Are blu ray prices going up? Are they TRYING to bury physical media?

[Ladder Master]

Best Buy will price match Amazon.
In this case the prices are similiar but for future reference.
just pull up the Amazons price on your phone, makes sure it says shipped and sold by amazon,
and they will adjust price. I have done it many many times.

 

[Oeshon]

I've converted fully to digital. All my games, music, movies are either in streaming format or digital.

Def. some cons, but overall I like the convenience.

 

[Doomer]

It's the same price for years now.

 

[sweetviolenturg]

Wait a couple of months...

Just wait for Black Friday where a lot of 4K discs I bought were way cheaper that day.

I just wait till movies hit the WalMart $5.00 DVD bin. Sometimes they are even less in those bins. It is a great time stock up on great older movies because new movies just suck.

All of which makes perfect sense if you're just looking to save a few bucks but I'm a collector & there's no way that I'm ever going to have the patience to wait for the discs that I want to go on sale for $5 or $10 a pop. It's just not going to happen. I'd much rather spend a little extra money & get a Blu-ray on its day of release from Amazon ( or 4K if it's available it that format ).
Besides, unless it's something really major, my wife & I prefer to wait for new releases to come out on disc & just buy them rather than go to the theater to see them.

 

[Senzo Tanaka]

New releases are always like that. I'm a big movie collector and they go after the day 1/collector's crowd. Usually within a month, it'll drop at least $10.

I paid $27 for the 4K and honestly, I don't think that's a bad price. Considering movie theater tickets are $15-20 depending on where you go. I get a better version of the movie than the theater forever for nearly the same price.

 

[Jim Braddock]

I just wait till movies hit the WalMart $5.00 DVD bin. Sometimes they are even less in those bins. It is a great time stock up on great older movies because new movies just suck.

So true. I see myself buying more classics in blu ray than newer shit.

 

[sweetviolenturg]

I've converted fully to digital. All my games, music, movies are either in streaming format or digital.

Def. some cons, but overall I like the convenience.

I've gone completely digital/streaming as well except for my Blu-ray/4K UHD disc collection. As a bit of a cinephile I have to be able to see my favorites in their best possible presentation & that's still through physical media in most cases. Plus as a genre film enthusiast, much of what I want to repeat view is only available via physical media.

 

[sweetviolenturg]

New releases are always like that. I'm a big movie collector and they go after the day 1/collector's crowd. Usually within a month, it'll drop at least $10.

I paid $27 for the 4K and honestly, I don't think that's a bad price. Considering movie theater tickets are $15-20 depending on where you go. I get a better version of the movie than the theater forever for nearly the same price.

Exactly.

 

[I'm Not A Nugget]

I never knew people still bought DVDs

I usually buy some for my phone then stream it to my tv but rarely do I buy any.

 

[weed]

downloading is still free.

 

[Drain Bamage]

New releases are always like that. I'm a big movie collector and they go after the day 1/collector's crowd. Usually within a month, it'll drop at least $10.

I paid $27 for the 4K and honestly, I don't think that's a bad price. Considering movie theater tickets are $15-20 depending on where you go. I get a better version of the movie than the theater forever for nearly the same price.

4K is not better than theater.

Theaters use something called DCP - digital cinema package.

4K DCP = 4096 x 2160 @ 12-bit color depth @ 250mb/sec
4K UHD = 3840 x 2160 @ 10-bit color depth @ 100mb/sec

Because theaters use something called 'constant height' screen, they are able to use the full 4k width, so that a scope widescreen 2.40 aspect ratio film has a resolution of 4096 x 1716. On UHD 4K that max width is 3840, in other words not true 4K but more of a consumer downsample, similar to how 1080p is a consumer downsample of 2K.

So in order to fit the 4096 x 1716 resolution DCP it must be downscaled to 3840 x 1607 for the UHD "4K" disc.

There's also a difference in how cinema projectors work versus LCD screens. LCD screens rely on a tech called "sample-and-hold" which causes a decrease in resolution under motion. It's why fast panning action scenes look blurry and then a close up on an actors face will be sharp. Cinema projectors dont need to use sample-and-hold, scenes in motion are rendered at their full resolution so action scenes look much sharper.

 

[Senzo Tanaka]

I've converted fully to digital. All my games, music, movies are either in streaming format or digital.

Def. some cons, but overall I like the convenience.

I refuse to go with convenience over quality. Thankfully with music and games, they've gotten there. Movies...nope.

Music - I have everything in FLAC. Same quality as CD, relatively small files, backed up several times and DNR free. I can downconvert the master files into MP3s for other devices if needed

Games - I'm mostly a PC gamer but I get all of the consoles too. Digital games are the same as the physical version and nowadays, the physical version is pointless since it just installs, has to download patches and is only used as a license key. Nothing plays from the disc anymore. With Steam, it's been around forever, has never screwed me out of anything and looks to have a good future. Sony also has a good track record of digital content. Nintendo however, has an absolutely abysmal record for digital and will close shops, remove games and remove your purchases. I buy Switch games physically since you play them directly off the card and you aren't beholden to Nintendo.

Movies - This is the big one. Unlike music, movies just have so much going on. Tons of different audio options, commentary, special features, HDR (for UHD). Not only that but the file sizes are huge. You're talking 100GB for a single movie and since I like to collect, I'd want to keep that movie forever. I can easily back up my music but movies would require a huge number of hard drives and a lot of work. Not to mention, where are you going to find a digital copy of a movie that is 1:1 copy of a disc? You're not. It's going to be compressed and may not have all of the features. With digital, I'm beholden to streaming services and we've seen countless of those fail already. The price is not cheap and it's going to be compressed and use up your internet bandwidth streaming huge 4K files.

Ironically, having a movie on disc is the convenient way to me - not digital like the others. It's cheap, it's easy to store on a shelf, it looks nice and it's a perfect copy. It's not like a CD where I might want to listen to several different songs. If I'm going to watch a movie, I'm going to be on my couch for 2 hours. There's nothing inconvenient about popping in a disc, sitting down and watching it. I can probably do that faster than scrolling through a streaming service and deciding what to watch.

Quality always matters to me the most and if there ever came a time where I could get a perfect 1:1 copy of a movie in a digital file without DRM, then I'd switch. I just don't see that happening though.

 

[Senzo Tanaka]

4K is not better than theater.

Theaters use something called DCP - digital cinema package.

4K DCP = 4096 x 2160 @ 12-bit color depth @ 250mb/sec
4K UHD = 3840 x 2160 @ 10-bit color depth @ 100mb/sec

Because theaters use something called 'constant height' screen, they are able to use the full 4k width, so that a scope widescreen 2.40 aspect ratio film has a resolution of 4096 x 1716. On UHD 4K that max width is 3840, in other words not true 4K but more of a consumer downsample, similar to how 1080p is a consumer downsample of 2K.

So in order to fit the 4096 x 1716 resolution DCP it must be downscaled to 3840 x 1607 for the UHD "4K" disc.

There's also a difference in how cinema projectors work versus LCD screens. LCD screens rely on a tech called "sample-and-hold" which causes a decrease in resolution under motion. It's why fast panning action scenes look blurry and then a close up on an actors face will be sharp. Cinema projectors dont need to use sample-and-hold, scenes in motion are rendered at their full resolution so action scenes look much sharper.

I understand but not every theater is displaying in 4K. My local theater has a 2K projector. Also, I feel that HDR is a big part of the 4K experience and you are not getting that in theaters. Honestly, I much prefer a nice OLED or quality LCD screen, a good sound system at home and 4K movie with HDR over the movie theater experience.

 

[bubbleboyjones]

Supposedly the cost of producing physical media will come down with the Warner Bros/Universal joint venture. Possible that the savings will be passed onto the consumer to some degree.

 

[Jesus X]

didn't know people were still using blu ray sold my entire blu ray collection and blu ray player like in 2016. only got 20 bucks for the blu ray player.

 

[bubbleboyjones]

4K is not better than theater.

Theaters use something called DCP - digital cinema package.

4K DCP = 4096 x 2160 @ 12-bit color depth @ 250mb/sec
4K UHD = 3840 x 2160 @ 10-bit color depth @ 100mb/sec

Because theaters use something called 'constant height' screen, they are able to use the full 4k width, so that a scope widescreen 2.40 aspect ratio film has a resolution of 4096 x 1716. On UHD 4K that max width is 3840, in other words not true 4K but more of a consumer downsample, similar to how 1080p is a consumer downsample of 2K.

So in order to fit the 4096 x 1716 resolution DCP it must be downscaled to 3840 x 1607 for the UHD "4K" disc.

There's also a difference in how cinema projectors work versus LCD screens. LCD screens rely on a tech called "sample-and-hold" which causes a decrease in resolution under motion. It's why fast panning action scenes look blurry and then a close up on an actors face will be sharp. Cinema projectors dont need to use sample-and-hold, scenes in motion are rendered at their full resolution so action scenes look much sharper.

It's impossible to broadly compare the two.

This doesn't paint an accurate picture when comparing viewing something at home vs a theater. A proper screen is obviously the best experience but the reality is most theaters are garbage or may have 1 or 2 screens at most that are properly setup for the best experience. Few projectors are 4k or HDR, projectors are often dimmed for money reasons or just not cleaned...etc. Very few screens really offer an immersive experience. Unless you are sitting in the a certain section of seats your experience goes way down. Also the simple fact that people are assholes and make noise so there an unpredictable factor on who sitting near your.


https://www.businessinsider.com/mov...ing-curtains-projector-bulb-brightness-2018-7

 

[Drain Bamage]

I understand but not every theater is displaying in 4K. My local theater has a 2K projector. Also, I feel that HDR is a big part of the 4K experience and you are not getting that in theaters. Honestly, I much prefer a nice OLED or quality LCD screen, a good sound system at home and 4K movie with HDR over the movie theater experience.

Most 4K discs are 2K upscales due to being mastered using 2K DI's. It's still expensive to do a full end-to-end 4K production with a 4K DI especially if there's lots of CGI. It's why the most expensive movies ever made (Avengers) still use 2K DI's. "HDR" is the marketing term for TV's using 10-bit color space. Theaters use 12-bit, so even more "HDR" than what is on 4K UHD discs.

 

[Drain Bamage]

It's impossible to broadly compare the two.

This doesn't paint an accurate picture when comparing viewing something at home vs a theater. A proper screen is obviously the best experience but the reality is most theaters are garbage or may have 1 or 2 screens at most that are properly setup for the best experience. Few projectors are 4k or HDR, projectors are often dimmed for money reasons or just not cleaned...etc. Very few screens really offer an immersive experience. Unless you are sitting in the a certain section of seats your experience goes way down. Also the simple fact that people are assholes and make noise so there an unpredictable factor on who sitting near your.


https://www.businessinsider.com/mov...ing-curtains-projector-bulb-brightness-2018-7

Where are you guys living that there are these garbage theaters?

Is this ^ where you are watching movies?

 

[Drain Bamage]

Movies - This is the big one. Unlike music, movies just have so much going on. Tons of different audio options, commentary, special features, HDR (for UHD). Not only that but the file sizes are huge. You're talking 100GB for a single movie and since I like to collect, I'd want to keep that movie forever. I can easily back up my music but movies would require a huge number of hard drives and a lot of work. Not to mention, where are you going to find a digital copy of a movie that is 1:1 copy of a disc? You're not. It's going to be compressed and may not have all of the features. With digital, I'm beholden to streaming services and we've seen countless of those fail already. The price is not cheap and it's going to be compressed and use up your internet bandwidth streaming huge 4K files.

 

[bubbleboyjones]

Where are you guys living that there are these garbage theaters?

Is this ^ where you are watching movies?

I'm not the one crying on Mayberry about being too poor for Best Buy.


+ =