Topic: State of the home video market

[falsealarms]

Here's some interesting recent articles about the state of the home video market (and it's future).:

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-cover-dvd-future-20110925-1,0,6516807.story

I'm not a big fan of those trends. Unlike most 20-somethings, I strongly prefer physical media to downloads and streams. It's the same reason I haven't gotten into e-books. I'd rather read actual printed books or newspapers.

Another article says sales of Blu-Ray players will surpass DVD player sales as soon as 2015:

http://www.homemediamagazine.com/blu-ray-disc/report-blu-ray-player-shipments-reach-105m-units-2015-25173

Blu-Ray is great for the most part, but I do worry a lot of old, black and white movies will get left behind. The reception of classic titles on Blu hasn't been great. We might see those films permanently relegated to DVD-R or off the radar completely.

A third article says streaming will put a nail in Blu Ray's coffin circa 2025:

http://www.pcworld.com/article/241215/video_format_war_bluray_vs_streaming.html

[shemps#1]

Very interesting articles that are pretty much common sense. I think I said somewhere on this board that I thought streaming would be the new leader in home video, not Blu-Ray. I like streaming like Netflix because you pay a low price to have access to many movies that I probably wouldn't pick up a physical copy of on a whim. If I do happen to find a movie I really like I'll go out and purchase a physical copy.

Unfortunately I have yet to find a copy of Paper Moon.

[metaldams]

For music, a lot of people do download torrents for free, and while I don't go that far, I do subscribe to Rhapsody for about $70 a year and can stream unlimited music.  It's wonderful, I can listen to almost anything I want and it doesn't cost me an arm and a leg to do so.  I can go as deep as I want in my 70's and 80's metal obsession and also explore other musical styles, and I don't have to have bulks of CD's around my house.  Save money, save space, what's the problem?

I look forward to the same thing with movies.  I'm not on Netfilx yet, but I plan to be someday, and I look forward to the day where I can watch pretty much anything I want and again save the space and money.  E books, same deal.  My physical media buying has gone WAY down over the past few years, and my bank account is better for it.

[falsealarms]

I'm different with music than I am with movies and books. Whereas I still buy books, DVDs and Blu Ray's, I've only bought a few CDs in the past several years. I'd rather stream music online or buy MP3s if I really like a song.

But movies, I'd much rather watch them on my 32' HDTV in the comforts of my living room than sitting in a computer chair watching them on a 21' computer monitor. My 15 month old Sony HDTV is not internet capable (perhaps the one mistake I made when getting a TV last year). It's great otherwise.

[shemps#1]

When Netflix and others start streaming fresh movies for a relatively cheap subscription rate (which Hollywood is hesitant to do) it will be death of physical media for movies. What Hollywood execs need to know is I could get practically any movie I want for free so they need a little more proactive than this "premium pay" bullshit.

[xraffle]

I don't mind it if downloads/streams takes over physical media as long as the quality doesn't suffer. If a downloaded movie can look as good as a Blu-ray movie, then I'm all for this. But so far, the quality of downloaded movies is still pretty crappy, in my opinion. I assume, with time, this will change.

[shemps#1]

I don't mind it if downloads/streams takes over physical media as long as the quality doesn't suffer. If a downloaded movie can look as good as a Blu-ray movie, then I'm all for this. But so far, the quality of downloaded movies is still pretty crappy, in my opinion. I assume, with time, this will change.

I wouldn't say "crappy" but streaming does not compare to Blu-Ray/HD YET. In time it will. After thinking about it I don't think physical media will die completely in our generation: there will some movies that you want a physical copy of just in case your Internet is down. In time streaming will be HD quality and the Internet will be faster in general.

[falsealarms]

As for music, I can recommend Spotify (free for 6 months, then either 5 or 10 a month) and Rdio (the free version has an unspecified cap on it).

http://www.spotify.com

http://www.rdio.com

[xraffle]

I’m not crazy about streaming because I do have a difficult time streaming videos sometimes. Websites like YouTube and MegaVideo tend to be very slow at times and my video keeps pausing because it’s not streaming fast enough. Not sure if it’s my internet or not. But at this day and age, this is totally unacceptable.

I’d rather have all my videos on memory like what we do with music. I can’t stand physical media because they just take up too much shelf space. I have a lot of movies and TV shows, many of which I bought on sale and that is why I have so many of them. I’m at the point where I may need to sell some of them because I’m just running out of room. I’d rather keep them, but I just don’t have the space. With hard drive space growing and growing each day, I can only imagine that eventually, we’ll be downloading our movies (legally, like what we do with ITunes) and physical media may die. Rather than buying a DVD or Blu-ray player, we’ll be buying memory units that can store terabytes of TB of data and can hook up to our TVs. Either that or we’ll be storing our movies on USB flash drives. That’s how I see it.

[falsealarms]

I'm not sure what kind of system you have, but if it's an older system, that might be part of the problem. If it's not more than a few years old, I'd say it's probably your internet speed. Have you updated your Flash player?

I rarely get those issues on YouTube.

[xraffle]

It's probably both my computer and internet. I bought my computer 3 years ago and the way technology moves today, it's definitely outdated. And my internet is nothing to brag about either. I use Time Warner and their cable is terrible. It's one of the reasons I dropped their Cable TV service and just watch TV either via DVD/Blu-ray or over-the-air. I kept the internet though and it is always either very slow or not working. It's awful. I wish Fios was available in my area, but we're not due to get that until 2012.

[Hammond Eggar]

Unfortunately I have yet to find a copy of Paper Moon.

Actually, Amazon has a listing for a DVD copy of Paper Moon.  That's such a great film, but unfortunately Amazon is charging $37.89 for it.  Oh well.  At least it's available.

http://www.amazon.com/Paper-Moon-Ryan-ONeal/dp/B00009RDGA/ref=sr_1_1?s=movies-tv&ie=UTF8&qid=1326259271&sr=1-1

[vomit]

For my favorite bands (Iron Maiden, Motorhead, the Doors) I definitely prefer the physical media with packaging.  For one-offs and singles that I like you can't beat Mp3's and iTunes.  There is some stuff about the end of the CD era later this year.....time marches on, I suppose.

http://allhiphop.com/2011/11/07/2012-the-end-of-the-cd-era/

[metaldams]

For my favorite bands (Iron Maiden, Motorhead, the Doors) I definitely prefer the physical media with packaging.  For one-offs and singles that I like you can't beat Mp3's and iTunes.  There is some stuff about the end of the CD era later this year.....time marches on, I suppose.

http://allhiphop.com/2011/11/07/2012-the-end-of-the-cd-era/

This doesn't surprise me at all about the death of CD's.

I very rarely buy physical albums these days.  I just have so many it's a matter of space and convienience.  Plus CD stores are a dying breed anyway, the only places in my area outside of one store are Best Buy's and Targets.  I miss the mom and pop places and having music conversations with the fellow misfits at the counter.  That said, I did buy THE FINAL FRONTIER the day of release, though at Target, I do have THE WORLD IS YOURS on CD with the bonus DVD too, but that's so rare.  I'm a lifelong Metallica fan and even DEATH MAGNETIC I have only from itunes.

I did buy a couple of old Exodus CD's with a gift card I got off amazon (PLEASURES OF THE FLESH and FABULOUS DISASTER), but that's only because they aren't available legally on itunes and I can't hear em on Rhapsody.  Those would be the last CD's I bought, but before that?  Probably the new Motorhead, it's been awhile.

[metaldams]

For my favorite bands (Iron Maiden, Motorhead, the Doors)

By the way Vomit, what's your opinion about the whole Doors catalog being remixed?  Are you a fan of it or do you think they should've left the originals as is?  I'm a very casual Doors fan, but I'm interested in your opinion.

[vomit]

By the way Vomit, what's your opinion about the whole Doors catalog being remixed?  Are you a fan of it or do you think they should've left the originals as is?  I'm a very casual Doors fan, but I'm interested in your opinion.

I really like the remixes....I bought "Strange Days", "The Doors" & "LA  Woman" remixes.  Some songs were done better than others.  It sure is fun to hear "Break on Through" uncensored.  Also, did you know the original album version of "Light My Fire" was recorded at the wrong speed?  The new version is corrected....and I think it sounds way better.  I am planning on getting the rest of the catalog remixes too....but I kept the originals as well.  You can't go wrong with Jim Morrison.

Here's a blurb from wikipedia on LMF (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Doors_(album)#Speed_discrepancy).....

Speed discrepancy
 
The 40th Anniversary Mix presents a stereo version in speed-corrected form for the first time. The speed discrepancy (being about 3.5% slow) was brought to Bruce Botnick's attention by a Brigham Young University professor who stated that all the video and audio live performances of The Doors performing "Light My Fire", as well as the sheet music show the song being in a key almost a half step higher than the stereo LP release. The mono 45 RPM single of "Light My Fire", and the mono LP were produced at the correct speed.[6]

[metaldams]

I really like the remixes....I bought "Strange Days", "The Doors" & "LA  Woman" remixes.  Some songs were done better than others.  It sure is fun to hear "Break on Through" uncensored.  Also, did you know the original album version of "Light My Fire" was recorded at the wrong speed?  The new version is corrected....and I think it sounds way better.  I am planning on getting the rest of the catalog remixes too....but I kept the originals as well.  You can't go wrong with Jim Morrison.

Here's a blurb from wikipedia on LMF (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Doors_(album)#Speed_discrepancy).....

Speed discrepancy
 
The 40th Anniversary Mix presents a stereo version in speed-corrected form for the first time. The speed discrepancy (being about 3.5% slow) was brought to Bruce Botnick's attention by a Brigham Young University professor who stated that all the video and audio live performances of The Doors performing "Light My Fire", as well as the sheet music show the song being in a key almost a half step higher than the stereo LP release. The mono 45 RPM single of "Light My Fire", and the mono LP were produced at the correct speed.[6]

I have mixed feelings about remixes.  The artistic purist in me feels they should just be left alone, but as a Megadeth fan, I'd be a liar if I didn't say a couple of those early albums don't sound better in their remixed forms.  I guess it's the same deal with The Doors as far as your opinion goes.

For some reason, there are other 60's recordings that have speed and pitch issues in stereo.  A couple of Beatles songs come to mind and the entire BEGGAR'S BANQUET album was at the wrong speed in stereo until the 2002 remaster.  They should just stick to mono.   

[archiezappa]

I prefer to have actual physical copies of everything in music, books and home video. 

I do like DVD, as it's far superior to VHS.  I especially like being able to pause and use slow motion with a crystal clear frame. 

With music, my preferred format is the vinyl LP.  Cassettes and 8-track tapes wear out and break too much.  I have several CD's, but many times, with older recordings, some dynamics are lost in this format that are apparent in the original vinyl.  That, and many old recordings on CD have been remixed and are definitely NOT what was originally intended on the original vinyl release.

Books, newspapers and magazines belong on paper.  I don't like e-books.