Search results

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/thr-esq/apple-must-face-lawsuit-for-telling-consumers-they-can-buy-movies-tv-shows

Yes, but Netflix alone is spending $17 billion this year on production, so I'm not sure how profitable streaming actually is. I'm sure none of the major players are actually making any money right now.

Sure, but as with music, it doesn't necessarily have to be on disc anymore.

I still buy discs for things I want to own and there are a number of good arguments in favour of physical media, but price has never been one of them. Even if my internet bill tripled overnight, it would still cost more to buy everything I watch on disc.

The discs I've bought are fine. But a few of the ones I've rented, especially those borrowed from the library - well, I'm not sure I want to know what's on some of those.

Not nearly as large as the crowd who sees no need for discs at all.

That's about a third of what titles like Avatar and Frozen sold a few years ago.

True, but it does cut both ways. If you want to see the original theatrical cut of The Warriors, for example, you're out of luck on blu-ray. But it is available on iTunes.

Except they didn't actually edit it.

I remember reading some years ago that Kodak was working on a system that would record digital data onto 35mm film, an attempt to combine the best of both worlds. Of course, you'd still need some device to read the data, but it seemed to make sense as a longer term storage solution. Don't know...

The big studios might, but the vast majority of independent films and television don't.

Nothing's forever. I've had a handful of DVDs and blu-rays that just stopped playing out of the blue.

Well, with iTunes, for instance, you can download a copy to your computer or to an external drive - it's not something sitting in the ether that can be taken away.

I think that's technically true, but you're not allowed to break the encryption that enables you to make a copy, so...

I've never done it, but I thought it could be done without any quality loss, though I may be wrong. Either way, it seems like a pointless exercise. What's the advantage of having it on DVD or blu-ray versus having the exact same digital file sitting on your computer drive?

It can be done.

While I agree that streaming will become more splintered and more expensive, I don't think it's going to result in some kind of shift back towards physical media. For one thing, with respect to movies and television, I don't think the average viewer was ever a rabid consumer of discs. They...

There seems to be an awful lot of hand-wringing going on, but at this moment, I think we have the best of both worlds. If there's a specific movie that I know I'll want to watch repeatedly, I'll buy the blu-ray. If it's something I'm pretty sure I'll only want to see once, I'll rent it on iTunes...

Actually we do, except for Pandora. Plus we have Apple Music.

Laserdiscs were certainly expensive, but not quite that expensive. While some of the box-set special editions could easily go for $100 or more, the average disc price was closer to the $30-40 range. Fox discs were always stupidly expensive, for some reason. I remember paying $75 for the first...

Well, as long as machines that can play them are available and the discs themselves last. Nothing is forever.

That used to be true, but it's really not anymore. The US beats Canada in quantity, but not necessarily quality. The Canadian version has improved considerably over the past few years, while the American one has gotten a little worse. Of course it depends on where you're interests lie, but...

I've had the blu-rays of Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, THX-1138 and one other title that escapes me right now, all die on me, so I'm not convinced they're that much more durable than DVDs.

The only real advantage of 4K discs from 2K sources is HDR, for superior contrast and colour.