Black's 4k movie post got me to thinking about the importance of physical media.

I really enjoyed this interview and really appreciate that Nolan supports physical media. I have really enjoyed seeing some of my favorites be brought back to life through a re-scan process rather than just 'upconverting' from a poor DVD scan. Or in some cases, a poor DVD import from the original scan for VHS, and in some bizarre cases, moved a third time to Blu-Ray for a disastrous play. Now if I can just convince Disney to re-scan and actual original copy of Star Wars . . . I know I know they kind of did but then they used George Lucas's re-edit. And we all know Han shot first.

Good video. And it highlights that there's more benefits to physical media than just their superior audio/video performance. Even if there eventually is parity in quality with some form of high bitrate streaming technology that doesn't require compression, there are still drawbacks to relying 100% on streaming.

Amen. Smartphone interruptions is something I forego going on 5 years ago. I am happy to purchase films on physical media to support the industry and do. The cineplexes charge too much for a single film viewing and they refuse to enforce the quiet environment of film viewing. Instead giving way to gen z and millennials who are addicted to their smartphones to the the point they cannot put the phone down for a film viewing.

Nolan said it best about, particularly 4k disc releases, the IMAX frames transfer beautifully to disc, going full screen, without letterbox. The PQ transfers to physical media exquisitely. Happy to see one of the best directors alive say the same thing I have been saying for years.

Now if the studios could be bothered to make enough discs for everyone to buy instead of making people wait 1-2 months for new 4K discs to be burned on their $1 Billion movie that wasn't in stock long enough to be affected by Black Friday, we could be enjoying said disc.

I swear Oppenheimer is cursed.

And a timely Exhibit A for why physical media is better than digital... Thousands of Playstation users just got this notice:



In a nutshell, folks who purchased episodes of Discovery Channel shows through the Playstation Store were just notified that they will lose that purchased content on December 31st, because of a change in digital licensing agreements between Warner-Discovery and Playstation.

It's literally being deleted from their accounts, with no refund/compensation.

We're not talking about rented shows expiring. Were not talking about streamed shows moving to another streaming provider. People bought these episodes, and now that purchase is being revoked with the click of a button. This applies to thousands of episodes of dozens of shows, so some people stand to lose out on hundreds of dollars of purchased content.

The dirty secret is that, buried in the terms and agreements of that service, you're basically agreeing for "purchased" digital content to actually just be on indefinite loan to you, with the possibility of it being revoked. Which normally doesn't happen, until it does. Like this.

You don't actually own it, unless you hold a physical copy.

just seeing that this conversation seems to be getting more traction. With Amazon prime recently adding an additional charge to go 'ad free' more are getting dissatisfied with the streaming.
I know I have not been able to watch any of the new star trek stuff because I do not want to subscribe to paramount.

Physical Media rocks.

Its impossible to argue against physical media. I very much appreciate having a digital copy so I don't have to carry around movies or when I'm visiting with friends but no one can take away or alter my physical copies. That PlayStation thing isn't the only time stuff like that has happened and I still have the unaltered original Star Wars on tape (don't tell lucas).

We don't watch, don't subscribe to streaming services, with the exception of Amazon Prime, and the only thing we watched on that was the first season of Reacher. We got Prime many years ago for the shipping before they offered streaming. We buy Blu Rays, and occasional DVDs, we're not hung up on absolute HD resolution, especially on older classic films. We watch a lot of films on the Movies! cable channel, primarily older 1940s, 50s, and 60s films. Similar content to TCM. We still buy maybe two discs a month, and we also borrow Blu Rays from our local library when we don't want to actually own the disc. Plus we watch movies from our large collection.

quote:

Originally posted by Anubismp:
Its impossible to argue against physical media. I very much appreciate having a digital copy so I don't have to carry around movies or when I'm visiting with friends but no one can take away or alter my physical copies. That PlayStation thing isn't the only time stuff like that has happened and I still have the unaltered original Star Wars on tape (don't tell lucas).

Yep. I love the convenience of the digital copy, but do need a physical backup. And between MakeMKV and Handbrake on my Mac, I can rip 1080p Blu Rays and watch them on my TV or a tablet if whatever movie doesn't come with a digital copy. I haven't found a 4K Blu Ray drive for my computer yet, but that may be on the cards in the future.