Blueray, I'm not keen

Sassafras

My eyesight isn't good enough to notice much difference between Bluray and DVD.
I doubt I'd notice if someone swapped my Bluray for a manky old VHS.

darthed1981

It's all getting replaced by streaming anyhow, so I wouldn't worry about it too much.

exocet

Lodious said:

exocet said:

I thought that Blueray was only 1080p ie “standard HD”? What else is there that’s better to watch at home other than streamed 4K? 

I’m not an expert, but I don’t think It’s as simple as that, as resolution isn’t the only property which affects image quality. There is a lot more information on a 1080 Blu-ray than a 4k streamed movie, and while the encoding algorithm used for the stream may be better than the one used for the Blu-ray, there is a lot more compression on the streamed 4K. We watched a 4K stream of the Pirates of the Caribbean on iTunes a while back and some of the image quality was terrible, I think because of the amount of data compression to get a 4K movie into a stream a tenth of the size of a Blu-ray.

You are quite correct, pixel count is not the whole story - the compression applied and the resulting bit rate have a massive impact. I guess my original point should have been that we now live in a world where there are regular mismatches between the screens that we watch media on and the original source content. I'm still quite happy watching 1080 either streamed or via Blueray on a native 1080 screen. I also have a 4K screen which is 5 years younger than the 1080, was "higher end spec" within the 4K range at that time....and yet I can't stand watching anything on it because everything is upscaled from 1080 source. My broadband is not robust enough to watch streamed 4K content on a regular basis without occasional buffering so I don't bother at all with 4K. What are people watching on their 4K screens?

Philly_Q

darthed1981 said:

It's all getting replaced by streaming anyhow, so I wouldn't worry about it too much.

We're a long way from that, unless tens of thousands of older films, world cinema etc are simply allowed to vanish from existence.

Brize

Philly_Q said:

darthed1981 said:

It's all getting replaced by streaming anyhow, so I wouldn't worry about it too much.

We're a long way from that, unless tens of thousands of older films, world cinema etc are simply allowed to vanish from existence.

I love older films and world cinema, and I also love physical media. I recently had a shelf built to house over a thousand Blu-ray discs, and the joiner remarked that Western Digital hard drive would have been much cheaper!

Even I accept that physical media is dead and streaming is the way forward. For older films and world cinema especially, with smaller audiences, it's easier to get the film on a streaming service than to produce a physical product.

strumjoughlamps

Well this thread made me get my collection out the cupboard,  currently watching Avatar in 24p 1080p, action is buttery smooth colours are lovely sound is tip top.

Philly_Q

Brize said:

Philly_Q said:

darthed1981 said:

It's all getting replaced by streaming anyhow, so I wouldn't worry about it too much.

We're a long way from that, unless tens of thousands of older films, world cinema etc are simply allowed to vanish from existence.

I love older films and world cinema, and I also love physical media. I recently had a shelf built to house over a thousand Blu-ray discs, and the joiner remarked that Western Digital hard drive would have been much cheaper!

Even I accept that physical media is dead and streaming is the way forward. For older films and world cinema especially, with smaller audiences, it's easier to get the film on a streaming service than to produce a physical product.

It is, but someone's got to undertake the task of actually making the films available on the streaming services.  I guess what will ultimately happen is that the specialised DVD/Blu-ray labels, like Criterion, BFI, Arrow, Blue Underground etc will have their own streaming channels and make their catalogues of films available that way.  It's happening already.  (I wonder if they'll then be taken over by the big players and the care-and-attention aspect will be lost?)

But it also needs the big studios like Warner Bros to make all those titles from the last 100 years of cinema available - not just a few things like Casablanca and Citizen Kane.

You can only subscribe to so many streaming services though.

darthed1981

Philly_Q said:

darthed1981 said:

It's all getting replaced by streaming anyhow, so I wouldn't worry about it too much.

We're a long way from that, unless tens of thousands of older films, world cinema etc are simply allowed to vanish from existence.

Why on Earth would that happen?

Most countries have an equivalent of the BFI responsible for preserving such films, and indeed presenting them for streaming, which BFI does with a wonderful curated streaming service.

Other platforms specialising in rare, old or world cinema, like arrow or criterion, are starting their own niche streaming services or amazon channels.

Now I agree Netflix does not have much in the way of those genres, but they only have a commercial interest in growing subscribers, not in putting out obscure content.

Streaming becoming the dominant mass market distribution model for film has already happened.  Becoming the preferred form of distribution for companies who specialise in rare cinema has already started.

Nobody will be forced to throw out their collections, so dvds and blu rays will be a common site in houses for many years to come, but let's not pretend because some people don't like the new direction that the wind hasn't changed.

Philly_Q

darthed1981 said:

Philly_Q said:

darthed1981 said:

It's all getting replaced by streaming anyhow, so I wouldn't worry about it too much.

We're a long way from that, unless tens of thousands of older films, world cinema etc are simply allowed to vanish from existence.

Why on Earth would that happen?

Most countries have an equivalent of the BFI responsible for preserving such films, and indeed presenting them for streaming, which BFI does with a wonderful curated streaming service.

Other platforms specialising in rare, old or world cinema, like arrow or criterion, are starting their own niche streaming services or amazon channels.

Now I agree Netflix does not have much in the way of those genres, but they only have a commercial interest in growing subscribers, not in putting out obscure content.

Streaming becoming the dominant mass market distribution model for film has already happened.  Becoming the preferred form of distribution for companies who specialise in rare cinema has already started.

Nobody will be forced to throw out their collections, so dvds and blu rays will be a common site in houses for many years to come, but let's not pretend because some people don't like the new direction that the wind hasn't changed.

I'm not pretending the wind hasn't changed, and in my previous post I mentioned BFI, Arrow, Criterion etc moving into streaming.  I'm not even saying I don't like the new direction, in principle - it would actually be nice not to have so much "stuff" in my house.  But there's a very long way to go.

In due course does the streaming model have to change?  If I have Netflix, Amazon, Arrow, Criterion, BFI, Shudder, Curzon Home Cinema etc it'd be 50 quid or more every month.  And what about the big studios - Warner, Universal, Sony/Columbia, Paramount, Fox etc - who gets access to their back-catalogues and makes them available?

I'm not trying to make a futile stand against change, I just think there's a long way to go.

not_the_dj

strumjoughlamps said:

Well this thread made me get my collection out the cupboard,  currently watching Avatar in 24p 1080p, action is buttery smooth colours are lovely sound is tip top.

Just a shame about the plot then ;-)

darthed1981

Philly_Q said:

darthed1981 said:

Philly_Q said:

darthed1981 said:

It's all getting replaced by streaming anyhow, so I wouldn't worry about it too much.

We're a long way from that, unless tens of thousands of older films, world cinema etc are simply allowed to vanish from existence.

Why on Earth would that happen?

Most countries have an equivalent of the BFI responsible for preserving such films, and indeed presenting them for streaming, which BFI does with a wonderful curated streaming service.

Other platforms specialising in rare, old or world cinema, like arrow or criterion, are starting their own niche streaming services or amazon channels.

Now I agree Netflix does not have much in the way of those genres, but they only have a commercial interest in growing subscribers, not in putting out obscure content.

Streaming becoming the dominant mass market distribution model for film has already happened.  Becoming the preferred form of distribution for companies who specialise in rare cinema has already started.

Nobody will be forced to throw out their collections, so dvds and blu rays will be a common site in houses for many years to come, but let's not pretend because some people don't like the new direction that the wind hasn't changed.

I'm not pretending the wind hasn't changed, and in my previous post I mentioned BFI, Arrow, Criterion etc moving into streaming.  I'm not even saying I don't like the new direction, in principle - it would actually be nice not to have so much "stuff" in my house.  But there's a very long way to go.

In due course does the streaming model have to change?  If I have Netflix, Amazon, Arrow, Criterion, BFI, Shudder, Curzon Home Cinema etc it'd be 50 quid or more every month.  And what about the big studios - Warner, Universal, Sony/Columbia, Paramount, Fox etc - who gets access to their back-catalogues and makes them available?

I'm not trying to make a futile stand against change, I just think there's a long way to go.

Fair enough, seems we only differ slightly in our ultimate opinions!

Interesting point about what is happening with streaming as yes, ultimately the model does need to change, as there will be too many services for the same amount of content.  Currently rather too much content is being produced, to the extent that a lot of it is "throwing a lot of shit at the wall, and seeing what sticks" and it's just running up debt.

In the end, who remains standing?  My money would be on something like Disney buying Netflix - or one or other being bought by Amazon, Google or Apple, and similar deals leading to platforms merging.

Disney have already merged Hulu and Disney+ in the rest of the world (with their new star brand) so that's probably the future.

As usual, Amazon have probably sniffed the wind best with their branded "channels" offering, an easy source of both customers and platform for small content providers like Arrow,Shudder, BFI etc - just currently their libraries are a bit small.

The other pending nail in the coffin of physical media will be the end of HMV, already only barely surviving, and when that eventually comes niche media providers really only have their own websites and Amazon - giving Mr Bezos more power than they probably care to deal with.

Philly_Q

darthed1981 said:

In the end, who remains standing?  My money would be on something like Disney buying Netflix - or one or other being bought by Amazon, Google or Apple, and similar deals leading to platforms merging.

Disney have already merged Hulu and Disney+ in the rest of the world (with their new star brand) so that's probably the future.

As usual, Amazon have probably sniffed the wind best with their branded "channels" offering, an easy source of both customers and platform for small content providers like Arrow,Shudder, BFI etc - just currently their libraries are a bit small.

The other pending nail in the coffin of physical media will be the end of HMV, already only barely surviving, and when that eventually comes niche media providers really only have their own websites and Amazon - giving Mr Bezos more power than they probably care to deal with.

Yeah, I fear so.  The big boys will get bigger and the small players will be snuffed out.  It's rather depressing.

rze99

Looks great to me

darthed1981

Philly_Q said:

Yeah, I fear so.  The big boys will get bigger and the small players will be snuffed out.  It's rather depressing.

What is promising though is the very content we are discussing is of little interest to Netflix or Disney so they will have little motivation to kill off a niche provider.

This means if someone like Britbox partnered with Arrow, the BFI etc and became more of a niche proposition, it could thrive.

Even the BFI building a little Web of partners isn't beyond belief.

Deadman

I thought this was gonna be a necro-thread from when TFB was a prototype model from 2002.