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

[Vilya]

Higher quality, actual ownership, and better value. That's why I buy discs.

[Wendell R. Breland]

I am pretty well organized so have no clutter, don't mind the wait because I rarely blind buy, check out most all titles of interest via BD from Netflix by mail. And by far the most important: high bit rate video and lossless audio. Neither are available via streaming regardless of release date and price.

The last time I tallied, my average per BD rental was ≈ $2.00. Been keeping up with rentals and purchases ever since the days of LaserVision and βetamax/VHS (Sinclair, Commodore, IBM).

[cheez avenger]

I will say that I just signed up for AMC Stubs A-List and it was truly a revelation to see a film in Dolby Cinema. I am not 4k or Dolby Atmos compliant. I don't see myself upgrading my equipment anytime soon, but when the time comes, I will most likely start to upgrade my gear piece by piece. I have no timeframe for the upgrades but by upgrading to 4K and Atmos, it doesn't mean that I will up my physical media purchases. I have an Apple TV 4k already and will upgrade my Netlfix account to 4k and Redbox now offers 4k rentals. I will also make iTunes and Vudu purchases in UHD/4k.

[Vilya]

Originally Posted by cheez avenger

I will say that I just signed up for AMC Stubs A-List and it was truly a revelation to see a film in Dolby Cinema. I am not 4k or Dolby Atmos compliant. I don't see myself upgrading my equipment anytime soon, but when the time comes, I will most likely start to upgrade my gear piece by piece. I have no timeframe for the upgrades but by upgrading to 4K and Atmos, it doesn't mean that I will up my physical media purchases. I have an Apple TV 4k already and will upgrade my Netlfix account to 4k and Redbox now offers 4k rentals. I will also make iTunes and Vudu purchases in UHD/4k.

Upgrading your gear will bring you more enjoyment however you choose to source your content. You'll have fun getting there and a blast once you arrive. Enjoy!

[Wendell R. Breland]

Originally Posted by cheez avenger

I have an Apple TV 4k already

I have been told the Apple TV 4K does not pass MaxFALL and MaxCLL metadata on to the HDR display device. Know anything about that? They also change how it passes Dolby Atmos thru HDMI, as in, it will not work when connected to a Oppo-203 HDMI Input. Don't know if the Apple has problems with other devices.

[cheez avenger]

Originally Posted by Wendell R. Breland

I have been told the Apple TV 4K does not pass MaxFALL and MaxCLL metadata on to the HDR display device. Know anything about that? They also change how it passes Dolby Atmos thru HDMI, as in, it will not work when connected to a Oppo-203 HDMI Input. Don't know if the Apple has problems with other devices.

I have no idea. I only get HD out of my Apple TV.

[avs commenter]

Originally Posted by Wendell R. Breland

I have been told the Apple TV 4K does not pass MaxFALL and MaxCLL metadata on to the HDR display device. Know anything about that? They also change how it passes Dolby Atmos thru HDMI, as in, it will not work when connected to a Oppo-203 HDMI Input. Don't know if the Apple has problems with other devices.

I dont know what Maxfall or maxcll is, but 4K HDR through my Apple TV looks great and visually it's just as good as my UHD player, sometime it even looks better

[Wendell R. Breland]

Some of you folks may find this amusing, in the days of LaserVision there were a lot VHS supporters that declared VHS had a better picture and sound than LaserDisc. I would wager most of those posters had never viewed a LaserVision disc.

But one of my all time favorites, “I put my rental Blu-ray disc in the player and it would not play. Removed the disc and it had a small crack on the outer edge.” There were large number of post similar to this with many including pictures. The pictures, for the most part, were as bogus as the comment.

[RefractiveIndex]

Originally Posted by avs commenter

I dont know what Maxfall or maxcll is, but 4K HDR through my Apple TV looks great and visually it's just as good as my UHD player, sometime it even looks better

Yep, of course it does

I've had several people tell me that their pirated rips they download from torrents look and sound just as good as well.... doesn't mean they actually do though.

There's a reviewer on Youtube called Sparechange who has recently been reviewing both iTunes and 4K UHD of the same film and not a single film he's reviewed has it been the case where the iTunes version has equaled or trumped the 4K UHD. Not a single one.

There's also something about a high bitrate film in motion that it just looks more solid, consistent and the image has more depth compared to streaming, even if a paused frame looks relatively similar. Whereas streaming seems like it's almost struggling to keep up sometimes, especially when it comes to things like smoke, fog, liquid and fast moving frantic scenes.

[avs commenter]

I started off streaming 4K. Later I bought a UHD player because I didn't want to always be dependent on my internet and I thought there would be a noticeable increase in picture quality. Other than 1 film, (Solo) I haven't noticed a better picture on my UHD player compared to the 4K stream. One film, Thor Ragnaork, actually looks better on Vudu than on disc.

I'm talking picture quality only BTW. I don't currently have an elaborate enough audio set up to take advantage of the lossless audio that disc offers.

[Wendell R. Breland]

Originally Posted by avs commenter

Later I bought a UHD player

Brand and model?

[RefractiveIndex]

Originally Posted by avs commenter

One film, Thor Ragnaork, actually looks better on Vudu than on disc.

I'm guessing your display has good Dolby Vision support? Thor Ragnorak lacks Dolby Vision on the disc, but just because the VUDU version in this rare case supports Dolby Vision says more about your display than it does streaming being inherently equal or better. I watch films on a projector which obviously doesn't support Dolby Vision, so in my case, I can almost guarantee that if I had access to VUDU I'd be able to say the disc with HDR10 is better because I'd have the advantages of the disc version and wouldn't be able to benefit from the Dolby Vision metadata.

[Wendell R. Breland]

Originally Posted by RefractiveIndex

Thor Ragnorak lacks Dolby Vision on the disc

But it is 3D on my disc, frame packed. Don't know if any of the streamers have it in 3D but if they do you only get ½ V or H resolution.

[avs commenter]

Originally Posted by Wendell R. Breland

Brand and model?

Sony x700

[Vilya]

Originally Posted by Wendell R. Breland

But it is 3D on my disc, frame packed. Don't know if any of the streamers have it in 3D but if they do you only get ½ V or H resolution.

I opted for the 3D version of that title, too.

3D is poorly represented in streaming; I found no titles offered in 3D on Netflix and only 75 on Vudu. I have 257 3D titles in my collection with more coming.

As much as I enjoy 3D, I guess my next display will have to be a 4K projector as they still support 3D, Dolby Vision capable or not. I'll take 3D over DV any day if forced to choose.

[cheez avenger]

On a tangent, and not to derail the thread, but I basically put together a "budgeted" 4K/Atmos package as if I was going to buy my components all at the same time.

So for the 4k TV, UHD player, Atmos satellite speakers, and Atmos receiver - it's about $1300 USD.

[Vilya]

Originally Posted by cheez avenger

On a tangent, and not to derail the thread, but I basically put together a "budgeted" 4K/Atmos package as if I was going to buy my components all at the same time.

So for the 4k TV, UHD player, Atmos satellite speakers, and Atmos receiver - it's about $1300 USD.

Sorry, but that just won't do. You HAVE to spend $10K at a minimum according to our resident 4K UHD disc player and home theater "expert." You know, the posts from that guy who owns neither, but yet tells the rest of us what we need to spend.

[alchav21]

Originally Posted by Vilya

Sorry, but that just won't do. You HAVE to spend $10K at a minimum according to our resident 4K UHD disc player and home theater "expert." You know, the posts from that guy who owns neither, but yet tells the rest of us what we need to spend.

Hey you don't have to spend anything, I'm just going by the Experts and the equipment they recommend. My Sony UHD TV a few years ago cost $2.5K, and now you can buy it for the budgeted amount. I'm just saying everyone has their own levels of Quality for the amount they want to spend. The bar just keeps going up for the Greatest Picture and Sound Quality!

[Wendell R. Breland]

Originally Posted by alchav21

I'm just going by the Experts and the equipment they recommend.

Did you count the number of changes (files) for the Netflix Test Patterns?

[Wendell R. Breland]

Originally Posted by Vilya

As much as I enjoy 3D, I guess my next display will have to be a 4K projector as they still support 3D, Dolby Vision capable or not. I'll take 3D over DV any day if forced to choose.

May want check out this thread. Secrets reviewers are pretty demanding and gave good marks for this projector. It will be interesting to hear what Kris has to say about it. Sim (site here) has a new model using the same or similar DLP chip, it only list for $30,000. The chip is not native 2160 X 3840.