News - QOTW: Do you still buy Blu-rays?

[jonah]

Still buying blu-ray and dvds, I don't do download or streaming, but there aren't many films I like enough to buy.

[jnutt]

Yes, better quality than streaming.

[Numenor]

I still buy Blurays and don't stream at all. Granted, I don't buy anywhere near as many as I used to - but that's because parenthood has greatly reduced the amount of time I have to actually watch them, not because of streaming.

[Lowe]

I only buy BD - despite having a great net connection, I can't accept the lack of quality via streaming. What makes it worse is I have a fairly high end home cinema which shows flaws in AV material with clinical ease. BD's the reference format for me, and despite the annoyances with having to store them etc, it's still worth the hassle for me.

[Moogly]

Net is crappy where I live and Blu-ray is the only way to get high quality movies. That being said, I love having physical copies and knowing that no matter what happens I still have my copy of Firefly.

[KendrickDM]

I am with Ferral, I buy only DVD's from films and actors I like from decades past and avoid premium rubbish, and I buy DVD's only because my VHS collection became obsolete so I choose to have the cheaper and older DVD disc which is supported by good PC and DVD players so I never have the same problem of either my libray being unplayable or my media being eaten again.

[bobhope2005]

Moogly - with you on Firefly. Battlestar too. Could watch those shows again and again.

I buy a lot less than I used to in the days of VHS and early DVD. But if its something astonishingly good that I know I'll watch multiple times then I'll buy a decent copy in HD.

Rest of my stuff I watch on Satellite TV / streaming and its disposable.

More interesting will be to see how many people ditch blu-ray and DVD and start buying red-ray 4k when that starts shipping...

Or will red-ray never catch on because of streaming?

[crossy]

More interesting will be to see how many people ditch blu-ray and DVD and start buying red-ray 4k when that starts shipping... Or will red-ray never catch on because of streaming?

That's a good question (perhaps QOTW material?). Now I've read opinions that 4K doesn't make any difference until you get to "large" size TV's - with 55" being the "comfortable" value stated by the articles. That being the case, there's probably quite a few people who either can't, or won't, get a set that large. So 4K isn't going to float their boat.

The other, and probably more important, thing is whether broadband in this country will support the volumes of data needed to stream 4K (excepting some "magical" compression tech coming along). There's people on this thread saying that HD streaming is glitchy for them, and heck I've had issues with standard def iPlayer (but that's probably due to a problem with the Beeb's end, not mine).

Personally, I've little interest in 4K TV at the moment, other than perhaps to go past one in Lewises and say "ooh, isn't that big - and isn't the picture clear". But then again that's probably because there's no way I'd get a 55" set past SWMBO.

Moogly - with you on Firefly. Battlestar too. Could watch those shows again and again.

When you say "Battlestar" I'm assuming it's the reboot version, not the (increasingly strange) one with Lorne Greene? Firefly I'm not that bothered by, more of a B5 fan - sacrilegious I know.

[bobhope2005]

Yeh the reboot version is a modern classic but a I do still like the old version for the Pilot episode / theme tune and Dirk Benedict.
Sympathise re the 55" TV. I'm stuck with 32" for the same reason. (and she thinks that's too big!)

Also love B5. Well at least up to the end of Season 4. Made on a shoestring compared to some Sci-fi shows and almost exclusively written by JMS. Labour of love.

Until there is a lot of 4k content, and I mean most shows filming in it and TV channels carrying it as well then I think it will struggle to take off. But the cost will drop a lot over the next 4 or 5 years, both of making the programmes and buying the consumer equipment, so I think like with HD we will see a gradual progression towards it.

Unless something new like holographic 3D tv suddenly appears and blows 4k out of the water! Personally I won't be happy until I have my own holodeck.

[Spreadie]

Nope. I bought a few, but it isn't worthwhile investing heavily. I doubt it will be long before streaming services offer something of comparable quality.

[ddg4005]

Yes I do still purchase Blu-ray discs because I want to own what I've bought.

[Flash477]

I never made the jump from DVD to Blue-ray, I can't say that I ever saw the need for it I've always been happy with the quality of the DVDs. But then I also don't plan on owning any TV bigger that 32", so I won't see the problems people talk about on 55".

With any of the film services at the moment (Sky Movies, Netflix, Amazon) they're not like your own library as they only keep films available for so long and then you can't access it again unless they decide to make it available for a while. Not to mention the fact that most of it (although not so much with Sky) is quite old.

I prefer to have the things I want to keep in my own collection, although I have all my movies stored on my NAS with the original discs in the loft. Not only do they take up much less space, but to watch them is much quicker (easier to find, no piracy warnings, adverts you can't skip etc..)

[Output]

I love having physical copies and knowing that no matter what happens I still have my copy of Firefly.

Moogly - with you on Firefly.

Take my love.
Take my land.
Take me where I cannot stand.
You can't take the Blu from me,
or my Blu of Serenity...

[=assassin=]

I've never bought any Blu-Ray discs, as I've never bought a Blu-Ray player. They always seemed way too expensive to make it worthwhile for me. I only own a handful of my favourite Sci-Fi film DVD's, and most of these have been bought on offer, or even 2nd hand.

[Moongrazer]

I'm not attached to physical media (my gradual conversion of my PC gaming collection Steam is evidence of that), but Blu-ray video/audio quality is still vastly superior to anything streaming offers right now.

I suspect streaming will eventually catch up but, for the time being, I am still very much in the Blu-ray camp.

I do wonder whether Blu-ray will be the last generation of media I buy into though - 4K is beautiful but many film releases on Blu haven't even been able to capitalise on the detail afforded by 1080p (including numerous high profile titles like Star Wars and Back To The Future), so there is scant hope for 4K offering much worthwhile.

[probedb]

Yes. I prefer to watch what I want when I want and in as good quality as possible. You simply can't do that with streaming services.

I still prefer physical media. When that phone line or mobile mast goes down and you can't watch TV or listen to music I'll be quite happy doing either