There are multiple storefronts selling lossless music in standard formats (FLAC, WAV, etc.). As far as I know, no one has ever sold full-quality digital movies or TV in an open format. We don't need CDs because we have an equivalent digital alternative. We do not have that for movies, and probably never will. Even with physical media, ripping 4k discs still usually requires custom firmware.
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Target joins Best Buy and discontinues sales of DVD's and Blurays
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cjcox
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People spending 2-3x "old school pricing" to buy vinyl "records" might preview where this all "goes" in the long run. We'll see.
Darunion
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You might be on to something.
I buy vinyl, not a whole lot just what i find used or at garage sales mostly. But there is an experience for a record. Put it on, tend to listen to the whole thing. Streaming music makes you have ADD and hop songs or play random stuff. The experience of listening to a whole album doesn't happen as naturally. Also unless you are paying for a premium service, you will have ads in between some songs.
I feel like movies might push people that way too eventually if they get too intrusive with ads.
Are there streaming services that inject in the middle of movies?
I think it will push people back to "i just want to experience how it was watching a movie on disc". But similar with vinyl, you have a few that buy them then a bunch that just make fun of them.
peak bitrate is just one part of the , obviously lower AV1 can beat X264 and so on
I think is cost saving, Amazon 4k sticks can handle 90 mbits 4k 60 fps movies and have quite the powerful decoding hardware, everything Apple has well obviously, and it is very easy for the client to tell the server what it can handle or not and for them to send back the best video source accordingly, unlike physical media the chicken and egg is not an issue there is no need to wait for vast adoption as you can always fallback on a lower video if needed.
I bought a lot went streaming started to be popular and rental store closed (2013-2014-2015 maybe ?), in the last 5 years used them maybe twice and each time surprised how just bad the experience was in many ways (menu, unskippable stuff on regular non special bluray player, issue remembering where you were on last play, terrible menu interface) and nice in others like going through the collection in the bookcase to find a title... Plex server interface is just so much better, but you can obviously see a benefit of combining both, have the collection has a backup, encoded has you prefer and can still look at it to pick a movie, just start it from the plex app.
Could be, Criterion and other nice collectible box, like this:
Could continue longer than regular movie-tv show affairs and trying to create some "analogue" element to the medium to create a distinction with the streamed, if Internet infrastructure keep bitrate low could be in a digital way, say 1tb physical medium with movie theater like file on them with no temporal compression, like Laser Disk back in the day some 'analogue' feel to it by how the digital file can be manipulated or actual vinyl like analogue things like audio.
xDiVolatilX
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It's sad to see physical media go. Making everything digital devalues it and diminishes the enthusiasm for collecting. Like comic books, don't even try to make them digital, it's just not the same.
Movies and music are different than comic books but I still feel like it devalues the material. The packaging the artwork the included extras the collector's editions the value the resale value the collecting value everything is thrown out the window when it goes digital.
Movies and music are different than comic books but I still feel like it devalues the material. The packaging the artwork the included extras the collector's editions the value the resale value the collecting value everything is thrown out the window when it goes digital.
Domingo
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I feel the "old man yells at cloud" meme would be inbound if I could be sure it wouldn't be flagged for "political content" 
cjcox
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Yeah, the world is changing. If we can skip the weird return to easily damaged vinyl, people today don't have "cd" players, and more and more don't have "blu-ray" players (and DVD, etc.).
I still have a lot of "give away" CDs (music), just nobody to really give them away to anymore (sigh). But still... there are few.... (perhaps on the "older" side age wise).
I have taught my daughter to collect physical copies rather than "downloading" (which for the vast majority of young folks is really, pirating content today).
On those days when connectivity isn't there, it's nice to have actual reliable content. And of course, we're beginning to see the "shutdown" problem where "owned content" disappears, as the facilitator falls away. Again, since most have zero issues with the idea of "obtaining" content regardless of rights to do so, it's not a problem (for them). But as someone who actually has artist friends, they might have some nasty words for you.
Child: Pirates are so cool!
Me: (takes child's favorite toy away)
Child: That's mine, you can't have it!
Me: Just trying to be cool.
applegrcoug
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I'm not surprised. That said, I still only buy physical media.
I have a 120in screen and a projector with an atmos system in the basement with an oppo 4K player that made getting a GPU during the apocalypse look easy. Streamed content is wonky...especially in the black parts of a picture. it works in the family room for watching a movie or something, but for watching a film, no thanks. Watch LOTR 4k from the discs raw and it is stunning. It completely destroys streaming for picture and audio. Oh, and my projector is only 1080p vs a 4k tv.
Thor Ragnarok is actually another where the 4k disc is amazing.
I have a 120in screen and a projector with an atmos system in the basement with an oppo 4K player that made getting a GPU during the apocalypse look easy. Streamed content is wonky...especially in the black parts of a picture. it works in the family room for watching a movie or something, but for watching a film, no thanks. Watch LOTR 4k from the discs raw and it is stunning. It completely destroys streaming for picture and audio. Oh, and my projector is only 1080p vs a 4k tv.
Thor Ragnarok is actually another where the 4k disc is amazing.
Flogger23m
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Because it is privately owned and Gabe Newell happens to be a nice guy. It is a very abnormal situation.
I feel the "old man yells at cloud" meme would be inbound if I could be sure it wouldn't be flagged for "political content"
What's the punchline of the meme? I don't understand what the joke is supposed to be.
Tengis
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As a millennial, I have never purchased a DVD or Bluray in my entire life. I would rent Redbox from time to time, or Blockbuster back in the day, but once streaming started I never looked back. I havent owned anything to even play a DVD or Bluray in at least a decade.
mullet
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It has improved in recent years with MakeMKV's LibreDrive, which afaik only requires a compatible drive rather than drive and specific firmware version like in the earlier days.
applegrcoug
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that is correct. I have two drives that can do 4ks, but i had to install different firmware.
GoodBoy
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I can understand why they don't want to stock the shelves with blurays...
sales are down, more consumers are happy with streaming
likely a commonly stolen item
some movies will sit on shelves for years
But they could still have online sales...
sales are down, more consumers are happy with streaming
likely a commonly stolen item
some movies will sit on shelves for years
But they could still have online sales...
That_Sound_Guy
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Vinyl records are quite different than a DVD/BR. Vinyl itches the older generations memories and youth often try to attach to old ideas to be "retro". Nicholas Cage in the movie "The Rock" paying a fortune for a Vinyl "that sounds better" for example. Vinyl also offers the ability to be artwork as some buy them to hang on their walls and such. DVD/BR is a dying fad like cassettes. BR will have the remaining folks who want physical media instead of stream, a small group. Way too many 40 and under's stream now to make BR a lasting media. Even homes are changing. Lots of people don't want a Blu Ray player sitting below their TV on shelves. They want them on walls, usually mounted too high, and no cables in sight with a Roku/Chromecast/Fire device attached.
Side note - The new steaming era and exclusive releases seems to have started Redbox's demise. Numerous big movies like the new Avatar and Oppenheimer aren't being released there. Shame to see that service go, that's where I got a lot of movies I wanted to
Dreamerbydesign
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I may be the minority but I converted to 95% digital over a decade ago or longer. I haven’t had a physical media drive in a computer or on my entertainment stand in well over a decade. I’m not some young hipster either. The convenience was the key factor for me. And now that almost everything I’d ever want is available digitally, I am fine with it.
I do have an analog record collection. (not digitally compressed re pro new release vinyls recorded in digital then pressed to vinyl) I do enjoy that medium and as someone said above, I also have my vinyl records on the wall as art and enjoy that aspect. I doubt I’d do that with any other media.
I do have an analog record collection. (not digitally compressed re pro new release vinyls recorded in digital then pressed to vinyl) I do enjoy that medium and as someone said above, I also have my vinyl records on the wall as art and enjoy that aspect. I doubt I’d do that with any other media.
cjcox
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But, by that (somewhat flawed) argument, CDs/DVDs/Blurays must come into "itchy-ness" at some point.
Regardless. I've got a frame grabber.... there is a "solution" to streaming madness and it's built-in "lack of reliability".
I strictly have "the devices" for the purposes of putting the content on my own (in my control) media server. Where arbitrary circumstances don't force the removal of content. Maybe that's "not cool", or maybe it is when streaming fails you.
"Dam the stream" - Stream Beavers
Would 8-track replaced by regular cassette around the same time as vinyl maybe even earlier ? Never really made a mainstream popular comeback like vinyl, there no must, not sure VHS will have a moment either.
Music went from kids in their room attentively listening to it, doing nothing else (or reading the album lyrics-content at the same time), to background noise to something else, the vinyl is a good excuse to create a more attentive listening experience like movie theater help some doing nothing else but watching. Bluray/DVD can create some "ceremony" around the act, but mostly in boring ways (people end up often like you ripping them, the disc being just a backup tool the experience versus torrent if someone ripped it in a way you like virtually impossible to differentiate), film projection if it get more ecological could have a better chance.
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Darunion
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And I don't know why, but switching discs in the middle of a movie (looking at you lord of the rings) takes a lot more out of an experience than flipping my vinyl.
Legendary Gamer
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Streaming is not the end all be all for me. I just finally got my front room / HT setup all the way pimped out with a Viewsonic Ultra Short Throw projector and damn if 4K content doesn't look damned amazing at nearly 150" diagonal. My PC looks like ass unless i push it down to about 100" but the native 4K stuff just blew my neighbors socks off. My dual 15" subs and Atmos setup probably helped sell Maverick but the screen size in my house was breathtaking and I doubt I will be going to any theaters soon... Streamed content at 4K is typically compressed to hell and it's been trimmed and then upscaled back to quasi 4k. There is nothing quite like a native 4K player that render's flawlessly. I will be buying the shit out of 4K titles from now on. I think I'm finally ready to give the Lord of the rings Upscale collection a go.
I like owning my own stuff. I despise the fact that everything is in the cloud. Nothing is sacred anymore, Google and everyone else owns our shit. There is something to be said about having a local server with all our content on it. God forbid, one of these sites like Steam gets hacked... there's a potential for all our shit to disappear instantly. It's gonna happen, likely before I'm dead (I'm 50).
Maybe I'm a conspiracy theorist, but the rate at which companies get hacked... Nothing is safe anymore unless you have a copy of it, offline.
I like owning my own stuff. I despise the fact that everything is in the cloud. Nothing is sacred anymore, Google and everyone else owns our shit. There is something to be said about having a local server with all our content on it. God forbid, one of these sites like Steam gets hacked... there's a potential for all our shit to disappear instantly. It's gonna happen, likely before I'm dead (I'm 50).
Maybe I'm a conspiracy theorist, but the rate at which companies get hacked... Nothing is safe anymore unless you have a copy of it, offline.
cjcox
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Me too. I'm not ready to expose my belly for free for everyone. Not going there. And IMHO, those that "give in" the "those with our best interests at heart", well, it may sound like it's a good thing... but maybe it isn't. Be careful not to blindly trust because it's "cool to do so." (but, probably nobody is willing to listen anymore)
And, "everything is NOT in the cloud", and those things that "are" can "go away" at will. We are being "controlled" with regards to what people want us to have access to and what they do not. And, it's actually not to protect you from harmful content, but to promote "correct thinking".
To have tried 20 something years ago to reinstall my old game on floppy disk it was far from safe, specially the 5.25 homemade copy but even the 3.5 home copy), in 25 years your burned copy on a CD of a 1997 game will or maybe will not work, how easy will it be to plug your old external usb disk reader and so on.
People old enough have a long list of dead media, literary thrown away while moving or figuratively, people with their Lords of the Rings VHS collection... outside the collector element, physical collection are far from being particularly safe either. Yet to loose a steam game, lost hundreds of physical games.
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Darunion
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I've had 2 games just delaminate and become unreadable on cd. Star trek 25aniversary and magic carpet 2, nothing im overly devastated about, but yea, nothing lasts forever.
cjcox
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I don't think the idea is to "cease brain activity", those that are trying to protect "our ground" realize that you also have to ensure longer term use. However, I know of lots of companies that appreciate what you just said.
Legendary Gamer
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Technically, my HD DVD collection is toast. But I can still play it on my Xbox 360 and the player if I so desire to fire that up. Yes, plenty of old media on MAGNETIC media is fucked. Plenty of other stuff can be played through DOS box or an emulator. I'm not talking about old games. I rarely go back to that stuff. As far as media is concerned, it can be ripped (even my HD DVDs) and stored in a format that is easily accessible on my home server.
You do you.
Legendary Gamer
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Physical media means you own the content. You can image damn near anything and toss a copy on a backed up drive. Perhaps, I was being too literal about "Physical Media". Though I'm not talking about 20+ year old stuff. I, literally, posted that I will be buying the hell out of 4K Native Content and keeping it on hand. At such time as the media becomes unplayable or the tech is phased completely away, I will just rip it and store it locally in digital format, playable so long as I backup my server in the event of a catastrophic failure.
That_Sound_Guy
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Certainly possible. I just don't see it anywhere as big as the vinyl market and the (feelings?) it gives. I still watch the record spin while I listen to it after a particularly bad day.
The connection to music will always be stronger than connections to movies.
DVD wasn't a fad though. It's been around since 1997 and still marches on to this day. If you think a product that's lasted over 27 years to be a fad, I wonder what you call products that lasted for less than 10 years. Your scale of time is all off.
With any luck the pendulum will swing the other way, young people will figure out what it means to rent everything. Fortunately most of the movies/shows they make today are complete shit. The ones that aren't usually make it to BD, can't wait for Shogun. Also, lots of the old stuff gets remastered but with limited production, then you have to deal with scalpers running prices through the roof, fuckers. Check out https://www.blu-ray.com/ and https://www.dvdtalk.com/
Legendary Gamer
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cjcox has a point to an extent.
I totally agree with the vinyl argument, it's got more than a cult following and I do tend to believe there is a richness of the vinyl that's lacking in a lot of compressed audio. I, myself, have a nice little vinyl collection. Couple of my records actually warped and melted over the decades... but overall this archaic media tech "Just Works".
The CD is becoming a novelty somewhat like the Records. The Players are hard to find and I bought the last one at a goodwill store because is was 20 bucks used vs online for 2-300 (used). So, there's something about loading up a changer with some music and letting it cycle. It definitely sounds richer than 99% of streamed audio let alone 128 K content which was the default rippling setting and or default MP3 quality. I ripped most of my stuff at 192 which seems to sound better. I still have a discerning ear, even at 50 but allegedly my ears were supposed to go to shit decades ago. Somehow, I still hear the frequencies.
Records are just nice to throw on, pour a glass of wine and bring the bottle and close my eyes going back to a much simpler time.
That really subjectif that 27 years is a lot for a medium to transport cultural product by humans, compared to paper books, film, vinyls, stone graving, etc... something that lived not even long enough to ever big gifted to your grandkids can be seen has a fad reasonably.
Binary was not a fad and make it at least easy to copy them on non fad affair, unlike some other of the past.
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cjcox
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To me, it's hard to predict "what will last". I mean, I don't like disco, it was a short lived fad. I think rap is far worse, yet... here we are. Doesn't make sense to me. Almost random.
Some do exist:
https://www.amazon.ca/House-Cards-Season-01-Set/dp/B07MF43VN9
https://www.amazon.ca/Ozark-Season-1-4-DVD/dp/B0B8CC57RH
Stanger Things... the big one do.
But sadly, not sure if all of them do at all, I imagine not
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cjcox
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True, but maybe "less true" in today's "small world". I know that if you're not afraid to deal with region issues, you often get certain content when you go "outside" your own country.
Many years ago, I did that to get "Bringing Up Baby" (the old Cary Grant classic) on DVD. Of course, soon after they did make it finally available (sigh).
I've said it before, and I'll say it again: it's easy to champion physical releases up until you move or need more space, and suddenly you have boxes and boxes of discs you need to relocate. That and many people only watch a movie a handful of times at most; I used to collect movies, but then I realized they mostly just gathered dust.
I do agree that subscription services and DRM rentals limit your access to movies in some ways, but they're realistically great for the way many people actually watch.
I do agree that subscription services and DRM rentals limit your access to movies in some ways, but they're realistically great for the way many people actually watch.