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

[Dynamo of Eternia]

Originally Posted by Steedeel

I would if I could swap discs with a headset on.

Take the headset off, swap discs, then put the headset back on.

[Vilya]

Originally Posted by Dynamo of Eternia

Take the headset off, swap discs, then put the headset back on.

You some kind of radical?

[Dynamo of Eternia]

Originally Posted by Steedeel

It’s not so much convenience as awkward to swap discs with a VR contraction on my heed!

Doing something differently to avoid that sort of awkwardness is literally the definition of convenience.

[Vilya]

Speaking of improbable outcomes, has everyone bought themselves a lottery ticket for this coming Tuesday's record drawing, the highest in U.S. history? The Mega Millions jackpot is at a tantalizing $1.6 BILLION and will likely be near $2 billion by the date of the draw.

Odds of winning are only 302.6 million to one, so you better buy two tickets to improve your chances. These odds are likely more favorable than the odds for many of the predictions being made around here and with the potential for far happier results.

[Steedeel]

Originally Posted by Dynamo of Eternia

Doing something differently to avoid that sort of awkwardness is literally the definition of convenience.

It is and convenience is a part of life for most of us. However, when it gets in the way of art and enjoyment then it stops being convenient and becomes a lazy habit. I’m not about to degrade my experience if film in the same way that folk do. It’s too important to me. I will enjoy that takeaway on film night though. Wow, I’m a contradiction!

[Steedeel]

Originally Posted by Dynamo of Eternia

Take the headset off, swap discs, then put the headset back on.

I didn’t know you could take it off. I have been in the garden and at work with this thing on. Thanks! I just need to get rid of the ketchup stains now and I’m cooking with gas!

[Vilya]

Originally Posted by Steedeel

I didn’t know you could take it off. I have been in the garden and at work with this thing on. Thanks! I just need to get rid of the ketchup stains now and I’m cooking with gas!

I knew it! Once on, forever on.

[Steedeel]

Originally Posted by Vilya

I knew it! Once on, forever on.

We aren’t in Kansas anymore!

[dublinbluray108]

Originally Posted by Vilya

Speaking of improbable outcomes, has everyone bought themselves a lottery ticket for this coming Tuesday's record drawing, the highest in U.S. history? The Mega Millions jackpot is at a tantalizing $1.6 BILLION and will likely be near $2 billion by the date of the draw.

Odds of winning are only 302.6 million to one, so you better buy two tickets to improve your chances. These odds are likely more favorable than the odds for many of the predictions being made around here and with the potential for far happier results.

Holy merciful

I nearly thought that was a joke for one minute. How the hell did that Jackpot get so big?

[Petra_Kalbrain]

Originally Posted by Vilya

A company "possibly" offers a lower price for a tier of their services and you, naturally, see that as a bad thing? Most people welcome price drops.

Maybe it is just a marketing tactic to get more people to try Netflix and then they can try to upsell them? The "foot in the door" strategy, eh? Maybe they are trying to compete more favorably with Amazon Prime and other services?

No worries for me regardless as A): I am not a subscriber and B): you will worry enough for ALL of us.

I predict that 85% of Netflix customers will watch via cerebral implants that function as wireless network adapters directly connected to the optic and auditory nerves. Even then, they will only get, at most, 16 Mbps bitrates, with skull thickness being a limiting factor.

Originally Posted by Vilya

Speaking of improbable outcomes, has everyone bought themselves a lottery ticket for this coming Tuesday's record drawing, the highest in U.S. history? The Mega Millions jackpot is at a tantalizing $1.6 BILLION and will likely be near $2 billion by the date of the draw.

Odds of winning are only 302.6 million to one, so you better buy two tickets to improve your chances. These odds are likely more favorable than the odds for many of the predictions being made around here and with the potential for far happier results.

Originally Posted by Steedeel

I didn’t know you could take it off. I have been in the garden and at work with this thing on. Thanks! I just need to get rid of the ketchup stains now and I’m cooking with gas!

[Vilya]

Originally Posted by dublinbluray108

Holy merciful

I nearly thought that was a joke for one minute. How the hell did that Jackpot get so big?

The jackpot grows every time a drawing fails to produce a winner and with the odds of winning being 302.6 million to 1, many drawings can pass without a winner. As the prize grows, so do ticket sales, and both fuel the prize amount.

That prize assumes a single winner, too, and is paid out over 30 years or you can take a one time cash option for a far lower amount. The cash option based on the current prize amount is $905 million.

The federal government then takes a 25% chunk of that in taxes followed by whatever one's home state also takes out, no matter which payment option is chosen. You would likely receive about $543-$588 million after all taxes if you took the cash option on the current prize amount.

[The_Donster]

Originally Posted by Steedeel

What others do has direct impact on tech. Availability, options etc.,

So you don’t think your digital purchases have an impact outside of gaming?

[Steedeel]

Originally Posted by The_Donster

So you don’t think your digital purchases have an impact outside of gaming?

It’s irrelevant. Games are games. They look the same on a 4K display. Also the VR issue that I have mentioned. Finally, the audio is identical. You make it sound like I only buy digital in that format. I don’t, I buy discs also. Just not for VR as at the moment VR is hard wired and it would put too much strain on the wires continually taking the headset off.

I’m not against convenience, I’m against convenience at the EXPENSE of quality.

[Dynamo of Eternia]

Originally Posted by Steedeel

It’s irrelevant. Games are games. They look the same on a 4K display. Also the VR issue that I have mentioned. Finally, the audio is identical. You make it sound like I only buy digital in that format. I don’t, I buy discs also. Just not for VR as at the moment VR is hard wired and it would put too much strain on the wires continually taking the headset off.

I’m not against convenience, I’m against convenience at the EXPENSE of quality.

What about ownership rights? You've seemed to agree on that issue regarding digital, but you seem to flip flop on it (or at least ignore it/ forget about it) at random times.

[Steedeel]

Originally Posted by Dynamo of Eternia

What about ownership rights? You've seemed to agree on that issue regarding digital, but you seem to flip flop on it (or at least ignore it/ forget about it) at random times.

Ownership. I don’t own the games. Then again, I don't revisit games once I have played them. VR is pretty much 80% digital anyway. Consoles have a six to seven year cycle so they last that amount of time. Not many people can replay old games on new consoles and even less care about it.
On the other hand, I revisit old films all the time.

[alchav21]

Originally Posted by octagon

con·ven·ient

Originally Posted by Steedeel

Yep, but films are films. My passion, my love, my escape.

I think Streaming is a lot more than Convenient, for the people that watch Shows and Movies this way it's great Quality. The Average Person doesn't care about Bitrate as long as they get a Quality Stream. I did more testing on Netflix, and my Bitrate for UHD 4K was 15.56Mbps, and it looked Outstanding. When I talk to people their eyes glaze over when I ask about Bitrate and Resolution. DVD Quality is more than enough for them, the only people that look at every frame are Film Fanatics here. Discs are fading because nobody wants to pay $20-$30+, they will just wait till it comes out on Amazon or Netflix!

[Vilya]

Originally Posted by alchav21

I think Streaming is a lot more than Convenient, for the people that watch Shows and Movies this way it's great Quality. The Average Person doesn't care about Bitrate as long as they get a Quality Stream. I did more testing on Netflix, and my Bitrate for UHD 4K was 15.56Mbps, and it looked Outstanding. When I talk to people their eyes glaze over when I ask about Bitrate and Resolution. DVD Quality is more than enough for them, the only people that look at every frame are Film Fanatics here. Discs are fading because nobody wants to pay $20-$30+, they will just wait till it comes out on Amazon or Netflix!

You have that effect whenever you talk to people about most anything, I suspect.

I did not take much exception with your post until your last idiotic and ever predictable sentence.

Clearly, enough people are wiling to pay what discs cost because A): they still make them, we get 60-90 new releases every week, and B): We get more titles on disc each week because people still buy them. Supply and demand: that elusive concept, among many, that are beyond your grasp.

It is quite easy to purchase discs on sale and pay far less than $20-$30, even for 4K discs which are experiencing 100% sales growth this year compared to last. There are 1,080 titles on sale right now listed in the deals section of this very website with many titles under $15 and even many under $10.

You do not buy discs and you do not know what they cost. You do not know where the sales are because you do not shop for discs. I buy them every week and I do not need you to tell me what they cost. You are just flat wrong as usual.

Plenty of us value quality over convenience . We also prize actual ownership of our content in an unchangeable and tangible form. We like not being dependent upon over taxed servers and flaky ISPs to enjoy our content. I do not need to run any connection or bitrate tests when watching my movies because my discs yield reliable results with bitrates over 5 times greater than what you get with your streaming. I often get lossless audio as opposed to the lossy audio you get from streaming, not that audio has ever much mattered to someone like you who listens entirely via headphones.

There are also many titles that are entirely unavailable on streaming, especially catalog titles. In my collection alone there are likely hundreds, maybe thousands, of titles that you can not access via any streaming platform. When you actually OWN your movies, you do not have to wait and hope that Netflix or Amazon adds them someday, if they ever even do. If they do add them, they are just as likely to drop them later.

Lots of people enjoy blu-rays and 4K discs who have never visited this website nor do they analyze "every frame." Many people can recognize and appreciate the quality and actual ownership that disc playback offers without having any particular interest in how that performance is achieved. I can appreciate a gourmet meal despite not knowing how to cook worth a damn.

[Wendell R. Breland]

Originally Posted by alchav21

Discs are fading

Do you suppose that is the reason Walmart installed these new displays?

[Show spoiler]

ADD: Please note there are several titles that have sold out!!!

My local Best Buy (small store) has large, new displays as well. They are not as fancy as the ones at Walmart. Will do pictures the next time I'm in there.

[Vilya]

Originally Posted by Wendell R. Breland

Do you suppose that is the reason Walmart installed these new displays?

[Show spoiler]

ADD: Please note there are several titles that have sold out!!!

My local Best Buy (small store) has large, new displays as well. They are not as fancy as the ones at Walmart. Will do pictures the next time I'm in there.

You can post all the pictures you want along with all the data ever collected from every source and he will still only see and believe what he wishes.

You haz a far fancier Walmart than mine, but even my small town store offers 4 rows of movies on disc plus another display up by the main checkouts. They have tripled their selection of 4K titles, presumably for the holidays, and they have even added a display full of Funko Pop figures for the first time.

We have 90 new titles on disc announced for this week alone; not bad for a "fading" media that "nobody" buys.

[Wendell R. Breland]

Originally Posted by Vilya

You haz a far fancier Walmart than mine

I wish, that is the one in Waynesville NC (still a small town). Mine is really small, located at: Walmart, Pisgah Forest NC. They just recently added some UHD BD titles and a couple of low end players.