For Those Who Still Think Physical Media Has No Place in the 21st century… (1 Viewer)

[Josh Steinberg]

Will - absolutely, it would be nice. The problem with companies that only want to do big is that they’re content (and can do just fine without suffering any market consequence) to ignore small requests.

As for removing 3D from 4K TVs, I think the biggest reason for that is that the 3D filters built into the set cut some of the brightness, which manufacturers wanted back for HDR purposes. And then you get back to the same “market won’t penalize companies for ignoring small requests” thing. There’s probably a market for selling a couple thousand 3D sets a year but that’s not enough for them to care, and there’s no market penalty for not caring.

I say this by way of explanation, not endorsement. I wish there was a way to incentivize companies into caring about small markets in addition to world domination.

 

[WillG]

(Without going into details in an offtopic tangent).

For several of my "hobbies/interests", the mere mentioning of it is an immediate conversation stopper with many of my local offline acquaintances/friends.

like I said, I’ve had my balls busted many times over my preference for physical media and my collection. There really does seem to be an attitude from some that preferring physical media is stupid.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

like I said, I’ve had my balls many times over my preference for physical media and my collection. There really does seem to be an attitude from some that preferring physical media is stupid.

But in the end - people who do that are just as likely to bust your chops if your hobby was fancy kitchen gear or bicycles or anything else. It doesn’t speak to discs being terrible, it speaks to some people thinking nothing of being rude towards hobbies they don’t share.

 

[WillG]

Will - absolutely, it would be nice. The problem with companies that only want to do big is that they’re content (and can do just fine without suffering any market consequence) to ignore small requests.

As for removing 3D from 4K TVs, I think the biggest reason for that is that the 3D filters built into the set cut some of the brightness, which manufacturers wanted back for HDR purposes. And then you get back to the same “market won’t penalize companies for ignoring small requests” thing. There’s probably a market for selling a couple thousand 3D sets a year but that’s not enough for them to care, and there’s no market penalty for not caring.

I say this by way of explanation, not endorsement. I wish there was a way to incentivize companies into caring about small markets in addition to world domination.

Believe me, I understand the counter arguments and the very limited market for 3D but I was always dumbfounded by cutting it if there was no real cost savings advantage. What you just said may be the first time I’ve seen a technical reason cited for manufacturers cutting out 3D capability, so thanks for that.

 

[WillG]

But in the end - people who do that are just as likely to bust your chops if your hobby was fancy kitchen gear or bicycles or anything else. It doesn’t speak to discs being terrible, it speaks to some people thinking nothing of being rude towards hobbies they don’t share.

I’m not entirely sure about that. I don’t think the things you mention would get as mocked. People understand food, people understand bikes, nobody mocks a person who collects guitars. Nobody questions why someone who’s into photography has a bunch of different camera lenses. Nobody says to another person “why do you have so many books, you’ll never have the time to read all of them!l

 

[Josh Steinberg]

Trust me, they exist.

 

[jcroy]

Nobody says to another person “why do you have so many books, you’ll never have the time to read all of them!l

This ^ is exactly what I get all the time from local acquaintances/friends. (My primary interest is non-fiction and highly technical type reading material).

 

[WillG]

This ^ is exactly what I get all the time from local acquaintances/friends. (My primary interest is non-fiction and highly technical type reading material).

ok, maybe I’m wrong.

 

[jcroy]

Ironically of my local acquaintances/friends, the most vocal/rabid ones are hardcore into reading Star Wars books.

Apparently they think my interest in non-fiction history and technical books, is completely inferior to their "superior" interests in Star Wars books and comics.

 

[Edwin-S]

I don't care what hobby it is. There will always be someone who will say it is a worthless pastime and a waste of money. I'm pretty sure there is someone out there that has been scoffed at for spending 5 grand on a bicycle.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

Perhaps the world can be divided into two groups: generalists and enthusiasts, and each seems somewhat strange to the other.

And then some people are just jerks.

 

[Thomas Newton]

As someone who was given a number of the earliest Japanese music CDs from a Brazilian producer friend at Som Livre back in 1982, I can attest to the fact that those I have still play perfectly and have no surface anomalies...yet. So I wonder just how long a disc that was pressed on a stable blank and was taken care of might last.

Experience suggests that CDs with factory-pressed aluminum layers (like the Japanese music CD your friend gave you) should have very long data retention spans.

As for burnt discs, a Library of Congress summary suggested that CD-Rs can be expected to last for 30 years. Some, but not all, DVD-Rs were able to achieve this projected mark.

https://www.loc.gov/preservation/scientists/projects/cd-r_dvd-r_rw_longevity.html

 

[TJPC]

I hope they last much longer! 10 to 15 years ago, I converted my gigantic LP collection to DVD-R. So far everything is holding up fine. As I go through them, they all still play perfectly, even the ones with stick on labels.

I am 68. As long as my Blu rays, DVDs, CDs, and players last at least another 12 years or very optimistically another 22 years, I am fine. I keep thinking of the longevity of my gramophone collection. Just a little oil once in a while ...

 

[jcroy]

I don't care what hobby it is. There will always be someone who will say it is a worthless pastime and a waste of money. I'm pretty sure there is someone out there that has been scoffed at for spending 5 grand on a bicycle.

This also applies to hobbies/interests which have very little to no costs.

For example, my hardcore Star Wars local friends frequently say I'm wasting my time on reading a lot of stuff on an arcane esoteric subject which is largely in the form of free downloaded texts. (The authors post up their manuscripts online). Since I don't print out any of these manuscripts on paper, my only "costs" is a monthly internet connection and many hours of my free time.

Whenever I do buy a paper book in these specialized niches, I buy it when it shows up at "dump bin" prices. Basically when it is cheaper to buy the book, than to print up several hundred (or thousand) pages on my printer. (ie. Printer ink is not cheap).

 

[Ed Lachmann]

Experience suggests that CDs with factory-pressed aluminum layers (like the Japanese music CD your friend gave you) should have very long data retention spans.
As for burnt discs, a Library of Congress summary suggested that CD-Rs can be expected to last for 30 years. Some, but not all, DVD-Rs were able to achieve this projected mark.

Failure rate of my CDs, DVDs and BDs has been very limited and very odd at the same time:
A Matter of Life and Death BD (Criterion) First playing
The Sun Also Rises CD (Quartet) First playing
The Big Steal DVD (WB) First playing
The Robe BD (Fox) After 5/6 Christmas viewings
Come to the Stable DVD-R (Fox) After 3 Christmas viewings
Replacements stable. Seems like bad blanks to me (or Xmas curse).
There may have a very few more but out of a collection of over a thousand which are in constant rotation...not bad.

 

[Dick]

There really does seem to be an attitude from some that preferring physical media is stupid.

Not from me.

 

[AnthonyClarke]

Now that I'm 75 I'm searching for a 30-year plus guaranteed medium
I've struck a few flaws recently on replay of my high-def audio (24-96) archived on blank DVD discs but I tracked the cause down to a faulty burner. Apart from that glitch, all seems just fine.
All of my DVD movie compilation discs (a double-disc compiling the best Judy Garland song numbers and a double-disc compilation of all the Fred and Ginger song-dance numbers) are holding up just fine with no sign of disc wear or glitches.
So physically, they're doing better than me!

 

[Stephen_J_H]

speaking of which, if Disney will not longer release 3D discs in North America, would it kill them to offer a 3D option on Disney+. How hard could that be?

No ones ever really solved the streaming 3D issue; it’s been offered before but there have been serious quality issues due to the compression and reformatting.

But beyond that - and I say this as a huge 3D fan - there’s very little market for it. No consumer electronics manufacturer has made a 3D television for over three years now, most streaming boxes can’t support it, and most consumers who dipped their toe in that water have given up on it.

I wish there was a less grim answer but I don’t think that capability passes a cost/benefit analysis at Disney.

3D has been made available on streaming before, but the only current example is on Shudder: Found Footage 3D. It's on the site in a SBS format, and doesn't look bad, given that it's 1080 x 960 for each eye. To stream MVC, you need a fair amount of bandwidth, and i don't think Disney believes the install base is there to offer streaming 3D on Disney+. They're probably right.

 

[Jesse Skeen]

That would get more people interested in 3D though, if it were part of a $7 per month service vs. the $35 per digital title purchase they wanted before.

 

[Malcolm R]

That would get more people interested in 3D though, if it were part of a $7 per month service vs. the $35 per digital title purchase they wanted before.

And it might get some to subscribe, period. At the moment, there's nothing I need D+ for. If they were to add 3D availability, I'd have to reconsider.