Answered Anyone given up 4k physical media and gone soley digital?

midknight

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So I have been an avid movie collector/ hoarder for years and years (VHS, Laserdisc, DVD, HD disc, Blu ray and finally UHD Blu ray) but since I bought an Apple TV4k and got super fast fibre broadband I have found myslef turning more and more to digital.

Has anyone else given up UHD discs in favour of soley buying digital? Any regrets? I am finding it a little hard to fully let go (selling my Oppo 203 would be the final act of departure!). I appreciate the quality is not quite as good as a disc but recently the 4k digital releases have been pretty close and at a cheaper price point to boot and with Atmos now on the Apple box I am struggling to find any other reasons to buy physical again.
 
I’m a big fan of my Apple TV 4K for many reasons - great quality, convenience, some terrific bargains, extras etc - but when discs come with extras that aren’t replicated digitally, I wouldn’t give them up. I also get 4K discs for my absolute favourites (e.g. BR2049, The Revenant, Matrix) and have around 35-40, and I get Blu-rays for discs that aren’t available digitally. Lord knows how many BRs I’ve got now. I can’t see me ever giving them up!

Having said that, when the Apple release is 4K, with extras, and cheaper - e.g. Three Billboards, The Shape Of Water, A Quiet Place - I don’t feel I’m missing anything of note and I’m saving £10 with every film. HD movies on ATV also tend to be pretty great quality for the most part. My amp upscales DD 5.1 / PCM 7.1 to the ceiling speakers very well so the sound, while not as good, isn’t worth the £10 difference for me (and £15-20 on occasion). Plus as you say, Atmos is coming.
 
I'm almost at that stage myself. I don't buy many films now, I mainly rent them and it is the Cinema Paradiso rental by post service that is keeping me with physical discs for now.

I watch pretty much every new film that comes out for £20 a month which just isn't possible with any other service.

When that goes, I'll definitely be 100% digital.
 
I must admit I never went down the UHD disc route as I bought the ATV 4K and after trying a few HDR movies I was sold - the PQ was at least as good as blu-Ray for me and HDR was the icing on the cake. Not interested in Atmos or Extras so I sold all my Blu-rays and DVDs. Only had the thing since November and I’m already up to 103 movies!

Obviously UHD disc will be better but digital 4K hits the right price point and quality level for my needs. Just need Disney to start selling their stuff in 4K on iTunes now. Crossing my fingers for an announcement during Apple’s Autumn press conference for their new devices.
 
Its tough making the break and something I am wrestling with atbthe mo. I love collecting films (sometimes I think I love the collecting aspect more than watching the films themselves!).

It just bugs me knowing I am not getting the absolute best quality but to be fair between the Apple box and my Sony ZD9 even HD stuff can look fantastic. I am not too sure how much a difference I even notice half the time!!!
 
I must admit I never went down the UHD disc route as I bought the ATV 4K and after trying a few HDR movies I was sold - the PQ was at least as good as blu-Ray for me and HDR was the icing on the cake. Not interested in Atmos or Extras so I sold all my Blu-rays and DVDs. Only had the thing since November and I’m already up to 103 movies!

Obviously UHD disc will be better but digital 4K hits the right price point and quality level for my needs. Just need Disney to start selling their stuff in 4K on iTunes now. Crossing my fingers for an announcement during Apple’s Autumn press conference for their new devices.

I by passed the Disney issue by sorting out a Vudu account and now have access to all the available Disney UHD streaming content. I bought Avengers Infinity War this week in 4k DV and it looks fantastic!
 
I by passed the Disney issue by sorting out a Vudu account and now have access to all the available Disney UHD streaming content. I bought Avengers Infinity War this week in 4k DV and it looks fantastic!

I was tempted to get the marvel stuff via a vudu account. How do you go about paying on it?
 
Well I just linked it to my pay pal account and it worked!
 
I by passed the Disney issue by sorting out a Vudu account and now have access to all the available Disney UHD streaming content. I bought Avengers Infinity War this week in 4k DV and it looks fantastic!
I’m based in the UK so no Vudu unfortunately. Not going to mess about with a VPN just to get it.

What led me to the Apple TV in the first place is the poor choice of 4K movie content from the likes of Amazon and Google Play over here. I’m not sure Disney sell their digital 4K content through anyone to us Brits.

We do seem to be a bit behind the curve, MoviesAnywhere is still US only. Studio politics I presume.
 
Trouble is like most downloaded content is

You dont actually own it.
You might no be able to watch it if you have internet issues
Is it stored on your device to watch any time without the net connected
You cannot pass on your vast collection to a family member or
Or sell it on like blu rays and re coupe some money back

But it can free up shelving space .
 
I had enough of buying movies at £20-£25 that are £10 on Apple TV.
Picture quality i'm not seeing a big difference, and have a 4K TV, and until a few days ago a 4K THX projector.
Sound quality maybe not as punchy and crisp, but honestly I might just want it to be worse.
Sure theres a few movies currently only on disc, but i'm sure thats going to change.

I see why folks like physical media, but for me moving forward its Digital all the way, leaves me with a Sony X800 UHD to sell at some point, but still.
 
Trouble is like most downloaded content is

You dont actually own it.
You might no be able to watch it if you have internet issues
Is it stored on your device to watch any time without the net connected
You cannot pass on your vast collection to a family member or
Or sell it on like blu rays and re coupe some money back

But it can free up shelving space .

These are all very good and valid points, which I have made my peace with.

In regards to ownership, I have a license to watch it, which if worst comes to worst only lasted 10 years because Apple go out of business(!) that’s longer than I’ve kept VHS,DVDs,Blu’s due to the march of technology, plus Apple keep upgrading the product. Since buying Predator it has gone from HD, to 4K, to 4K HDR - that doesn’t happen with the Blu-Ray.

Internet issues, a risk I’ll take. That utility is as important for most these days as gas and electric and the infrastructure is reliable where I am. Yes, there may be a day or two of outage with a fibre break, but I’ll just find something else to do - maybe a good book?!

I download some movies onto my sons iPad for when we are on long car journeys.

My brother has my Apple ID and has access to all my movies at the same time as I do.

I got peanuts for selling on my Blu’s and DVDs and if Apple are going to keep upgrading the content for free I don’t need to sell anything on.
 
These are all very good and valid points, which I have made my peace with.

In regards to ownership, I have a license to watch it, which if worst comes to worst only lasted 10 years because Apple go out of business(!) that’s longer than I’ve kept VHS,DVDs,Blu’s due to the march of technology, plus Apple keep upgrading the product. Since buying Predator it has gone from HD, to 4K, to 4K HDR - that doesn’t happen with the Blu-Ray.

Internet issues, a risk I’ll take. That utility is as important for most these days as gas and electric and the infrastructure is reliable where I am. Yes, there may be a day or two of outage with a fibre break, but I’ll just find something else to do - maybe a good book?!

I download some movies onto my sons iPad for when we are on long car journeys.

My brother has my Apple ID and has access to all my movies at the same time as I do.

I got peanuts for selling on my Blu’s and DVDs and if Apple are going to keep upgrading the content for free I don’t need to sell anything on.

With ever changing times i think ownership will be a thing of the past ?
Car leasing , movies , music , renting , bikes ......
 
With ever changing times i think ownership will be a thing of the past ?
Car leasing , movies , music , renting , bikes ......
More than likely. We cut the cord about 2 year ago and primarily watch shows on Netflix, Amazon Prime and the occasional subscription to NowTV. None of these services have recent movies in 4K HDR, hence the Apple TV. I tend to try and stick to buying £3.99-5.99 4K offers sourced off the cheapcharts app. We do a lot of rentals too.
 
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Trouble is like most downloaded content is

You dont actually own it.
You might no be able to watch it if you have internet issues
Is it stored on your device to watch any time without the net connected
You cannot pass on your vast collection to a family member or
Or sell it on like blu rays and re coupe some money back

But it can free up shelving space .

These are definitely valid points that I have thought about on occasion, but I do wonder how much they’re actually relevant in practice. For example, my family would never watch a blu-ray if it wasn’t for me going on about the quality difference. They’d be happy just watching a film on Apple TV / Sky / Freeview / Now TV / Netflix / Amazon etc as it’s no hassle and so much easier to watch in different rooms & on holiday etc. Plus many of these services can be played offline. Finally, the second hand value of discs, unless a steelbook or box set, is through the floor these days.
 
Anything Superhero/Disney/Potter, I'll get the disc. They have me hooked so no point in trying to fight it.

Everything else (including the above) - digital. Cost of the codes/films mean they are essentially the price of a rental anyway so I'm happy with that.

My 2 year old is going to grow up having the most ridiculous amount of films to choose from when she's older it's unreal. :laugh:
 
Still mostly physical but that’s more to do with absolute quality (sound wise) and content (I’m more of the......esoteric collector shall we say! 88 Films Slasher and Italian collections take pride of place!) than any long-standing affection to what type of media my movies are on.

I’ve got a nice sweet spot at the moment where I use Google Play/iTunes for digital copies of my physical collection (i’ll double dip digitally for films I own physically when I can get them for £1.99 or so), for those films that aren’t available in HD on physical media (The Black Hole, Young Sherlock Holmes, DARYL, Explorers, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea......what can I say, I’m a mid-40s nerdy man-baby!) or just this very week, where the price of the digital copy is so much less than physical for a blind-buy - Pyewacket for £4.99 or £15-£20 to import from either Germany or the US on blu.

I don’t mind this mix and match approach and can’t see myself going wholly digital until bandwidth allows fully lossless audio on these digital copies (spent too much on converting the garage to a full fat Atmos system to feed it weedy lossy tracks). But at the moment it really is the best of both worlds - highest quality for serious viewing, convenience of digital for travel/holidays.
 
I'm increasingly cancelling UHD Blu-Ray pre-orders and opting to watch them on the Apple TV 4K instead. Screw spending £20-25 on something I'll watch once, and might not like when I can either buy it for a tenner or less, or rent it for anywhere from £1.99-5.49.

I'll gladly give up the lossless audio for that saving.
 
I’m about 95% digitial now. The ‘potential’ difference in quality hasn’t bothered me at all and is significantly outweighed by the prices and convenience. The only physical 4K movies I have are where the iTunes version differs from the disc:

- Blade Runner (as the iTunes version had elevated blacks)
- movies like Christopher Nolan collection and even recent Ghostbusters as they don’t have the variable aspect ratio
- not buying any Disney UHD until they support 4k iTunes
 
While I was stung but having bought movies on iTunes before (RIP Metrodome and bye bye to their films in my library), I do love my Apple TV 4K and I regularly buy films from the iTunes Store. While we don't have Atmos (yet), the pricing and selection of films is way better than 4K discs.

Even indie films like The Florida Project, The Disaster Artist and Throughbreds get 4K releases on iTunes.

Saving space is an issue too, my blu-ray collection is approaching a thousand titles, so I'm limiting myself to stuff from Indicator, Criterion, Severin and Arrow.
 
Crikey, this is not an easy one. I definitely have a good enough system to see and hear the difference between ATV purchases and 4K UHD BD. Disc prices are not unreasonable, no really they're not. Take inflation into consideration and past format prices (laser disc anyone?), 4K UHD BD is a bargain. It's the best picture/sound quality currently on offer, hands down. The difficulty is the amount of month at the end of the money, and I actually believe this is the true issue affecting an ever growing percentage of UK population. If you've not got a system that benefits from the extra information on disc then I can understand how you're a much easier digital/streaming convert.

But (and this is a big but!) there are so many films I only want to watch once. Trouble is I probably only realise that after watching the film once! Reviews (and thank you so much reviewers on AVF) certainly help, but there's always a difference of opinion here. I'm sure Cas doesn't rate Resident Evil as highly as I do for example. My other consideration is monthly budget and costs. The only way I can afford to get through the films I'd like to see is rentals on ATV, and sometimes the odd film falls to Netflix but let's be honest, that's rare.

So it's a mixed bag for me. Disc for those 9-10/10 film for sure, but I really am hesitant about the rest, and in the end digital/streaming probably gets the vote.
 
The thing is I do have a setup to take advantage of the best quality available but I buy films that just sit on my shelf for ages before I get time to watch them and I am just finding the price and convienince of just having all content in one easy place a really big pull. I like the Apple ecosystem, I like they upgrade to 4k when available and I like the quality, is it as good as a UHD BR, probably not but can I tell the diffrence when actually watching, not really, my tv does an awesome job of papering over any cracks and whilst the move to digital feels really weird my head says its the right move to do it now. I am lucky to have fibre to property and 300mbs download speeds so streaming 4k is easy and without issue, which obviously is another big factor. But it still feels a little sad.
 

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