Physical Media - Love It or Hate It???

[Grant Matrix]

So we all know Bill Gates is all about digital downloaded media and made a statement about consumers not wanting physical media.

Personally I love physical media, for me it's about the entire package. I love having a library with 600+ nicely organized cases on shelves around my room. I don't want to just live with streaming media or digital storage.

There is something about sitting down, looking at your library and then 20-30 minutes later grabbing the perfect movie that just peaks your interest, opening it up and popping it in the player. Maybe I'm weird and way off base, but for all of you with large media libraries, what is your opinion? Are you ready to get rid of all your DVD/BD cases in favor of digital storage?

[CptGreedle]

I think Gates is high or something. I love physical media cause it tends to be higher quality, will last through a computer crash, and is something to actually hold onto! It is nice to just look at the disc and hold it and see the cover art.
Sure downloads are convenient, but they have low low low low low low low low low quality, compared to a physical disc at least.

[hellmonkey]

physical media for me. i can rip it to a device if i want to, share it with a friend, and dont have to worry about losing it if a HDD fails. i could prolly make a backup of my downloads, but then i have physical media again, so whats the point?

[reiella]

Could go either way really.

Here's the thing for me.

If folks wanted to go that route, why didn't the adoption in the 500+ disc changers happen?

Same idea as a Media Center really.

[xlei01]

I prefer physical media - always. It's readily available if I want to watch it right this instant. Having to download 50GB of HD content might take a while... I don't know but I don't really want to have to plan ahead to catch a HD movie...

[Sonny]

Physical Media till I die. I personally will not ever have 100's of HiDef movies sitting on hard drives , or any other option they purpose.

[greekjgg]

This is too broad a question, and this forum is not indicative of the average consumer.

As most of the members on this forum are early adopters, they tend to lean towards physical media because TODAY it is the best quality.

Personally, if I can download a movie in 1080p and in 5.1, I won't mind especially for renting. I use itunes quite a bit and I still buy physical CD's too, it just depends on the movie really.

STOP: I'm not going to DEBATE when that will be possible or when or why it never will as we have NO idea what technology has in store for us.

[mystiksuicide]

The idea of keeping my movies in a hard drives absolutely sucks big time. To rent a movie into a hard drive great no problem but when I buy something I want it physically.

Same way for my hardware. Tell me lets say your hard drive goes bad and you have 50 movies in there are they going to replace those50 movies to you at no charge? Who is responsible the company that makes the hard drve? the anti-virus company? (serves you right for having a windows based computer) the electrical company if there is a surge? Yea right you lost your movies and money.

Screw that give my disk just like when I buy photoshop. I HATE IT!!!!!

[reiella]

Originally Posted by mystiksuicide

The idea of keeping my movies in a hard drives absolutely sucks big time. To rent a movie into a hard drive great no problem but when I buy something I want it physically.

Same way for my hardware. Tell me lets say your hard drive goes bad and you have 50 movies in there are they going to replace those50 movies to you at no charge? Who is responsible the company that makes the hard drve? the anti-virus company? (serves you right for having a windows based computer) the electrical company if there is a surge? Yea right you lost your movies and money.

Screw that give my disk just like when I buy photoshop

Alot of that depends on the implementation [and of course, the provider].

Some folks, let you download as often as you want yada yada. Others, like the Near Monopoly iTunes give you one and only one download.

If the transition to purchased media goes to full digital, I expect you'll find that issue getting addressed in one manner or another.

[greekjgg]

Originally Posted by reiella

Alot of that depends on the implementation [and of course, the provider].

Some folks, let you download as often as you want yada yada. Others, like the Near Monopoly iTunes give you one and only one download.

If the transition to purchased media goes to full digital, I expect you'll find that issue getting addressed in one manner or another.

itunes does have a backup option built into it so that you can make backups of all your downloads.

On a second note guys, there are already companies that are around today like riptopia that do NOTHING but rip music/movies to hard drives for high end consumers who have home automation systems in their house and want to access their media from anywhere in their house which is the way it will be going for the mass market as well.

These customers mail all their media to this company and they send it back with a HD that has it all on it.

[xmositox]

Music

The reason i prefer music files on my computer is because its easy to pick and choose what i want to hear. Most artists are 1 or 2 hit CD wonders. Having to put a cd in a player and go through and choose which songs I want to hear is time consuming and rediculous. If I want I can burn the songs I want onto a cd or put them on an MP3 player and connect it somewhere else. On top of that a 3-5 meg Mp3 file isn't too much of a download.


Movies

Not the same problems as with music. Its not like i plan on downloading a few movies and putting them on an IPOD or HD media for view in my car. I buy and I see. And If i want to see again I do whenever the hell I want. I like seeing the nice cases lined up for my choosing. I don't plan on puting my movies on an ipod to view at a later time on a small screen. Movies are ment to be seen at home on a big screen. Why wait for a 20+(at the very least) minute download every time I want to see a movie(not even in 1080p) which I have to see within a set period of time. As long as there is physical media for movies, that will be my preference.

[tron3]

Originally Posted by greekjgg

This is too broad a question, and this forum is not indicative of the average consumer.....

I thought so too, then I realized the history of consumer movies. Reel to Reel film, BETA Max, VHS, Laser/Video disc & DVD. Even in the days of glass and vynil records people have always been a physical media type consumer.

Some will go digital. But physical media is here to stay for a LONG time.

[goodstuff]

I love physical media, for the reasons you just outlined. Nothing like holding something tangible that you own in your hand, not bound by internet connections, server crashes or the whims of the provider.

[tiger roach]

Physical media will always be preferred by a lot of us.

Music downloads are popular as hell, and yes they have cut severely into CD sales, but I can still buy any CD I want. And movie downloads are a different matter entirely from mp3s. Especially high-def.

It baffles me how all the people saying that downloads are the future cannot grasp these simple facts.

[greekjgg]

Originally Posted by tiger roach

It baffles me how all the people saying that downloads are the future cannot grasp these simple facts.

You forget that it wasn't that long ago that it used to take hours to download JUST ONE SONG. Now on itunes I can download an entire cd in less then 30 sec's.

When are people going to realize that if M$ wants to do this they can make it happen. I don't think it will DOMINATE, but it will be another OPTION for people to consider just like CD's and itunes.

Both compression and bandwidth get better and better as time goes buy. Is it really necessary to OWN a physical copy of say Rush Hour 3? NO, it's a rental movie. If I can download this and it be DAMN close to Hidef, why go through the trouble of spending $30 so you can OWN the PHYSICAL media?

[tiger roach]

Originally Posted by greekjgg

You forget that it wasn't that long ago that it used to take hours to download JUST ONE SONG. Now on itunes I can download an entire cd in less then 30 sec's.

Not forgetting that at all. My point is that in spite of the current ease of downloading tunes now, I can still buy the physical media of pretty much whatever I want. I expect the same for movies even when downloads are practical.

[Sonny]

They will both be around 1 day but neither one will knock the other one out, I will stay with physical media it is the best & worth something in the end

[greekjgg]

Originally Posted by tiger roach

Not forgetting that at all. My point is that in spite of the current ease of downloading tunes now, I can still buy the physical media of pretty much whatever I want. I expect the same for movies even when downloads are practical.

If you've tracked all my threads, I've always said both with coexist!! I do buy CD's as well as use itunes.

[werewuf]

Originally Posted by tiger roach

Music downloads are popular as hell, and yes they have cut severely into CD sales, but I can still buy any CD I want. And movie downloads are a different matter entirely from mp3s. Especially high-def.

I can't hang with mp3's, the low quality audio drives me nuts. I have been an audiophile forever and a professional musician and the higher the resolution the better for me. Same with movies. If downloading will compromise the quality through whatever compression, I am not interested. Obviously in the future there will be new versions of lossless support, however I bet that when we can download lossless 1080p physical media will, by that time be a higher resolution than today and I will want that more (kind of like what we have today with watching something in direct view compared to what you buy on a blu ray) It just seems like whatever you buy in physical media will always give higher audio/visual payback.

[Kristin Simard]

There have been many threads on this, but I'll say it again. If it's a film I want to see several times, I like having the disc. The disc can be transported from machine to machine, you can travel with it. Sell it, trade it. A library becomes a marketable asset. With a disc you don't have to be online. You don't have some company monitoring the number of times you watch it, where and when you watch it, how often you play back whatever scenes.

I already download certain films (from Jaman, for example) but these are films I may only want to view once or twice. I just rent 'em, not buy. I'll no doubt download HD too when it's available, but I want the option to own the disc if it's a film I really like! I like having a film library.