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

[Carl David]

I wonder what the "shelf life" is of 4K players, meaning if they're kept new, in-box. I mean it's solid-state electronics, not food, so if it's never plugged in and played it should last...at least the rest of my life?

At some point my Oppos will give up the ghost, and I don't want to be found wanting if hardware manufacturers have left the standalone 4K player market (meaning for home theater, not PC disc drives). If I get the sense that's inevitable at some point, I'll probably buy 3-4 of the best remaining standalone 4K players and keep them in my closet in their box. Even with an optimistic outlook for a long and healthy life (knock on wood), I'd likely only need them to last ~40 years.

I don't think we will be in a situation where there are no manufacturers whatsoever left.

It might get to a situation where there is only 1 or 2 companies making them.

Due to no competition and it being a niche market at that point they might be expensive to purchase but they will be options available I am sure.

Just a question of how deep are your pockets.

 

[jcroy]

I don't mean less people streaming. More people migrating to streaming makes sense.

I just mean that people who have previously streamed and continue to do so watch less content than they used to due to economic factors.

*Raises hand* !!!!

The times I cut cable and didn't set up the ota antenna, I found I watched considerably less shows/movies on streaming services.

When I went back to cable, I was back to watching a lot more tv shows/movies.

 

[jcroy]

The one analogy I can think of offhand, was back in the day when I went to the video store and ended up walking out empty handed. I was not able to make a decision as to what movie to rent out.

 

[ptb2017fr]

Is there really any visually perceptible benefit to streaming anything in 4k on such a small screen size as a smartphone, though? SD is probably good enough for watching on a phone. And I would assume the reason they're recommending that is avoid wasting bandwidth on something that won't produce any benefit to the smartphone consumer.

The benefits of increased resolution have always been about the relationship between screen size and viewing distance, yes?

It amuses me that anybody can seriously even consider watching a movie on a phone and think they’ve actually seen it! Avengers, Lord Of The Rings, 1959 BenHur must look great on a 5x4 inch screen! I go crazy when forced to watch something on my tablet or desk computer!

 

[Carl David]

According to the DEG home entertainment spending report for the last full quarter not affected by the pandemic, the subscription streaming category was up 27%, making it by far the highest growing category in home entertainment.

I don't mean subscriber increase numbers.

I meant the amount of content watched per subscriber.

My presumption was/is that watched content is decreasing per subscriber due to economic factors such as people working more and having less time for leisure.

It would be interesting to see data on that.

If I am not mistaken, streaming companies focus on subscriber numbers per se to please (fool?) shareholders and to maintain their share price.

 

[Carl David]

It amuses me that anybody can seriously even consider watching a movie on a phone and think they’ve actually seen it! Avengers, Lord Of The Rings, 1959 BenHur must look great on a 5x4 inch screen! I go crazy when forced to watch something on my tablet or desk computer!

It is bizarre but for better or worse younger people who have grown up with smart phones do so.

It is something many in the industry have talked about including Martin Scorsese who is concerned about the future of cinema due to this issue.

 

[Mark-P]

We've had a data cap of 1GB per month on our Comcast Internet service for a couple of years now, but we never exceed that -- even while streaming 4K movies whenever we want. There are only two of us in the house, though. I can see where a household with more people (especially kids) could exceed the monthly limit. You can exceed the limit, but just have to pay more money.

Internet bandwidth continues to improve, so I do not see this as a major concern if you live in a populated area. Those folks who live in remote, rural areas, though, do have to deal with high speed Internet availability issues. My parents lived in a remote area of northern Michigan for 31 years, and getting them Internet service was a challenge.

1GB??? You would cap out every month after just one HD movie! I think you mean 1TB.

 

[jcroy]

If I am not mistaken, streaming companies focus on subscriber numbers per se to please (fool?) shareholders and to maintain their share price.

Stock market traders/investors only care about the non-refundable cash paid by subscribers, minus the payable expenses (both current and near future).

Market analysts and some longer term investors who have knowlege of the sector, might care about subscriber retention and acquisition.

What is unknown is what the large institutional investors think about a company like netflix. (ie. Pension funds, college/university endowments, large mutual funds, etc ...).

 

[Cranston37+]

I don't mean subscriber increase numbers.

I meant the amount of content watched per subscriber.

My presumption was/is that watched content is decreasing per subscriber due to economic factors such as people working more and having less time for leisure.

It would be interesting to see data on that.

We have those numbers too, at least for Netflix.

Since 2019 the average amount of content watched per viewer went from 2 hours a day to 3.2 hours a day, or a 60% increase.

 

[Scott Merryfield]

1GB??? You would cap out every month after just one HD movie! I think you mean 1TB.

Oops. You're right. I meant a terabyte.

 

[jcroy]

I don't think we will be in a situation where there are no manufacturers whatsoever left.

It might get to a situation where there is only 1 or 2 companies making them.

Due to no competition and it being a niche market at that point they might be expensive to purchase but they will be options available I am sure.

Just a question of how deep are your pockets.

It would probably be similar to trying to find a decent newly manufactured audio cd-only player nowadays.

 

[Edwin-S]

I never thought I'd say it, but I think physical media is on its last legs. The only thing keeping it alive is the fact that many rural areas do not have high speed access. If Musk's Starlink service actually succeeds physical media will be dead in a decade. The only thing that it would still have been useful for is 3D discs and that avenue has been effectively killed.

In my case, I don't think I have bought a disc in months, especially Disney's stuff. I just wait for it to show up on D+. No point in purchasing it anymore.

 

[jcroy]

(On a tangent).

This may sound extremely lazy.

In spite of having a large audio cd collection, nowadays I end up mostly listening to music on youtube. Easier to just type into a search bar, than finding a particular cd in my collection, taking the cd out of the case, and putting it into my standalone audio cd player.

When movies and/or tv shows are just as easy to access/search as youtube, I may very well end up just doing things in the exact same lazy manner.

 

[Peter Apruzzese]

(On a tangent).

This may sound extremely lazy.

In spite of having a large audio cd collection, nowadays I end up mostly listening to music on youtube. Easier to just type into a search bar, than finding a particular cd in my collection, taking the cd out of the case, and putting it into my standalone audio cd player.

When movies and/or tv shows are just as easy to access/search as youtube, I may very well end up just doing things in the exact same lazy manner.

I sometimes do the same thing for music, except I use iTunes/Plex to access all of my CDs ripped to a NAS.

 

[Carlo_M]

I can't wait until 20 years from now when discs come back in some form, just like LPs did

I guess I should take heart in that, it's easy for me to find a turntable now (I have 2 great ones), so I'm going to remain hopeful that if need be, I'll be able to find a suitable disc player in the future once my Oppos kick it...

 

[jcroy]

I can't wait until 20 years from now when discs come back in some form, just like LPs did

I guess I should take heart in that, it's easy for me to find a turntable now (I have 2 great ones), so I'm going to remain hopeful that if need be, I'll be able to find a suitable disc player in the future once my Oppos kick it...

In 20+ years, there might be something bigger and better than 4kbluray.

Who knows? Maybe holodecks will become standard !

 

[BobO'Link]

It would probably be similar to trying to find a decent newly manufactured audio cd-only player nowadays.

You mean like this: https://www.crutchfield.com/p_033DCD600/Denon-DCD-600NE.html

And they have several more models available.

 

[John Dirk]

I never thought I'd say it, but I think physical media is on its last legs. The only thing keeping it alive is the fact that many rural areas do not have high speed access. If Musk's Starlink service actually succeeds physical media will be dead in a decade. The only thing that it would still have been useful for is 3D discs and that avenue has been effectively killed.

In my case, I don't think I have bought a disc in months, especially Disney's stuff. I just wait for it to show up on D+. No point in purchasing it anymore.

Respectfully, since you haven't bought a disc in months you probably aren't the best gauge of how much interest there is or will be in physical media going forward. I am an ardent supporter of it and will continue to be, regardless of what the overall market does. As others have noted, there is no problem finding even a VHS player today if you know where to look. I do agree with you in a general sense but this is an enthusiast site. The masses will indeed be shepherded to streaming platforms, not because they are better but because they are better for business.

 

[ptb2017fr]

In 20+ years, there might be something bigger and better than 4kbluray.

Who knows? Maybe holodecks will become standard !

Seen Upload where people have Blu Rya players I their hands?

 

[Sam Favate]

It’s probably a moot point; disc demand will dry up before the players die out. My VCR has lasted longer than the market for VHS content did.

That's right. I have two functioning VCRs, but the last VHS tape I can think of that I bought was The Phantom Menace and that was 20 years ago! I'm sure there are others that were released after that, but that's the last high profile VHS release AFAIK.