Physical Media: Down, But Maybe Not Out

jfruh writes: "For many tech-savvy folks, it may come as surprise that physical media like DVD and Blu-Ray still generate more movie revenue than streaming services. But PriceWaterhouse Coopers is predicting that the the lines will cross in 2017 as physical media sales and rentals decline; already, fully half of those revenues come from supermarket Redbox kiosks. Still, there are signs that physical media won't vanish entirely, including the obsessive needs of collectors and the music industry's increasing suspicions of digital sales."

I'm not surprised...

[tompaulco]

I'm not surprised. I consider myself pretty tech savvy, but I don't stream anything. I used to buy lots of records, then CDs and DVDs. I haven't really bought much recently, but if I were to buy anything, it would be physical media. I don't do streaming for several reasons. If it is DRMed, I worry that the site will shut down. if it is not DRMed, I worry about not being able to save it for later viewing, interrupted transmissions, reduced quality, bandwidth, and other things as well.

Data Caps

[asmkm22]

The only reason I still rent movies is because broadband in my area comes with fairly low data caps. I'm stuck paying about $100 a month for 18Mbs, and 150 GB limit. Gotta love monopolies.

Re:stupid premise

[Electricity Likes Me]

Exactly this. Cheap bastards torrent (understandable if you're broke), but if you have money? You rip the physical media.

For $DIETY's sake why? I've already paid for the disk, I've already paid for the player. I have the money, but it makes no dammed sense whatsoever to pay a third time for more (potential failure points) storage media and the electricity to run it. You and the OP ("Tech-savvy folks rip physical media") should speak for yourselves.

Because disks get scratched when you play them and destroyed once people other then you start using them. Because I have to store them in some accessible part of my house and can't just scroll down the list on XBMC and pick what I want to watch that night. Because my rips are backups for my disks, and my disks backups for my rips.

I don't want physical media. What I want is Blu-Ray quality video. I would be perfectly happy to download this, but you can't download Blu-Ray quality video from anywhere, and you can't easily break the encryption on downloaded streams anyway and they cost as much as the physical disk a lot of the time.

And thanks to XBMC, I only need the one Blu-Ray drive. Everything else can be a thin-client which boots from my server, or one of those Android boxes (don't like those though - driver support is spotty and Android is not a great HTPC OS - plus having all my XBMCs share the same preferences and extensions automagically is wonderful).

Re:Meh.

[The Snowman]

I'm spontaneous enough that I almost always stream. I can't imagine others are far behind.

I buy Blu-rays using Amazon Prime for less than $10 each. It gets here in two days, and if it costs $10 or more, it is not a good value and I do not watch it. Plus, I have physical media that stick around in case the cloud blows away in a breeze. Internet is down? I can still watch it. Cloud provider goes out of business due to lousy sales or MPAA greed or malfeasance? I still have the media. Sure, this means I do not get new releases right away, but why should I care?

Re:Meh.

[segedunum]

That's the problem I have with watching movies online. As soon as online movie services feel they have reached a critical mass they'll be pulling all kinds of stunts to squeeze more money. Ever more draconian licensing (we all know it's coming), movies withdrawn without explanation and pricing based on pathetic attempts at trying to find your screen size. Disney thinks the latter revenue method is viable.

Physical Media

[Mike Frett]

Call me crazy but I prefer to have the physical copy. This way I can watch it anytime I want and I don't need to worry about the inevitable loss of Internet connectivity. It's the same with Cash, I prefer Cash as it's inevitable that via some Galactic event or War; Satellites will be disabled. People don't generally think about these events, but they are inevitable.

I still buy DVD also, I turn my nose up at Blu-ray due the ever-changing DRM and sorry quality of the players. Upscaling HDMI DVD Players are the best they have ever been and look just as good as HD Programming on TV. There is also a rumor among companies like Warner and Fox that they are currently taking a loss on Blu-ray sales by trying to match the DVD prices; you see it costs money to go back and do new transfers and add all that extra content. Not to mention all the angry people that will come when they realize they need to buy the Disk again when 4k/8k and whatever else arrives. And to be fair I tried to get into Blu-ray, the quality upgrade wasn't worth the constant lock-ups, slow menus and firmware nonsense.

Also for people like me, having to replace 1000+ DVDs is not financially possible since I own all the movies I ever wanted and have no real interest in "modern" films; they're all either remakes or reboots anyway and consist of 90% CGI. But if I were forced to choose, I would probably skip Blu-ray and go Digital Download, as if I wanted, I can record the stream and make my own DVD. For anyone who has done it, a DVD made from an HD source is very high quality, even better than the retail version.

In any case, I don't think Physical Media is going away anytime soon. I think you would have a better chance of dying in your own Bathroom.