The continuing decline in availability of physical media

I'll continue to buy my favourite console games physical because they're both an investment and protection against digital stores shutting down (3DS, PSP, Vita).
I don't think this is much of a risk with the latest gen compared to previous, because it's all x86 that can be trivially executed by future consoles...unless they switch to ARM!
Non-favourite or smaller games I'll buy cheaply in digital sales, not bothered about owning those. I complete them and never play them again.
Same lack of risk with Steam which has a huge monopoly, it's such a good ecosystem that I don't mind not having physical PC games anymore. Plus you can always pirate PC games if you had to.

With films I'll buy blu-rays of any film I really want to own as the quality is superior to streaming and there are special features too. But that's mostly somewhat niche world cinema films for me, or films with limited release. I don't want a house full of discs of stuff like Die Hard or The Matrix or whatever that I can easily stream and don't really care if it's not available all the time.

I'm against any media being 100% digital store/streaming based, I think the option is great for people who want minimalist posessions/clutter or don't have much space, but it shouldn't be the only option.
But of course companies are going to try to push this as they'd rather have recurring subscription income or high-margin digital sales vs selling physical objects once.
 
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Paracelsus said:
I'll continue to buy my favourite console games physical because they're both an investment and protection against digital stores shutting down (3DS, PSP, Vita).
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Sony dropping their store front for older consoles was pretty sucky.

Paracelsus said:
I don't think this is much of a risk with the latest gen compared to previous, because it's all x86 that can be trivially executed by future consoles...unless they switch to ARM!
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This is a good point. I think Digital Foundry may have covered this in the past.
 
SexyGreyFox said:
Haven't Lila been up your street?
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They have. But Lila comes into the front of the house. Which means I've got to get that line to the upstairs rear room, so I've got to wait for the (completely unused) stairlift to be removed so I can run a cable. I guess I could use smartplugs but I've been told they're useless for gaming due to increased latency.
 
Malevolence said:
They have. But Lila comes into the front of the house. Which means I've got to get that line to the upstairs rear room, so I've got to wait for the (completely unused) stairlift to be removed so I can run a cable. I guess I could use smartplugs but I've been told they're useless for gaming due to increased latency.
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I'll come down with my SDS drill, even throw a 20 metre Cat 6 over your roof :)
 
Paracelsus said:
I'll continue to buy my favourite console games physical because they're both an investment and protection against digital stores shutting down (3DS, PSP, Vita).
I don't think this is much of a risk with the latest gen compared to previous, because it's all x86 that can be trivially executed by future consoles...unless they switch to ARM!
Non-favourite or smaller games I'll buy cheaply in digital sales, not bothered about owning those. I complete them and never play them again.
Same lack of risk with Steam which has a huge monopoly, it's such a good ecosystem that I don't mind not having physical PC games anymore. Plus you can always pirate PC games if you had to.

With films I'll buy blu-rays of any film I really want to own as the quality is superior to streaming and there are special features too. But that's mostly somewhat niche world cinema films for me, or films with limited release. I don't want a house full of discs of stuff like Die Hard or The Matrix or whatever that I can easily stream and don't really care if it's not available all the time.

I'm against any media being 100% digital store/streaming based, I think the option is great for people who want minimalist posessions/clutter or don't have much space, but it shouldn't be the only option.
But of course companies are going to try to push this as they'd rather have recurring subscription income or high-margin digital sales vs selling physical objects once.
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As soon as physical media disappers the streaming networks will be able to charge what they want by creating and limiting a demand for what is no longer available.
 
After treating myself to an actual CD player at Christmas, I've rediscovered CDs. First the box that been in the loft the last 15 years then charity shops! It's a mission to find the one in a hundred worth buying - but when they are 3 for £1 I can't resist!
 
Honestly I can think it’ll be the return of the old htpc or nas for video streaming.

I already buy old tv and movie series on blue ray and dvd, rip them onto my nas and sell the discs back on.

I’ve started to get back into emulations as I find the cost of buying and playing modern games for little enjoyment a bit much
 
The_Arbiter said:
It's mad how BBC won't host that stuff on iplayer and paywall it. Or whoever owns the licences and use a platform already established.
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Yep, bbc has let so much go and refuse to return to the television standards that made it popular across the world.

A bbc documentary these days is pretty much on par with a national geographic “documentary” now…
 
clv101 said:
After treating myself to an actual CD player at Christmas, I've rediscovered CDs. First the box that been in the loft the last 15 years then charity shops! It's a mission to find the one in a hundred worth buying - but when they are 3 for £1 I can't resist!
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3 for £1 is the norm for most charity shops here. Found the first two seasons of The Wire in one charity shop. Bought a random CD for my parents. For a pound! CD turns out that they already have it So goes in the charity shop box which only gets taken to a CS once it’s full
 
The_Arbiter said:
It's mad how BBC won't host that stuff on iplayer and paywall it. Or whoever owns the licences and use a platform already established.
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Because there are legal, contractual and regulatory issues with doing so.

IIRC before netflix came around the BBC and a couple of other broadcasters proposed just that, a joint streaming platform with access to at least some of the archives, the regulator said no because it would stifle competition.

The BBC also has to pay royalties to show anything, and have legal contracts in place to show agreement from the people involved in the shows, and if any music is used then potentially that needs licences as well, as the vast majority of the BBC's output was produced before streaming was a dream and thus that wasn't in the contracts, and a load more was done before the idea of a +1 channel or Sky etc. IIRC this is one of the biggest issues, basically for what is often a very small number of people who might want to watch something again on streaming, there may be rights issues that will cost thousands upon thousands to get sorted out.
That's before any issues with creators who might be unwilling to approve a reshowing of one of their old shows under a new contract at all, or want an outragious amount, IIRC one of the reasons several popular shows were not aired for decades was because one or more the stars refused to allow it and asserted their "moral right" (I think is the term) to prevent it.
IIRC the only time a broadcaster can show stuff with what were standard terms in the contract and made under certain laws and agreements with the unions at the time, without the written consent of certain key people is if they can show they've made good faith attempts to find the person with the rights or their estate, and having failed to do so put the money into escrow or in an account with the relevant union/trade organisation. Just the "reasonable effort" hunt costs a fair chunk of money.

It's much the same reason an awful lot of TV that was released on DVD at one point had the music changed*, especially if it was a relatively new series with music that was still popular and recent, hence if you were lucky some shows retained the opening music but not much else.

Basically it's not up to the BBC how and what they put on the iplayer, unless it was made at a point where the BBC had a contract that allowed it, and then there may be terms that limit how long they make it available for and potentially periods in which it can't be on there (IE the BBC might be able to show it for a year, but then another streamer might get those rights for a year).

This is all before any of the technical costs involved, such as locating and digitising older content that hasn't already been done, and then making sure it is of a suitable quality for streaming, I'm fairly sure a lot of people wouldn't be happy if the show they wanted to see was only available in a really low quality form because the BBC couldn't justify doing a restoration on an obscure title.
Unfortunately one of the few physical distributors that actually went after older obscure TV stuff and restored it for DVD/BD release went bust about the middle of last year, and without those kinds of companies streamed releases of a lot of stuff is much harder to manage as the full cost falls upon the streamer or the content owner who hopes that just streaming will cover the cost (unlikely in most cases).



*Roswell was one of the highest profile, as they had a lot of music that was "current" during the TV airings, but for the DVD release they pretty much only managed to keep the opening theme (here with me) which reportedly cost a fortune to use on the DVD.
 
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The_Arbiter said:
It's mad how BBC won't host that stuff on iplayer and paywall it. Or whoever owns the licences and use a platform already established.
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intrigued - what stuff, most of it is shown regularly on the likes of gold or Drama - otherwise not sure there is an enormous catalogue that would appeal -
things like singing detective, boys blackstuff, house of cards, smiley, life on mars ... all look very dated.
 
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