I’m trying not to purchase anymore movies on Blu-ray BUT…. (1 Viewer)

[greggor]

As streaming become so convenient and with the unlimited streaming options now available we aren’t buying as many titles on Blu-ray. The problem is that it seems like all the streaming sources we use only offer 5.1 and not the DTS Master Audio (7.1) which really makes the most of our system since that is how we are configured. We still purchase action movies on Blu-ray but just about everything else is streamed now. Are there any streaming services that offer the 7.1 surround sound? I hope I’m just missing something since we would prefer to just stream movies we want to watch instead of buying them on DVD.

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[bigshot]

Streaming requires lower bitrates. Try using a DSP to upscale from 5.1 to 7.1

 

[Dee Zee]

Streaming is great when the service and transfer is top notch. But too me Blu-ray has just a better picture and better sound.

 

[Tino]

Vudu which is part of Movies Anywhere streams in 7.1 and Dolby Atmos.

 

[Alan Tully]

I have to have those little silver discs...I really do.

 

[Robert Crawford]

I have to have those little silver discs...I really do.

I have to settle for both options to watch my movies.

 

[Michel_Hafner]

Just say no to streaming. Worse quality, no real ownership, at the mercy of the net and the servers/copyright holders/suppliers, no privacy (what you watch and when can be logged). No thanks.

 

[Scott Merryfield]

I find there is a place for both buying discs and using streaming in my life. I will buy a film on disc if it's a favorite film, if it makes financial sense, or it's the only way to view that particular film -- so it could be a 4K/UHD, BD or SD-DVD. However, there are some instances where streaming makes more sense -- whether it's a 4K/UHD streaming version for about a third of the price of the UHD disc, converting an old SD-DVD to an HDX streaming version, renting a film instead of making a blind disc purchase, watching a film through the TCM app, etc.

I've come to the conclusion that it doesn't make sense for me to own everything I watch on disc. Many films that I used to purchase on disc would only get watched once. I have some DVDs that I haven't watched in close to 20 years sitting on shelves, taking up space. I have purged a lot of those from my collection, but still have some. I see no reason to keep repeating that pattern.

I don't understand the hatred some people have towards streaming. It doesn't have to be an "either / or" situation where you can no longer buy discs if you begin to use streaming. Technology changes, and part of this hobby is adapting those changes into our home theater systems. If we didn't, we would all still be only watching VHS tapes or laser discs of a restricted number of old releases.

 

[Radioman970]

Just say no to streaming. Worse quality, no real ownership, at the mercy of the net and the servers/copyright holders/suppliers, no privacy (what you watch and when can be logged). No thanks.

after the apolocalyse i'll be watchin Apocalypse now! er WHEN tht happens on my blu! lol

 

[Robin9]

I don't understand the hatred some people have towards streaming. It doesn't have to be an "either / or" situation where you can no longer buy discs if you begin to use streaming. Technology changes, and part of this hobby is adapting those changes into our home theater systems. If we didn't, we would all still be only watching VHS tapes or laser discs of a restricted number of old releases.

I have no hatred for streaming. I just don't do it. Many posters who have tried it say the picture quality is not so good. For me, that's a deciding factor. I certainly have no objection to other people doing it.

 

[Vic Pardo]

Streaming's good for first-time viewings and films you don't want to own. And the quality's fine on my set. I watch a lot of movies on Cablevision's On Demand channel. That's a form of streaming. And I'm a subscriber of Amazon Prime. I've seen 22 movies On Demand this year, only a few of which I wish I owned. I watched three westerns On Demand this month, all three of which I'd seen before on VHS taped off TV with commercials. Two of them were quite good, but I don't need to own them. I'm grateful I had the opportunity to finally see them uncut and uninterrupted in High Def. I just watched YELLOW SUBMARINE on Amazon Prime. The print quality was great. I don't particularly want to own the film, though. My 16-year-old self was a lot more responsive to it 48 years ago when I first saw it than my senior citizen self today. Amazon Prime has tons of great stuff, including lots of previously unseen Italian westerns and Japanese yakuza movies. If I like something a lot and it's available on disc, I'll buy it.

All of this competes, of course, with the hundreds (thousands?) of movies and TV shows I own on DVD, Blu-ray and VHS pre-record I still haven't watched.

 

[Scott Merryfield]

I have no hatred for streaming. I just don't do it. Many posters who have tried it say the picture quality is not so good. For me, that's a deciding factor. I certainly have no objection to other people doing it.

In my setup, a UHD/4K stream looks better than a BD and is pretty close to a UHD disc. HDX streams look better than DVD, and are very close to BD quality. I do have a fairly high speed Internet connection (175Mbps), which helps. Until you try it yourself, you'll never know how good or bad streaming will look in your particular environment.

 

[TJPC]

Streaming options are much more limited here in Canada. We use Netflix for anything that we only want to try or watch once, but we find the choices rather limited there as well.

We PVR all our shows, and if it screws up, watch what we miss “on demand” but I find the lack of the ability to go through commercials annoying. I tend to record “on demand” shows on my DVDr machine, which of course allows you to ff.

Again, here is utopia. If ever all movies and TV shows including classics were streamed, with extras and 3D, from one central source and one price, by by discs. The quality is just too good as is the convenience.

 

[Tony Bensley]

As our current budget simply won't allow for much (If any!) video purchasing, we'll be relying more on TV on demand/Pvr options, along with our existing physical collection. The much higher speeds with our current fibe setup should also be helpful.

There's also the massive London Central Library just a few blocks from where we now live, so physical video borrowing might also prove a viable option, at least.

CHEERS!

 

[Keith Cobby]

I don't mind streaming to watch something but it doesn't feel the same as owning. I still want to browse shelves and handle boxes rather than just look down a list.

 

[Robert Crawford]

In my setup, a UHD/4K stream looks better than a BD and is pretty close to a UHD disc. HDX streams look better than DVD, and are very close to BD quality. I do have a fairly high speed Internet connection (175Mbps), which helps. Until you try it yourself, you'll never know how good or bad streaming will look in your particular environment.

The same here! If you don't want to stream, that's fine and it's your right as a consumer. However, I think too many people on this forum are pushing a false narrative regarding streaming quality that's not true for some us. There are those of us with subpar internet connections that affects the quality of streaming. But, there are many of us in which we have "good to great" internet connections in which we can enjoy UHD/4K streams without any quality issues. Again, if you don't want to stream that's your prerogative, but I wish people stop painting with a wide brush that streaming has to be inferior in all cases. That's not entirely true and hasn't been for me in a very long time.

 

[Thomas T]

Streaming doesn't work for me because I like the absolute immediacy of DVD/blu ray. For example, if a guest says they've never seen 7 Brides For 7 Brothers, I can immediately pull it off the shelf and zip forward to the barn raising dance to show them what they're missing. Can't do that with streaming. If I have insomnia at 2AM, I can just pull some obscure piece of 1950s sci-fi not offered on streaming off the shelf to keep me occupied until Morpheus arrives. I can see what I want to see, not what they are offering me to see.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

For example, if a guest says they've never seen 7 Brides For 7 Brothers, I can immediately pull it off the shelf and zip forward to the barn raising dance to show them what they're missing. Can't do that with streaming.

Why not? I do that all the time.

I was watching a TV show with my wife one day, and she commented on one of the character's outfits: "That's the worst suit I've ever seen!" I replied that I had seen a worse suit in "2001: A Space Odyssey". In less time than it would take for me to get up, grab the Blu-ray off the shelf, load it into the player, get past the unskippable FBI warnings, and then to the chapter menu page, etc., etc., I was able to pull it up on my AppleTV, quickly jump to that section, and show her the ugly suit that I was thinking about. It probably took 30 seconds.

If I have insomnia at 2AM, I can just pull some obscure piece of 1950s sci-fi not offered on streaming off the shelf to keep me occupied until Morpheus arrives. I can see what I want to see, not what they are offering me to see.

I think we might be talking about different things here - if you own a movie digitally, you own it and can pull it up at any time. You choose what you want to see. Once you purchase it, you own it forever.

if you're talking about Netflix, Netflix is not meant to be the equivalent of ownership. Netflix is the equivalent of an HBO subscription - you get a mix of original and licensed content that's constantly rotating in and out of the service.

Netflix is not a suitable replacement for people who want to own specific titles and to have access to them whenever they want. But renting and/or purchasing on services like iTunes and Vudu is exactly that.

 

[Scott Merryfield]

Streaming doesn't work for me because I like the absolute immediacy of DVD/blu ray. For example, if a guest says they've never seen 7 Brides For 7 Brothers, I can immediately pull it off the shelf and zip forward to the barn raising dance to show them what they're missing. Can't do that with streaming. If I have insomnia at 2AM, I can just pull some obscure piece of 1950s sci-fi not offered on streaming off the shelf to keep me occupied until Morpheus arrives. I can see what I want to see, not what they are offering me to see.

You are confusing streaming subscription services such as Netflix and Hulu, whose content can change every few months, with having a digital copy of a film in your online "digital library". I have Seven Brides for Seven Brothers in my Vudu library (converted my DVD long before the BD was released) and can bring it up quicker than finding and loading the disc (not that I would now that I own the BD disc). Also, I can watch it while we are at our 2nd home in South Carolina and the BD disc is sitting on a shelf back home in Michigan. That digital copy will not go away.

Services such as Netflix, Hulu and Amazon Prime are more like the old days of subscribing to HBO, Cinemax, etc through your cable service, except now every program in each service is offered on demand instead of requiring you to tune in at a certain time to see Smokey and the Bandit on HBO (that film was playing constantly when I first got cable TV around 1980).

You can actually buy digital copies of films, though, from places such as iTunes, Vudu, Google, Amazon, etc. which stay in your online library all the time. I've bought several 4K/UHD versions of films for $5 on iTunes, and numerous others for $10 or less. Thanks to the Movies Anywhere service, many of those automatically show up in my online libraries at Vudu, Amazon, Fandango and Google, too (and now even Microsoft). I can watch those films at home in Michigan, at our South Carolina condo, or while we are traveling -- as long as I have a decent Internet connection.

 

[Robert Crawford]

The last two posts do a great job explaining the ownership issue regarding having digital copies of movies in your film library versus streaming stuff from Netflix, Hulu and Amazon Prime.