DVD's / Blu-Rays / Physical Media

[A True Kaniggit]

Meh. They are the same thing. I've never been able to tell the difference.

But I still own both despite streaming. 

Yesterday I felt like watching Birdman. I spent 10 minutes looking for it through my disc collection (it's somewhere) then finally pulled out my phone, googled "Birdman Streaming" found out it's currently on HBO Max, then watched it.

But I still don't regret having it somewhere in the unwieldy collection of discs of movies I like.

I think it's nice owning the movies you want to watch in physical form, without worrying about the whims of the internet.

 

Does anyone else still spend $10 - $25 a pop to own the movies you really enjoy?

Edited May 13, 2023 by A True Kaniggit

[TheLastWolf]

Bought a Taxi Driver Criterion BR 

Her DVD

Million Dollar Baby VCD

The Apu trilogy

Few others over the years

[Tywin et al.]

Haven't bought one in probably ten years. In that span I've maybe paid for 10-15 virtual copies of movies. There's just no need to get physical copies anymore. 

ETA: I take that back. I did buy the complete set of DBZ a few years ago.

Edited April 29, 2023 by Tywin et al.

[Spockydog]

1 minute ago, Tywin et al. said:

There's just no need to get physical copies anymore. 

There is if you want to enjoy the best possible picture quality, especially on a larger screen.

 

[Tywin et al.]

1 minute ago, Spockydog said:

There is if you want to enjoy the best possible picture quality, especially on a larger screen.

 

My TV is either a 45 or 50 inch screen and everything looks fine streaming from a PS4. Live sports are surprisingly good on it as well, but given how Chelsea is playing I'd prefer it look like it was from the 90's. 

[Spockydog]

And I have a 65-incher. Everything looks awesome. Anyway, regardless of what you're watching on, I can guarantee you that a 4k bluray, played on a dedicated, half-decent machine, will look better than anything streamed on a PS4.

 

 

Edited April 29, 2023 by Spockydog

[A True Kaniggit]

16 minutes ago, Tywin et al. said:

Haven't bought one in probably ten years. In that span I've maybe paid for 10-15 virtual copies of movies. There's just no need to get physical copies anymore. 

ETA: I take that back. I did buy the complete set of DBZ a few years ago.

I really want to watch WWII in Colour. (Weird Island People spelling)

It was taken off Netflix and I don't own it. 

Is it streaming somewhere I don't know about?

Because if I had the DVD's I could watch it right now.

Edited April 29, 2023 by A True Kaniggit

[Spockydog]

4K Blu-ray vs streaming: Which is the best way to watch movies?

Quote

 

4K Blu-ray vs streaming, which is best? It's a question that's been asked for quite some time and the answer keeps changing as services improve. So should you shell out on one of the best Blu-ray players(opens in new tab) or is your money better spent subscribing to  one of the best movie streaming sites(opens in new tab)?

There are quite a few factors to consider when deciding if solid state media is still worth investing in. Picture quality, sound quality, convenience and price are just some of those key areas you'll want to think about. 

Thankfully we've done that all for you below so you can decide if there's more to 4K Blu-ray than just that satisfying feeling of loading a disc into a player as you excitedly wait to watch your latest movie purchase.

The most important and clear difference between 4K Blu-ray discs and streaming in high-quality has to be picture quality. Both services now offer 4K meaning you get a picture resolution of 3840 x 2160 which is going to push your 4K TV to its limit for image resolution. So what's the difference?

The difference comes in based on the amount of data sent to the TV. The amount of data sent to your TV each second is called bitrate and this varies since streaming services must heavily compress data so that it can be passed over your internet and WiFi connections. 

Since internet speeds vary, even on the most speedy of lines, streaming services can drop data from frames to ensure your movie keeps playing seamlessly, even if at a slightly lower quality. Sure, it's not going to mean a loading screen or even a granular image like in the early days, but it can drop slightly. What do I care if I don't even notice? You might ask. We'd argue that just because the quality drop is subtle doesn't mean you should settle for a less immersive experience than you could have. This is where 4K Blu-ray comes in.

A top-end streaming service like Netflix typically streams at a bitrate of around 17Mbps. This drops as not only your internet connection varies but as demand goes up. With more people at home in 2020 the bitrate of Netflix dropped globally as a result of demand. Apple offers a higher bitrate with its Apple TV service, which tops out at 40Mbps. By comparison 4K Blu-ray discs run up to 128Mbps.

 

 

[Ser Scot A Ellison]

2 hours ago, A True Kaniggit said:

Meh. They are the same thing. I've never been able to tell the difference.

But I still own both despite streaming. 

Yesterday I felt like watching Birdman. I spent 10 minutes looking for it through my disc collection (it's somewhere) then finally pulled out my phone, googled "Birdman Streaming" found out it's currently on HBO Max, then watched it.

But I still don't regret having it somewhere in the unwieldy collection of discs of movies I like.

I think it's nice owning the movies you want to watch in physical form, without worrying about the whims of the internet.

 

Does anyone else still spend $10 - $25 a pop to own the movies you really enjoy?

Nope.  I look for the Film DVD or Television DVD… if I have it.

Edited April 30, 2023 by Ser Scot A Ellison

[Jace, Extat]

1 hour ago, Ser Scot A Ellison said:

Nope.  I look for the film or DVD…

I think the difference is only discernable to those who see with their eyes.

[Nictarion]

2 hours ago, TheLastWolf said:

Bought a Taxi Driver Criterion BR 

Taxi Driver isn’t in the Criterion Collection though. At least not on BR. I believe it had a laserdisc release back in the day, but no other formats since. 

2 hours ago, Spockydog said:

There is if you want to enjoy the best possible picture quality, especially on a larger screen.

 

Plus you can’t find everything on streaming. I tend to buy a lot of older stuff, foreign films, more obscure titles, etc on physical media. 

And all you folks who don’t think there’s a significant difference in picture quality between DVD and Blu-ray need to schedule an appointment with the eye doctor.

[Ser Scot A Ellison]

22 minutes ago, Secretary of Eumenes said:

I think the difference is only discernable to those who see with their eyes.

I miss typed.  Please see my edit.

[Jace, Extat]

1 hour ago, Ser Scot A Ellison said:

I miss typed.  Please see my edit.

I still agree. 

I remember walking through the army store all the time and seeing the TVs. I think 4K was like just a thing. And it cost like 2 months salary but the army store had payment plans. 

For your television.

Heroes. 

Anyways, I like never really got it. Like, the HD TVs or whatever? The stuff that came out with Blu Ray I think? That shit looks good. 

But I remember very specifically seeing the first Avengers movie playing on one of the 4K tvs and it looked... ugly! Like, Thor's hair looked like a horse hair wig and his costume looked terrible. But just a few feet away on a normal, $200 TV, that was almost the same size the same picture looked... normal! It looked normal! 

I ain't never gone to film school, ain't gonna. 

But I don't have to have a fancy degree to know that shooting at higher frame rate (HI, Mr. Peter Jackson's The (anti) Hobbit) fucks up the way the eye tracks the picture. 

Like, seriously? You needed ten years of wasted marketing campaigns, Hollywood? My god, it's no wonder they spend more on marketing than they do filming... they've forgotten the fucking FILM.

F

I

L

M

 

Played, projected, at a very specific speed to creat visual-optical illusion

 

-This has been a Jace rant. Imma go play Jedi now.

[TheLastWolf]

6 hours ago, Nictarion said:

Taxi Driver isn’t in the Criterion Collection though. At least not on BR. I believe it had a laserdisc release back in the day, but no other formats since. 

It had the Criterion logo! Back when Michael Bay was my favourite filmmaker (so you understand how back) my father's favourite cousin gifted it...

[Nictarion]

22 minutes ago, TheLastWolf said:

It had the Criterion logo! Back when Michael Bay was my favourite filmmaker (so you understand how back) my father's favourite cousin gifted it...

Must be a bootleg. 

[Spockydog]

8 hours ago, Secretary of Eumenes said:

I still agree. 

I remember walking through the army store all the time and seeing the TVs. I think 4K was like just a thing. And it cost like 2 months salary but the army store had payment plans. 

For your television.

Heroes. 

Anyways, I like never really got it. Like, the HD TVs or whatever? The stuff that came out with Blu Ray I think? That shit looks good. 

But I remember very specifically seeing the first Avengers movie playing on one of the 4K tvs and it looked... ugly! Like, Thor's hair looked like a horse hair wig and his costume looked terrible. But just a few feet away on a normal, $200 TV, that was almost the same size the same picture looked... normal! It looked normal! 

I ain't never gone to film school, ain't gonna. 

But I don't have to have a fancy degree to know that shooting at higher frame rate (HI, Mr. Peter Jackson's The (anti) Hobbit) fucks up the way the eye tracks the picture. 

Like, seriously? You needed ten years of wasted marketing campaigns, Hollywood? My god, it's no wonder they spend more on marketing than they do filming... they've forgotten the fucking FILM.

F

I

L

M

 

Played, projected, at a very specific speed to creat visual-optical illusion

 

-This has been a Jace rant. Imma go play Jedi now.

Yeah, I too remember all those articles telling us all how 'fake' 4k 60fps looked. And how our puny human brains couldn't process framerates over 25 fps.

What an absolute steaming pile of technophobic horseshit.

 

Edited April 30, 2023 by Spockydog

[Poobah]

Movies, TV shows, or games I prefer the physical media so it can't just disappear/be taken away from me at the whims of a corporation. 

[TheLastWolf]

4 hours ago, Nictarion said:

Must be a bootleg. 

It was 4K enuf tho

[Werthead]

Probably a couple of times a year, we lose all Internet for 1-2 days for maintenance, so having a physical media collection is very useful then, or if I can't be bothered to spend 5 minutes searching for what streamer has the film I want to watch when I can just get the Blu-Ray off the shelf. Also anything with decent special features. The special feature Golden Age was really something that was great to behold, and it's a shame it seems to have ended now.

What streaming has been good for has been eliminating the need to buy films that are just okay, that I want to watch but are not fantastic, all-time keepers (i.e. the 7-8/10 films). That's where streaming shines. For anything that's 9-10/10, I'll buy a physical copy. For example, I bought every MCU film on Blu-Ray from Iron Man through Endgame but for every instalment since then I've streamed, and have so far not regretted that choice at all.

Same for music. I use streaming or YouTube to listen to stuff that's okay but if I find a fantastic artist, I'll buy the CD (and get a free download copy as well) and put it on the shelf.

[Ran]

2 minutes ago, Werthead said:

or if I can't be bothered to spend 5 minutes searching for what streamer has the film I want to watch

Less than a minute now to do that search, by the by, with Just Watch. They keep track of what's showing on most streaming services in a wide range of countries. Pretty sure they cover the UK.