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

[Wendell R. Breland]

Originally Posted by Vilya

In other news, Sony has announced that they are closing their Ultra 4K streaming service on July 26, 2019. Sony Ultra is soon to be no more.

Warner had a sale recently and I purchased two 3D titles, Wonder Woman & Blade Runner 2049. Both included a standard Blu-ray disc but no digital code which I thought was interesting.

Also purchased the new UHD of Black Hawk Down and it did have a MA digital code but there was no mention of a digital refund on the cover or the insert.

[alchav21]

Originally Posted by Vilya

I was just sharing the news, no ranting involved. As for "where I have been" I have been trying to overcome some health issues and the momentum is not where I would like to see it. I will comment as I am able to do so, but it won't be as often.

Owning a flagship model TV, or even a really nice one, and only watching highly compressed artifact plagued streaming would really be a waste of that TV's potential. A 4K disc player with a great 4K disc movie will show you what that TV can really do and that is something you will never know because you have summarily passed judgment on 4k disc players without ever having experienced what they can offer. It's really your loss as you just do not know what you are missing nor what your TV is capable of displaying.

Sorry for your health and I hope you get better, I miss the discussions we have. As for the Quality of Streaming, I can't compare it to the Quality of Disc because I don't have a 4K Player. I have Streamed 4K with HDR, and like Vincent Teoh says, to my eyes it's Fantastic with no Artifacts!

[veritas]

I am having a hard time deciding if this year has been a great year for physical media or not. A ton of things on my wish list seem to be getting releases:
cyborg 009
dbz
power rangers movie
road to eldorado
chicken run
sinbad
hunter x hunter
inuyasha
goofy movie
extremely goofy movie
jetsons
they finished duck tales on dvd

For new release films I would put this year at average Im interested in 3 or 4 and might buy some others but I dont find the release calander very impressive this year.

For sales this year has been pretty terrible so far. I could probably count the number of good sales on one hand for the year so far.

Overall this years adding to my wish list but not tempting me to actually buy very much.

[alchav21]

You're talking about Blu-ray not 4K, I don't find that a plus for Disc. Also what is your price point, if the Studios don't make their Break Even Point, they will cut down on their Disc Distribution.

[octagon]

Originally Posted by veritas

I am having a hard time deciding if this year has been a great year for physical media or not.

Eh, pretty good overall. I agree that new releases have been somewhat underwhelming and really exciting catalog releases are fewer and farther between but that's due in no small measure to how much of my various wishlists have already been released. And yeah, it seems to me like prices are creeping up a bit too. But given how insanely reasonable (shut up, you know what I mean) prices have been I'm a little reluctant to complain too much about that last one.

But even with all that, still a pretty good year.

Every month might not bring a whole slew of OMG announcements but there are enough to keep things interesting, prices aren't crazy and it doesn't appear that huge numbers of titles are going OOP ne'er to be heard from again.

I can live with this.

(note: this all from the perspective of BD only)

[dublinbluray108]

I'm sorry to hear of your health problems Vilya. I hope you will get well soon.

What I heard on the Ultraviolet thread from this site recently is that all of the Ultraviolet movies will be transferring to Google Play soon. Although; it is not confirmed news yet. It's just speculation going on from some posters on there.

There are some notable DVD & UHD releases coming out soon in the U.S. & possibly worldwide as well.

For DVD; it's a new complete collection box-set for The Brady Bunch. Although I was surprised there is no Blu-ray release of the Brady Bunch at all. Could that stuff take a while for a HD release to come out from it's studio. Is it Paramount that will do the Blu-ray releases because they are in charge of releasing the newly released box set?

For UHD; Warner Brothers are releasing all of the live action Batman movies from Tim Burton & Joel Schumacher. The films have a new 4K remaster which is also included on the 1080p Blu-ray. But the sound options are a bit interesting here because they don't have the original sound mix on the new Blu-rays. They only have the updated Dolby Atmos mix on them.

I hope sales of these will give a good start as we head into this coming week.

[veritas]

Originally Posted by alchav21

You're talking about Blu-ray not 4K, I don't find that a plus for Disc. Also what is your price point, if the Studios don't make their Break Even Point, they will cut down on their Disc Distribution.

4k is a gimmick. most of the movies called 4k are upscales and hdr adds little to nothing from most films i have seen. The biggest improvement i have seen from 4k is a terrible encode being remastered but 99% of those improvements could have been had in a blu ray release also.

Theirs still a pretty huge quality difference between a blu ray and a stream. I could watch a stream and a blu ray side by side and easily tell you which one is the inferior stream on my setup but i doubt i could always do it with a 4k disc vs blu ray comparison.

I have seen a few quality 4k encodes that are worth getting but mostly 4k is used as a gimmick that offers negligible improvements.

[avs commenter]

Originally Posted by veritas

4k is a gimmick. most of the movies called 4k are upscales and hdr adds little to nothing from most films i have seen. The biggest improvement i have seen from 4k is a terrible encode being remastered but 99% of those improvements could have been had in a blu ray release also.

Theirs still a pretty huge quality difference between a blu ray and a stream. I could watch a stream and a blu ray side by side and easily tell you which one is the inferior stream on my setup but i doubt i could always do it with a 4k disc vs blu ray comparison.

I have seen a few quality 4k encodes that are worth getting but mostly 4k is used as a gimmick that offers negligible improvements.

Sounds like you need a new setup

[Steedeel]

Originally Posted by veritas

I am having a hard time deciding if this year has been a great year for physical media or not. A ton of things on my wish list seem to be getting releases:
cyborg 009
dbz
power rangers movie
road to eldorado
chicken run
sinbad
hunter x hunter
inuyasha
goofy movie
extremely goofy movie
jetsons
they finished duck tales on dvd

For new release films I would put this year at average Im interested in 3 or 4 and might buy some others but I dont find the release calander very impressive this year.

For sales this year has been pretty terrible so far. I could probably count the number of good sales on one hand for the year so far.

Overall this years adding to my wish list but not tempting me to actually buy very much.

Great year so far. VS, Arrow, Distribpix, Severin films, 3D Archive, the list goes on. I already have 20 titles planned as well as more of my regular mainstream films.

[The_Donster]

Just popped in to wish Vilya a speedy recovery. Hopefully it isn’t anything serious and you get back where you want to be

[Wendell R. Breland]

Originally Posted by veritas

4k is a gimmick.

I disagree, however, I said quite sometime back there needed to be a clarification label on UHD/4K packaging stating the source as 2K DI or 4K DI. Blu-ray.COM has added that info to each UHD/4K title they list.

Some disagree because a few 2K DI sourced titles look better than a few 4K DI titles. IMO, they miss the point because a 8K scan of a 8MM film is still going to look like a 8MM film.

[Anthony P]

Originally Posted by alchav21

My question is what should they buy first, UHD 4K TV or 4K Player? I say buy a good 4K TV that supports DV and HDR. If they get a good one, they can start watching 4K Content without the 4K Player. With good Internet access they may be surprised with the Quality, and skip all the hassles and cost with the 4K Players!

For me the answer depends on the circumstances.

1) my TV stopped functioning/ bought a new home and looking for a new TV for the extra rooms.

if they are looking for a big Tv, there is no choice, get a 4k TV, if it is a small TV get a 1080p TV if you don't care about quality you can save some cash

2) I want to upgrade my TV to watch films in higher video quality

get a UHD TV and UHD BD there is no choic4e

3) I want to be able to say I have a 4k TV but I don't care how bad things look because it is all about being able to say 4k

get the TV, waste the money and watch something that is inferior quality and has less detail then BD (and lets not forget audio)

4) I don't have the funds but I care about quality.

get the UHD player, you can grow your collection in UHD and with the better source the downscaled image will be better then BD.

[alchav21]

Originally Posted by Anthony P

For me the answer depends on the circumstances.

1) my TV stopped functioning/ bought a new home and looking for a new TV for the extra rooms.

if they are looking for a big Tv, there is no choice, get a 4k TV, if it is a small TV get a 1080p TV if you don't care about quality you can save some cash

2) I want to upgrade my TV to watch films in higher video quality

get a UHD TV and UHD BD there is no choic4e

3) I want to be able to say I have a 4k TV but I don't care how bad things look because it is all about being able to say 4k

get the TV, waste the money and watch something that is inferior quality and has less detail then BD (and lets not forget audio)

4) I don't have the funds but I care about quality.

get the UHD player, you can grow your collection in UHD and with the better source the downscaled image will be better then BD.

New home, put FTTH at the top of the List. Also Structured Cat Data Wiring to all the rooms you want a computer or TV, especially to your Entertainment Center. Now there are various levels of Video Content Quality, and with a good UHD TV set up properly with enough Bandwidth you can start viewing 4K and make your own judgment. If you don't like the Quality, you can put your pennies together and buy that Panasonic UB9000.

[dublinbluray108]

Some big news is expected from Apple on it's future with iTunes at WWDC tomorrow.

More detail here.

https://www.engadget.com/2019/05/31/itunes-apple-macos/

https://www.engadget.com/2019/06/01/the-morning-after/

[cheez avenger]

It looks like it's going to get split into 3 apps. My iTune films are in the Apple TV app on my iOs devices.

[veritas]

Was going to watch the uhd of tranformers on vudu but the sound doesn't seem to be synced up. Its pretty annoying how common these sorts of issues are with streaming.

[Dynamo of Eternia]

Originally Posted by alchav21

Congrats on your new home, hope it's in an area that has Fiber.

Holy crap, you are dumber than a box of rocks. He wasn't saying that he actually got a new home. He was giving examples of hypothetical scenarios in which he/people-in-general would be making decisions about what kind of TVs/equipment to buy.

You completely missed the point (as you often do, but this is one of the more absurd examples of it), and just used this as a reason to go on a tangent about fiber again, which has ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to do with the point he was making.

I honestly don't understand how you are even capable of dressing yourself in the morning, given your ability to comprehend things on even the most basic level.

[Wendell R. Breland]

For those that may not visit the Ultra HD Blu-ray and 4K Hardware and Technology section, Spears & Munsil will release their new Spears & Munsil UHD HDR Benchmark (Test Disc for 4K) soon, thread here. Stacey has said, in the HDR thread, that it will be available via Amazon (USA, CA). He will most likely post other outlets once the disc become available.

IMO, every videophile needs a copy of this in their tool box.

[alchav21]

Originally Posted by Dynamo of Eternia

Holy crap, you are dumber than a box of rocks. He wasn't saying that he actually got a new home. He was giving examples of hypothetical scenarios in which he/people-in-general would be making decisions about what kind of TVs/equipment to buy.

You completely missed the point (as you often do, but this is one of the more absurd examples of it), and just used this as a reason to go on a tangent about fiber again, which has ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to do with the point he was making.

Okay don't get your junk all in a bunch, I modified the response a bit. You're right I didn't read it properly haven't had time. I still think that most people don't put Internet access at the top of their list. I belong to another Tech Site, and this person was asking "Is Coax still a thing?" He was rebuilding a home that burned down, and he got all kinds of responses. He finally settled on Cat6 and Coax to rooms where a TV would be located. My last three homes have had Cat Data Wiring, and the last two Fiber. I guess it all depends on what is important to a person. I feel that Fast Internet Access will be very important.

[Steedeel]

Originally Posted by Dynamo of Eternia

Holy crap, you are dumber than a box of rocks. He wasn't saying that he actually got a new home. He was giving examples of hypothetical scenarios in which he/people-in-general would be making decisions about what kind of TVs/equipment to buy.

You completely missed the point (as you often do, but this is one of the more absurd examples of it), and just used this as a reason to go on a tangent about fiber again, which has ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to do with the point he was making.

I honestly don't understand how you are even capable of dressing yourself in the morning, given your ability to comprehend things on even the most basic level.

Dynamo, I have replied to your PM if you want to have a gander.