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

[PenguinInfinity]

Originally Posted by Boccaccio

"Don't expect anything new that hasn't been released before".
Well, that's disappointing. Much ado about nothing.

Hopefully they release some pressed discs of Fox TV shows that were previously only released on DVD-R.

[Ender14]

Originally Posted by alchav21

Here is a rundown on this new deal. Jeff from Films At Home lays it out real nice. Like I said, DVD maybe BD, but 4K Discs are too expensive!

Perhaps you should read the details of the deal before you make comments you know are inflammatory. Per Bill Hunt at the Digital Bits:

First, this deal does NOT include 4K Ultra HD titles.

This deal also does not include new content, new transfers, or new remasters.

Titles that were previously released on DVD will be re-issued on DVD, and titles previously issued on Blu-ray will be re-released on Blu-ray—there will be no format upgrades.

The total number of titles to expect is in the 100-200 range.

So basically it is just a way to get out of print discs back in circulation through Mill Creek. It has NOTHING to do with 4K discs being "too expensive"

Did you even watch the video? He states exactly what I copied above. At no point does he say they're not doing 4K because it's too expensive. You can't even comprehend the information you provide.

[cheez avenger]

Babylon digital 4K DV/ATMOS is live on iTunes for $24.99 That's too rich for my blood, so since I will be blind buying it anyway, I will get the 4K disc on 3/21.

[Wendell R. Breland]

Originally Posted by cheez avenger

Babylon digital 4K DV/ATMOS is live on iTunes for $24.99 That's too rich for my blood, so since I will be blind buying it anyway, I will get the 4K disc on 3/21.

It appears Paramount is quite a bit in the red with this one. Will most definitely have to rent this one before buying, the trailer shows a lot of handheld.

One of my tape operators/editors used to talk about making a movie about a movie that was about making a movie.

[bhampton]

Hey,

I read an article on Buzzfeed about what people are cutting back on to help budget and cable and streaming services was on the list.

"All the streaming services. It's incredible how cheap DVDs and TV box sets are. The best thing: YOU OWN THEM AND NEVER HAVE TO WORRY ABOUT YOUR FAVORITE MOVIE OR TV SHOW DISAPPEARING BECAUSE OF CORPORATE DECISIONS."


Of course, there are some free or nearly free streaming services like Tubi and Pluto.

But, before subjecting yourself to ads and ad breaks during movies () consider your local library. They sometimes have physical media (libraries near me do and they give you a week to return plus they don't actually have fees anymore at my location) they also usually offer an online service like Kanopy, Houpla, Overdrive or Acorn.

My library offers Kanopy and I do use it often. I get 6 credits a month and I've watched things that would have been hard to find anywhere else. Kanopy has a lot from Criterion and A24 and the Kanopy Kids section is unlimited (no credits needed if it's in the kids section.)

Another article on the subject....

https://screenrant.com/free-streamin...hulu/#acorn-tv

-Brian

[Lee A Stewart]

Netflix Outlines Password Sharing Rules and Guidelines

The password sharing party is over.

Netflix has disclosed specific rules and regulations it has put into place limiting how and where subscribers and non-subscribers can access content outside of their homes.

Effective immediately, only members of a single household can share a subscription account password within the home. Sharing a password with a family member living elsewhere is no longer allowed.

Subscribers will have to “localize” their account location to one internet service network affording only those connected televisions or devices to that network access to Netflix. Any user profile associated with a household subscription must access Netflix at least once a month to remain active.

Accessing Netflix content outside the home for subscribers will require permission from the main account holder and an accompanying code from Netflix.

The subscription streaming video pioneer is taking the steps as new subscriber growth slows and company estimates suggest upwards of 100 million users globally are accessing Netflix without paying for it.

Netflix has tested offering discounted shared password accounts in South America, with plans to expand the program globally. The service has also launched a less-expensive ad-supported subscription option.

https://www.mediaplaynews.com/netfli...nd-guidelines/

[Lee A Stewart]

Hollywood Blockbusters Upped 2022 U.K. Home Entertainment Retail Revenue 6% to $775.5 Million

Entertainment consumers in the U.K. still love to purchase movies and TV shows across digital and physical formats. New data from the British Association for Screen Entertainment found that consumers spent more than $775 million acquiring video content — led by Paramount Home Entertainment’s Top Gun: Maverick and Sony Pictures Home Entertainment’s Spider-Man: No Way Home.


Maverick was the biggest selling home entertainment title with 1.566 million combined unit sales across transactional VOD, electronic sellthrough, Blu-ray Disc and DVD. The original 1986 Top Gun was top-selling transactional VOD title.

No Way Home, the 2021 global box office champion, sold 1.365 million combined unit sales across all transactional formats. HBO’s “House of the Dragon: Season One” was the top-selling TV show on disc.

More than 50 movies were released on Premium Electronic Sellthrough (PEST) and PVOD, up 6.3% rise from 2021, with the average theatrical window per movie hovering around 35 days.

Electronic Sellthrough generated $281 million, with 13 titles selling more than 100,000 units. Transactional VOD revenue increased 6.1% to $162.4 million from $153 million in 2021.

Packaged media generated $257.2 million in sales across DVD, Blu-ray Disc and 4K UHD Blu-ray, with 13 titles selling more than 100,000 units. Blu-ray and Blu-ray 4K UHD upped their physical market share to 40%, with 4K UHD demonstrating 14.7% growth from 2021.

Warner Bros. Home Entertainment was the leading transactional content studio distributor across physical (34% market share) and digital (17.8% share) channels.

https://www.mediaplaynews.com/hollyw...775-5-million/

[cheez avenger]

More titles are being removed completely from P+ and Showtime:

Days after Showtime, which is currently merging with Paramount+, pulled multiple titles from their platform, the streaming service has followed suit.

Jordan Peelee’s “The Twilight Zone,” which aired for two seasons between 2019 and 2020, has been removed, along with all three seasons of “The Real World: Homecoming.” Other projects no longer available include “Coyote,” “No Activity,” “Guilty Party” and “The Harper House.”

https://variety.com/2023/tv/news/par...ng-1235509521/


In addition to:

Showtime has pulled City on a Hill, the Kevin Bacon and Aldis Hodge cop thriller that lasted 3 seasons. It’s not available anymore on the Paramount plus or Showtime app.

[alchav21]

Originally Posted by Ender14

So basically it is just a way to get out of print discs back in circulation through Mill Creek. It has NOTHING to do with 4K discs being "too expensive"

Did you even watch the video? He states exactly what I copied above. At no point does he say they're not doing 4K because it's too expensive. You can't even comprehend the information you provide.

I don't just pull this stuff out of my hat, here is Heath Holland from CerealAtMidnight. You guys think it's so cheap to Stamp Out Discs, like Wendell puts it!

The True Cost of 4K - YouTube

[Ender14]

Originally Posted by alchav21

I don't just pull this stuff out of my hat, here is Heath Holland from CerealAtMidnight. You guys think it's so cheap to Stamp Out Discs, like Wendell puts it!

The True Cost of 4K - YouTube

For the love of all that is holy, it doesn't matter how much it costs to make 4K discs. They are obviously more profitable than streaming because they keep releasing more and more discs whereas all streaming services are cutting back. It costs a ton to make a Lamborghini but it doesn't matter because they make money off of it. It's not a hard concept.

[Wendell R. Breland]

Originally Posted by alchav21

I hope you don't mind SD DVD, especially for TV Shows. Maybe BD, but it cost 6.5 x DVD to make 4K Discs!

Originally Posted by alchav21

I don't just pull this stuff out of my hat, here is Heath Holland from CerealAtMidnight. You guys think it's so cheap to Stamp Out Discs, like Wendell puts it!

Not sure why I bother replying but there may be some here that will understand.

To repeat, Mill Creek will not be doing 4K disc in the Disney deal because that was not part of the deal!! Get it???

Disc replication cost, even your YouTube idol listed UHD Blu-ray as 3X more than DVD, not 6.5 x. Film restoration, scanning, color grading, etc. does cost more for higher resolution video formats. Some of these projects where restored literally frame by frame.

I would ask Robert A. Harris to explain here but he refuses to post on this site because of clueless posters like you. In fact, he requested that I not even quote him on this site.

Does anyone know of a title restoration done for streaming only? I do not, every project that I know about was done for disc and could make it to streaming. With so many EST capable devices one would think it would be the other way around.

[veritas]

Originally Posted by alchav21

I don't just pull this stuff out of my hat, here is Heath Holland from CerealAtMidnight. You guys think it's so cheap to Stamp Out Discs, like Wendell puts it!

The True Cost of 4K - YouTube

To make a 4k stream they need to restore a film for 4k either way it’s a sunk cost unless they just throw the film in the trash and make nothing off it. As far as authoring goes they need to author it for streaming or for physical media.

The questionable thing is what costs more pressing a disc packaging it and selling it or selling it digitally and running the costs to stream that film forever. Personally I think the dollar or 2 a pressed and package disc takes is less then the cost to run a media server for a life time.

[Steedeel]

Watched Highlander 4K tonight. Ashamed to say I hadn’t seen it all the way through. All I remember is hazy clips on VHS.

Positives:
transfer really shows off the highlands and the various camera pans and swoops.
Cinematography is impressive and quite creative at times.
Queen soundtrack
Clancy Brown

Negatives
Unconvincing sword fights
Very dated FX
Disjointed script
Christopher Lambert has about as much charisma as a sink plunger.

A rare dud blind buy for me, all these years wondering what all the fuss was about and now, I think I was right to avoid it.

Going to sell it

Film 2/5
Picture quality 4/5
Audio 4/5
Extras 4/5

[Wendell R. Breland]

Originally Posted by Steedeel

Watched Highlander 4K tonight. Ashamed to say I hadn’t seen it all the way through. All I remember is hazy clips on VHS.

Christopher Lambert has about as much charisma as a sink plunger.

A new one and . Believe I had mentioned we rented and took a pass on this one. I'm sure others passed on some titles that I really liked.

For me, the best use of this thread has become post that alert us to titles and vendors of disc that we may have overlooked or forgot about. Same for some streaming titles. Even alchav21 has contributed positive in this area.

[Steedeel]

Originally Posted by Wendell R. Breland

A new one and . Believe I had mentioned we rented and took a pass on this one. I'm sure others passed on some titles that I really liked.

For me, the best use of this thread has become post that alert us to titles and vendors of disc that we may have overlooked or forgot about. Same for some streaming titles. Even alchav21 has contributed positive in this area.

Agreed.

Still my champion for the year is Top Gun: Maverick. Film and 4K A/V quality. Nope was also excellent along with The Batman.

Catalogue wise, Shawshank fared the best but that may be put to the test with Apocalypse Now (watching next week)

Next up for new releases is Dune. Probably early next week.

Weekend HT viewing will be The Black Phone (standard Blu)

[cheez avenger]

Originally Posted by Steedeel

Watched Highlander 4K tonight. Ashamed to say I hadn’t seen it all the way through. All I remember is hazy clips on VHS.

Positives:
transfer really shows off the highlands and the various camera pans and swoops.
Cinematography is impressive and quite creative at times.
Queen soundtrack
Clancy Brown

Negatives
Unconvincing sword fights
Very dated FX
Disjointed script
Christopher Lambert has about as much charisma as a sink plunger.

A rare dud blind buy for me, all these years wondering what all the fuss was about and now, I think I was right to avoid it.

Going to sell it

Film 2/5
Picture quality 4/5
Audio 4/5
Extras 4/5

Sorry you didn't care for it. I love the film and it's one of my favorite films of all time -- made an impact on me when I was young, so I figure it's one of those "you had to be there" type-of-films.

[Ender14]

Originally Posted by cheez avenger

Sorry you didn't care for it. I love the film and it's one of my favorite films of all time -- made an impact on me when I was young, so I figure it's one of those "you had to be there" type-of-films.

Agree with this. I've always had a soft spot for Highlander since seeing it as a teen. Worth it for Clancy Brown alone.

[alchav21]

Originally Posted by Ender14

For the love of all that is holy, it doesn't matter how much it costs to make 4K discs. They are obviously more profitable than streaming because they keep releasing more and more discs whereas all streaming services are cutting back. It costs a ton to make a Lamborghini but it doesn't matter because they make money off of it. It's not a hard concept.

Originally Posted by Wendell R. Breland

Disc replication cost, even your YouTube idol listed UHD Blu-ray as 3X more than DVD, not 6.5 x. Film restoration, scanning, color grading, etc. does cost more for higher resolution video formats. Some of these projects where restored literally frame by frame.

I would ask Robert A. Harris to explain here but he refuses to post on this site because of clueless posters like you. In fact, he requested that I not even quote him on this site.

Boy I sure hit a nerve with you guys, I guess you just want to stay in your Ancient Sheltered World of 4K Movie Discs. This is the point I don't think they are making that much on 4K Movies. Let's say to Produce and Replicate a DVD is around $3/Disc, at 6.5 x that makes 4K $19.50/Disc. According to the Revenue Report the Average BD which includes 4K is $20. That doesn't give the Studios much of a Profit. You said a Lamborghini, well those are Custom Ordered and not Mass Produced!

Those Restorations of Robert A Harris are impressive, and I'm sure very costly. IMO Producing with Art Work, Replicating, and Packaging a Disc is a lot more work than going Server to Server!

[veritas]

Originally Posted by alchav21

Boy I sure hit a nerve with you guys, I guess you just want to stay in your Ancient Sheltered World of 4K Movie Discs. This is the point I don't think they are making that much on 4K Movies. Let's say to Produce and Replicate a DVD is around $3/Disc, at 6.5 x that makes 4K $19.50/Disc. According to the Revenue Report the Average BD which includes 4K is $20. That doesn't give the Studios much of a Profit. You said a Lamborghini, well those are Custom Ordered and not Mass Produced!

Those Restorations of Robert A Harris are impressive, and I'm sure very costly. IMO Producing with Art Work, Replicating, and Packaging a Disc is a lot more work than going Server to Server!

Except discs don't cost that much to replicate. The Smallville series cost around 110 dollars on release day. Its a 42 disc set so if discs cost as much as you think they do then Warner bros would be losing 76 dollars a set since day one.

The thing is the replication costs for dvds is closer to like 50 cents to a dollar each so ya a 4k disc may cost like 3 dollars. That sounds reasonable as we have 4k releases selling at 6 to 10 dollars some of the time.

[Steedeel]

Originally Posted by Ender14

Agree with this. I've always had a soft spot for Highlander since seeing it as a teen. Worth it for Clancy Brown alone.

Yeah, it somehow slipped through my fingers in the VHS era. I must have rented 90% of the store’s output over time but not that one.
I knew it was popular because it was talked about a lot.

I just really struggled with it. It got off to a bad start with the car park fight. The enemy was supposed to be an immortal but he swung a sword like the drunk bloke who is last out at the bar. It didn’t match with the acrobatics and straight away I thought it was hokey and unconvincing.
I couldn’t take Lambert seriously either. Awful casting in my opinion. Mel Gibson would have been perfect.

However, it did have some really cool shots which looked great in 4K. Like you guys said, Clancy Brown was great.

Just didn’t connect with me, despite the awesome soundtrack.