Physical Media must be finished surely?

Hedge

Hedge

Hedge

Soldato
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18 Oct 2002
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Somewhere in the middle.
How does everyone else feel about this?

It's been a number of years since I've used a Bluray or DVD and I can't see that changing any time soon.

Vinyl records I understand, it makes the music selection more of an occasion, however dvds/blurays have none of this charm.

You will probably all tell me that we can't stream good 4k right now. This might be true, but the market for discs must be tiny.

How long until we dont see Movie media in shops?

I predict 3 years max :)
 
There's this weird novelty of owning a physical copy which I can't seem to describe.

As strange as it sounds, I tend to buy Blu-Rays of top movies (mostly imdb top 250) to keep as a memorabilia of some sort.

I think it will be atleast another 5 years or so before we see a real decline of physical media in stores.
 
I will always buy the things I like on physical media wherever possible. It's probably a generational thing but I prefer to own something physical rather than just the rights to watch/listen to it.

Another point is that if the internet goes down in my area or I get poor speeds during busy periods, all of a sudden, I can't watch what I want anymore if I stream it.
 
Fibre is never going to come to this area.
In the real world I can't go above 2mb/s, I can stream media (netflix or whatnot) but that is ALL the internet bandwidth gone and no one else in the house do anything or it will start buffering so I don't bother with streaming.

I buy used blu-rays when they are under £2 each for my physical collection (and the better picture quality) everything else is well....I'll not say :)
 
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HEADRAT said:
Yep, it's all about the bitrate which is usually shockingly poor on broadcast/online media
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Broadcast still has the potential for very high quality.

I've seen some epic quality from things like BBC/Attenborough documentaries and Top Gear. If you see bad quality on a broadcast it's mostly down to the production being ****.

But don't get me started on online streaming. I simply refuse to watch iPlayer. the quality is absolutely horrendous compared to a 1080i broadcast.

Until they can match a 1080i broadcast, there is just no point in online streaming.
 
I do believe that the market for physical media will diminish but will always be there.

Streaming offers convenience over quality and appeals to the masses who are content with mediocrity, in much the same way most people are content to listen to Spotify, despite the quality being awful compared to a CD. The majority of people may download or stream music but every album is still released on CD.

I don't buy masses of Blurays but rather try to limit my purchases to those that offer added value, such as special editions or box sets with lots of added features.
 
Hedge said:
the market for discs must be tiny.

How long until we dont see Movie media in shops?

I predict 3 years max :)
Click to expand...

Doubt it very much - the market hasn't even died for DVDs yet (which most streaming services can surely provide better quality than now).
 
you have to remember that this is a dedicated forum (and we like our films) i think from memory DVD is still outselling Blu ray 3-1 in this country , joe bloggs isn't into downloads just yet
 
Streaming media is still in its infancy compared to physical media and you can't replicate the quality!

UltraHD has just become readily available with amazing quality and sound.

Streaming is convenient for some, but is low quality compared to the latest physical.

Physical will be around for some time to come.
 
Without doubt streaming has improved massively over the years, I remember the early days of netflix in the UK being really poor with regards to streams always buffering or picture always degrading. (may of been my connection though)

I still rent blurays as well though because Its cheaper to get the latest releases than waiting for them to stream on services like Netflix and Amazon and you get the better sound formats on physical media currently.

Renting a new movie from someone like Apple or Amazon is what, £4+. I can rent 4 blurays a month for a few quid more.
 
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Not for me it wont be dying. I still enjoy having a nice Bluray to play when we want to sit down with a take away as a group or loved one. I will be holding out for Project Scorpio to play 4k Bluray and get some basic console gaming in one as the misses wants to play games but the PC is tucked in a corner of the room.

Edit: Not unless Sky & Netflix start offering true 4K HDR content for everything at the price I am paying now. That would be different.
 
Hedge said:
Vinyl records I understand, it makes the music selection more of an occasion, however dvds/blurays have none of this charm.
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I appreciate this may be your own choice, and thats more than fair enough - but there is actually no difference between putting one disc on/ in a player or the other - it just depends if you are a lover of movies or music (or both)

Or put it another way - why is flipping through vinyl covers any different to scrolling through a media wall on a NAS etc?

Hedge said:
How long until we dont see Movie media in shops?

I predict 3 years max :)
Click to expand...

Seeing as a great deal of central london cant even stream 4k yet, I would bet at it being nearer 30 years rather than 3 before there is a suitable connection to enough of the population for physical distribution to be eradicated completely (whether this is discs or some other kind of format is another question entirely).
 
The gaming industry has gone through a similar shift. I would say it took a decade for it to become accepted by the mainstream.

Consumers will change how they consume media when the makers change how they distribute it and the distribution benefits the consumer.

There needs to be a mass market/branded NAS solution. You buy something and it is automatically downloaded to your box for access then by any devices in your home.
 
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