Will Streaming end our DVD Collecting? (1 Viewer)

[marcco00]

 

Originally Posted by mdnitoil

In some ways I can understand the studio's attitude here. I've got over 2000 movies on disc and in all likelyhood will never repurchase them again. Since I don't get turned on by having the latest and greatest video gadgets, I get to neatly bypass the bottomless pit that is the bluray double dip merry-go-round. I buy very few new titles so it's just the constant search for old material and waiting for it to finally show up. As less and less titles are made available, more of my dollars go towards other hobbies. From that perspective, I can see where the studios might be unhappy with digital video home ownership. I also have to question just how many more titles I really need. I rarely get to rewatch things more than once every few years and I'm fast approaching an age where the five more viewings I might get out of a disc don't really justify a purchase. Perhaps streaming wouldn't be so bad for someone like me. All the stuff I really care about is already on the shelf...and then some!

and i totally agree! i've spent over a decade already buying DVDs. i have a large SDVD collection which just about covers all my favorite genres - hitchcock, universal horror, hammer horror, film noir, 50's sci-fi, classic musicals, disney, technicolor films, classic tv, etc. there are still catalog titles being nicely restored & released... i've bought many titles in 2010 thus far.

 

even so, i can see i am reaching my limit..... as much as i love hedy lamarr, early garbo & norma shearer titles, i cannot bring myself to buy from the warners archive unless there is a sale. and after such a loooonnng wait for the hayworth box set-my favorite actress- i can safely say that i own the majority of the catalog titles i'm interested in. okay almost-- there is that rumored harlow box set coming in 2011!

 

 

on my new 50 inch 720p plasma tv and an upconverting dvd player, these dvds look excellent...much better than they did on my old crt tv. i purposely bought the lower resolution tv so my standard dvds will look sharper when upscaled. i made the leap to hdtv & this is the best tv set-up i've ever had.

 

i know blu ray is the superior format and streaming content may be the future, but they are not for me.

 

[JimKr]

Plain and simple, the IP owners DO NOT WANT consumers to be able to have a physical copy. It's in their self-interest (greed) that you keep buying the same product over and over again.

 

Kinda says something about our society in this modern age.

 

[ahollis]

 

Originally Posted by JimKr

Plain and simple, the IP owners DO NOT WANT consumers to be able to have a physical copy. It's in their self-interest (greed) that you keep buying the same product over and over again.

 

Kinda says something about our society in this modern age.

Your right, they do not want the consumer to have it, but they tried to keep VHS as just a rental business with the high prices at first then they got greedy for the mass dollars. Then there was Divx, which the consumer abhorred and more or less contributed, along with many many other things, the downfall of Circuit City. Divx lasted about two seconds due to the backlash for consumers. The consumer will drive the streaming and downloads success.
 

I want the media in my hand and I do not want it too expire. I know that I am speaking for others, but I do not feel I am alone in this thought and the mother with two kids wants to keep playing that Disney DVD until it wears out. She does not want to keep going back and download the film again in 24 hours and pay another $1.99 or she faint at her streaming bill, this goes for dads too.

 

[Jeff Swindoll]

It's sort of a double-edged sword. Some titles I really just want to see, such as Vampire Circus, Crimson Cult, Salt & Pepper, or Hands of the Ripper. Netflix offers me that option, but it doesn't say how long it will be available. Looking through my "instant view" queue I noted several titles I had saved have moved from being playable to my "saved" set meaning that they've expired and I didn't get a chance to watch them. If I had the DVD then I could put them on whenever I wanted. The "man" giveth and he taketh away.
 

Of course If I watch those flicks and decide I want to have the DVD to keep that option is not available. They're either streaming exclusives or have gone out of print and I don't want to pay the $$ for them.

 

[Steve Y]

To me, it comes down to not trusting the cloud to always be there in the way I want it. The cloud, after all, is subject to changing business models. Studios want to phase out ownership of media and return to a pre-1980s model of theatrical exhibition, with home viewing limited to streaming rentals via the cloud, or hard-drive based "resident ownership" - still of course subject to changing rights, and the whim of the cloud, from where they can control how and what content arrives, how it is viewed, etc.

 

If the market for DVDs wasn't there - and they're trying their hardest to make us forget about it, so far unsuccessfully - then they could more aggressively pursue this dream model.

 

Like any reasonable person, I am enamored with the Netflix Instant View rental model, which charges a flat fee for "unlimited" rental viewing, rather than charging me $2-$5 per view, like iTunes. Rental, not ownership, is the future the studios read in tea leaves. It's a bit like trying to stuff demons back into the Pandora's Box (opened with the introduction and successs of VHS).

 

Netflix seems such a better deal (than iTunes or any other subscription service) for those of us who watch copious amounts of television and movies each month. But I also believe that Netflix is the smarter company because it realizes that people don't trust the cloud yet. Their flat-fee model is in place SOLELY to draw in membership with a "sounds too good to be true" unlimited viewing model. When enough of the market is on board, that model can change to better benefit the studios, who will then provide more variety and more timely content to their servers.

 

This is at the heart of my basic hostility to the streaming cloud, and the reason I embrace physical media like DVD. Physical media lets me control how I watch the content, forever - and in some cases where I watch it, too. It means I won't ever have to worry about a changing business model altering how I view media, or charging me extra to maintain "viewing rights". The thing is, per their legal bylines they are perfectly within their rights to demand this of me, but because I've had the right for nearly three decades to control how I view content on the media I physically own, it's a long way back to give up those amenities. Even if they're within their legal rights, they have no choice but to make streaming more appealing, and so far only Netflix has risen broadly to this challenge.

 

[ChuckWL]

Originally Posted by Steve Y

 

I believe in the future you will get online to find a film and you will have 2 choices (2 buttons one for rental one for sale) to either download or to stream.

 

 

[ChuckWL]

 

Originally Posted by Steve Y

To me, it comes down to not trusting the cloud to always be there in the way I want it. The cloud, after all, is subject to changing business models. Studios want to phase out ownership of media and return to a pre-1980s model of theatrical exhibition, with home viewing limited to streaming rentals via the cloud, or hard-drive based "resident ownership" - still of course subject to changing rights, and the whim of the cloud, from where they can control how and what content arrives, how it is viewed, etc.

 

If the market for DVDs wasn't there - and they're trying their hardest to make us forget about it, so far unsuccessfully - then they could more aggressively pursue this dream model.

 

Like any reasonable person, I am enamored with the Netflix Instant View rental model, which charges a flat fee for "unlimited" rental viewing, rather than charging me $2-$5 per view, like iTunes. Rental, not ownership, is the future the studios read in tea leaves. It's a bit like trying to stuff demons back into the Pandora's Box (opened with the introduction and successs of VHS).

 

Netflix seems such a better deal (than iTunes or any other subscription service) for those of us who watch copious amounts of television and movies each month. But I also believe that Netflix is the smarter company because it realizes that people don't trust the cloud yet. Their flat-fee model is in place SOLELY to draw in membership with a "sounds too good to be true" unlimited viewing model. When enough of the market is on board, that model can change to better benefit the studios, who will then provide more variety and more timely content to their servers.

 

This is at the heart of my basic hostility to the streaming cloud, and the reason I embrace physical media like DVD. Physical media lets me control how I watch the content, forever - and in some cases where I watch it, too. It means I won't ever have to worry about a changing business model altering how I view media, or charging me extra to maintain "viewing rights". The thing is, per their legal bylines they are perfectly within their rights to demand this of me, but because I've had the right for nearly three decades to control how I view content on the media I physically own, it's a long way back to give up those amenities. Even if they're within their legal rights, they have no choice but to make streaming more appealing, and so far only Netflix has risen broadly to this challenge.

BTW nice post Steve!

 

[JoHud]

I'll believe it if I see a company like Criterion offering streams for its DVDs. Streaming is more common, but to me, downloads and streams don't offer the precious hock value that I value when collecting DVDs. Even if I can only get 50 cents for a very widely available DVD, its still a return.

 

To me, streaming is great for rental, but not as a very good substitute for ownership.

 

[Jason_V]

Originally Posted by dana martin

plain and simple i want a physical copy in hand

Agreed. But to expand on it, and going back to something Bill Hunt said at the Bits recently. Streaming and downloading will work as a compliment to physical media, but I don't think it will ever take over. If all our movies are stored on a server outside of the home, there are too many things that can go wrong with the technology. Someone can hack into the server. It can go offline. It can be unavailable. Bad signal for wireless devices create sputtering video. And so on.

 

No, physical media in my hand will never be at the mercy of those things.

 

[mdnitoil]

Originally Posted by Jason_V


Agreed. But to expand on it, and going back to something Bill Hunt said at the Bits recently. Streaming and downloading will work as a compliment to physical media, but I don't think it will ever take over. If all our movies are stored on a server outside of the home, there are too many things that can go wrong with the technology. Someone can hack into the server. It can go offline. It can be unavailable. Bad signal for wireless devices create sputtering video. And so on.

 

No, physical media in my hand will never be at the mercy of those things.

Yes, but what Bill Hunt fails to take into account is the fact that while these methods might live in the same space, each method will carve out it's own niche which will effectively translate into exclusives. There may always be discs, but not necessarily discs of the titles you would like to own.

 

[Danny Burk]

I'm firmly of the "must own physical media" mindset. I don't think that ever-changing rights issues have been mentioned yet, which could be another huge problem if one doesn't have a personal copy of a given film. Maybe this is more limited to the older titles that interest me, but I can think of many that are no longer available due to rights issues. Plenty of older Warners and MGM films, for example, are unavailable from Warners today because of problems with story rights, etc. Some of these problems have existed for decades, but others are more recent. I have no reason to think that such problems won't continue to crop up now and then with additional films.....if you don't have your own copy, guess what? The "download or stream anytime" capability for that film has just disappeared, along with your ability to see it.

 

No thanks. I'm sticking to a physical copy of anything that I actually want to own and view whenever I like.

 

[Michael Elliott]

In this thread and others people have mentioned studios wanting to protect their rights, which is certainly understandable. What I don't understand is how are those rights being protected if I record something off of TCM onto my DVR and then either hold that forever (making it mine) or putting it onto a DVD-R? A mod can delete this if it crosses the line but I've never understood the difference. It seems like if you're recording a movie, no matter if the source is cable or a DVD, then you're "stealing" from the studio as they're certainly not going to make any money if you select to record everything off TCM and not buy any of the titles.

 

[mdnitoil]

Well I'm pretty sure the studios would prefer that you couldn't record broadcast channels and I seem to recall back in the '80s that the studios were putting up quite a fuss over the emergence of the VCR. To the point where the courts had to rule on the legality of the devices.

 

[Jason_V]

 

Originally Posted by mdnitoil

Yes, but what Bill Hunt fails to take into account is the fact that while these methods might live in the same space, each method will carve out it's own niche which will effectively translate into exclusives. There may always be discs, but not necessarily discs of the titles you would like to own.

I don't think any studio would be willing to just put their movie or TV show on download only. They know there will always be a good, healthy number of people who will only want the physical media in their hands. There's also a portion of that audience who will be very militant in wanting ONLY physical media. Are they going to pass up that market? I don't think so. Downloading may have its own niche, but I do believe there will always be physical media first and foremost.

 

[kingfish]

I want the physical media.

 

[Adam Gregorich]

I don't think it will end it, but it will minimize it. If 5 years ago you had asked the same question about music I would have said "No way". Now the only place I use CDs is in the car, and those are MP3 CDs from songs I either downloaded from Amazon or ripped from CDs I own.
 

Already most of the non-HTF people I know with Blu-ray players watch more streamed content from Netflix than they do Blu-rays on them. I find that in my house the Disney movies that I record on Starz get watched more via the whole house DVR (Windows Media Center w/ cable card tuners) than via the DVDs or Blu-rays.

 

Am I advocating for this? No, like most of you here I am a collector and I want the physical media, having said that, the world around us is quickly changing.

 

 

In this thread and others people have mentioned studios wanting to protect their rights, which is certainly understandable. What I don't understand is how are those rights being protected if I record something off of TCM onto my DVR and then either hold that forever (making it mine) or putting it onto a DVD-R? A mod can delete this if it crosses the line but I've never understood the difference. It seems like if you're recording a movie, no matter if the source is cable or a DVD, then you're "stealing" from the studio as they're certainly not going to make any money if you select to record everything off TCM and not buy any of the titles.

Recording something off the air (or cable) is perfectly legal. They are starting to copy protect content now so you can't share it. I wonder if some point in the future studios will push for the capability to delete shows after X number of days.

 

[mdnitoil]

Originally Posted by Jason_V

 



I don't think any studio would be willing to just put their movie or TV show on download only. They know there will always be a good, healthy number of people who will only want the physical media in their hands. There's also a portion of that audience who will be very militant in wanting ONLY physical media. Are they going to pass up that market? I don't think so. Downloading may have its own niche, but I do believe there will always be physical media first and foremost.

As much as I wish you were correct, one only has to look at the initial post to see that Netflix currently has streaming available for movies that have never been released to disc. Apparently the studios are going to pass up the disc buying market for what they consider fringe titles. The concern, of course, is just how far they decide to stretch the definition of fringe in the future.
 

 

[Traveling Matt]

Originally Posted by mdnitoil

As much as I wish you were correct, one only has to look at the initial post to see that Netflix currently has streaming available for movies that have never been released to disc. Apparently the studios are going to pass up the disc buying market for what they consider fringe titles. The concern, of course, is just how far they decide to stretch the definition of fringe in the future.

I suppose you're referring to the eighth post in this thread, not the first.

 

I agree. Just as music releases are often download-only, studios will make certain movie/TV titles download or stream-only, either depending on what they think a title will return or depending on what the market (or, even simpler, the evolved standard) is like for a particular title based on genre, generation or target audience.

 

Of course, these limitations are in stark contrast to what should prevail from these technological advances: choice.

 

[JackKay]

And now comes another medium for renting that I knew was coming, but not so soon. Flix on Stix.

 

http://www.homemediamagazine.com/rental/upstart-flix-stix-movie-download-kiosk-plans-fall-launch-20580

 

Got to wonder about the video and audio quality if you can download a movie in 30 seconds. Probably something like Digital Copy.

 

[ChuckWL]

Originally Posted by JackKay

 

Got to wonder about the video and audio quality if you can download a movie in 30 seconds. Probably something like Digital Copy.

 

This will also be a Sale medium. Not just for rental.