Bluray 4K, sounds great, but why are discs still alive?

[Mark Williams]

I completely agree, though thinking purely of consumer products - Im curious why some manufacturers haven't gone with a modular approach. For example a company could have X, Y or Z tvs that all come with dock A where you can attach Blu Ray player 1, 2 or 3. Each option with better features and commensurate price. Or the dock for either unit has a cover that stays on for stand alone units.

If I was Sony for example, I'd certainly be looking at this with components including PS4. No cables for anything.

That makes sense. I have an all-in-one HDTV-DVD player that I have used for several years as a store display. It runs 10 hours a day. When the DVD portion died it was too expensive to repair. As a fix I have gone thru 2 cheap stand alone players connected via component cable. I have read that a LCD TV lasts anywhere from 30K - 60K hours and my experience with players is about 3K hours of continuous use. A plug in internal player depending on cost would have been nice since display space is valuable.

My next display will probably be a HDTV with usb port and looping play capability for video files. I read some of the Samsungs have this.

 

[Bruce Watson]

Generally, what you get on disc is still superior quality to streaming. Also, no worries about connectivity, logjams, data rate suddenly dropping, etc., especially if you're streaming over wifi.

Plus, people like to own things.

+1. What Mr. Jimerson said. I expect 4k streaming will suck, at least initially -- sort like 1080 streaming sucks now. I'm looking at you, Time Warner Cable.

Plus, the sound on blurays is far superior to what you get streaming. I'm guessing that's because it's not compressed on BD, but they squeeze the heck out of it streaming.

This is why I stream TV shows, but Netflix BDs of movies. Even today. I can't imagine this situation will improve at even higher data rates.

 

[Darren Levine]

OK, let's put it this way:

How long do you think disc media will be alive for, before some other type of media is introduced as a replacement?

i'll switch my preference to an SD card over a usb stick.

im imagining a roku/appletv type box with just an SD card reader. tvs are already being made with SD card slots to play home movies, and it's not like protocols are much different from reading data off of a disc vs a card, they can even VOB it for anyone really cares, but gone will be the days of long loads and glitches (theoretically)

I don't get the argument that it would be too complicated or have a reduced sense of personal storage. plugging in a card is arguably easier than handing a disc which you better not scratch and put in the correct side. and if they do move to flash media, i imagine something akin to the cassette tape type storage case, just big enough for some titleage on the edge. And SD card mass storage cases are already in existence, much easier to hold than the giant 4x4 disc cases

some software titles are now delivered as SD cards...

 

[Jimmy Pierce]

I always envisioned a dedicated iPod type device that you'd download movies to and it would have a single connection to plug into a television or projector that would have a high resolution signal and stereo or 5.1 surround sound. It would be about the size of a smart phone. If you wanted to add more movies, you would sync it to your computer or built in wifi. This would of course make sharing movies privately much more difficult because every file would be encrypted. Eventually the device would run out of space, as well. It would also remove the bookshelf display we have with physical formats, but the movies would show up like Netflix on screen with the posters and synopsis'.

We have this already but instead they do it all.

 

[KyleProhaska]

Maybe it's just me, but I love having all the features available on a blu-ray disc…I love the quality…and I love having a film on a shelf like a book or something else. Streaming doesn't interest me because I don't feel like I own it. I don't like the internet being required to see what I want. Download is nice, but the features don't match what you get on a special edition Blu-ray or DVD, at least not yet.

Blu-ray is what I'll always prefer. I'm totally down with 4K Blu-ray. As to Barry's comments, I've never had a disc give me problems.

 

[Andrius Simutis]

How long do you think disc media will be alive for, before some other type of media is introduced as a replacement?

i'll switch my preference to an SD card over a usb stick.

im imagining a roku/appletv type box with just an SD card reader...

Discs will be around as long as people keep buying them and I don't think there will be another type of media as a replacement. Why would there be? Internet delivery will still roll on, and the disconnected will get it on BluRay/DVD. You have to realize what kind of inertia is required to change the delivery medium. It's huge. Think of how long it took for people to get VCRs, to get cable TV, to get DVD, to get the internet. Each of these delivery methods were a big deal, but more importantly they introduced something radically better that we didn't have before; VCR brought time shifted viewing. Cable TV brought choice and boobies! DVD brought quality and interactivity. Internet brought all of the above. A memory stick/usb stick/SD card brings nothing new to the table.