Home video is gone? (1 Viewer)

[John Dirk]

I really believe that you can make a very good case for saying that the internet has ruined our cultures. First the audio recording/selling industry went kaput, then most newspapers, now home video, to say nothing about election meddling by other countries. I hate conspiracies, but I sometimes feel we are playing out a Rod Serling script. Why are aliens doing this to us?

Respectfully, no. With great power comes great responsibility. The Internet is a powerful tool placed in the hands of humans. What we do with it is separate from the merits of the technology.

 

[Robert Crawford]

Respectfully, no. With great power comes great responsibility. The Internet is a powerful tool placed in the hands of humans. What we do with it is separate from the merits of the technology.

This!

 

[John Dirk]

And the younger generation isn't even interested in buying TVs, let alone discs. They're fine with watching everything on their laptops, iPads and phones.

True but sad. The younger generation drives the future. It should be the other way around.

 

[TJPC]

From Douglas Adams:

1. Anything that is in the world when you’re born is normal and ordinary and is just a natural part of the way the world works.
2. Anything that's invented between when you’re fifteen and thirty-five is new and exciting and revolutionary and you can probably get a career in it.
3. Anything invented after you're thirty-five is against the natural order of things.

 

[tempest21]

I'm not doubting that streaming services have a purpose in our economy but while I have limited space, there are only a few movie franchises and TV shows that I prefer to have the physical copy of. I mostly use file sharing and if I like the movie or the first few episodes of a television series, I'll purchase the physical copy. I just don't believe in streaming services because you don't own the copy that purchase online. My thing is, if you spend money on a digital copy, whether it's a download digital purchase or whether it's streaming, you should be given a digital downloaded copy that is free of DRM.

But, studios seem to be more pushing toward the whole model of 'you don't own what you buy' and they've been trying for that for ages. But, the biggest problem is that there are far too many streaming services and there are many more coming around the corner. Every one of these studios should just get together and create a single streaming service under one banner and each studio can provide their own content. I just think that if there's one show on each service that you like, you're going to go broke and this is why file sharing continues to remain so popular.

 

[Alan Tully]

From Douglas Adams:

1. Anything that is in the world when you’re born is normal and ordinary and is just a natural part of the way the world works.
2. Anything that's invented between when you’re fifteen and thirty-five is new and exciting and revolutionary and you can probably get a career in it.
3. Anything invented after you're thirty-five is against the natural order of things.

Yup, that's a famous quote, but it doesn't quite stand up. I was just 35 when CDs started, but way over that for DVDs, Blu-rays, laptops & mobile phones, & my 88 year old mother reads all her books on a kindle. But...I haven't streamed anything yet, & the closest I get to social media is putting forward my two penn'orth worth on sites like this (& I've never tweeted, I wouldn't know how to).

 

[Josh Steinberg]

I'm not doubting that streaming services have a purpose in our economy but while I have limited space, there are only a few movie franchises and TV shows that I prefer to have the physical copy of. I mostly use file sharing and if I like the movie or the first few episodes of a television series, I'll purchase the physical copy. I just don't believe in streaming services because you don't own the copy that purchase online. My thing is, if you spend money on a digital copy, whether it's a download digital purchase or whether it's streaming, you should be given a digital downloaded copy that is free of DRM.

But, studios seem to be more pushing toward the whole model of 'you don't own what you buy' and they've been trying for that for ages. But, the biggest problem is that there are far too many streaming services and there are many more coming around the corner. Every one of these studios should just get together and create a single streaming service under one banner and each studio can provide their own content. I just think that if there's one show on each service that you like, you're going to go broke and this is why file sharing continues to remain so popular.

“File sharing” is another term for pirating or bootlegging - it’s illegal downloading, aka stealing.

So what you’re saying is - if there’s something you’re interested in seeing, you will steal it, and then only after viewing the stolen content will you decide if it’s worth paying for.

That was pretty much my point for why we can’t have nice things anymore. People used to pay for the media they would consume; now they don’t. While most people would never consider walking into Best Buy and taking a disc off the shelf without paying for it, the same can’t be said for stealing digital data.

This right here is a big part of the equation for why the entertainment industry is in such trouble. Huge numbers of people are not paying for the content they consume which is radically changing and constricting which projects get financed and how they’re released.

 

[Tony Bensley]

Deleted post!

 

[jcroy]

Great point, Josh. We all tend to get tunnel vision concerning our particular situations. Space is not a problem for me so I don't mind owning physical media.

Same here. Space + cash is not an issue for me.

With that being said, my main issue is my own "sanity".

(My posting history on here will attest to extreme ocd related "insanity" issues, in regard to compulsive completionist collecting of cds/dvds/blurays).

 

[tempest21]

“File sharing” is another term for pirating or bootlegging - it’s illegal downloading, aka stealing.

So what you’re saying is - if there’s something you’re interested in seeing, you will steal it, and then only after viewing the stolen content will you decide if it’s worth paying for.

That was pretty much my point for why we can’t have nice things anymore. People used to pay for the media they would consume; now they don’t. While most people would never consider walking into Best Buy and taking a disc off the shelf without paying for it, the same can’t be said for stealing digital data.

This right here is a big part of the equation for why the entertainment industry is in such trouble. Huge numbers of people are not paying for the content they consume which is radically changing and constricting which projects get financed and how they’re released.

I think you missed the point of my post. When studios don't do enough to get their catalogue content out there for their own customers, then that's what most fans of a movie or television series do. I'm sure that a large segment of the community here engages in that, as well, not that anyone would admit to it. This is also why free streaming sites are also very popular. There's a demand for the content, even if the studios won't release it. Napster, Kazaa, torrent sites, online cloud storage, filelockers ... why do you think these services continue to exist? Because content creators refuse to provide their content where their own consumers can watch or listen to it.

I'm not advocating for these fringe services but there is a demand for it, even if the entertainment industry continues to exist in the stone ages.

 

[Angelo Colombus]

Kinda sad about the DVD recorder just about gone. Still have my Panasonic and still recording stuff I like on satellite.

 

[holtge]

Still have my DVD recorder too, although I don't use it much these days.

 

[KMR]

Yup, that's a famous quote, but it doesn't quite stand up. I was just 35 when CDs started, but way over that for DVDs, Blu-rays, laptops & mobile phones, & my 88 year old mother reads all her books on a kindle. But...I haven't streamed anything yet, & the closest I get to social media is putting forward my two penn'orth worth on sites like this (& I've never tweeted, I wouldn't know how to).

I think Adams was just making a broad generalization about attitudes toward change, in a humorous way that many could relate to, and not stating scientific laws.

 

[Traveling Matt]

I think you missed the point of my post. When studios don't do enough to get their catalogue content out there for their own customers, then that's what most fans of a movie or television series do. I'm sure that a large segment of the community here engages in that, as well, not that anyone would admit to it. This is also why free streaming sites are also very popular. There's a demand for the content, even if the studios won't release it. Napster, Kazaa, torrent sites, online cloud storage, filelockers ... why do you think these services continue to exist? Because content creators refuse to provide their content where their own consumers can watch or listen to it.

I'm not advocating for these fringe services but there is a demand for it, even if the entertainment industry continues to exist in the stone ages.

Sorry but this is incorrect. Such "services" exist because the content is free. It has been this way since the dial-up days of the internet. Content availability is something else entirely.

 

[TJPC]

At the start of the availability of DVD-R, programs were available to remove copy protection from commercially made DVDs. At the same time, public libraries had almost every movie on their shelves. I know people who have built huge libraries by copying these discs. These discs ironically are not subject to DVD rot.

 

[AshJW]

They're fine with watching everything on their laptops, iPads and phones.

That reminds me of ...

 

[Rick Thompson]

And the younger generation isn't even interested in buying TVs, let alone discs. They're fine with watching everything on their laptops, iPads and phones.

In other words, we went through all the grief and expense (both to us and broadcasters) of switching from NTSC analog television to high-resolution digital so we can watch the shows on screens SMALLER than we used to. What a waste.

 

[Thomas T]

In other words, we went through all the grief and expense (both to us and broadcasters) of switching from NTSC analog television to high-resolution digital so we can watch the shows on screens SMALLER than we used to. What a waste.

Hey, even with some film makers that's okay. Only last week director David Cronenberg said in an interview, "I think Lawrence Of Arabia looks great on an Apple Watch, and it probably sounds better because it would stream directly to my hearing aids by Bluetooth.”

 

[MatthewA]

We were already headed this way 25 years ago. I still remember seeing palm-sized handheld TVs in stores in the 1990s. My grandparents used to have a black-and-white portable TV that was much older than that. It was a great way to spend a Sunday afternoon when you'd already done Disney and Universal and the local stations in LA were showing blocks of sitcom reruns.

But that's a far cry from what a modern day cell phone can do. Some of the top-of-the-line iPhones can show and record 4k. You can even sync up YouTube between it and a PS4 and use one to control the other. Of course, the older standard resolution files look pretty poor on a large screen. But they were still an improvement over RealPlayer.

 

[MatthewA]

And with that in mind, some sad news: Andre Blay, the founder of Magnetic Video, and one of the men who made home video such a big deal in the first place, has died.