Am I wrong in thinking this?

[haertig]

I just looked at my DVD collection (only a few hundred - small collection). I purchased DVD's of the movies I'd watch more than once. So I went searching to find the DVDs I had actually watched more than once.

I'm sad to say, there were only a handful that stood out in that search: Tremors, Shaun of the Dead, Shanghai Noon, and Christmas Vacation. All were standard DVDs. Looks like I'm quite the pitiful example of a "sophisticated movie viewer".

I think it's time to watch Tremors again this weekend!

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by haydnfan

Even though blu-ray won that format war, it still lost. The price was too high (and still is too high), streaming took over, and people had no interest in immediately replacing their dvd collection.

All those, plus they forgot MPEG2 being a "fluffy" video format meant good upscaling algorithms could render near-HD video from DVDs.

Even worse, most of the digital video subscription services allow downloads for off-line viewing, much like Overdrive and Kindle Unlimited do for ebooks.

And, finally, digital downloads to cheap kids tablets serve as electronic baby sitters without risking a video disk or having to make a cheap copy for the kid to repeatedly watch and eventually destroy.

Hindsight says disk-based HD video only had a narrow window to build critical mass for the winning format and the format war froze the market too long and the wait for BD to mature the software and for players to come down to mainstream prices so that by the time the format was truly ready for the market the market had changed.

The churn since then (3D, 4K, multiple HDR flavors, and now 8K) isn't helping drive sales volume either.

[haertig]

There is a point of diminishing returns on "upgrades". DVD to Bluray is a "maybe" IMHO, depending on the person. I'm mostly a "stick with DVD" person myself. Similarly, I've never found a reason to upgrade my 20 year old 5.1 surround system either. What are they up to now, something like 78 front speakers, 28 rears, 16 subwoofers, and 14 ceiling speakers? Something ridiculous like that. We've also got the 4K TVs now. And the picture is indeed amazing, if you happen to like to sit a foot and a half in front of a 80 inch screen (totally hemmed in by surrounding speakers).

That's why I enjoy reading books more than watching movies these days. And I'm perfectly happy with a 167ppi screen, although my Paperwhite beats that by a little. I bought the Paperwhite because it had a light when the basic Kindle didn't. Not because of the higher resolution. I can see the difference in the Paperwhite screen if I move in close enough, but then, my eyelashes brushing the screen accidentally turn the pages.

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by haertig

There is a point of diminishing returns on "upgrades".

There is a saying in corporate IT: "You upgrade something enough eventually it breaks."

That's one thing about ereaders, they've reached a peak that works for a strong majority of ebook buyers and aren't pushing it (too much). The things just work. No need to read a hundred page manual.

[pwalker8]

Originally Posted by haertig

There is a point of diminishing returns on "upgrades". DVD to Bluray is a "maybe" IMHO, depending on the person. I'm mostly a "stick with DVD" person myself. Similarly, I've never found a reason to upgrade my 20 year old 5.1 surround system either. What are they up to now, something like 78 front speakers, 28 rears, 16 subwoofers, and 14 ceiling speakers? Something ridiculous like that. We've also got the 4K TVs now. And the picture is indeed amazing, if you happen to like to sit a foot and a half in front of a 80 inch screen (totally hemmed in by surrounding speakers).

That's why I enjoy reading books more than watching movies these days. And I'm perfectly happy with a 167ppi screen, although my Paperwhite beats that by a little. I bought the Paperwhite because it had a light when the basic Kindle didn't. Not because of the higher resolution. I can see the difference in the Paperwhite screen if I move in close enough, but then, my eyelashes brushing the screen accidentally turn the pages.

Different strokes for different folks as they say. I knew a guy who was still running DOS on his computer in 2010. If it works for you, that's all that matters.

Blu-Ray/4K players do a pretty good job of up-scaling DVD's, but I can tell a difference. I've replace a good many of my DVD's with Blu-Ray, certainly all my favorites. There are a number of movies that have never made it to Blu-Ray, including a few fairly popular movies that surprise me. I assume most of them are tied up in contract disputes.

4K doesn't really impress me all that much. 4K disks don't really seem to be catching on all that much, though 4K downloads are.

[theducks]

Originally Posted by pwalker8

4K doesn't really impress me all that much. 4K disks don't really seem to be catching on all that much, though 4K downloads are.

I think it is more that people are:
1) Too Lazy to even get up and look for their next View or Listen. Point and click.

2) No place to (usable) store physical media (that includes Books). How many places other than the USA, have monster houses for the typical person? Our collections (hoards )have grown from a few records, to thousands of tracks /books


Just wait till the Network crashes for hours or days, weeks or even months (disaster or extreme weather). My Vinyl disc/CD/Tape/DVD/Bluray collection still works. Just power the player up. Paper books need no power (I find it amazing the number of officials that have let our backup emergency systems deteriorate, while living in Earthquake/Tornado/Flood prone areas )

[haydnfan]

Originally Posted by pwalker8

Different strokes for different folks as they say. I knew a guy who was still running DOS on his computer in 2010. If it works for you, that's all that matters.

Blu-Ray/4K players do a pretty good job of up-scaling DVD's, but I can tell a difference. I've replace a good many of my DVD's with Blu-Ray, certainly all my favorites. There are a number of movies that have never made it to Blu-Ray, including a few fairly popular movies that surprise me. I assume most of them are tied up in contract disputes.

4K doesn't really impress me all that much. 4K disks don't really seem to be catching on all that much, though 4K downloads are.

Very good upscaling on dvds looks nice and filmic like watching a movie in the cinema pre-digital era. I still watch dvds today for the reason that you said, and my Panasonic 4k player does an incredible job. I think if you showed anyone in the 90s a dvd played on a large 4k tv but with a great player doing the upscaling their jaw would hit the floor. We've just become accustomed to even better.

4k discs usually cost $30+ and I can buy the same movie in 4k hdr on Itunes for $5-15. It makes 4k discs a very hard sell. And still the hdr is the only reason I look into it. I can not see much of a difference between 4k and hd.

[Quoth]

You'd want at least a 70" screen for 4K to have any point in most rooms.

You can tell DVD from video and DVD from a 4K scan of Film. Also many BDs use the same scan resolution or even same master just not downsampled so much.

You'd want 4K video or 8K scans of film for 4K content. Where is that going to come from?

As it is having 96 fps progressive and decent DVD quality from a 4K master will beat HD or 4K that's 25fps or 30 fps progressive.

[Barbara1955]

I see nothing wrong. Just cause the Sales person no Nothing does not mean the customers are clueless. After all they are Buying a eReader so they must know How to Read. & they can check Both readers out over the internet. But since to me they are Both equal its just a matter of choice. And where they want to buy the ebooks.

[ilovejedd]

Originally Posted by haydnfan

4k discs usually cost $30+ and I can buy the same movie in 4k hdr on Itunes for $5-15. It makes 4k discs a very hard sell. And still the hdr is the only reason I look into it. I can not see much of a difference between 4k and hd.

New release digital is also expensive ($20-25).

Most of my 4K, I only paid $10-15 per movie. Exception being Marvel since I collect the steelbooks and I buy those on day one.

Funnily enough, I appreciate the higher 4K resolution more on a 12.9" iPad (~1.5-2' ft away) than on the TV.

[hobnail]

Originally Posted by fjtorres

As a result, Sony's promises of $50 BD list prices never materialized and sales have never approached DVD volumes. The whole thing turned out to be a pyrrhic victory; they killed HD-DVD but the price was high and the return never reached the promised heights.

I don't remember if I'd thought of it with respect to BD but I've noticed that Sony never seems to be able to come out with a format that takes a major part of the market. Beta was the first one, then after that there was those cute little MD discs, then there was their proprietary flash memory format (memory stick?), and now BD. There may be other proprietary formats they've introduced that I've forgotten.

[j.p.s]

Originally Posted by hobnail

I don't remember if I'd thought of it with respect to BD but I've noticed that Sony never seems to be able to come out with a format that takes a major part of the market. Beta was the first one, then after that there was those cute little MD discs, then there was their proprietary flash memory format (memory stick?), and now BD. There may be other proprietary formats they've introduced that I've forgotten.

The audio compact disc (jointly with Philips) and the 3.5" floppy disk.

[crane3]

Originally Posted by j.p.s

The audio compact disc (jointly with Philips) and the 3.5" floppy disk.

And the transitor radio, Walkman &, not sure, but the Playstation over power the xbox.

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by crane3

And the transitor radio, Walkman &, not sure, but the Playstation over power the xbox.

Sometimes.
Both have ended up with egg on their faces at times.

The 360 steamrolled the goldplated, overpriced PS3. (SACD and built-in PS2?)
It cost Sony $16B and it cost Kutaragi his job.

Then MS bundled Kinect with the XB1 and let the PS4 undercut them on price.
MS counter-attacked with the whisper quiet, true 4K XBOX OneX and restored their rep.

The next chapter is unwritten but so far XBOX SX hardware is leaving Sony in the dust. And they still have four cards left to play.

Don't swallow the hype, at least until prices are set.
Give it at least a month, though a year woukd be better.

[j.p.s]

Originally Posted by crane3

And the transitor radio, Walkman &, not sure, but the Playstation over power the xbox.

None of those are formats.