Are we best going back to physical media

Soldato
Joined
12 Dec 2006
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5,139
Just discovered some of my rips are corrupt. I'll have to go back to my physical media backup and re-rip some of them.

The problem with video streaming media is that you often get incomplete series, and movie sequels due to licensing issues. Or they pull them before your finished watching them. From iffy sources the quality is patchy. The interface on streaming services is very poor. Often your constantly redirected to paid content outside your subscription. Apple and Amazon very bad for this. The others throw content at you they want you to watch. Not what you want to watch. Can be hard to find want you currently watching.

Mucic is the same the interfaces can be hard. Pushing you at artists you don't like. Often theres no offline service.

But I've moved to mainly streaming services because it's getting harder to get hardware and apps to play your physical media well. They have to over complicate things.
 
Soldato
Joined
27 Mar 2013
Posts
9,150
Just discovered some of my rips are corrupt. I'll have to go back to my physical media backup and re-rip some of them.

The problem with video streaming media is that you often get incomplete series, and movie sequels due to licensing issues. Or they pull them before your finished watching them. From iffy sources the quality is patchy. The interface on streaming services is very poor. Often your constantly redirected to paid content outside your subscription. Apple and Amazon very bad for this. The others throw content at you they want you to watch. Not what you want to watch. Can be hard to find want you currently watching.

Mucic is the same the interfaces can be hard. Pushing you at artists you don't like. Often theres no offline service.

But I've moved to mainly streaming services because it's getting harder to get hardware and apps to play your physical media well. They have to over complicate things.
I agree. There's been stuff on netflix that I had I'm my list bit didn't get round to watching and it's just disappeared. Also you need to changes sites if your "copies" are poor quality.
 
Soldato
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Bryn Celyn Wales
Until we get to a point where the PQ and they bother bringing HiDef Sound to streams then it'll always be 2nd rate. However, as 99% of the country really doesn't care about quality physical media will always be niche. For me, I played Bladerunner 2049 on Netflix for 5 minutes recently then I slapped in the 4k disc... the sound was like night and day, it was embaressingly bad tbh... the picture was noticably better on the 4k BUT not to the extent that the sound was. For me personally I didn't buy a 4k projector and a £2.5k amp to be streaming inferior quality streams... but like I say I'm probably in the 1% minority... people just want solid quality and cheap...

What WOULD kick the physical media into overdrive would be price... £24.99 for a new film on 4k is disgusting, if they put them out at £9.99 you'd find more and more people would buy... I mean my collection would be 3 times the size if this was the case... thus everyone would win!
 
Soldato
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I don't have good sound system, because of the I don't have enough sound isolation from other rooms etc.

But even on just using a half decent TV I find the quality of IQ and sound so much better on physical media.

I find it works more reliably than streaming. My own Nvidia Shield is so very flaky with my media often can see external disks or content on them.
 
Associate
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2 Jan 2019
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I cannot see a new 8K physical media platform becoming mainstream or a big increase in sales of existing formats. If it does come to be, I imagine it will be even more niche than what we have just now. Existing physical media is in decline and internet speeds and codecs are improving all the time. We don't need any further physical format wars.

I've previously always preferred physical media to streaming, be that for music, movies/TV or video games. Picture and audio quality were always better that way. I liked to have a physical collection, retaining the option to gift or sell items I didn't like or no longer needed.

Streaming quality has come on leaps and bounds in the last few years. You can get CD quality music very easily on streaming, very good 4k UHD streams (although it's missing lossless audio) and there isn't any difference between a video game on disc to one downloaded since they both get installed to the hard drive. My family never use physical media, they are not bothered by the quality differences and like the convenience of having everything immediately available on their devices or with the one TV remote that controls everything. It's also much cheaper than physical media - Spotify family & Xbox Gamepass happily cover our music and gaming needs. I have over 400 movies on iTunes with many of them in 4K/HDR/Atmos which I've bought for a fraction of the price of a disc - none have gone missing from the service and many have upgraded from HD copies to UHD/HDR/Atmos for free.

Is it perfect, no, you need a decent internet connection at home or when out and about but where we live, that's not really a problem. Is the quality as good as physical, no, but when my Sonos Beam can only play core DD or DTS 5.1 that's not a deal breaker for me. It's just so much more convenient than physical media. It doesn't take up any space, you don't need to hunt to find that one movie you misplace, no need to worry about my kids getting sticky fingers on cases. Do movies/TV shows leave a service - yes, but there are always ways to find them again. There is much room for improvement but for the majority of people, I suspect it does just fine. Even physical has issues - discs not playing, vinyl scratched, video and audio errors even after movies have gone through quality control, not to mention the additional hardware and compatibility issues.

For the time being, I will still buy my absolute favourite movies on UHD blu-ray and favourite albums on vinyl. I will retain my large blu-ray and CD collections in the attic as back-up but I don't anticipate double dipping in future on any new physical formats.
 
Soldato
Joined
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15,845
Physical media is never "coming back" and will only keep dying out. The next gen consoles will surely finally move away from optical media drives. There are not many people that can afford to consume films/games who can not afford an internet connection.
I'd agree with that for video. Not for music though, we've already passed the nadir of physical audio sales. There's clearly a demand for physical albums that isn't going to go away with any technical innovation. I'm certainly never, ever getting rid of my CD and vinyl collection.

For movies though...I've got rid of all my VHS and DVDs, and won't be buying any physical media again. The quality on streaming services is good enough for me to fully enjoy films, and most of them won't get watched more than once. Streaming is just a better fit for video imo....it's only a matter of time before the quality of streaming video is as good as physical anyway.
 
Soldato
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9,150
Until we get to a point where the PQ and they bother bringing HiDef Sound to streams then it'll always be 2nd rate. However, as 99% of the country really doesn't care about quality physical media will always be niche. For me, I played Bladerunner 2049 on Netflix for 5 minutes recently then I slapped in the 4k disc... the sound was like night and day, it was embaressingly bad tbh... the picture was noticably better on the 4k BUT not to the extent that the sound was. For me personally I didn't buy a 4k projector and a £2.5k amp to be streaming inferior quality streams... but like I say I'm probably in the 1% minority... people just want solid quality and cheap...

What WOULD kick the physical media into overdrive would be price... £24.99 for a new film on 4k is disgusting, if they put them out at £9.99 you'd find more and more people would buy... I mean my collection would be 3 times the size if this was the case... thus everyone would win!
I think the price thing is a large factor, and someone's mentioned 8k, does that mean 40 quid for one of those :p . It is diminishing returns though, I've got some dvds and they look very poor compared to a HD stream. I'm not sure there's thatch of s difference between a stream and a bluray unless you watched them side by side. It wouldn't surprise me if bluray is still niche compared to dvds.
 
Soldato
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I initially thought this would be a potential "fly in the ointment" for streaming-possibly-giving a reason to stick with physical media if it becomes successful. Saying that 10 years is a long time for network providers to get their act together-so now I'm not so sure :

 
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Probably already said but obv eventually we'll have PBs+ in our pockets, only buying to replace slower hardware, no longer for more storage, well at least for many more of us than now I think. I'll love it, going about constantly adding to my one fabulously organised and decorated (VR/3D/hologram/other GUIs) data hoard, and obv backups. Or maybe 16K+ films with tech of many years from now will still embarrass me for storage.
 
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I have recently started collecting standard 1080p Blu Rays because of how cheap they are now. Over the last couple of months I have bought 20 Blu Rays and it has cost me less than £10. A lot of really good films too. I have been getting them from charity shops and CEX.

Yesterday I came across a charity shop with a 10 Blu Rays for £2 deal. It was a pity they only had 6 Blu Rays available.

I am watching them on my Sony X90J using the series X and they look fantastic. I have watched a couple of 4k Blu Rays and the difference in quality is not that big.

Just need to get myself a dedicated blu ray player now because using the Xbox isn't the best experience. Probably find one in a charity shop!
 
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