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Do you think Blu-Ray / 4k BR optical media's days are numbered?

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Do you think Blu-Ray / 4k BR optical media's days are numbered?

  • Only in the sense that some form of physical media will replace them

    Votes: 5 20.0%

  • Yes, 10 years or less left before the medium dies out completely

    Votes: 12 48.0%

  • Yes, but more than 10 years left to go before they do

    Votes: 8 32.0%
  • Total voters
    25
balloonshark said:
Digital Star Trek movies and tv shows are on sale from fanflix. DS9 is $40 for sd as an example. You may be able to use code GOBBLE10 to get 10% off.




I'm starting to sour on digital media.

Other fanflix deals. https://fanflix.co/
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After issues I had with changing digital landscape for media I had purchased (relatively cheaply at least, or had some free credit to use), I've stopped buying any DRM-wrapped/limited-access digital-only things. What happens when Fanflix goes belly up or they just decide to deprecate things?

Some of the items that come to mind for me that later had rug pulls: movies on Google - it's extremely difficult to play HD content now as to be functionally useless in a PC environment, and even on random streaming devices; those "MoviesAnywhere" you used to get with DVDs and early Blu-ray - that service just shut down completely. It also just adds a new hassle factor - having to remember what service you purchased whatever on. At least when I rip stuff, I can just have it all in my Kodi library to browse through.
 
Brainonska511 said:
After issues I had with changing digital landscape for media I had purchased (relatively cheaply at least, or had some free credit to use), I've stopped buying any DRM-wrapped/limited-access digital-only things. What happens when Fanflix goes belly up or they just decide to deprecate things?

Some of the items that come to mind for me that later had rug pulls: movies on Google - it's extremely difficult to play HD content now as to be functionally useless in a PC environment, and even on random streaming devices; those "MoviesAnywhere" you used to get with DVDs and early Blu-ray - that service just shut down completely. It also just adds a new hassle factor - having to remember what service you purchased whatever on. At least when I rip stuff, I can just have it all in my Kodi library to browse through.
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You may be thinking of a different service, my MoviesAnywhere account seems to be still active and functioning.
 
Brainonska511 said:
After issues I had with changing digital landscape for media I had purchased (relatively cheaply at least, or had some free credit to use), I've stopped buying any DRM-wrapped/limited-access digital-only things. What happens when Fanflix goes belly up or they just decide to deprecate things?

Some of the items that come to mind for me that later had rug pulls: movies on Google - it's extremely difficult to play HD content now as to be functionally useless in a PC environment, and even on random streaming devices; those "MoviesAnywhere" you used to get with DVDs and early Blu-ray - that service just shut down completely. It also just adds a new hassle factor - having to remember what service you purchased whatever on. At least when I rip stuff, I can just have it all in my Kodi library to browse through.
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I got screwed out of all my google play music and microsoft music. I did download what I could but I don't think I got everything.

With fanflix you mostly redeem on https://athome.fandango.com/. Once you redeem the code fanflix doesn't matter. Fandando and Vudu had similar sites. Walmart bought Vudu and later Fandango bought Vudu and then they merged. Fandando just added Versant which can share or sell your data because there is no such thing as enough money.

As a rule I won't pay $5 or more for a digital only movie. The only time I did I purchased Jaws and used amazon's slow shipping credits to pay.
 
balloonshark said:
As a rule I won't pay $5 or more for a digital only movie. The only time I did I purchased Jaws and used amazon's slow shipping credits to pay.
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I'll rent a digital movie every now and again if it isn't on a streaming platform I'm currently subscribed to. Unfortunately, the most-compatible-with-web browsers for playing on my TV seems to be Amazon.
 
We stream a lot, but when it comes to actually buying a movie vs renting, I only purchase 4k Blu-ray movies (no digital streaming), and only the ones that I know I'll want to watch over and over. I hope the format does not get phased out; in our media room I can appreciate the difference between playing the physical media vs a 4k stream. And while the difference in resolution between a regular Blu-ray and a UHD Blu-ray isn't as noticeable with my aging eyes, it's the addition of HDR that I really notice.
 
Micrornd said:
1 word, 6 letters - Usenet (and no, I don't explain)
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Eh... If something is worth watching, it's so easy to pay a nominal cost to see it once via a streaming service or even borrow something from your local library. And if you want to watch it again and again, there are a certainly enough sales on physical media (or pick it up used).
 
Brainonska511 said:
Eh... If something is worth watching, it's so easy to pay a nominal cost to see it once via a streaming service or even borrow something from your local library. And if you want to watch it again and again, there are a certainly enough sales on physical media (or pick it up used).
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Or you watched a crappy version on your paid for TV/Cable/Streaming service and now you'd like the 4K version with ATMOS sound or the movie may be in public domain and not available on any physical media. 2 sides to any coin.
 
I thought my collection was getting large at about 300 titles and ~1.4TB used 😀 Admittedly I haven't bothered ripping the 4k titles to MKV yet because both my displays are 1080p.

TBF it is getting large because I have a finite space to store them in downstairs which is at about 90% capacity and that's with some of the "I don't need ready access to these box sets" titles boxed in the loft. Aside from superseding+replacing some more DVDs with BR/4K, I don't think my collection is going to grow loads more because it's not as if I buy that many new films.
 
so i started off with watching Tremors.
no ads at the start, simple straight forward menus, the only problematic thing being that it wants online access to phone home with paramount to "check for additional content" bs but if you dont connect your br player wifi it is solved. (though apparently my very nice 4k panasonic has gated some return to menu functions behind being online. grrr)

story still holds up.
the transfer is beautiful with no annoying sparkling film grain, at the cost of making it look like it was shot on digital video. the additional res makes it easier to spot all the matte painting set extensions which can take you out of it a little. the BTS stuff has 4:3 ratio like it was for vhs. you can see the difference in quality as it has shots from the movie. if you get the chance to watch it at 1080p, it is worth it.
 
Mrs. got 50-60 BDs and DVDs for .25-.75 cents each at charity thrift shops. She did a great job; only 2 titles were already in my collection. Some real stinkers imo, but she was interested in them, so at least they will get watched.
 
wonder the sales number of blu and blu ray 4K disks are? I would think that will be the deciding factor on much longer they keep making them...
 
gorobei said:
needed 1 more to get to the group of 3. besides the stunts/vfx were good and ........ angelina
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I'm pretty sure that's how I ended up with at least a couple of my movies, needed another to round out the deal, fair enough 😀
I mean, yeah, it wasn't a terrible movie, just not one I'd specifically add to my library unless it was a circumstance like this. Definitely liked the comics more.
 
nakedfrog said:
I'm pretty sure that's how I ended up with at least a couple of my movies, needed another to round out the deal, fair enough 😀
I mean, yeah, it wasn't a terrible movie, just not one I'd specifically add to my library unless it was a circumstance like this. Definitely liked the comics more.
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i did a craigslist search, found a bunch of BR and 4k i will probably grab.
the variety of their collections are pretty boggling. one was seemingly just getting whatever came out at the time. it is a techie area so they may have just been burning copies and are dumping the discs now, but some of the movies on there were far from even watchable. maybe it was a covid isolation thing.
 
Given my dependency on being able to read BR discs on my PC, I went ahead and bought a spare internal BR-RW drive just in case.

I don't know whether I'm being ridiculous with my decision to get this drive, I guess only time will truly tell. On one hand I've seen and known of a fair few storage technologies that have been and gone; most of them were superseded by something well and truly better, there's also the fact that well after the era of the floppy disk one can still buy a USB floppy drive, however I think there's also a factor being how popular was the storage medium in its era (rather like how popular versions of Windows are supported by third-party software makers well beyond their EOL date and unpopular versions are often cut off as soon as their EOL arrives). CDs and DVDs were popular, I think it's fair to say that BRs weren't so much.

On the other hand, with the move towards streaming and the younger generation's general preference for the cloud, maybe nothing will supersede 4KBR. Player and drive manufacturers have been shutting down production too. While it's possible that BR may resurface like vinyl records did, I don't like those odds for BR.
 
nakedfrog said:
It's hard to say, there does seem to be an increased interest in owning physical media. I hope it doesn't go away.
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Pretty sure the physical media will survive because of the extras. I rarely stream.

I hated VHS, the quality was like watching through fog. I bought the first ever SVHS VCR. It was developed by JVC. SVHS was actually watchable, whereas VHS was not, for TV or movies, for me.

IMO DVD if well done is often just fine. Depends some on the nature of the content. If it's drama, why not unless certain aspects of cinematography are part of the experience intended.

BR is better than DVD, of course.

The players I use now are 4K and backwards compatible. AFAIK my local library has not yet started getting 4K titles, but I haven't checked.

If my local library has a BR title of something I have on DVD I'll usually check out the BR rather than watch my DVD.

I have a small bunch of 4K titles, guessing around 8. To properly watch them I should be closer to my 4K screens than I normally am. Otherwise I won't get all the detail.
 
I understand your comment about SVHS but how it is relevant beyond recording content from a higher quality source? I don't recall it making regular VHS look any better?

Also recently I've purchased a few laserdisks...just because.
 
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