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

[stonesfan129]

Originally Posted by Vilya

The CD has not been eliminated. People are still buying CDs. The CD is still being produced. Best Buy and Target's decision to stop carrying them in store means little to nothing. They barely carried any in their stores before this decision. They will continue to offer them online. Declining sales, even as steep as they have been with CDs, does not equate to death. People like to extrapolate trends to their extremes when such trends will most likely level off, plateau, and nestle into a niche market.

Online has been where the best selection in CDs, videos, and books have been found for many years now. A lot of consumer spending has shifted from stores to websites. Nearly every retailer online offers free shipping if you spend a certain, and usually very low, amount and having your items sent to you is really convenient. Where people purchase has changed more than what they have purchased.

As far as I knew, Target is still going to carry them. They just wanted a deal where they only pay royalties on the ones they sell, not also for having them in stock. Plus you're right, they will still keep making them. Amazon will still keep selling them. Even if new sales of them end, we will still be able to get them used.

[dublinbluray108]

My own preferences in buying music should have been in stone from the very beginning. I should have never gone to streaming or downloading as primary use of buying music. Half of my songs from the downloaded albums were taken off due to downloading them after having multiple hard drive failures in my laptop. The issues were that the recording studios providing the songs for sale had them taken away from me without notice.

This was because albums were at risk of being duplicated & sold with the same song & the music streaming providers having a strict limit on the amount of downloads for each type of song sold on it. When a single from an artist's full album is sold on a streaming provider; it get deleted from servers & your purchase history when a full album comes up on sale through the same service. It's basically just a vicious money making scam from recording studios in tricking people to buy the full album once your already purchased single is removed from their collection. If you're a person who wants to pay for a music subscription, to download your favourite albums & to purchase multiple CD-R's or a hard drive. You are paying through the nose if you want this type of stuff to make you happy as for a lot of people; this type of method is not relevant for them as it could be an instant waste of money. It was also way too expensive for me to buy new blank CD-Rs in music stores just to store the same music to prevent it being stored on a hard drive on my laptop to prevent them being lost once more. I did this nonsense for two years & then I just couldn't do this my more. It was just a big waste of time & money IMO.

I have definitely gone back to buying music on CD in my last 5 purchases. The majority of them were really cheap when I got them brand new in stores. They are much cheaper from downloading albums or songs from a streaming service. The music CD will be with me until they are fully out of print from retailers & studios. I will never stop buying them again to support my favourite artists. I love buying them as I do with buying Blu-rays for my movies.

[moviegeek1992]

Speaking of CDs, I like what Amazon do. Buy the CD and get the digital version automatically. Best of both worlds. Movies of course have UV codes but not every title has them.

[PCFan]

Originally Posted by dublinbluray108

My own preferences in buying music should have been in stone from the very beginning. I should have never gone to streaming or downloading as primary use of buying music. Half of my songs from the downloaded albums were taken off due to downloading them after having multiple hard drive failures in my laptop. The issues were that the recording studios providing the songs for sale had them taken away from me without notice.

This was because albums were at risk of being duplicated & sold with the same song & the music streaming providers having a strict limit on the amount of downloads for each type of song sold on it. When a single from an artist's full album is sold on a streaming provider; it get deleted from servers & your purchase history when a full album comes up on sale through the same service. It's basically just a vicious money making scam from recording studios in tricking people to buy the full album once your already purchased single is removed from their collection. If you're a person who wants to pay for a music subscription, to download your favourite albums & to purchase multiple CD-R's or a hard drive. You are paying through the nose if you want this type of stuff to make you happy as for a lot of people; this type of method is not relevant for them as it could be an instant waste of money. It was also way too expensive for me to buy new blank CD-Rs in music stores just to store the same music to prevent it being stored on a hard drive on my laptop to prevent them being lost once more. I did this nonsense for two years & then I just couldn't do this my more. It was just a big waste of time & money IMO.

I have definitely gone back to buying music on CD in my last 5 purchases. The majority of them were really cheap when I got them brand new in stores. They are much cheaper from downloading albums or songs from a streaming service. The music CD will be with me until they are fully out of print from retailers & studios. I will never stop buying them again to support my favourite artists. I love buying them as I do with buying Blu-rays for my movies.

I feel the same way about going digital for buying movies and TV shows. A few months ago I started to get dissatisfied with iTunes. About 2 years ago I was getting dissatisfied with Vudu. I even got rid of my whole blu-ray collection because I thought that I would stick with iTunes for good, even replacing movies I had on blu-ray with iTunes versions as they went on sale. I should have stuck with physical media right from the start for ownership. I'm even considering going back to console gaming and buying games on disc and not buying digital PC games that have DRM anymore and I was a hardcore PC gamer and own a high-end PC. I think that digital makes sense for renting and subscription though. I think I will be going back to physical for ownership and continue using Netflix for a random movie or TV show I might want to watch but don't feel like owning.

[randian]

Originally Posted by moviegeek1992

Speaking of CDs, I like what Amazon do. Buy the CD and get the digital version automatically. Best of both worlds.

Only if the title is also available in Amazon Music. Much of what I buy doesn't seem to get the Autorip treatment. Instead I rip my CDs losslessly into iTunes with XLD and I have an iTunes Match subscription so I can play music on the road (which is a lo-fi environment given the noise so playing 256k mp3 isn't much of a loss). iTunes Match will upload tracks it doesn't have a match for so there's never any problem of availability like there is with Amazon Music.

[The_Donster]

Originally Posted by moviegeek1992

Speaking of CDs, I like what Amazon do. Buy the CD and get the digital version automatically. Best of both worlds. Movies of course have UV codes but not every title has them.

My wife was telling me about this. She just downloaded the app. Honestly, the only thing I have is a Mass Effect 3 sound track on my iTunes. I usually just bounce between Spotify and Pandora.

[WestMan]

Best Buy is no longer going to sell CD's. Based on this news, some people have assumed that CD's are going away. Sales for CD's have been moving towards online for a while. And my local Best Buy has had the most pitiful CD isle for the last couple of years. Not a shock they are getting out of the business of CD's.

I don't have a subscription service for music but I do use free Pandora once in a while... usually around the holidays. I actually still buy my music either digitally or on a CD and then convert it. The only time I listen to music regularly is when I work out and streaming is impractical. I also want an exactly playlist of songs every time.

Movies are a different beast then music. While I think physical copies will decrease, they won't be hit as bad as music has been.

[Steedeel]

Before I go, I will leave you with this thought. Someone else in another thread brought up cameras in television sets. They suggested that companies could charge per person for a film viewing night. So rather than now, with everyone able to watch, the camera could detect how many folk are in the room and charge accordingly. Maybe that is why they are so keen to rush out the ATSC.3.0 broadcasting standard (combined broadcast and internet) it would certainly fit that scenario wouldn’t it? Yet more reason to be wary of digital.
Once they have a camera n our homes, don’t be surprised if this comes around. Once they have smart tv with cameras linked to the internet, the vultures will be circling. Not only pay per view but pay per person.

[Indy64]

I will run out and find my aluminum foil hat!

[Steedeel]

Originally Posted by Indy64

I will run out and find my aluminum foil hat!

Never heard that before.

[Vilya]

Most of us have voluntarily placed internet connected cameras and microphones inside of our homes . Your cellphone, tablet, personal computer, voice activated TVs, game consoles, and more devices have cameras and/or microphones built-in. Any of these can be hacked and used to spy on their "owners." Webcams have been remotely accessed by hackers in the past. We have bugged our homes ourselves.

[meremortal]

Originally Posted by Dustin44

[Show spoiler]Yeah, unless it is something that is OOP or very rare, it is tougher and tougher to get rid of DVD's.

You can't even really give away VHS tapes now. I don't think my local library still even take's VHS donations anymore.

We used to have a big local used movie store, which closed a little over a year ago. I know in the back they had a VHS section. They kept lowering the prices on VHS tapes over and over just trying to get rid of them. The guy working there said they could barely get rid of any of them even when they lowered the price to 25 cents each. (and these were decent titles and some Disney titles)

Yep. VHS is basically worthless now except for very cult releases or stuff that never made it to disc. 80s horror is still pretty collectible, especially shot on video and big box stuff.

[moviegeek1992]

I think with music it's even easier with digital to save money. Amazon sometimes has offers for 2-3 months free for Prime members and Google Play Music and Apple etc also have free month trials and also offers for a couple of months discounted. Bouncing between these services will take you up to a year and you would have saved quite a bit. Any money you want to chip in to supports artists can be donated from those savings into their pateron accounts etc.

Music streaming services also work differently to video, so maybe Netflix has a movie but other services don't, but with music the same catalogue is likely to be found across all services so you're not missing much only bouncing between different UI.

[Trace Buster Buster]

When it comes to music

If I want the whole album = CD
If I just want a couple of songs = Digital

I'm actually in the process of rebuilding my CD collection. I'm only rebuying CD's that I've lost/scratched over the years and only the albums that are truly great (can put the CD in and listen to the whole album).

[Dynamo of Eternia]

Originally Posted by moviegeek1992

Best of both worlds.

Hemaphroditic porn?

[Show spoiler]This is a reference to a the movie Clerks, for those confused by my reply.

[moviegeek1992]

So I recently bought La La Land on iTunes (my first film from them). I watched it and noticed that the subtitles weren't formatted properly. They were those weird closed captions rather than the traditional SDH subs. So I shot Apple support an email enquiring about this. Without asking or confirming they automatically removed the title from my library and refunded me. Telling me to wait two weeks for them to sort the issue out and to buy it again afterwards. But seeing as I purchased it on sale, the price has now gone up. Wouldn't it have been easier for them to suggest I wait two weeks for them to try and sort out the issue and if they couldn't I could then ask for a refund?

The point is the fact that they were able to pull the title from my collection shows I had no control over that title. I did complain and to their credit they offered me two rentals for free. But it just reminded me that I myself don't have the same ability to curate my collection as I do with physical.

[randian]

Originally Posted by moviegeek1992

So I shot Apple support an email enquiring about this. Without asking or confirming they automatically removed the title from my library and refunded me.

I've had the same thing happen to me. Inquire about a problem, and rather than offer to investigate and/or resolve it they just deleted the title from my account.

[cmleblanc]

Originally Posted by randian

I've had the same thing happen to me. Inquire about a problem, and rather than offer to investigate and/or resolve it they just deleted the title from my account.

I've also had that happen. This is totally unacceptable. They should never remove a title without customer authorization. This is making me nervous about reporting any issues to them if purchased within 90 days.

[alchav21]

Originally Posted by Trace Buster Buster

When it comes to music

If I want the whole album = CD
If I just want a couple of songs = Digital

I'm actually in the process of rebuilding my CD collection. I'm only rebuying CD's that I've lost/scratched over the years and only the albums that are truly great (can put the CD in and listen to the whole album).

You can make your own CD's, with MP3 or CD File. I have a 8 Disc Player in my SUV, that's all I listen to now.

[flyry]

Originally Posted by randian

I've had the same thing happen to me. Inquire about a problem, and rather than offer to investigate and/or resolve it they just deleted the title from my account.

Apple gonna Apple