Where are you renting Blu-rays from anymore?

[Cluelessboy]

Originally Posted by blankall

I find it strange that people are spending thousands on top of the line TVs, but then are willing to settle for streaming quality. Blu-Ray is by far the best quality available. I'm not a videophile, but the difference is night and day between blu-ray and streaming "HD".

The average movie watcher doesnt care for video quality, they just want tosee the movie for the cheapest price and most convenient way possible. This would explain why movie theatres are still in business. To me, going to the theatres, its painful watching filmstrip picture quality after watching 1080P bluray.

[blankall]

Originally Posted by Cluelessboy

The average movie watcher doesnt care for video quality, they just want tosee the movie for the cheapest price and most convenient way possible. This would explain why movie theatres are still in business. To me, going to the theatres, its painful watching filmstrip picture quality after watching 1080P bluray.

That's not entirely true. Once the 4k technology hits theatres, the image will be better than anything you'll be able to get at home.

[HotHotHeat]

The problem with quality is the manufactures have convinced the public that lines of resolution tells the whole story. I use AppleTV more than anything else these days because the seamlessness and convenience can't be beat. But a 4GB file on iTunes simply can't look the same as a 42GB file coming from a Bluray disk, even through they're both being shown on the TV in either 720p or 1080p.

I'm more of an audiophile than videophile, so the sound is where I really notice Bluray. DTS HD, when properly configured (very, very few people have set up their sound system to use this correctly), is incredible. At least 6 channels of uncompressed audio during a scene in Avatar or Inception makes the experience so much better.

-- But, as people have said, the majority of the public doesn't care. I still have trouble convincing people HD makes a difference.

[nfotiu]

Originally Posted by Cluelessboy

The average movie watcher doesnt care for video quality, they just want tosee the movie for the cheapest price and most convenient way possible. This would explain why movie theatres are still in business. To me, going to the theatres, its painful watching filmstrip picture quality after watching 1080P bluray.

You realize that the effective film resolution is much, much higher than 1080p.

[photon]

I wonder if there's a niche market?

Boutique blu-ray rental places for people who care about the quality?

[Buzzard]

Yeah, I tried netflix for a few months. Good deal for the price, but the quality was almost unwatchable. I've downloaded tons off the 'net. You can get some decent quality, but it's quite hit and miss, and I find streaming to PS3 sometimes a bit of a pain in the ass. I enjoy the audio and video experience almost as much as the the movie itself, therefore for me there is no comparison to blu-ray. I just wish there were more options to rent. I do like your idea photon. Business op anyone?!

[nfotiu]

Originally Posted by cmyden

http://www.pcworld.com/article/24121...streaming.html

Blu-ray vs Streaming


A lot of misinformation there. 10 mbps in the modern compression codecs is probably going to be substantially better than dvds mpeg2 encoding.

Also, vudus hdx is way better than any cable vod I've seen. A well encoded 20 mbps looks pretty indistinguishable from bluray on my 60 inch tv. I pick up on compression artifacts pretty well, and I'm not seeing any.

The only real downside of streaming is price now. And that is why the studios are trying their best to get us off bluray. They are using release windows to get people off netflix by mail and redbox in the states. I wouldn't be surprised to see 90 day streaming/vod windows before blu rays are even released next year, and that will kill blurays pretty quickly.

[photon]

Vudu HDX is definitely better than Netflix and Apple TV, but it's still compressed a lot more than Blu-ray and there's still loss of detail:

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showt...5#post21176275

Loss of detail is still pretty significant IMO.

EDIT: Transformers is of course a worst-case scenario with lots of action and stuff, some of the other screenshots look a lot closer for movies with less going on visually.

[nfotiu]

Originally Posted by photon

Vudu HDX is definitely better than Netflix and Apple TV, but it's still compressed a lot more than Blu-ray and there's still loss of detail:

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showt...5#post21176275

Loss of detail is still pretty significant IMO.

EDIT: Transformers is of course a worst-case scenario with lots of action and stuff, some of the other screenshots look a lot closer for movies with less going on visually.

I don't know, man. I'd have a hard time calling the difference significant. Detectable, in places, maybe. I just watched dark of the moon on hdx last night actually. I did not at any point notice anything that reminded me I wasn't watching a blu ray. Explosions showed no sign of pixelation, dark scenes had no banding. Maybe I could sit 5 feet from my tv and do an a b comparison and pick out some differences. Unless you are sitting very close to your tv or have a screen over 90 inches, I think the difference is so marginal, that it is not going to be the primary deciding factor. I will say that hdx has a much better picture than anything I've seen on cable tv, and my cable is delivered unaltered from the source via fiber.

The diminishing returns between hdx and blu ray are just not significant in the real world, IMO.

[photon]

Everyone's different, I'm picky but not extreme, but I'm not a person who thinks $8000 for a projector is a good deal.

Heck I watch SD Netflix movies off my Wii on my 40" LCD (but I'm 13' away so it's less of an issue), and I watch HD stuff from Netflix on my PC, so I'm not so against it that I won't partake.

Just some movies I want to watch in the best possible quality, and for the ones I own I definitely want the best possible quality. I'd rather buy a blu-ray for $20 or $30 than an inferior digital copy for $15 or $20, and I can make my own lower quality versions for free.

If HDX was available in Canada, if they let me watch movies in HD on my computer, and they brought the price down to below what renting a Blu-ray would cost then as a value proposition I'd be more inclined to be interested.

[HotHotHeat]

I think it's important to consider than the era of streaming content is still very much in it's infancy. Shaw is now marketing 100mb/second Internet to consumers, Apple will begin offering 1080p (I know.. Compressed) on iTunes in2012., so let's just wait and see. It's certainly possible that streaming becomes the best option for maximum quality.

[photon]

Eventually it will, of that I have no doubt. Just a matter of when.

[chemgear]

Originally Posted by blankall

I find it strange that people are spending thousands on top of the line TVs, but then are willing to settle for streaming quality. Blu-Ray is by far the best quality available. I'm not a videophile, but the difference is night and day between blu-ray and streaming "HD".

Yup, I know a couple of guys that swear by pirating compressed garbage on their big screen. Not sure why you'd bother - but then again they claim "you can't tell/see/hear the difference." I guess you if are blind.

Might as well just do the cardboard box tv.

[nfotiu]

Originally Posted by photon

Everyone's different, I'm picky but not extreme, but I'm not a person who thinks $8000 for a projector is a good deal.

Heck I watch SD Netflix movies off my Wii on my 40" LCD (but I'm 13' away so it's less of an issue), and I watch HD stuff from Netflix on my PC, so I'm not so against it that I won't partake.

Just some movies I want to watch in the best possible quality, and for the ones I own I definitely want the best possible quality. I'd rather buy a blu-ray for $20 or $30 than an inferior digital copy for $15 or $20, and I can make my own lower quality versions for free.

If HDX was available in Canada, if they let me watch movies in HD on my computer, and they brought the price down to below what renting a Blu-ray would cost then as a value proposition I'd be more inclined to be interested.

blu rays are just so damn inconvenient. Piracy is still the best available option right now in terms of convenience/quality/cost. I have no interest in buying blu rays any more. I load up a bunch of blu ray rips on my htpc and I can stream them to every tv in my house, and server them to my ipads and phones, or download copies to go. No one offers a legal way to do that yet. I figure I average about $300/month in payments to hollywood through movie admissions/cable tv/netflix/vod and streaming buys to justify my unethical actions.

Vudu streams are good for an impulse rental here or there, but I would never buy a movie from them. Even though they are now backed by wal mart, I doubt they'll win out over amazon and google in the long run. The winner will be the most ubiqutous one that can get on all the devices. Apple works for the people who will follow their rules and have only apple devices attached to every display they own and will keep their standard apple sized niche happy for the long term probably.

For the rest of us, as soon as either Amazon or Google offeres something around the quality sweetspot that I think vudu has achieved, and gives you the option of watching owned movies on all your devices (plus a download option for on the go), then blu rays will die a whole lot faster than anyone is predicting, especially since the studios want them gone. My prediction:2012 sees the netflix/redbox windows stretched to 90 days, 2013 sees six months and blu ray rentals are extinct in the US by 2014. I am not saying this is a good thing, by any means, btw. The one silver lining is that Amazon and Google have shown they can be agressive in discounting their movie offerings.

[Yeah_Baby]

Originally Posted by nfotiu

blu rays are just so damn inconvenient. Piracy is still the best available option right now in terms of convenience/quality/cost. .

Yeah, I find that hot wiring cars is the best way to acquire those too.

[photon]

Relevant:

NSFW!

[photon]

Originally Posted by nfotiu

blu rays are just so damn inconvenient. Piracy is still the best available option right now in terms of convenience/quality/cost. I have no interest in buying blu rays any more. I load up a bunch of blu ray rips on my htpc and I can stream them to every tv in my house, and server them to my ipads and phones, or download copies to go. No one offers a legal way to do that yet.

Heh I can't argue with that, even if the cost was higher the convenience factor still makes this.

Eventually bandwidth will reach a point where it's a non-question, you won't need to have a downloaded copy to have a pixel perfect version streamable to any screen. Then we can see legal plans that match the convenience.

Originally Posted by nfotiu

Vudu streams are good for an impulse rental here or there, but I would never buy a movie from them. Even though they are now backed by wal mart, I doubt they'll win out over amazon and google in the long run.

That and Wal-Mart already has disappeared one DRM scheme leaving people without the music they purchased once already!

[Two Fivenagame]

Late to the party here.

What about renting games? I lose interest so quickly that I prefer to rent instead of buy but without blockbuster...??


fml