Ditching Blu-ray And DVDs To Go Digital

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How many of you are ditching Blu-ray and DVDs to go with digitally downloaded movies instead?

I went all digital on taking photos and buying music years ago; all digital on buying books last year. Now it's time to leave buying physical movies behind, especially as the digital options are more-and-more offering the same extras that a physical disc provides.
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Only if I'm allowed to keep it in my own PC (and not having to stream it each time I want to watch it), and it offers quality as good as Blu-Ray or better.
 
Once I can get Blu-Ray picture quality and sound sure. I could give a shit about the extras.
 
If I can keep a copy, yes.

I still like my BluRay movies, especially on a 2560x1600 monitor. Godfather looks awesome.
 
I already (and always) have a digital collection! I just didn't buy them, thats the difference silly!
 
Maybe when bandwidth caps aren't an issue. Maybe then digital downloads and streaming video won't look and sound like complete dog ish.

If you're still watching upscaled DVDs, I guess it wouldn't be that hard of a switch.

If it's not equal to or better than Blu-ray, no thanks.
 
no DTS-HD or Dolby TruHD audio, until they can give me my 5.1 and in some movies 7,1 in full HD audio I will not be doing this
 
I still prefer the physical disc as its quality isnt limited to the cheapest bandwidth possible. Vudu's HDX is pretty good quality but isnt quite blu-ray quality yet.
 
If I'm buying it, I want it on Plastic.

Having thousands tied up in media controlled by someone else is just plain stupid IMHO.

Sony has already proven that, and I don't think it will be long before we see Zune to down as well.
 
maybe, bluray still has superior quality over any digital download, although I have a couple of digital books I still prefer some good reads to be hard bound books
 
Not till I can get BluRay quality (1080p + Lossless DTS Master audio 7.1 or TrueHD 7.1 audio) and DRM Free will I buy movies digitally. I bought "Indie Game the Movie" and Louis C.K. because they were both DRM Free and 720p minimally. The rest I'd rather buy on a disc then rip to my home file server.
 
I still use both DVDs and streaming.

But I don't buy media anymore. No point, most isn't worth more than one viewing.

I rent DVDs from my local library and Lovefilm service and I also stream movies from the Lovefilm service.

Lovefilm now have a lot of stuff in HD for streaming and I have a 15Mb downstream connection that works well. No blockiness or breakup at all.

As for audio, as long as its clear and stereo I really don't care. Home surround setups usually look a mess and more trouble than they are worth.
 
I'm really worried about this trend towards streaming. I love Netflix, and have noticed how my DVD collection has started to gather dust. The only problem is that you DO NOT OWN THE CONTENT. If Netflix etc, removes the film or TV series from their catalogue, then you don't have access to it any more.

I like things how they are right now...

1.) You can choose to use Netflix etc, for the convenience.
2.) If you love a film or series that much, you can run out and buy it on Blu-Ray, and also enjoy the far superior picture quality than streaming provides.

I really need option 2 to stay around...
 
Blu-ray is going to be around for some time and if 4K is going to take off they will need a disc based media that can support it. Streaming is out of the question for content that high in resolution.
 
Image quality is far from bluray and sound quality is even worse.

No thanks
 
zacrobmer said:
Once I can get Blu-Ray picture quality and sound sure. I could give a shit about the extras.
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Same boat.

Until I see streaming movies and downloadable movies on par to Bluray quality releases, I'm going to stick to disk-based media for the foreseeable future.

That, and 250GB data cap doesn't help at all. If companies want streaming and downloading movies to succeed, they should use their money to get ISPs to remove data caps.

(HAHAHA, that made me laugh with tears. Like that'll happen.... :()
 
Um, no...not ditching blu-rays. 720 rips are okay, but they are stored on drives that can go bad, or develop bad sectors...not to mention the compression issues. Physical media is never going to go away completely because uncompressed high-definition video isn't going to be available anytime soon.
 
Stimpy88 said:
I'm really worried about this trend towards streaming. I love Netflix, and have noticed how my DVD collection has started to gather dust. The only problem is that you DO NOT OWN THE CONTENT. If Netflix etc, removes the film or TV series from their catalogue, then you don't have access to it any more.

I like things how they are right now...

1.) You can choose to use Netflix etc, for the convenience.
2.) If you love a film or series that much, you can run out and buy it on Blu-Ray, and also enjoy the far superior picture quality than streaming provides.

I really need option 2 to stay around...
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This, too. As much as I love Steam, and not having to carry around a bunch of game discs...if I lose access to my account for whatever reason, I'm boned. Digital delivery is still dependent on a system that can go down for all sorts of reasons.
 
In the past 5 or so years I've watched more movies streamed or downloaded then on discs. I'm not a huge movie/tv fan though, so I don't care too much about quality :p but, I certainly am that way about music and can't stand it compressed unless it's at like 320kbps.

As for losing Steam account... yeah, be careful! I'm sure there is a way to get back the account with proof of purchases, no?
 
I didn't drop 12k on my home theater to watch movies in less than 1080P and loseless audio.
 
I haven't bought a movie for years. With streaming and RedBox, it's cheaper that way. I don't need to own a movie, and rarely watch a movie more than once.
 
Raffin said:
I didn't drop 12k on my home theater to watch movies in less than 1080P and loseless audio.
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Right there with ya. I just store all my Blu-rays lossless on my server and stream them through the home. XBMC just down converts the DTS HD down to stereo when I'm in the bedroom or the living room where I only have stereo. Works great. Then when I go to watch stuff in the Theater it's lossless audio and 1080p video. I still do have netflix streaming for when there is something we want to watch like a drama or comedy that I really don't care all the much about if it's in 5.1 or not. But I try to stick to watching netflix on the bedroom or living room tv. Once they can give me blu-ray quality over streaming I'm sure i'll use it a lot more. But I still like owning my movies. That way if a hard drive dies like it did on me the other day I can just get a new one and load my stuff back on.
 
as much as I love the ditigital, bandwidth caps nd pricing of higher tier kills me when I need to go through a bunch of data. I usually get caught up when downloading my steam library to troubleshoot a problem.
 
Stimpy88 said:
I'm really worried about this trend towards streaming. I love Netflix, and have noticed how my DVD collection has started to gather dust. The only problem is that you DO NOT OWN THE CONTENT. If Netflix etc, removes the film or TV series from their catalogue, then you don't have access to it any more.

I like things how they are right now...

1.) You can choose to use Netflix etc, for the convenience.
2.) If you love a film or series that much, you can run out and buy it on Blu-Ray, and also enjoy the far superior picture quality than streaming provides.

I really need option 2 to stay around...
Click to expand...

This. As far as music goes, I still have all my discs, both CD and Vinyl.
 
It's going to be funny when all these people go all-digital, all-streaming for their movies and then their ISP imposes a 50 GB/month data cap.

Suddenly those streaming copies of movies get a lot more expensive.
 
RogueTadhg said:
If I can keep a copy, yes.
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I don't get the need for this.

I haven't bought a movie or video of any kind in any format, digital or not since the late 90s.

I bought a few DVD's back then, and realized it was just stupid. Way too much money per disc, in order to really just watch it once, and then stick it on a shelf and have it collect dust...

(I mean, who on earth re-watches movies anyway? The appeal instantly evaporates once you know what happens...)

Then I switched to renting DVD's and later Blu-Rays at Blockbuster and the like. It was a much better value proposition.

Now all I do is use Netflix. I don't watch a ton of new movies, so Netflix's streaming offerings are just fine for me.
 
Zarathustra[H];1039539538 said:
I don't get the need for this.

I haven't bought a movie or video of any kind in any format, digital or not since the late 90s.

I bought a few DVD's back then, and realized it was just stupid. Way too much money per disc, in order to really just watch it once, and then stick it on a shelf and have it collect dust...

(I mean, who on earth re-watches movies anyway? The appeal instantly evaporates once you know what happens...)

Then I switched to renting DVD's and later Blu-Rays at Blockbuster and the like. It was a much better value proposition.

Now all I do is use Netflix. I don't watch a ton of new movies, so Netflix's streaming offerings are just fine for me.
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Compared to Blu-ray, Netflix quality is ridiculously bad. Also: data caps.
 
I would love it if all TV would go on demand streaming. For movies I want the best quality I can get.
 
kumquat said:
Compared to Blu-ray, Netflix quality is ridiculously bad. Also: data caps.
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I don't have data caps, so that works for me. If I did though, I'd probably Redbox or Netflix disc it instead. Owning movies is just not an effective use of money or shelf space.

That, and when it kicks into HD mode (which is probably 720p?) it's good enough.

I don't let myself get bothered by minutia. I find 480p content difficult to watch these days, but 720p and above is perfectly fine. With decent bandwidth you never really have any noticeable compression artifacting either (unless you are looking for it). That only happens in a big way if your internet sucks.
 
I was anti-Bluray during the BR vs HD-DVD years. Only because Sony has a habit of making everything proprietary (dat,betamax,memory stick, UMD, etc etc) The main factor for me was price.. We called it the "sony tax" back in the day. I wasn't wrong either. Prices were ridiculous (outside of bargain bin titles) when bluray first won the wars.. at that point I went streaming and was reserved to streaming only. Once Sony realized they better get more br's in peoples hands before streaming took completely over.. they lowered prices to more tolerable levels. Now I just purchase my favorites movies. I am bitter on how many dvd's I've purchased through the years (now pretty much worthless) so I'm a lot pickier now.
 
Zarathustra[H];1039539538 said:
I don't get the need for this.

I haven't bought a movie or video of any kind in any format, digital or not since the late 90s.

I bought a few DVD's back then, and realized it was just stupid. Way too much money per disc, in order to really just watch it once, and then stick it on a shelf and have it collect dust...

(I mean, who on earth re-watches movies anyway? The appeal instantly evaporates once you know what happens...)

Then I switched to renting DVD's and later Blu-Rays at Blockbuster and the like. It was a much better value proposition.

Now all I do is use Netflix. I don't watch a ton of new movies, so Netflix's streaming offerings are just fine for me.
Click to expand...

I was always a diehard "I need the media in my hand and shelf!" type.

Then I looked one day at my DVD collection and realised that 85% of them had only been watched once. A lot were xmas and birthday presents or latest blockbuster of the day releases.

So I rounded up the once watched and took them to the local charity shop.

That was about 5 years ago and haven't regretted it at all.
 
My eyesight probably isn't good enough to discern the difference in the quality of the video, but until the question of data transfer issues are dealt with I will stick to having a hard copy and watching it when I like on whatever device I want to watch it on.
 
Zarathustra[H];1039539571 said:
I don't have data caps yet
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FTFY.

Also, regarding quality: yes, it matters. Seeing banding and ghosting and moire and noise in the dark areas of The Dark Knight Rises are very distracting.

The audio is also noticeably worse.

The very highest Netflix bandwidth is still less than a quarter of Blu-ray. You don't give up 75% of your video and audio bandwidth with no ill effects.
 
Blu-Ray is better, but there's something to be said for convenience. I like to have the option of both as needed. Some movies need high fidelity and others don't. Especially if I'm just looking for something to watch on a random weekend afternoon.
 
As others have said, I haven't bought anything physical in a long, long time.

The simple reason is that I just don't have the space for anything physical.

I don't understand how people find the room for this stuff.
 
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