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

[TJPC]

For me streaming is for TV shows and Movies I have no interest in ever owning. They are disposable like Kleenex. Anything more substantial that I want in my collection must be a real tangible disc that I can see and touch, not just a "right" to have access to. I would never pay money for such ephemera. I have probably about 1 or 2 hundred digital downloads from Blu rays I have bought. I have never watched any of them.

 

[OLDTIMER]

I would probably spend hours on deciding what to watch if I had that many films.

I had the same problem but I now run "festivals". I select a topic or an artist and run a series night by night. For example, I just had a Bette Davis fest, and before that an Eddy-and-MacDonald fest, a Marylin Monroe fest, a 1920s' Gangster fest. et al.

 

[Blu Eye]

I had the same problem but I now run "festivals". I select a topic or an artist and run a series night by night. For example, I just had a Bette Davis fest, and before that an Eddy-and-MacDonald fest, a Marylin Monroe fest, a 1920s' Gangster fest. et al.

Sounds like a good idea!

Probably wise to not run a Samuel Jackson or Nicolas Cage fest though.

 

[Ejanss]

Yes, if I pay $20, it's for a disc. However, if I only pay $5, it's rare that Amazon (or anyone else) will send me a disc. I have set personal price ceilings for discs and streaming versions of films. Right now, I almost always wait until a disc drops under $18 for a single film before I will buy it. I used to have a $10 ceiling for 4K streams, but I've lowered it to around $7. For HD streams, I am willing to pay no more than $5.

We seem to have this same discussion ad nausem around here. Both discs and streaming have their pros and cons, and we still seem to battle the same misconceptions about streaming, too (purchases will disappear, video quality can only be good if you have a 1Gb Internet connection, etc.).

Two big, BIG problems in communication kept Digital VOD artificially alive with tech-illiterate studios for literally years longer than its profits suggested it should:

1) Nobody knew the difference between Digital VOD (ie. Vudu) and Streaming (Netflix/Amazon), and literally didn't know which one they were talking about--Especially since you watched one of your bought movies on a stream. Key point, though, was that there was a difference between paying $12 for a month of free watching on Netflix and paying $10-20 for everything you wanted to watch. When one turned out to be more sellable, industry articles cried "Digital is popular!...Just look at Netflix's profits!"

2) Digital rental actually did catch on, and bury Redbox, because it worked: If you cut the cord, you didn't need your cable's On-Demand to watch last-summer's recent movie you missed, you could rent it from Amazon for $5 (which was still cheaper than Blockbuster's old disk rentals), and if you didn't want to keep it, well, it was going to disappear in 48 hours anyway. While not a better idea than Netflix's old disk-by-mail, where you could just drop your disk in the front-door mailbox when finished, at least you didn't have to wait days for it to arrive.

...Did that mean we Loved Digital? No.
It just meant that customers tweaked the market of what the studios were selling into what the public wanted to buy, and it made money there.

 

[Mark Booth]

That's a lot of discs!!

I cannot ever imagine owning that many discs. There are not that many films I would want to watch again.

I would probably spend hours on deciding what to watch if I had that many films.

I was beginning to think my movie watching hobbie was becoming compulsive but you have changed my opinion on that now .

Compared to some others on here (past and present), I'm a rank beginner.

Mark

 

[Robin9]

Who wants to be average?

Ooh! Nice one!

 

[KMR]

You should have asked to borrow their car.

 

[Sam Favate]

I realize I am (mostly) preaching to the choir here, but...

Today my kids asked about the movie Elf. One of them had seen it in school a few years ago and the other had never seen it. Can we watch it? they asked. So I said, sure, let's search the streaming services and see where it is. I searched all the services to which we subscribe: Netflix, Amazon, Apple+, Disney+, HBOMax, CBS AA, Hulu; none of them have it. Tried ABC, NBC, FX, FoxNow and CW; nope. Amazon had it to rent for $3.99. My wife said, what about the blu-ray. That's $7.99. They all started yelling "Get the blu-ray! Get the blu-ray!"

It's crazy that with all the services to which I subscribe, we can't find a movie we want. (We were also looking for the original Miracle on 34th Street, which is on Disney+.)

 

[Jeffrey D]

I realize I am (mostly) preaching to the choir here, but...

Today my kids asked about the movie Elf. One of them had seen it in school a few years ago and the other had never seen it. Can we watch it? they asked. So I said, sure, let's search the streaming services and see where it is. I searched all the services to which we subscribe: Netflix, Amazon, Apple+, Disney+, HBOMax, CBS AA, Hulu; none of them have it. Tried ABC, NBC, FX, FoxNow and CW; nope. Amazon had it to rent for $3.99. My wife said, what about the blu-ray. That's $7.99. They all started yelling "Get the blu-ray! Get the blu-ray!"

It's crazy that with all the services to which I subscribe, we can't find a movie we want. (We were also looking for the original Miracle on 34th Street, which is on Disney+.)

A little surprising that a popular film isn’t on the numerous streaming services you listed.
What’s the name of that Bruce Springsteen song- 57 Channels And Nothing On- something like that.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

But it’s not like the film isn’t available - it can be found easily for rental or purchase on the digital storefronts so if the goal is simply to see that movie instantly, that’s no trouble at all.

As for why it’s not on a subscription streaming service, whichever cable network has it now may temporarily have all broadcast/streaming rights - it happens fairly often that a movie will drop out of subscription streaming availability if a linear network has it.

 

[Blu Eye]

I realize I am (mostly) preaching to the choir here, but...

Today my kids asked about the movie Elf. One of them had seen it in school a few years ago and the other had never seen it. Can we watch it? they asked. So I said, sure, let's search the streaming services and see where it is. I searched all the services to which we subscribe: Netflix, Amazon, Apple+, Disney+, HBOMax, CBS AA, Hulu; none of them have it. Tried ABC, NBC, FX, FoxNow and CW; nope. Amazon had it to rent for $3.99. My wife said, what about the blu-ray. That's $7.99. They all started yelling "Get the blu-ray! Get the blu-ray!"

It's crazy that with all the services to which I subscribe, we can't find a movie we want. (We were also looking for the original Miracle on 34th Street, which is on Disney+.)

Whilst I have commented on this particular issue with streaming previously it does still surprise me a little that Elf is not more widely available on more streaming services especially at this time of year.

Conversely, it may be that because it is a Christmas film it is probably not good business sense to have it available all year round and perhaps the company that owns the streaming rights to the movie is asking too much for most of the streaming businesses to justify spending for just one movie that will be watched predominantly in a 4 week window only then to be in not much demand therafter.

I suppose it's frustrating if you subscribe to a few monthly streaming services and then have to pay $3.99 or whatever to rent the film as it is not available with the companies you subscribe to. I know it would annoy me a bit, anyway.

I am watching with interest to see how the streaming services business model will change/adapt with customers changing viewing habits especially with younger generations.

Personally, I think the current plethora of available titles will be reduced going forward but time will tell.

 

[John Dirk]

Whilst I have commented on this particular issue with streaming previously it does still surprise me a little that Elf is not more widely available on more streaming services especially at this time of year.

I don't believe this is practical for streaming only platforms like Netflix or the like. Their content is either produced in house for exclusive use by their subscribers or licensed through publishers for a specific period of time. They are not well positioned to provide licensed seasonal content. Further, it is unlikely you would ever find the same licensed content on competing streaming platforms anyway.

I love streaming services for the variety of content they provide and the ability to binge watch but I don't blame them for not having a specific catalog title available for streaming at a given time. For that, I keep my shiny discs on hand

 

[Mark-P]

As for why it’s not on a subscription streaming service, whichever cable network has it now may temporarily have all broadcast/streaming rights - it happens fairly often that a movie will drop out of subscription streaming availability if a linear network has it.

And that network would be Starz. It’s available for streaming with a Starz or AMC+ subscription.

Further, it is unlikely you would ever find the same licensed content on competing streaming platforms anyway.

Not so unlikely. The original Star Trek, Next Gen, Deep Space 9, and Voyager are on every streaming service known to man!

 

[Josh Steinberg]

And that network would be Starz. It’s available for streaming with a Starz or AMC+ subscription.

And there you have it. And like pretty much every subscription service, it offers a free trial for new members, making it possible to sign up, view the film at no cost, and then cancel.

 

[Chip_HT]

Interestingly, I own a digital copy of Elf thanks to a Kellogg's promotion last year, and I saw it listed as part of another promotion this year.

 

[ptb2017fr]

Every streaming service known to man,but useless if you don’t live somewhere with a strong signal. I was watching a movie on Amazon Prime yesterday when suddenly it lost focus and then disappeared. It had started raining you see and that screws up the WiFi! I even lost some of my broadcast through the aerial tv channels! Which is why I love my Blu Rays.

 

[Nick*Z]

My chief reason for collecting on physical is that I watch what I want to watch when I want to watch it. I don't have to worry about a streaming service yanking something mid-way through my enjoyment of it (happens more with series than movies, but still) and I do get full 1080p all the time from my Blu's and full 4K from my 4K titles, as opposed to some botched algorithm that may or may not represent the movie in all its remastered glory.

Not saying streaming doesn't have its place, but for me, it's a poor cousin to physical media, if for no other reason, than the disc is always at my finger tips and the streaming remains somewhere up there in the clouds, as someone has already mentioned, subject to WiFi conductivity during a thunder shower. Fair enough, a power failure puts me out of commission too. But I have less of those than interruptions from weather-related broadcast signals.

 

[Robert Crawford]

My chief reason for collecting on physical is that I watch what I want to watch when I want to watch it. I don't have to worry about a streaming service yanking something mid-way through my enjoyment of it (happens more with series than movies, but still) and I do get full 1080p all the time from my Blu's and full 4K from my 4K titles, as opposed to some botched algorithm that may or may not represent the movie in all its remastered glory.

Not saying streaming doesn't have its place, but for me, it's a poor cousin to physical media, if for no other reason, than the disc is always at my finger tips and the streaming remains somewhere up there in the clouds, as someone has already mentioned, subject to WiFi conductivity during a thunder shower. Fair enough, a power failure puts me out of commission too. But I have less of those than interruptions from weather-related broadcast signals.

To each his own, but having digitals of my favorite movies/shows is more than just a poor cousin to physical media to me. It' more like a kid sibling.

 

[John Dirk]

Not so unlikely. The original Star Trek, Next Gen, Deep Space 9, and Voyager are on every streaming service known to man!

I didn't say unprecedented but I still think this is the exception not the rule. My real point was simply, if you want guaranteed access to a particular title, get a physical copy.

 

[dstrong]

They don't let you do that - it's copy protected.

I can use a video capture app and record streaming movies and TV shows that the site has copy protected. It gets saved in mp4 format.