The death of physical media is impending

Communities Visual Arts & Design
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I buy blu rays because I have a nice sound system and a really great TV. Typically, I’ll go to best buy and look at their clearance items or blu rays on sale. Unfortunately today, I found out that they entirely removed the drama / thriller section altogether.

I was looking for “The Town” and “Nightcrawler”. Great movies.

They basically said that bestbuy is sending all their blu rays back, to whomever they ordered them from, and they will stop buying it, because it’s not selling.

Here are some facts:

Before we get into the testing, it’s worth looking at the specifications for Blu-ray and streaming services. On paper, Blu-ray is certainly the quality winner, with the standard supporting video encoded using H.264 at a resolution of 1,920x1,080, delivered at a bit-rate of up to 40Mbit/s.

Compare that to Netflix, which is representative of other streaming services. It also uses the H.264 codec at a resolution of 1,920x1,080, but streams at around 12Mbit/s maximum. That’s a big difference between the two. To get its streaming rate down, Netflix has to throw away more detail in its video stream compared to the Blu-ray version.

This has been touted abound, all over audio video and movie forums. Here is the article I’m referencing, but it’s fairly easy to corroborate. In fact, I’d argue that a well mastered blu ray is better than 4k streaming. Blu-ray vs streaming – which has the best quality? | Expert Reviews

Since I have a full Hi-Fi Sonos System, audio is very important to me. (otherwise there’s no reason to spend $1000’s on an audio system. (I know, I know. Sonos is terribly overpriced, but I need it due to space limitations and the convenience, with its integration with spotify and such.)

This is one area where Blu-ray is ahead of the pack. While most streaming services offer at least Dolby Digital 5.1 surround sound, if not Dolby Digital Plus 7.1 sound (not on all programmes and films), the sound is compressed using lossy compression, which means that some detail is lost. Blu-ray supports Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio, both of which are lossless and of a higher quality. In addition, the vast majority of discs use these formats, making Blu-ray a better choice for people that want immersive surround-sound.

Here is another reference: Interstellar: Blu-ray vs. iTunes vs. Vudu vs. Amazon | AVS Forum

Once again, Blu-ray comes out on top. It’s not even close. I’m sure the audio superiority of Blu-ray is assured as well. Later, when 4K Blu-rays become the norm, they will be superior again. I will always take the superior quality release over convenience any day.

So I find it sad that we’re intentionally moving towards streaming and lowering the quality of our media, just so it’s more affordable. In an age of data caps and crappy internet… here’s to hoping that physical media stays. I don’t want it to be a niche market to where only certain movies are coming out in 4k or blu ray. It’s a sad state of affairs.

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I'm a massive cinefile and audiophile and I'm scared that in a few years I wont be able to OWN high quailty copies of anything. I feel like I'm preserving movies and music for posterity because once a CD or Blu-Ray goes out of production we may never see them in that quality again. I don't think I could deal with compressed movies and music on a daily basis and be happy...

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I agree 100% and I'm in the same boat as you. As it is, a ton of content on Netflix is still 720p. It's going to be a decade + before compression technology / internet speeds, and 4k mastering, before we get any true rival to blu ray. UHD Blu ray will still always be better... but let's hope it catches on. It's in direct competition with digital media.

Look what I picked up...

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Can't play it though on my PS4. I have to get a 4k Blu Ray player. I think all the older movies we bought on blu ray... will be the best that we're going to get for older content.

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I like physical media because when the internet shits the bed or the computer decides to commit seppuku, I still have backups. I don't really watch too many movies so basic DVDs are more than fine for me, but I like to find music on CD when and where I can. Oftentimes new CDs are only a couple dollars more for an album compared to online, but with a CD I can rip it to my computer in my file format of choice and I don't have to burn anything to a disc to use in my car because it's already a disc. Used CDs are even better because they're cheap, often in pretty good condition, and I can still rip to whatever format.

And physical media also supports my local businesses, so that's always a plus.

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So I celebrate the death of physical media and disagree with your conclusion. This is not because you're wrong, actually. You just missed something.

Netflix & other cloud streaming services will not win out over Blu-Ray in the long term unless our network infrastructure gets wildly better -- which, whilst unlikely, would mean that Netflix & such would be absolutely 1:1 to physical media. In other words, it'd mean no detail loss in video or audo.

However, that's not what I think will happen. In fact I believe that our network infrastructure (unless you happen to live in one of a very few places) will simply be allowed to degrade.

No, I think rather that reliable HDDs and SSDs will become the solution of choice. Locally stored, full-detail in both audio and video, completely owned by you. This is for a couple of reasons. First, more and more people are becoming aware of the facts that if it's on a service like Vudu or iTunes or what-have-you, you don't own it. Second, the networks are going to degrade. Third, retail outlets will simply stop carrying physical media, because the profit margin is going to disappear or severely slim down, due to people jumping on the Netflix train (as is happening right now).

Everyone wins. Except disc manufacturers & Netflix.

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The thing is, I don't care about 'what the future will bring'. I care about now. Right now, perceptively, netflix and digital media is noticeably worse than physical media.

I appreciate owning a box with a synopsis and the cover art, etc. I want that in my 'library'.

Netflix will only get better, if it has to. Right now, 12 mbit versus 40 mbit, we see a clear winner. Digital media is winning and people don't notice a difference. It's not a big deal for people, it's 'good enough'. It's like the opposite of vinyl. Vinyl is ostensibly worse audio quality, but people still buy it. Blu ray is ostensibly better, but people will still look the other direction for the sake of their wallets. That's fine... but I like options, and I want the best possible medium for my audio / video system. Otherwise, why buy a 4k tv if you aren't playing true 4k? It's lazy to me.

I see where you're coming from, in that you don't like having your media take up space, etc. But for me, that's a positive. It would be cool to have your entire lossless collection on a thumbdrive and you buy it and they add it to your 'repository' of videos. So that would definitely be cool, but I can't see that happening for a VERY long while, considering 4k is like 80 - 100 GB. That would mean a standard laptop with a 256gb ssd can only hold 2 movies.

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Personally I don't care. I keep my physical books, movies, everything to absolute minimum favorites. Plus I can't see the difference between 4K and several lower resolutions sooo. It'd be a pretty major expense for no return for me.

I do understand what you're wanting, and honestly I think Blu-Rays are going to stick around. Maybe not at Best Buy, but Wally will continue to stock them until long past their effective death. And Amazon will. And at least a dozen other, secondary places. They may go down a bit in box quality, cover art, etc, over time. Still, I'm fairly sure you'll be able to keep working on your collection.

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I wouldn't notice a difference either, if I didn't have the equipment for it. For example, if I'm watching it on a 42 inch 1080p tv from like 5 years ago, with the audio coming from the TV, there's definitely not a perceptual difference. Which makes sense, because most people haven't really upgraded their tv yet to 4k. I would be thinking the exact same thing as you, but since the TV is so huge, I can definitely see the pixels.

If you move up to like 60 inches and have a hifi audio system, the difference is like going from 720p to 1080p.

It's like using a pair of skull candies versus like a really nice pair of sennheisers. You won't notice a difference between the two if you have lossy audio. If you go into lossless audio, you can definitely hear it.

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I'm not terribly concerned with video quality as long as it's at least 720p, but sound is a major deal to me. If I'm watching something like Transformers etc I want awesome video quality. It's also nice to treat buying media as an outing and see what's out there without an opinion on what I would/should like. Surfing through Netflix is not the same at all.

Also, physical dvd's are great for the elderly (for now anyway) and the very young. It's as simple as put the thing in the other thing and put the tv on the right channel/input mode. Learning to take care of ones dvds or possessions in general is another thing that streaming entertainment does not provide. Most of my movie viewing is done via streaming nowadays but I still enjoy "the hunt" and the indifference in what I buy so long as it's something.

I suppose as long as I can burn my own copies of movies onto dvd's/etc I won't have a total shit fit but the loss of music stores freakin' sucked and the death of movie retailers will be just as heinous.

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blueRay was dead-on-arrival.

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How so? If you said "HD dvd's" I would totally agree. (Not an attack, genuine question)

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4k is already a thing, hell they already have 8k TVs.... 4k streaming will soon be a thing soon and at that point your blu ray collection be obsolete... this is akin to people being mad that their vinyl is outdated... everything will be digital and basically already is... it'll get better quality from streaming services as soon as the infrastructure improves... (it's already fiber in Chattanooga where I live)

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I would totally love this. But as you said, ISP's are already complaining as it is, due to competitive reasons (perhaps as a scape goat, or perhaps for valid reasons, due to a poor network infrastructure). But here's to hoping. Despite having spent $100's, if not $1000's on blu ray media, I would still be happy to get the superior formats through streaming.

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  1. Well, they have never been very common or standard. They've always been a sort of expensive home theater novelty.
  2. Their replacement (streaming) started becoming big before you could even buy bluray players.

I guess you could argue that there was a window of time in which they were worth getting... it was very very short though.

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When you said you liked having physical copies and having a library, it made me think of books and ebooks. It makes more sense to have ebooks than books just for space reasons. The main problem is that ebooks don't have that book smell.

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People like collecting stuff. That will never go away.

BluRay at 1080 looks better than 4k streaming due to compression and lack of deep color.

Not to mention sound. Streaming still doesn't not have uncompressed surround sound. And since Dolby Atmos is now hitting the home scene they are double behind the times.

I think the issues with BestBuy is they way over charge for movies and music. Way cheaper just to order online via Amazon and their ilk.

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Sound is were the big difference is the bass LFE track is way worse (either too high or too low on Dolby Pro Logic streaming tracks. But on DTS master audio or Dolby True HD is sounds much better. Lack of decent audio is a big minus.

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Actually Best Buy can have better deals. They make tons of mistakes. For example: I bought the x-men wolverine collection for $5. It has every x-men movie except days of future past. It happens all the time @ the Best Buy I go to. They will actually have the blu ray in a different location in the store at very different prices. The $5 bargain bins aren't bad either

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On new releases their price is $5-10 more than Amazon on Wall-mart

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Agreed, and you also have to pay tax. I just don't like waiting lol