://collider.com/why-you-should-k...rays-and-dvds/

He makes great points, and I’m not about to get rid of my physical collection. If there’s a movie I really want to see and it doesn’t exist on digital, but it has a Blu-ray, or it does exist on digital, but the Blu-ray has extras and the digital is barebones, I’m going physical. But I can’t really think of any examples of recent movies I want to see and they’re nowhere to be found digitally.

I did pick up Games of Theones season 7 on Blu-ray (which also included a digital copy) because it contains a lot more extras than the iTunes version and has more stuff than is found on HBO GO.

I also plan to pick up the inevitable Blu-ray of Rick and Morty season 3 and the Blu-ray of season 11 of Mystery Science Theater 3000, because you get extras not found on digital.

But with movies, my needs are almost always met on digital these days. It’s mostly certain catalogue titles that are barebones or missing from digital (and I probably already have them on DVD or Blu-ray). New releases haven’t disappointed me lately. Happy Death Day is 4K on iTunes plus it has extras. There is no disc of that film in 4K, though, so digital is really the way to go on that one.

[moviegeek1992]

I don't think I will ever be able to get over the price difference. Urban Legend and a whole bunch of Sony titles are £7.99 on iTunes and other digital retailers like Amazon Video. I bought the blu-ray for £3.25 a few years back and it comes with special features such as a director's commentary.

For me personally it's about cost. If the digital versions were cheaper than their physical counterparts then maybe I could justify the decrease in PQ/AQ and a lack of special features here and there. But for 2x or sometimes even 3x times the price, they must be joking. I've even been buying the DVDs of certain films (even those that have blu-rays) because they're cheaper and I want the film to watch but don't need it in HD, even though my BD player will upscale the image so its not like modern DVDs are gonna look like crap anyway, additionally I also get the other benefits, special features etc.

I think the doomsday arguments presented here at times are far fetched, people will always have Internet and big companies like Apple and Amazon aren't going anywhere anytime soon, but the convenience of having your movies in cloud is not worth what they're charging for it. I can definitely see plenty of millennials just torrenting the movies and slapping them onto Plex which then grabs the metadata, subs and if you're a premium member I think it also gets special features - sure it's stealing but these big corporations charging extortionate prices for their content are only going to get burned in the long run, it also doesn't help that buffet services like Netflix are also killing peoples desires to own singular films.

[alchav21]

Originally Posted by Steedeel

It’s a sad state of affairs when so called ‘Home cinema enthusiasts’ blow quality out of the window because of sheer (imo) laziness. I’m sorry, but that’s just how I feel.

Originally Posted by bladerunner1

My collection count says I own 902 discs. Now that may not be a lot on this forum but to the general population i am a nut.

Originally Posted by Vilya

If that makes you a nut, I should have an entire lunatic asylum named after me.

What you guys don't understand, is Digital HD Lovers don't feel that they are losing quality. We keep telling you with the right set up and Bandwidth, the quality is getting Disc Like. Having a huge collection of Physical is not unusual, a lot of us still have Discs too. If you really think about it, do you go back and watch all your Movies completely. I still have DVD's in shrink wrap, and I'm sure a lot of you too. Until you guys have the right set up and Bandwidth, don't go by Stats alone!

[Steedeel]

Originally Posted by master gandhi

You doubt that streaming will improve? Since the start of this ongoing debate, streaming quality has improved quite a bit.

Looking at iTunes alone, it started out as SD-only, then 720p HD, then 1080p HD and now UHD HDR/DV. And the sound was stereo-only, became 5.1, and now has 7.1 (Dolby Atmos or something similar should happen next). The bitrates and overall quality keeps getting better on iTunes. VUDU’s also quite good.

Yes, for reasons I have already stated.

[Steedeel]

Originally Posted by alchav21

What you guys don't understand, is Digital HD Lovers don't feel that they are losing quality. We keep telling you with the right set up and Bandwidth, the quality is getting Disc Like. Having a huge collection of Physical is not unusual, a lot of us still have Discs too. If you really think about it, do you go back and watch all your Movies completely. I still have DVD's in shrink wrap, and I'm sure a lot of you too. Until you guys have the right set up and Bandwidth, don't go by Stats alone!

And you keep getting told that no matter what connection you have, the bitrate will always be limited.

[Steedeel]

Originally Posted by acroyear2

Tangentially related but Best Buy is planning to pull all audio CDs from their stores by July (with Target taking stringent action on CD sales).

How long after do we think DVD/Blu/4K will last in these stores?

As long as online stores exist, it won’t matter. That’s where shops are getting hammered, the likes of Amazon. Why should people worry about shops hen they can order what they like and have it delivered in just days?

It’s impoetsnt to remember that Digital HD is not picking up the slack for falling DVD sales, the industry would lose more money and it would hasten the switch to subscription.