- May 19, 2011
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This is something I've been on the fence about for a while. I own a fair bit in DVD format, and an increasing amount in BR format; I've been replacing some of my DVDs to BRs based on bluray.com reviews and where I've spotted that the original DVD quality leaves somewhat to be desired. For example:
Aliens - it was shot on cheap film and the DVD version is incredibly blotchy/grainy at times. The BR version was remastered and I consider it to be perfectly decent quality.
Some nineties movies like "Carlito's Way" and "Heat" on DVD are not great.
Typically 21st Century movies on DVD are as good as they can be on DVD; they were probably shot digitally so there's no remastering to do.
These days I'm watching stuff on 1080p only but I imagine that will change at some point in the future.
I very rarely rent/buy stuff from a streaming service. My personal opinion is that if I spend money on it, I own it in a way that can't be taken away (short of burning my house down). I've also seen stuff on streaming services looking a bit blotchy, e.g. signs of a bit rate that's too low and it's definitely not down to my Internet connection speed; not quite "8 pixels! 8! AH AH AH! though. I remember during covid that streaming services announced a lowering of bitrates "to keep up with demand", but if one can be sure of anything with capitalism, saving money in any way "because we can" is a pretty commonly applied maxim.
If I had to guess, the typical perspective about what the future holds for this industry will be "streaming/digital all the way". I'd probably be OK with a legitimately purchased, decently encoded, DRM-free MKV file that I can download and store on my computer just like I've ripped all my DVDs/BRs to my computer, but if that started to become a thing I bet two things would occur like it does with ebooks: 1) "this isn't available in your region" (also, I found an ebook site that claimed that a particular ebook was "out of stock", which provoked a chuckle), 2) when the digital only version costs more than the physical copy.
Another perspective to look at this at is the audiophile-type perspective: Streaming will always cost a certain amount of money that suppliers will wish to keep as low as possible, which likely means that quality will always suffer at least to some extent. There's a significant niche in the market to warrant expensive hi-fi equipment, and another hipster/snakeoil "my vinyl sounds better" type niche, so perhaps the quality-oriented options for movie/series delivery will always exist.
Most of the BRs I've picked up in recent years have been second-hand music magpie ebay jobs, so I save a lot of money there compared to the BR normal 'new' price, and at least some money over the streamed alternatives.
Thoughts?
Aliens - it was shot on cheap film and the DVD version is incredibly blotchy/grainy at times. The BR version was remastered and I consider it to be perfectly decent quality.
Some nineties movies like "Carlito's Way" and "Heat" on DVD are not great.
Typically 21st Century movies on DVD are as good as they can be on DVD; they were probably shot digitally so there's no remastering to do.
These days I'm watching stuff on 1080p only but I imagine that will change at some point in the future.
I very rarely rent/buy stuff from a streaming service. My personal opinion is that if I spend money on it, I own it in a way that can't be taken away (short of burning my house down). I've also seen stuff on streaming services looking a bit blotchy, e.g. signs of a bit rate that's too low and it's definitely not down to my Internet connection speed; not quite "8 pixels! 8! AH AH AH! though. I remember during covid that streaming services announced a lowering of bitrates "to keep up with demand", but if one can be sure of anything with capitalism, saving money in any way "because we can" is a pretty commonly applied maxim.
If I had to guess, the typical perspective about what the future holds for this industry will be "streaming/digital all the way". I'd probably be OK with a legitimately purchased, decently encoded, DRM-free MKV file that I can download and store on my computer just like I've ripped all my DVDs/BRs to my computer, but if that started to become a thing I bet two things would occur like it does with ebooks: 1) "this isn't available in your region" (also, I found an ebook site that claimed that a particular ebook was "out of stock", which provoked a chuckle), 2) when the digital only version costs more than the physical copy.
Another perspective to look at this at is the audiophile-type perspective: Streaming will always cost a certain amount of money that suppliers will wish to keep as low as possible, which likely means that quality will always suffer at least to some extent. There's a significant niche in the market to warrant expensive hi-fi equipment, and another hipster/snakeoil "my vinyl sounds better" type niche, so perhaps the quality-oriented options for movie/series delivery will always exist.
Most of the BRs I've picked up in recent years have been second-hand music magpie ebay jobs, so I save a lot of money there compared to the BR normal 'new' price, and at least some money over the streamed alternatives.
Thoughts?
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