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Forums - Movies & TV - Blu-Ray isn`t dead, but it also isn`t the DVD killer

StuOhQ on 29 November 2016

As someone who watches movies on a 120" screen at home, the difference between 1080p streaming and Bluray is quite striking (compression kills). The biggest hit comes to the audio, but visuals are clearly muddied and artifacts are introduced.



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SvennoJ on 29 November 2016
invetedlotus123 said:

Home Video market is really shrinking. I Wonder if monthly subscription streaming and digital sales revenue is making up for what isnt made with physical sales. 

I guess HD, 3D and 4k BD are all packed together . 

Edit: its a shame we don't have global figures for DVD/BD adoption. In Brazil movie publishers are stopping tô sell and produce BD tô favor, DVD...

Home video market was shrinking, it actually started to grow again.

http://www.pwc.com/gx/en/industries/entertainment-media/outlook/segment-insights/tv-subscription-and-licence-fees.html

In Europe the decline turned around as well, while digital has overtaken physical in the UK
http://www.cityam.com/240500/netflix-and-kill-digital-movie-sales-overtake-dvds-for-the-first-time
In 2015, Western Europeans spent €8.0 billion on home video, up from €7.5 billion in 2014.
https://technology.ihs.com/580294/recovery-for-western-european-consumer-spending-on-home-video-in-2016

Cable cutting, using tablets and phones for viewing is probably responsible for the extra growth.

irstupid said:

Just wait for deals. I got like 6 movies recently all for $20 each. That includes each star trek movie. Purchased Star Trek, Into Darkness, Beyond, Man of Steel, BvS and Watchman. I think they were all like $22 a piece, to be exact. 

But what do you mean most don't come with blu rays. Seems like they all do from what I've seen. They come with movie on 4k disc, blu ray disc, and digital download as well.  Even if I didn't have a 4k player (which as I said, I just got), it is almost worth the extra $5 to just future proof oneself. I could still use the blu ray disc that came with.

Nothing annoys me more than the thought of repurchasing some of my movies I want in 4k, and the 4k coming with the very blu ray disk I already have. I can understand new movies coming out with 4k/blu ray/digital/ect all in one neat package, but always found it dumb when some old movie does that. It's like when LoTR comes out in 4k, I hope they don't waste packaging space tossing in some blu ray versions as well. Everyone already has the movie by now, or if they didn't they coudl buy the blu ray version instead of the 4k if they wanted it and didn't have a 4k player/tv.

You would think this is the time for deals! I guess it's different in the USA. In Canada they all need to be bilingual, thus seperate releases, lower volume, higher prices, no blu-ray included. link Probably redirects you to amazon.com, pitiful selection, a third or less have a blu-ray as well, 10 out of 30-40 ish.

mountaindewslave said:

on new movies probably, but overall DVD sales are much higher, due to the volume of titles

I guess, there are still movies that only come out on DVD. Plus all the other kinds of DVDs, exercise, concert videos, self help, shows for toddlers, all adds up too.



Cobretti2 on 29 November 2016

what is DVD? i still have VHS



 

 

walsufnir on 29 November 2016
Cobretti2 said:
what is DVD? i still have VHS

Betamax for the win!



3sexty on 29 November 2016

What's really interesting is that Laser Disk came out some years before DVD. The format was released for Japan and the U.S back in 1978 and remained a significant niche product until around 2010 or something close. The disks are huge in size which kinda explains why it never became a huge hit..



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Cobretti2 on 29 November 2016
walsufnir said:
Cobretti2 said:
what is DVD? i still have VHS

Betamax for the win!

if only they allowed porn on betamax from day 1 it would have won the war lol.



 

 

asqarkabab on 29 November 2016

It was clear from the beginning that bluray will have a hard time to conquer the livingroom and beat the dvd



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Fei-Hung on 29 November 2016
SvennoJ said:
Teeqoz said:

Convenience and price trumps quality for the vast majority of consumers (up to a certain point anyway). Blu-rays are still more expensive than DVDs, and in western countries don't even get me started on streaming which is superior in those two regards to both.

I was just checking if prices were getting more reasonable yet, guess not.
Star Trek Beyond on Amazon.ca DVD 9.97, Blu-Ray 12.99, Blu-ray 3D 29.99, 4K UHD 34.99 A few older ones are on sale, Hunger games 4K UHD for 19.99 is the best deal, still twice as much as the blu-ray, dvd sells for 5.00. Most are 34.99 though, old or new.

4 formats next to each other is kind of a mess too. No 3D option for 4K yet to complete the set. Most 4K releases don't come with blu-rays either, while most blu-rays still come with DVDs. It doesn't make sense, not helping the transition. I know I'll eventually end up with 4k. It would be sooner if I already had some 4K discs. Yet the high prices and no blu-ray to watch until then is not helping.

Actually the only movie that's on my list with 4K + blu-ray release is Secret life of pets. Not that I want to see that in 4K (My kids want it, which means it will be watched over and over if it's a hit) plus it's not even rendered in 4K (2K digital intermediate). And it's still $32.96 for an upscaled movie without HDR. I'll pass.

Snowden is another movie I want. That one was shot at 6K and was mastered in 4K, yet doesn't get a 4K UHD release. At least it should look great downsampled to blu-ray.

The only effect that 4K UHD has had so far is that Amazon.ca has upped their minimum amount for free shipping to CAD 35, 1 cent more than 4K UHD discs cost.


Some numbers for the OP

http://www.the-numbers.com/home-market/bluray-sales/2016

1
 Star Wars Ep. VII: The Force Awakens 5,210,534 $130,996,252 Buy
2 Deadpool 2,944,193 $57,464,397 Buy
3 Zootopia 2,188,278 $46,362,770 Buy
4 Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice 2,047,408 $48,526,616 Buy
5 Captain America: Civil War 2,010,194 $40,123,472 Buy
6 The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 2 1,362,275 $26,822,998 Buy
7 The Good Dinosaur 1,288,162 $28,560,829 Buy
8 Spectre 1,275,629 $23,811,309 Buy
9 The Martian 1,029,082 $23,491,372 Buy
10 The Revenant 963,776 $17,158,419 Buy


http://www.the-numbers.com/home-market/dvd-sales/2016

1
 Zootopia 2,093,668 $41,279,896 Buy
2 Deadpool 1,680,209 $24,439,914 Buy
3 Star Wars Ep. VII: The Force Awakens 1,664,709 $29,050,424 Buy
4 The Good Dinosaur 1,574,857 $26,020,511 Buy
5 The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 2 1,214,769 $18,626,263 Buy
6 The Martian 1,114,649 $16,365,207 Buy
7 Hotel Transylvania 2 1,084,702 $16,823,134 Buy
8 Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice 997,642 $17,045,824 Buy
9 The Revenant 941,640 $14,311,875 Buy
10 The Peanuts Movie 890,318 $11,736,793 Buy

It does look like blu-ray is finally outperforming DVD in new movies.

Yet compared to a top 10 from 2007
http://www.the-numbers.com/home-market/dvd-sales/2007

1 Pirates of the Caribbean - At World's End 13,699,490 $279,046,391 Buy
2 Transformers 13,251,378 $251,422,293 Buy
3 Happy Feet 12,225,634 $196,875,349 Buy
4 300 12,110,490 $243,204,618 Buy
5 Ratatouille 11,233,232 $169,016,024 Buy
6 Shrek the Third 10,889,584 $162,691,569 Buy
7 Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix 9,905,305 $200,157,478 Buy
8 Night at the Museum 8,585,495 $145,161,282 Buy
9 Departed, The 7,458,254 $138,809,474 Buy
10 Spider-Man 3 6,845,349 $114,754,483 Buy

This year isn't complete, yet looking at sales data for 2015 the picture is pretty much the same.
No 4K UHD sales anywhere :/

Interesting numbers. didn't realise BR had started to outsell DVD. Wonder if it will take this long for UHD to take off too give our trace a few years. 

 

Also, just watched Snowden a few days ago. movie is amazing. it's like The Big Short, it don't hold back and you get given a very good picture as to what happened, more so than you think you would considering the narrative. 



Zekkyou on 29 November 2016
Azzanation said:
Funny because when gamers talked about the difference between 1080p and 900p, they made it seem like it made the worlds difference yet a format like DvD is still what people prefer which offers an even worse image quality to Blu Ray.
4k is in a much better spot than Blu-Ray due to the amount of Apps and Features which all support 4k. Many 4k owners dont even need a disk drive. Unfortunately for Blu Ray, it had to go head to head agasint the cheaper DvD which it failed upon. UHD doesn't have to compete in the phyical media, it has the luxury of fast Internet and full support by many digital means.

Perhaps the people who value image quality differences in games are different to the people still happy watching media in SD? I know, crazy idea.

Even ignoring that though, your comparison is deeply flawed. DVD, Blu-Ray, and digital all have clear advantages. The first is cheaper in both player and disks, the second provides the highest quality experience, and the third on average is the most convenient. I'm a key example of how powerful these differences can be. I'm someone who values image quality *a lot*, i spent £3k+ on my current PC build so i could max games at 4k. And yet, despite this, almost all of my media consumption is through digital. My valuing of the differences between blu-ray 1080p/4k vs their digital equivalence is overwritten by my desire for convenience in that space.

In comparison, the PS4 and X1 are a much more linear comparison. The default cost of both is about the same (the X1 originally more because of the Kinect), their games cost the same amount, and both require the same amount of effort to play those games. So with price and convenience roughly equalised, differences in quality become a lot more relevant. You'd be right to say some people went a bit overboard, but i'd argue you often do similarly in the reverse. Your lack of interest in image quality doesn't nullify the interest of others.



Azzanation on 29 November 2016
Zekkyou said:
Azzanation said:
Funny because when gamers talked about the difference between 1080p and 900p, they made it seem like it made the worlds difference yet a format like DvD is still what people prefer which offers an even worse image quality to Blu Ray.
4k is in a much better spot than Blu-Ray due to the amount of Apps and Features which all support 4k. Many 4k owners dont even need a disk drive. Unfortunately for Blu Ray, it had to go head to head agasint the cheaper DvD which it failed upon. UHD doesn't have to compete in the phyical media, it has the luxury of fast Internet and full support by many digital means.

Perhaps the people who value image quality differences in games are different to the people still happy watching media in SD? I know, crazy idea.

Even ignoring that though, your comparison is deeply flawed. DVD, Blu-Ray, and digital all have clear advantages. The first is cheaper in both player and disks, the second provides the highest quality experience, and the third on average is the most convenient. I'm a key example of how powerful these differences can be. I'm someone who values image quality *a lot*, i spent £3k+ on my current PC build so i could max games at 4k. And yet, despite this, almost all of my media consumption is through digital. My valuing of the differences between blu-ray 1080p/4k vs their digital equivalence is overwritten by my desire for convenience in that space.

In comparison, the PS4 and X1 are a much more linear comparison. The default cost of both is about the same (the X1 originally more because of the Kinect), their games cost the same amount, and both require the same amount of effort to play those games. So with price and convenience roughly equalised, differences in quality become a lot more relevant. You'd be right to say some people went a bit overboard, but i'd argue you often do similarly in the reverse. Your lack of interest in image quality doesn't nullify the interest of others.

Interesting, seems as if your misunderstood my point. I am all for image quality hence why i own a Duel GPU laptop and plan on buying a GTX1080 PC in the next couple of months followed by a 4k screen. I am all for the hightest qulaity which is why i play games on PCs.

As for my comparison i am referring to 90% of thie site who made out that 900p and 1080p were worlds different yet compare that to the avaerge human who doesnt actually care and are still happy buying DvD quality movies.

As for the bolded, sounds like your jumping to conclusions here. I am all 4k next year and i wont be going back.