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

[Lee A Stewart]

You are all ignoring Hollywood Accounting. Yes - they could take a loss on a 4K UHD-BD but make it up in licensing out content for CBL/SAT/OTA/Streaming.

It depends how Hollywood depreciates it's assets. And it's very hard to find on their balance sheets. I know with Disney there is a Credit line item for disc sales. But the expenses to create them are buried in other Debit line items.

[PenguinInfinity]

Originally Posted by Lee A Stewart

You are all ignoring Hollywood Accounting. Yes - they could take a loss on a 4K UHD-BD but make it up in licensing out content for CBL/SAT/OTA/Streaming.

In that case why wouldn't they just license out the content for CBL/SAT/OTA/Streaming and skip the 4K UHD-BD release? You really think that lots of companies are selling thousands of 4K UHD-BD discs and losing money on each sale?

You must have really lost it if you think that alchav is making sense.

[PenguinInfinity]

Originally Posted by alchav21

We don't have hard numbers, but $15 to $19 for 4K is closer to the actual cost. Yes some 4K's will sell for much less, but that's when the higher inventory has to make up for the loss.

At those numbers the following set would cost at least $450 to manufacture:



It was sold at launch for $200. You think that WB lost $250 (or more) on every set they sold?

[Lee A Stewart]

Originally Posted by PenguinInfinity

In that case why wouldn't they just license out the content for CBL/SAT/OTA/Streaming and skip the 4K UHD-BD release? You really think that lots of companies are selling thousands of 4K UHD-BD discs and losing money on each sale?

You must have really lost it if you think that alchav is making sense.

Who said each sale? You honestly believe they make a profit on every single release? That's naive of you.

Go check out the latest sales chart - look specifically at the UHD-BD number. You really think that translates into making a profit?

Here - I will save you the effort:

[Steedeel]

Originally Posted by Lee A Stewart

Who said each sale? You honestly believe they make a profit on every single release? That's naive of you.

Go check out the latest sales chart - look specifically at the UHD-BD number. You really think that translates into making a profit?

Here - I will save you the effort:

Trust you to pick one of the lowest weeks in the last 15 months.

[alchav21]

Originally Posted by PenguinInfinity

At those numbers the following set would cost at least $450 to manufacture:



It was sold at launch for $200. You think that WB lost $250 (or more) on every set they sold?

Box Sets are priced differently, but they must be expensive to make. It depends on what kind of Profit Margin, but the Studio putting it out has to take on a lot of Cost!

[Wendell R. Breland]

IMO it does not do any good to argue with Blu-ray disc haters. After the format war was over there was a flood of post claiming Blu-ray disc were much more brittle than DVD therefore more prone to be damaged in mailing. The haters ignored Netflix stating there was essentially no difference in the number of disc damaged. This went on for some time till I posted some graphics and made them out to be liars. There were many post that stated, “put the disc in and would not play, ejected and it had a small crack on the edge”. Many even had photos. What they did not know disc (LD, CD, DVD, Blu-ray) is not like a LP, disc reads from the inside to the out side so a small crack on the edge would not prevent the disc from starting.

Others claimed Netflix was having to pay full first class postage both ways for disc rentals and the package weighed more than 1 oz. So I took a disc that was received and weighed on two different certified Pitney Bowes scales and they weighed 1 oz. Next I provided a link to USPS that showed first class business reply was a fair amount less than a one at a time normal first class. AFAIK, Netflix is the only mailer that uses first class Permit Reply Mail, that is they pay round trip postage when they mail a disc out and you can bet it is cheaper than first class business reply mail.

Point of post, you can present all the facts you want but haters will continue with their BS post. One fact they can not change, you, the enthusiast, will enjoy your movies in the best quality available!!!

[Wendell R. Breland]

Originally Posted by CV19

I can highly recommend Warlock - another western with Henry Fonda and Richard Widmark, and also released by Twilight Time - an excellent film in my opinion.

Watched last night, a great recommendation!!

Great picture but the surprise was the audio, offered 2.0 and 5.1. For me the 2.0 was more spacious using Dolby PLIIx Movie than the 5.1. Will see if I can find how the original audio was done.

[Wendell R. Breland]

Originally Posted by alchav21

Box Sets are priced differently, but they must be expensive to make. It depends on what kind of Profit Margin, but the Studio putting it out has to take on a lot of Cost!

Just more of your BS malarkey.

[Lee A Stewart]

Originally Posted by Steedeel

Trust you to pick one of the lowest weeks in the last 15 months.

Makes no difference. He definitely thinks it doesn't affect profit making.

Maybe he is also thinks Hollywood makes money on every movie.

[Wendell R. Breland]

Fact, there was an endless number of post claiming Blu-ray would fail because Blu-ray was more costly to replicate than HD DVD. And that was true, Blu-ray required new pressing machines while HD DVD could be pressed on modified DVD lines. It was heavily promoted that dual layer Blu-ray disc were a pipe dream not likely to come true.

Well here we are, Blu-ray did not fail and it did not take very long before we had dual layer disc. Some UHD Blu-ray titles even have triple layer disc.

[Steedeel]

Originally Posted by Wendell R. Breland

Fact, there was an endless number of post claiming Blu-ray would fail because Blu-ray was more costly to replicate than HD DVD. And that was true, Blu-ray required new pressing machines while HD DVD could be pressed on modified DVD lines. It was heavily promoted that dual layer Blu-ray disc were a pipe dream not likely to come true.

Well here we are, Blu-ray did not fail and it did not take very long before we had dual layer disc. Some UHD Blu-ray titles even have triple layer disc.

And thank goodness it prevailed!

[Wendell R. Breland]

Originally Posted by Steedeel

And thank goodness it prevailed!

Tonight I intend to watch another oldie, Rough Night In Jericho. Really been enjoying several old westerns.

[Wendell R. Breland]

Originally Posted by cheez avenger

I remember a few years ago Ed Harris saying that he and Knott had also acquired the rights to the second book called Resolution, but would probably not be able to film it, since the first film didn't make much money theatrically.

Thanks for the background info. If Harris did make another western it would most likely be a rare blind buy for me. Now, will the Abyss finally make it to BD and/or UHD BD. Day one purchase if it does.

[alchav21]

Originally Posted by Wendell R. Breland

Just more of your BS malarkey.

This Thread is about Physical vs Digital, and all you guys want to talk about are great Movies on 4K Discs. We don't hate Discs, just some of us don't use them anymore. I still have a large Collection, and my Blu-ray Player is connected and I can play a Disc anytime.

Oh one more thing about selling Movie Discs at a loss, especially Elaborate ones or Boxsets. The Studios would sell the Movies at a loss, but make it up on other items like Figurines and Paraphernalia.

[Steedeel]

Originally Posted by Wendell R. Breland

Tonight I intend to watch another oldie, Rough Night In Jericho. Really been enjoying several old westerns.

Enjoy. I picked up Power Of The dog (Criterion), will watch over the next few weeks.

[veritas]

You know we don't know the profit margins for discs but we do kind of know the profit margins for streaming services. Disney had 164 million subscribers and lost about 1.5 billion with at an 8 dollars a month subscription rate. That means that Disney plus streaming costs around 17 billion a year to run currently. Of that they put out 1 or 2 shows a month so they probably spent less then 2 billion on new shows even with Hollywood accounting. That would put the cost of streaming videos around 8 dollars a month per subscriber without creating new content just the royalties and general server costs to stream videos to people.


when you look at the operating costs disney is reporting it really may cost quite a bit everytime you stream a video. Whenever they sell you a 5 or 10 dollar digital copy its probably a loss within a few viewings by these numbers.

[cheez avenger]

Originally Posted by Steedeel

Enjoy. I picked up Power Of The dog (Criterion), will watch over the next few weeks.

Power of the Dog was great. I own that CC 4K disc, as well.

[cheez avenger]

Just scooped up Who Framed Roger Rabbit on 4K disc used from GameFly for $11.69.

[Steedeel]

Originally Posted by cheez avenger

Power of the Dog was great. I own that CC 4K disc, as well.

I was mentioning to Wendell few weeks back how much I enjoy the more modern westerns, I just find them to be far more authentic. Examples being as follows:

Brimstone
The Hateful 8
Meek’s Cutoff
Bone Tomahawk
Hostiles
Django Unchained
The Ballard Of Buster Scruggs