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

[Fiffy]

Originally Posted by tele1962

Most older remasterd films have been done in a way so as to appreciate grain, colour, contrast etc. Most of which is lost when compressed to digital download/streaming, which introduces many problems back into the film, macro blocking, compression artefacts, colour space, and in general why bother remastering if this is the case.
So all those hours of getting a film back to the way it looked in the cinema are wasted.

Blu-rays exhibit plenty of compression artifacts too (including bad grain reproduction), as well as other limitations in color, contrast and resolution. By your logic, I guess all remasters are wasted since Blu-ray cannot fully reproduce them either?

Besides, while your assumption that (most of) today's digitally delivered movies are more compressed than Blu-ray is true right now, it won't be in the future.

[applemac]

Originally Posted by Fiffy

Blu-rays exhibit plenty of compression artifacts too (including grain reproduction), as well as other limitations in color, contrast and resolution. By your logic, I guess all remasters are wasted since Blu-ray cannot fully reproduce them either?

Besides, while your assumption that (most) of today's digitally delivered movies are more compressed than Blu-ray is true right now, it won't be in the future.

By your logic, that means we shouldn't consider digital an alternative until the quality is matching in the future? OK.

[Fiffy]

Originally Posted by applemac

The fact that I still dont have access to a digital version of Spartacus thats been restored.

And you don't have access to the Criterion HD master of Le Samourai on Blu-ray. What's that supposed to prove?

[tiger_qc]

Originally Posted by Krizzle1

Instead of creating a new thread, just a quick question...

Will a 1080p movie look better on a 1080p TV (40" for arguments sake) or a 4K TV (40")?

It shouldn't, if the movie is limited to 1080p watching it on a full HD or UHD TV shouldn't change a thing.

[Mr Kite]

Originally Posted by Fiffy

Blu-rays exhibit plenty of compression artifacts too (including grain reproduction), as well as other limitations in color, contrast and resolution. By your logic, I guess all remasters are wasted since Blu-ray cannot fully reproduce them either?

Besides, while your assumption that (most) of today's digitally delivered movies are more compressed than Blu-ray is true right now, it won't be in the future.

Not when done properly. Any movie viewed on the digital format will be guaranteed every time to have artefacts caused by the compression involved.

Not sure it will ever happen.

[Fiffy]

Originally Posted by applemac

By your logic, that means we shouldn't consider digital an alternative until the quality is matching in the future?

Why stop at "matching"? Blu-ray is compromised too (for example, chroma sub-sampling makes a very visible difference). You should throw away all your discs now.

[Fiffy]

Originally Posted by tele1962

Not when done properly. Any movie viewed on the digital format will be guaranteed every time to have artefacts caused by the compression involved.

Not sure it will ever happen.

Uhm, you are aware that Blu-ray is a heavily compressed digital format too?

[Krizzle1]

[veritas]

overall digital just has lots of problems.

- vudu in the past said they have it written in the license so you own a copy of it but they only have to give you access to stream it for 2 years, after that they can charge you for it if they choose (it also limits liablity when they want to make your whole collection vanish as they move on to something else).

-The digital system is set up so that overtime they will need to maintain larger and larger collections and if theirs ever a drop off in people buying movies in general the studios would have to eat the cost of upkeep on a worlds collection ( could be a single store like vudu dealing with this or all the studios as digital buying later becomes less popular either way once it stops making them money they will pull the plug and people will lose their entire digital collection (or be forced to dl and break the drm anyway)).

-I have seen digital copies go missing from my collection or fail to play. A blu ray wont spontaneously combust for no reason but it happens with digital copies. Digital is also at the mercy of arguments between the streamers and the studios meaning either one having a problem can get a movie pulled from a service.

-physical is basically always cheaper. Digital just doesn't have enough competition to really compete in terms of deals that blu ray get. You have no ability to go to a third party or a buy a used code (studios argue selling codes is copyright infringement which is stupid but also not something physical media deals with)

-digital sales increasing is rather misleading when you give their sales a month head start etc. Studios are pushing digital heavily and mostly just burning bridges with B&M stores. The end result will probably be less physical sales and not enough digital sales to make up for what they did to the physical market.

[Mr Kite]

Originally Posted by Fiffy

Uhm, you are aware that Blu-ray is a heavily compressed digital format too?

Maybe so, but when correctly done any artefacts will be eliminated to give a true representation of the original elements used..........which will never be the case for digital.

[Steedeel]

It wont matter with Digital. Not if that Dreamworks exec gets his way. Everyone of these Digital lovers will be saying 'I ain't paying 4 dollars for a tv screen version when I can watch on mobile for 2 dollars'! Too heck with quality. I want my Ben Hurr on a 4 inch screen!

After all, there are people in this very thread that stated they didn't want Digital to prosper and now they buy Digital copies or stream Netflix.

[master gandhi]

Originally Posted by Steedeel

It wont matter with Digital. Not if that Dreamworks exec gets his way. Everyone of these Digital lovers will be saying 'I ain't paying 4 dollars for a tv screen version when I can watch on mobile for 2 dollars'! Too heck with quality. I want my Ben Hurr on a 4 inch screen!

Every one of them? Wow. Way to generalize. You don't seem to have an agenda at all. It's not like you started a separate thread all about this concern or anything.

Originally Posted by Steedeel

After all, there are people in this very thread that stated they didn't want Digital to prosper and now they buy Digital copies or stream Netflix.

You don't stream Netflix? They have a lot of quality original programming.

[Steedeel]

Originally Posted by master gandhi

Every one of them? Wow. Way to generalize. You don't seem to have an agenda at all. It's not like you started a separate thread all about this concern or anything.
You don't stream Netflix? They have a lot of quality original programming.

I do. I have always admitted I have it. I watch tv on it.

[Steedeel]

Originally Posted by master gandhi

Every one of them? Wow. Way to generalize. You don't seem to have an agenda at all. It's not like you started a separate thread all about this concern or anything.
You don't stream Netflix? They have a lot of quality original programming.

No different to your agenda. I love Bluray. I see the danger that Digital represents. That is all.

[tiger_qc]

Originally Posted by Steedeel

After all, there are people in this very thread that stated they didn't want Digital to prosper and now they buy Digital copies or stream Netflix.

I'm a huge Blu-ray fan but I'm also on Netflix since 2013, it's a must nowadays. They have most of the greatest TV series out there.

House of Cards
DareDevil
Narcos
Orange is the New Black
Bloodline
Scream

[Steedeel]

Originally Posted by tiger_qc

I'm a huge Blu-ray fan but I'm also on Netflix since 2013, it's a must nowadays. They have most of the greatest TV series out there.

House of Cards
DareDevil
Narcos
Orange is the New Black
Bloodline
Scream

I don't rate any of those shows. I enjoyed Breaking Bad though.

[tiger_qc]

Originally Posted by Steedeel

I don't rate any of those shows. I enjoyed Breaking Bad though.

Well Breaking Bad was aired on AMC it isn't a Netflix exclusive show. Those I mentioned on my post are exclusive to Netflix and what I love about it is that they make all the episodes available for streaming at the same time. No more waiting one week between episodes.

[Steedeel]

Originally Posted by tiger_qc

Well Breaking Bad was aired on AMC it isn't a Netflix exclusive show. Those I mentioned on my post are exclusive to Netflix and what I love about it is that they make all the episodes available for streaming at the same time. No more waiting one week between episodes.

I know. I'm sure they will eventually come up with a show I love. I see Netflix as just another cable channel really.

[Dynamo of Eternia]

Originally Posted by huskerbear

If you are a physical copy person, and haven't upgraded to a 4K TV, why not? a 4K TV not only does UHD but also upscales the rest, so 4K TVs = the best quality to watch a movie on. Or is 1080p good enough? or your willing to sacrifice picture quality?

I don't have a 4K TV yet, but plan to get one at some point down the road.

As to why I don't have one now, there's a few reasons.

Just shy of two years ago, I upgraded our "main" TV, which I was LONG overdue to upgrade (my wife and I only had a 37" 720p HDTV that we bought back in 2007 prior to this upgrade), but kept putting it off due to other expenses that had come up during the years prior (having to get new cars due to replace other ones that were getting older and costly to maintain, my wife needed braces for her teeth, we had to get a new furnace and A/C unit, I had sinus surgery, etc.).

As far as 1080p TVs go, Plasmas have generally been considered to offer the best overall picture quality. So I got one of Samsung's top-of-the-line 64" Plasmas just before they were discontinued at the end of 2014.

Due to how much I spent, and frankly me wanting to wait a while before going through the research headaches again, it's going to be a good few years before I upgrade again.

Plus as far as 4K TVs go, I would want to get an OLED TV, which offers the overall best picture quality compared to LCD/LED, but they are still VERY, VERY cost prohibitive. I want to wait a few more years for the tech to mature and come down in price before I make that jump.

Not to mention that even if I was really gung-ho on rushing out to upgrade again now, my wife would probably kill me if I were to try to upgrade the TV again less than 2 years later. She's very understanding and supportive of my hobbies, and she was supportive when we upgraded the TV in 2014, but there are limits.


But that being said, I am prepping some now. For titles that I'm buying going forward, if they come in a 4K/regular BD combo pack, I'm opting for those packs instead of just regular Blu-Ray or a BD/DVD pack. At the moment the only 4k pack that I have is the Peanuts Movie, but I'll be getting Deadpool in that format this Tuesday, and there are some other releases on the horizon that I plan to pick up.

I may even get a 4K player at some point because despite my TV being 1080p, supposedly some difference is still supposed to be noticeable. But I'm waiting on some additional models of players to come out before I settle on one.

[alchav21]

Originally Posted by Krizzle1

Instead of creating a new thread, just a quick question...

Will a 1080p movie look better on a 1080p TV (40" for arguments sake) or a 4K TV (40")?

It's going to look a little better on a 4K TV, but at 40" you won't be able to tell the difference. If you are going to buy a 4K TV it should be 55" or bigger. Right now the Standard is up to 65".