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

[Rich1631]

Originally Posted by veritas

My main problem with digital is the problem that digital is a license while a bd grants ownership.

I can sell my bd with zero problems but digital copies are nontransferable.

Digital copies also have no assurances that they wont stop working a few years into the future if the studios decide they are not profitable. Hell studios like vudu even put stuff in the contract like you can only stream movies you own for free for up to 2 years and then they have the right to charge you for streaming your own movies. If you look at the fine print for the licenses the studios have left a ton of areas where they can cut their losses and **** the user base.

The way digital copies are right now they are nothing more then a long term rental full of drm. I dont really mind digital media but as it is now its not worth paying anything more then what i would pay for a rental or 2.

Yea that is the problem most people seem to have. There needs to be a service like Steam but for movies. Steam is a digital distribution service for Pc games and it is AMAZING! They sales they have OMG! And they have great refund policy. And are very pro-consumer. And they carry almost every game. It is essentially a DRM service that has been around since 2004 and they never have screwed over the consumer. They are amazing.

[ArmyOfDarknessAW]

Originally Posted by Rich1631

Yea that is the problem most people seem to have. There needs to be a service like Steam but for movies. Steam is a digital distribution service for Pc games and it is AMAZING! They sales they have OMG! And they have great refund policy. And are very pro-consumer. And they carry almost every game.

As much as a love Steam it has a serious curation issue. The amount of junk it throws on the main page while burying great games is quite annoying. It is incredibly difficult to find some great games because Steam doesn't care to highlight the truly great stuff much. Not that this is an issue to Steam only because PSN and Xbox Live are getting to be the same thing. I wish they all had some type of standards to assure they don't just shove and old crap up there to buy.

[Rich1631]

Originally Posted by ArmyOfDarknessAW

As much as a love Steam it has a serious curation issue. The amount of junk it throws on the main page while burying great games is quite annoying. It is incredibly difficult to find some great games because Steam doesn't care to highlight the truly great stuff much. Not that this is an issue to Steam only because PSN and Xbox Live are getting to be the same thing. I wish they all had some type of standards to assure they don't just shove and old crap up there to buy.

True. I think they are trying to be "pro-indie" but yeah there is a lot of junk.

[PenguinMaster]

Originally Posted by veritas

My main problem with digital is the problem that digital is a license while a bd grants ownership.

I can sell my bd with zero problems but digital copies are nontransferable.

Originally Posted by Rich1631

Yea that is the problem most people seem to have. There needs to be a service like Steam but for movies. Steam is a digital distribution service for Pc games and it is AMAZING! They sales they have OMG! And they have great refund policy. And are very pro-consumer. And they carry almost every game. It is essentially a DRM service that has been around since 2004 and they never have screwed over the consumer. They are amazing.

Veritas mentions the main problem with digital and you respond that Steam is amazing (even though it does absolutely nothing to address that problem).

All digital services have the problem of just being a license. You can't sell your Steam games or buy used ones from other people. If a game is delisted from Steam there is no way to buy it. Even DRM-free digital content has this problem.

Only physical media puts control over distribution in the hands of the customers (via the used market) and there is no way that any digital service can ever match that.

[Rich1631]

Originally Posted by PenguinMaster

Veritas mentions the main problem with digital and you respond that Steam is amazing (even though it does absolutely nothing to address that problem).

All digital services have the problem of just being a license. You can't sell your Steam games or buy used ones from other people. If a game is delisted from Steam there is no way to buy it. Even DRM-Free digital content has this problem.

Only physical media puts control over distribution in the hands of the customers (via the used market) and there is no way that any digital service can ever match that.

I responded with that because Steam is very pro-consumer. They would never do what he is saying in his post.

[PenguinMaster]

Originally Posted by Rich1631

I responded with that because Steam is very pro-consumer. They would never do what he is saying in his post.

The point is that Valve and the game publishers retain full control of distribution, just like all other digital providers. Even if Valve never takes away the games you've purchased (there's no guarantee they won't) that doesn't help with any of them remaining available to everyone in the future.

Whether or not Steam is more "pro-consumer" than other digital services, I hate it for making DRM acceptable and popular.

[Rich1631]

Yea I get you. That is something is unavoidable with digital. It will always be there.

[whipnet]

Well I've run into something that gets clocked in the streaming con column. Comcast has implemented data caps almost across the board now. So if you stream a lot of media, you're going to have to pay extra. This is a problem for me simply streaming 1080, 4K will blow this limit in no time. The greed is staggering.

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[alchav21]

Originally Posted by whipnet

Well I've run into something that gets clocked in the streaming con column. Comcast has implemented data caps almost across the board now. So if you stream a lot of media, you're going to have to pay extra. This is a problem for me simply streaming 1080, 4K will blow this limit in no time. The greed is staggering.

They put Caps when you have a subpar Copper Infrastructure, you need Fiber. I keep saying, any form of Copper is Obsolete, Fiber is The Future. If your Community or City is not going in this direction, it's time to Move to a location that will give you Fiber and No Caps!

[randian]

Originally Posted by whipnet

Comcast has implemented data caps almost across the board now. So if you stream a lot of media, you're going to pay extra.

Comcast has compounded their perfidy by reducing the resolution of their linear channels to 720p, compressed to hell, because they don't want to spend any money at all on upgrading their old copper to fiber. If you want real 1080 video in good quality you'll have to stream it, which puts pressure on the data cap.

[PenguinMaster]

Originally Posted by whipnet

Well I've run into something that gets clocked in the streaming con column. Comcast has implemented data caps almost across the board now. So if you stream a lot of media, you're going to have to pay extra. This is a problem for me simply streaming 1080, 4K will blow this limit in no time. The greed is staggering.

Originally Posted by alchav21

They put Caps when you have a subpar Copper Infrastructure, you need Fiber. I keep saying, any form of Copper is Obsolete, Fiber is The Future. If your Community or City is not going in this direction, it's time to Move to a location that will give you Fiber and No Caps!

That makes me think of another point: price. You previously said that we'll have to pay higher prices for 4K physical media than 4K digital. Are you taking into account the higher price you'd need to pay for internet that could support high bitrate 4K streaming?

If you need to pay an additional $75-$100 per month for a faster internet connection that alone would already exceed the total cost I spend on all of my physical media.

[Rich1631]

Yeah, the Comcast data cap was just increased this past October to 1TB from 300gb for free after complaints and the FCC stepped in. Verizon fios has a 4TB data cap, is faster, and in my area (NJ) is the same price as Comcast, which is why I switched. In general, Comcast sucks and will need to be more competitive or they will go under.

But yeah when everything moves to digital, you can bet your a** the providers will start price gouging either higher rates or data caps, since they will need to compensate for the loss of landlines and cable. They will have nothing but internet access to make money. And they will justify the higher prices as "enhancing infrastructure to provide improved service" which we all know will be bs.

I have zero interest in streaming, however I have come to accept digital downloads which is inevitable at this point, although I will really miss physical media.

[mike568]

Originally Posted by alchav21

They put Caps when you have a subpar Copper Infrastructure, you need Fiber. I keep saying, any form of Copper is Obsolete, Fiber is The Future. If your Community or City is not going in this direction, it's time to Move to a location that will give you Fiber and No Caps!

You should move to a Spectrum area where there are now data caps allowed for awhile. The major down fall is the cable boxes software remind of the 90's. I live in a Charter legacy area. The Spectrum Roku is missing some national channels and my local. I can get away with the NBC Sports, Fox Sports, and Watch Espn Roku apps for football games. CBS games I have to use the antenna or have CBS All Acess since they won't let you login with your providers creditionals. It helps having my brother's Directv login since Charter doesn't have streaming rights to some channels.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G920A using Tapatalk

[randian]

I like having both physical and digital movies. Discs provide superior quality, digital provides convenience and mobility. I sometimes buy cheap digital codes for movies I didn't care about enough to see in a theater or buy on blu-ray. As an iTunes user I generally buy just the iTunes version of television shows, because nobody except HBO provides iTunes codes with television sets, even studios that normally give iTunes codes with movies, and television tends to be much more expensive to double dip than a movie.

[BGGIII]

I've wrestled back and forth with this question in my head for a long time. I decided to only buy the physical media for movies I really like and know that I'll watch more than once. My advice to someone would be choose what works best for you. Then sit back and enjoy the show.

[whipnet]

Originally Posted by alchav21

They put Caps when you have a subpar Copper Infrastructure, you need Fiber. I keep saying, any form of Copper is Obsolete, Fiber is The Future. If your Community or City is not going in this direction, it's time to Move to a location that will give you Fiber and No Caps!

I hope this was said tongue in cheek. lol

But if not, I can either run my own personal fiber to my house, or I can sell my house, shutter my business, pull my children out of their schools so I can move somewhere with fiber so I can stream movies?........ I'll buy the Blu-ray.

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[AZBrowncoat]

Just made a thread somewhat related to this topic.

Drafthouse Changed Streaming Provider (PSA)
https://forum.blu-ray.com/showthread.php?t=286557

...this exemplifies one of the issues with Digital media. Physical formats change slowly, which means after any 'format wars' (Beta vs VHS, Blu-ray vs HD-DVD), generally speaking you can expect years (even decades) of stable formats; whereas with digital - providers can make sudden and IMMEDIATE changes that effect us as consumers.

Heck - it's still possible to buy Laserdisc and VHS players, and those formats STILL work despite being phased out decades ago!

[Mr Kite]

Good read:

http://www.vox.com/culture/2016/12/2...bluray-netflix

[alchav21]

Originally Posted by alchav21

They put Caps when you have a subpar Copper Infrastructure, you need Fiber. I keep saying, any form of Copper is Obsolete, Fiber is The Future. If your Community or City is not going in this direction, it's time to Move to a location that will give you Fiber and No Caps!

Originally Posted by whipnet

I hope this was said tongue in cheek. lol

But if not, I can either run my own personal fiber to my house, or I can sell my house, shutter my business, pull my children out of their schools so I can move somewhere with fiber so I can stream movies?........ I'll buy the Blu-ray.

Hey you're the one that said Caps were put on, I'm giving you an alternative. I don't know where you live, but eventually you will need Fiber. I think UHD Blu-ray will be the last Disc, everything else will be put on Servers and Streamed or Downloaded. Cloud Services will be the Norm, and a Big Pipe will be needed....This will be Fiber! I have Fiber, and I think this is the only way to go.

[whipnet]

Originally Posted by alchav21

Hey you're the one that said Caps were put on, I'm giving you an alternative.

You gave me nothing. And if you really wanted to argue about the future of data transmission, it's in wireless, not wired.

And I live in Houston. The city that host most of the internet. lol

http://venturebeat.com/2013/10/23/wh...d-infographic/

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