Physical media VS Streaming?

[Lunchbox]

I was curious of peoples opinions of the subject. I own a few favorites on Blu-Ray, but I'm annoyed with owning a player for just 10 movies. Also, I don't see a point of rebuilding my collection on Blu-ray just for it to go the way of VHS and DVD eventually.

[redtater]

Re: Physical media VS Streaming?

What! Did something happen to VHS? Oh man I sure hope not cause I got all these tapes stored away....
I am one of those who likes to have a "back up plan" so I, 99% of the time will have the hard copy as well as the digital version. My thinking is what if I get into a situation where I don't have access to wifi. I will at least then have a physical copy that I can pop into the old player. I do the same thing with music....

[lujan]

Re: Physical media VS Streaming?

I was curious of peoples opinions of the subject. I own a few favorites on Blu-Ray, but I'm annoyed with owning a player for just 10 movies. Also, I don't see a point of rebuilding my collection on Blu-ray just for it to go the way of VHS and DVD eventually.

If you wait long enough every thing is going to "go the way of VHS and DVD". As you can tell from my signature I'm not worried about blu-rays becoming obsolete.

652 HDX
2 HD
2 SD

[Gnatevil]

Re: Physical media VS Streaming?

I was curious of peoples opinions of the subject. I own a few favorites on Blu-Ray, but I'm annoyed with owning a player for just 10 movies. Also, I don't see a point of rebuilding my collection on Blu-ray just for it to go the way of VHS and DVD eventually.

I have about 1200 titles on Bluray and another 1000 or so on DVD. I have over 1200 titles available to stream using either Vudu, iTunes or DMA. The biggest reason I have the streaming titles is so my kids can watch "most" of my collection of movies without having to spend the money building their own.

Having the physical media is also a backup for me because we still don't have a reliable way to download and watch movies at home on multiple devices. If CFF ever makes it out of the box and we can download and store our movies at home on a media server, then having a physical backup becomes less important, however, I will always keep them around. (I'm old/old school) Also, many of the movies I got, came with a digital copy and I spent less on the combo pack then I would have if I had bought straight up digital. No brainer for me there...better value for my money.

I don't plan on doing 4K anytime soon because I can't afford a 4K projector. Also, source material is scarce and if you stream it, the quality (depending on provider) may not be as good as a good quality HD stream. Add to that, the amount of bandwidth it takes and the fact that internet providers are putting Download caps on people, it makes more sense to have the disc and throw it in to watch vs streaming a movie at home.

and I still have a few VHS tapes...collector editions, rare covers, etc and DVD isn't obsolete, just not a good as Blurays. And many titles are still not available on Blurays. But, I've D2D'd as many of the DVDs that I can. Wishing we could do TV Shows.

[Lunchbox]

Re: Physical media VS Streaming?

Thanks for the responses.

[Popcorn]

Re: Physical media VS Streaming?

I just had my 1 year celebration using VUDU at the end of February. Started out just putting in codes that came with my movies. Eventually started clearing out several dvds that I probably would not watch again by converting them so I could gain back some space.

Recently purchased an external blu-ray player so once again I could eliminate some of my blu collection that I rarely watch or will watch. WOW do I own a lot ehh movies and let the collecting addiction part of the hobby take over as usual (happened with VHS, DVD, HD DVD and Blu). Love being able to keep those I really don't care about in the cloud so they're still in my collection, but I will always keep a physical copy of movies I would never let go.

Godfather, Wizard of Oz, Shawshank, and Jaws are not going anywhere. Goodbye to She's Out of My League, MacGruber, and 60 or so others that I could care less about and pretty much blew my money because hey it's a blu-ray disc.

[YankeeGator6]

Re: Physical media VS Streaming?

I've kept a bunch of my favorites on disc, but I find that I never watch them. It's just so much easier to switch on Vudu and stream the movies I want to see. The only stuff I've bought on disc recently are things that either aren't available on Vudu or something like the Foo Fighters' Sonic Highways that has a ton of bonus features that are not available to stream.

[Emissary35]

Re: Physical media VS Streaming?

VHS might be obsolete but by no means is DVD, it and Blu Rays will be around for a long while still. And it's always better to have the physical media than just a digital copy. Just remember that nobody can take away your discs or alter them, everything on streaming can be pulled at any time if licenses with studios expire and videos can be manipulated and changed without notice.

Let's say a music license expires on a title and the studio chooses not to pay top dollar to renew it, they can instead decide to replace music in a TV episode with cheap generic music to save money, your video has now been altered without permission. That will never happen to a disc sitting on your shelf. Also sometimes a version of a movie or episode may have an uncut or extended version on disc but the streaming version may not have the added content, I've noticed that with one particular episode of a streaming show on Vudu. Streaming is very convenient and I like it but I believe it should be used alongside physical media as a bonus but should not replace it. The best value is buying discs that come with digital copy codes.

Call me paranoid but I like having physical control of my movies and not just leave it all in the hands of a streaming provider and the studios that can alter and take down content at will. Because technically even the titles you 'own' streaming you don't really own them, you own a license to view them. Which is why you can't even download them without embedded copyright protection that prevents you from playing the videos in any player other than Vudu's.

[lujan]

Re: Physical media VS Streaming?

I always buy the physical media when I believe it has the better sound/video and on the more "blockbuster" type movies. I buy the streaming version only when it's below $10.00 and don't believe the audio would be much better on BD. I have all the movies available for streaming for when I retire and move to a warmer State for the winter to watch without having to lug all the movies with me.

652 HDX
2 HD
2 SD

[timshel]

Re: Physical media VS Streaming?

As someone who (on the music side) still owns a library of 78 RPM records, vinyl, CDs and now digital music, I track a little differently on the movie side. Still have some VHS, lots of DVDs but lots more digital movies. I've strongly embraced digital media but keep DVDs/Blus as a Plan B, at least for now. Over time I anticipate I will continue to unload DVDs/Blus, but they still are still relied on quite bit in our current home due to spotty streaming capacity.

[MattO]

Re: Physical media VS Streaming?

After losing access to protected music I bought at MSN Music, Walmart and MTV (those are NOT small brands), I definitely keep in mind that only the physical media is with me for good so most of my digital only movies are ones that I could live without or that I'd be willing to rebuy.

Some of it depends on my interest level in the special features. Another thing that's becoming a factor more and more is ISP bandwidth limits. We simply can't stream everything without getting a nastygram from Cox.

[Walter-S_North_Carolina]

Re: Physical media VS Streaming?

Google Fiber is going in about five miles from here. I am running TWC 50Mbps and have little reasoning not to stream all content. The convenience is such a luxury (fully baked mobility, save point retention, MPAA backing, no on-site file storage, no closet full of plastic discs, etc...). UV/Vudu is where I hold my static content.

My physical media is stored in cardboard boxes in the garage and has remained untouched for about two years now.

Cord cutting for in-home entertainment content is gaining rapid adoption and this trend bodes well for the future of streaming as a playback method.

[Alan Smithee]

Re: Physical media VS Streaming?

Well, most of the people on this board seem to already be biased towards streaming anyways, but for me I don't consider anything in my Vudu library or any other streaming service to be "owned." Vudu has already taken away the adult titles that used to be available before Wal-Mart bought the company- those who had bought any of those had them taken out of their library, though they were nice enough to reimburse everyone for the purchase price. That might not happen next time however- and if you think porn is dirty or stupid so it doesn't matter anyways that it was taken off, just remember that someone may feel the same way about something else that you DO care about!

Regardless of the early releases or any other push to get people to buy movies that way, I will NEVER go for it. The only movies I have in my library were either from Ultraviolet codes that came with discs or from free giveaways- I did buy two movies for less than $5 each, which was about the price of a rental, but I certainly don't "own" those in my eyes, and if I cared about them I would've bought them on disc.

And VHS may be obsolete, but my VCRs still work, ALL my tapes still play and there's plenty of used tapes out there, many of things which have never been on any other format.

[msldavies]

Re: Physical media VS Streaming?

Our local video rental store still has a selection of VHS tapes, mostly movies that have not been released on DVD. I'm not sure if my player still works or not, though.

I have records (45s and 33-1/3, no 78s) and cassettes. I also have a computer that predates Windows and Macs.

[Walter-S_North_Carolina]

Re: Physical media VS Streaming?

Well, most of the people on this board seem to already be biased towards streaming anyways, but for me I don't consider anything in my Vudu library or any other streaming service to be "owned." Vudu has already taken away the adult titles that used to be available before Wal-Mart bought the company- those who had bought any of those had them taken out of their library, though they were nice enough to reimburse everyone for the purchase price. That might not happen next time however- and if you think porn is dirty or stupid so it doesn't matter anyways that it was taken off, just remember that someone may feel the same way about something else that you DO care about!

Regardless of the early releases or any other push to get people to buy movies that way, I will NEVER go for it. The only movies I have in my library were either from Ultraviolet codes that came with discs or from free giveaways- I did buy two movies for less than $5 each, which was about the price of a rental, but I certainly don't "own" those in my eyes, and if I cared about them I would've bought them on disc.

And VHS may be obsolete, but my VCRs still work, ALL my tapes still play and there's plenty of used tapes out there, many of things which have never been on any other format.

I am going to put effort in being civil. However, your logic is so obtuse, I am surprised you put them on a publc forum.

Physical media is typically not treated as holy relics by consumers. They are susceptible to damage from too many ways to list. However, even if it were treated as priceless holy relics and stored in museum conditions, Mylar tape stretches over time. Optical disc looses reflectivity. Go to the National Archive government web site for an explanation.

Without question, the redundant storage array method used by streaming providers is the irreproachable gold standard for data retention. Trying to raise fear of loss of playback through policy change ignores that physical media lives it's life in the real world where there are dogs with sharp claws, and children, and mini-vans that get to 157 degrees in parking lots.

Not to mention that streaming is a feature upgrade. Try to start to watch a movie on your living room TV after you have located your plastic disc and then press pause and pick back up on your bed room TV. By the time you do, I will be ten minutes further along and almost asleep. That is just one example of the expanded feature set streaming has over physical.

It has nothing to do with bias in my case. It is an educated decision based on technical realities. I assume most other people moving to streaming are making decisions on the same basis.