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

[Vilya]

Originally Posted by flyry

No offense, but aren't you like 50?

No offense taken; I am 56 and 12 years retired; utterly spoiled and completely irredeemable.

[Trace Buster Buster]

Originally Posted by flyry

When you use terminology like "some chick telling me how to live" it's not hard to see your future

[Vilya]

Originally Posted by Trace Buster Buster

[Show spoiler]

Timbuk 3!

[turns2stone]

Originally Posted by Fiffy

Are you referring to iTunes the computer application (as opposed to the store)? Currently streaming content from the iTunes store in H.265 is limited to some iOS and tvOS devices. I believe MacOS starting from High Sierra has H.265 support, but there is currently no way to stream or download iTunes content in H.265 on a Mac or PC.

All this talk about iTunes streaming H.265/HEVC video codec, but I think AppleTV uses a proprietary codec for 4K, i.e. QHVC (for HDR10) and QDH1 (for Dolby Vision)

[Steedeel]

Originally Posted by Vilya

While I like having someone in my life, I don't want them in my house. Not 24/7, anyway. I like my privacy, my space, my decorating, my way of doing things, and my solitude and none of that is possible with someone else living under my roof.

Katharine Hepburn observed: "I often wonder whether men and women really suit each other. Perhaps they should live next door and just visit now and then."

I share this viewpoint: in my life: yes; in my home: No!

Yeah, that’s me. Also, I moved away from caring what people think a long time ago. Except family and close friends, why worry what people think? They won’t care about you when you are dead, so why worry what they think when you are alive?

[Fiffy]

Originally Posted by turns2stone

All this talk about iTunes streaming H.265/HEVC video codec, but I think AppleTV uses a proprietary codec for 4K, i.e. QHVC (for HDR10) and QDH1 (for Dolby Vision)

It's H.265 with some proprietary extensions.

[The_Donster]

Originally Posted by Vilya

No offense taken; I am 56 and 12 years retired; utterly spoiled and completely irredeemable.

Hey!! I'm 51 and have an 8 1/2 year old son. What's your point Reminds of that old adage, "Just because there's snow on the roof doesn't mean there isn't fire in the furnace." So be leery of us old farts whippersnappers

[alchav21]

Originally Posted by alchav21

Well you're right the Disc prices have not gone up that much because the people will not buy them, but that doesn't mean the Distributors are making a profit. There's Marketing that goes into how they set the prices, having to do with Break Even Points and Profit Margins. Then yes, the prices start to come down to sell off the Inventory. I sell Movies on eBay, and start off with a price that I paid then come down till it sells usually taking a loss. Movies use to sell well, but lately I have to take big losses. I imagine the Distributors are also not seeing the same profits. So the Distributors will make less, fancy them up for the Collectors at a higher price. These are good Marketing Tactics!

Originally Posted by Vilya

I am a "people" and I buy them. The studios keep releasing them, each and every week without fail; are they doing it just for me? Are they doing it because they enjoy losing money? I am going to take a big guess here, but I suspect that the studios know their business better than you do.

On the same thread page, you said "discs will keep getting more expensive" to "prices have not gone up much." You need not contradict yourself; allow us the pleasure of pointing out your fallacies.

Why do you guys find it so hard to believe that Disc prices are not going up, isn't it logical if people want Physical they will have to pay more, Even now Disc cost more than Digital. I think I explained it fairly well, if Discs aren't selling well bringing the price down that future Disc Inventories will go down bringing the price up. The Distributors control Disc Inventories and sales, with Disc sales going down they will produce Discs with more bells and whistles at lower Inventories bringing the prices up attracting mostly Collectors. The Average Person just wants to watch a Movie at a decent Resolution and Price which will be Digital HD.

[PCFan]

Disc prices are not going up. They are pretty much stable over the years for CD, Blu-ray, and DVD. Best Buy still has a $5.99 Blu-ray bin all the time. Also buying digital codes don't count as digital sales and don't determine the success of digital. Sure the major digital services get $4.99 sales frequently but so does Blu-ray and DVD. I can't see people paying over $10 for a digital movie no matter how good the movie is but I can see people paying over $10 for a blu-ray, especially if they want to own it right away.

[IronSoldier]

Originally Posted by Fiffy

Are you referring to iTunes the computer application (as opposed to the store)? Currently streaming content from the iTunes store in H.265 is limited to some iOS and tvOS devices. I believe MacOS starting from High Sierra has H.265 support, but there is currently no way to stream or download iTunes content in H.265 on a Mac or PC.

Ah. Gotcha. I knew iOS had it added and HS but no idea if iTunes Mac had yet. Guess it's a matter of time for Macs. Advertise higher quality downloads/streams for Macs, force people to update and at the same time strengthen DRM protection. Meanwhile PCs will probably be ignored.

[Steedeel]

Originally Posted by alchav21

Why do you guys find it so hard to believe that Disc prices are not going up, isn't it logical if people want Physical they will have to pay more, Even now Disc cost more than Digital. I think I explained it fairly well, if Discs aren't selling well bringing the price down that future Disc Inventories will go down bringing the price up. The Distributors control Disc Inventories and sales, with Disc sales going down they will produce Discs with more bells and whistles at lower Inventories bringing the prices up attracting mostly Collectors. The Average Person just wants to watch a Movie at a decent Resolution and Price which will be Digital HD.

Yeah, Digital HD is worthless. We knew this. . Billions spent doesn’t mean no one is buying discs. Digital HD hasn’t even got out of the starting blocks. I mean 5% YOY growth, that’s kinda pathetic don’t you think? It will probably be worse now as it’s been a poor start to the year. The best seller I understand, for Digital is animation. Once Disney starts their streaming service, that will be all she wrote for Digital HD. Despite Movies Anywhere, UV will be forever remembered (in my opinion) has a disastrous venture and it has very likely soured peoole’s Views of collecting digitally in the long term.

[Vor4]

Originally Posted by PCFan

Disc prices are not going up. They are pretty much stable over the years for CD, Blu-ray, and DVD. Best Buy still has a $5.99 Blu-ray bin all the time. Also buying digital codes don't count as digital sales and don't determine the success of digital. Sure the major digital services get $4.99 sales frequently but so does Blu-ray and DVD. I can't see people paying over $10 for a digital movie no matter how good the movie is but I can see people paying over $10 for a blu-ray, especially if they want to own it right away.

You still can’t make up your mind on digital hd and physical media. You complained on issues with both formats.

When was the last time you saw a person in the movie section in your local Best Buy? When was the last time you saw someone looking through the movie bargin bin at Best Buy? When was the last time you saw a person buying a cd or movie at Best Buy?

Best Buy announced that they will stop selling music cds by the end of July of this year. I think more retailers will follow Best Buy’s decision. Amazon may stop selling cds and focus on their music streaming service as a replacement.

[Vor4]

Originally Posted by Steedeel

Yeah, Digital HD is worthless. We knew this. . Billions spent doesn’t mean no one is buying discs. Digital HD hasn’t even got out of the starting blocks. I mean 5% YOY growth, that’s kinda pathetic don’t you think? It will probably be worse now as it’s been a poor start to the year. The best seller I understand, for Digital is animation. Once Disney starts their streaming service, that will be all she wrote for Digital HD. Despite Movies Anywhere, UV will be forever remembered (in my opinion) has a disastrous venture and it has very likely soured peoole’s Views of collecting digitally in the long term.

But yet, physical media sales are shrinking at rapid pace, while digital hd is having stable growth. Ebooks sales are not doing as well as expected, most people prefer physical books.

[Zu Nim]

Originally Posted by Vor4

Ebooks sales are not doing as well as expected, most people prefer physical books.

Electronic book sales are handled with agency pricing (pricing controlled by the publisher, retailer is an agent) whereas print books use a wholesale model (publisher sells to distributor, then distributor/retailer decide their own prices). Once the retailers agreed to agency pricing, e-book prices went up because publishers are dumb. Retailers subsequently reduced the prices they control: print books. People are choosing the cheaper option, not necessarily the one they prefer.

Disc prices exceed digital prices for new releases and digital is released earlier. Studios and retailers are losing interest in selling discs and buyers have been losing interest for years. Down the road there could be a similar situation with discs as there is with books today where retailers discount discs to compete with the agency pricing of iTunes, Vudu, etc. But differentiating factors include a new competing sales model (subscription) as well as no substantial bookstore equivalent for discs (like Barnes & Noble). And there's nothing retailers can do if studios don't release discs in a timely manner.

[Steedeel]

Originally Posted by Vor4

But yet, physical media sales are shrinking at rapid pace, while digital hd is having stable growth. Ebooks sales are not doing as well as expected, most people prefer physical books.

Stable growth? From 15% to 5% in one year? Sure it is.

[Steedeel]

Originally Posted by Zu Nim

Electronic book sales are handled with agency pricing (pricing controlled by the publisher, retailer is an agent) whereas print books use a wholesale model (publisher sells to distributor, then distributor/retailer decide their own prices). Once the retailers agreed to agency pricing, e-book prices went up because publishers are dumb. Retailers subsequently reduced the prices they control: print books. People are choosing the cheaper option, not necessarily the one they prefer.

Disc prices exceed digital prices for new releases and digital is released earlier. Studios and retailers are losing interest in selling discs and buyers have been losing interest for years. Down the road there could be a similar situation with discs as there is with books today where retailers discount discs to compete with the agency pricing of iTunes, Vudu, etc. But differentiating factors include a new competing sales model (subscription) as well as no substantial bookstore equivalent for discs (like Barnes & Noble). And there's nothing retailers can do if studios don't release discs in a timely manner.

Lol

[SarahS]

Originally Posted by Steedeel

Stable growth? From 15% to 5% in one year? Sure it is.

Dude....stop please. You are not going to convert anyone here. We are just fine and dandy with the quality and the ease of watching these films at home or on the go. You sir are a "disc spinner". Please go spin your discs. There is no need to pitch a tent over here and live on this thread. There are so many other wonderful sections/threads for disc spinners camp on.

[Kage]

Originally Posted by Vor4

But yet, physical media sales are shrinking at rapid pace, while digital hd is having stable growth. Ebooks sales are not doing as well as expected, most people prefer physical books.

Originally Posted by Steedeel

Stable growth? From 15% to 5% in one year? Sure it is.

I think that your looking at market share of media streaming devices. Those numbers look familiar to Apple TV's market share from last year due to not having original programming and not having a 4k media steamer till September of last year. Its all going to change. Apple is in the late planning stages of having original programming to compete against Netflix and Amazon.

The charts that I looked at states that physical media is down by 30% for the this year so far, while digital hd and subscription streaming services are both up this year.

[alchav21]

Originally Posted by Steedeel

Stable growth? From 15% to 5% in one year? Sure it is.

Originally Posted by SarahS

Dude....stop please. You are not going to convert anyone here. We are just fine and dandy with the quality and the ease of watching these films at home or on the go. You sir are a "disc spinner". Please go spin your discs. There is no need to pitch a tent over here and live on this thread. There are so many other wonderful sections/threads for disc spinners camp on.

That's all right Sarah, these Disc Lovers just see their beloved Physical going Down in Flames. You can find and skew statistics anyway you want, but we all see the realistic facts. My small window on eBay, Best Buy, or Target show that Disc sales are pathetic. Like I said, Discs will be around for a while but they will have to go up in price. It's all about Supply and Demand!

[flyry]

Originally Posted by Steedeel

Yeah, Digital HD is worthless. We knew this. . Billions spent doesn’t mean no one is buying discs. Digital HD hasn’t even got out of the starting blocks. I mean 5% YOY growth, that’s kinda pathetic don’t you think? It will probably be worse now as it’s been a poor start to the year. The best seller I understand, for Digital is animation. Once Disney starts their streaming service, that will be all she wrote for Digital HD. Despite Movies Anywhere, UV will be forever remembered (in my opinion) has a disastrous venture and it has very likely soured peoole’s Views of collecting digitally in the long term.

I don't know why you always say this, this is always a bit of a lull period for releases until the winter releases come out.

I'm sure Coco and Justice league just gave digital a huge shot in the arm, as will Last Jedi next month and Black Panther in a few months.