How would you like to watch movies in the future?

ROB he said for £10 to £15 monthly sub, due to a newly released blu ray costing around £20, if new movies were made available for streaming packages then the cost would be stupidly high if studios dont want to go bankrupt

Sure, but take out all of the production, inventory, shipping and retail costs and replace them with streaming investment - which is becoming the norm - and do you still think this limitation will exist in the future?

How much does a brand new music album cost on CD? Compare that to a free streaming service. Or a £5/month streaming service with zero advertising. Still seem impossible?
 
Because I want something physical.

Since we are an 'in the future' thread I think this belief is something that will die out pretty quickly. I used to be in this camp too, for music and movies - but one day I realised I didn't know why I did. Now I have all music ripped to Sonos (could chuck the CD away at that point - never actually play music off it - would download if legally available) - and movies I'm more than happy to rent - would download if I could.

I am much more interested in the content, than the medium.
 
The argument about wanting something physical is one I can appreciate. I just want a movie, I want it for its content. Others want a collection and want the pleasure of having that collection on display, that's part of the appeal for some people.

I do think people will change over time and it will become less common, but that's simply because things change and people adapt to that. Movies will go the same way as music, with downloads being the norm. Over time it will become the only option as physical media disappears further.
 
The argument about wanting something physical is one I can appreciate. I just want a movie, I want it for its content. Others want a collection and want the pleasure of having that collection on display, that's part of the appeal for some people.

Yes - at one time everyone was a 'collector' - now it will diverge into 'regular consumer' and 'collector' - with the majority being in the former camp (IMO). This reflects the fact that in the past there was no choice - you >had< to get a physical disk to see the movie (at home). Now there is (will be) a choice, and people will vote with their feet/mouse.
 
Sure, but take out all of the production, inventory, shipping and retail costs and replace them with streaming investment - which is becoming the norm - and do you still think this limitation will exist in the future?

How much does a brand new music album cost on CD? Compare that to a free streaming service. Or a £5/month streaming service with zero advertising. Still seem impossible?

but isnt advertising essential, dont they make most of there money back by cinema revenue

harry potter 8
budget $125,000,000
gross $1,328,108,000

twilight breaking dawn
budget $110,000,000
gross $221,303,000

someone even mentioned earlier about cinemas dying out due to the comfort off streaming from your own home, which is the number 1 source of income for studios
 
We are not talking about replacing cinema with streaming, but making streaming available at the same time as rental is now. (or at least I am)
 
but isnt advertising essential, dont they make most of there money back by cinema revenue

harry potter 8
budget $125,000,000
gross $1,328,108,000

twilight breaking dawn
budget $110,000,000
gross $221,303,000

someone even mentioned earlier about cinemas dying out due to the comfort off streaming from your own home, which is the number 1 source of income for studios

Answered by...

We are not talking about replacing cinema with streaming, but making streaming available at the same time as rental is now. (or at least I am)

Which backs up the point we're making here. If, as you say, the No.1 source of income for studios is cinema, the move away from physical media to downloaded content will be less painful than I first thought.

I don't see cinemas going away, there is a huge social and cultural aspect that cannot be replaced by a living room setup. But a physical disc can certainly be replaced by a downloaded version of the same content - perhaps not 100% right now, but certainly in the future.
 
I suppose I'd like to see something like virtual technology. You wear wrap around sunglasses, giving you a panoramic view. The picture will be as big as you want it to be, so no more cinemas and you could use it anywhere, with ultra HD surround headphones.

I don't think I'd want proper virtual technology for films, for games yes. It'd be more like you can view the film from absolutely any angle.

It could be a bit gimmicky but it would be cool to move around in a film in real time. You could watch it in first person. Maybe like the opening scenes from Saving Private Ryan.
 
Shiny discs or whatever replaces them for me all the way, I'll certainly not be going download completely any time soon.

As someone says you'd need 10-12mb broadband to get 1080p DTS HD downloads, how far are we away from getting that available for everyone? It's a long way for me, even living in a modern town, I'm lucky to get 2mb. Not to mention download limits.

What about what comes after BD? 2160p DTS super duper HD sound or whatever, what speed broadband will we need then?

I like having a disc on my shelf that I can play whenever and however often I want. If I'm reliant on downloads, just plucking a random example out of the air, if I want to watch the proper unaltered original Star Wars, I can, just get the disc off the shelf and off I go. Now, hypothetically speaking, sometime in the download only streaming future, George Lucas decides, his vision is Star Wars with even more alterations than now and says from that day on nobody can watch the original. What happens then? Original version no longer exists to all intents and purposes, because GL says so and will only allow people to watch the new version.
 
I don't think it will ever be download only - that is a long long way off indeed. More that the typical consumer will be a hybrid user - streaming most one-shot movies, and 'purchasing' copies of their go-to ones - the ones they will go back to again and again. This might not even be a purchase of a disk, but a permanant download onto local storage.

Broadband rollout gets better and better. Virgin's coverage grows, and with it the fibre-optic delivery. I live on the outskirts of london and have 100mb available - even I think that is excessive at the moment - that is enough to download a 25GB movie in about 35 minutes.

Next-generation movie format is a good question - how big will that be? Will it really improve on current HD? How far will broadband have moved on by then? Look at where it has come in ten years - where will it be in another ten? Afterall, I was on dial-up ten years ago, and if someone had suggested I download an entire DVD I would have laughed at them - now I can download a Blu-ray (the next generation) in a couple of hours - or at least, I have the capability to.
 
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i would love to be a download only man but asking over £10 for a download is ridiculous. renting streaming is also ridiculous £5 for a movie i can watch once.

Netflix charge $7.99 in the states for unlimited streaming now im hoping the films are better and better quality than love film. but i might give them a try when it comes to the uk.

all in all i think the downloading and rental pricing structure is wrong, way too high. streaming services will offer much better value for money. but i think they are about 5 years away due to alot of people having insufficient broadband speed and the current lack of quality of streaming services
 
I don't think it will ever be download only - that is a long long way off indeed. More that the typical consumer will be a hybrid user - streaming most one-shot movies, and 'purchasing' copies of their go-to ones - the ones they will go back to again and again. This might not even be a purchase of a disk, but a permanant download onto local storage.

Not that far off. I haven't bought an optical media disc for a long long time (for my own use - 99% of all discs I buy are gifts). I can't remember the last time I bought a movie disc - several years I think. The last I bought was a CD, I think in 2010.

I'm happy to get all my media by download or streaming - whether it's for keeps or disposable
 
Sure - everyone would be happy to - but media being available on download only is probably 20+ years off. I'm not sure why you not buying a media disk is relevant - I haven't either - I don't think that shows downloads are nearer. People have been perfectly able to rent movies for many many years :)
 
I'd be quite happy to abandon disks in favour of downloads/streaming provided quality (1080p, HD audio etc etc) is not compromised and the price/usage rights are fair. The only drawback from my perspective would be how I would become aware of new films. I buy most of my films from browsing in the Supermarket where the boxart is, rightly or wrongly, a big influence - it does after all tell you the broad nature of a film in an instance. Browsing a thumbnail impage in an iPlayer type website just isn't the same. This aside, I am open to change.
 
Sure - everyone would be happy to - but media being available on download only is probably 20+ years off. I'm not sure why you not buying a media disk is relevant - I haven't either - I don't think that shows downloads are nearer. People have been perfectly able to rent movies for many many years :)

Because I've gone pretty much download only - as stated - and I cannot be the only one. So it isn't that far off.

But as I also said, there are people out there that will never go download only, or download anything, so I doubt that optical media will die out anytime fast
 
I'll mention the sky model, sky movies cover my movie needs at the moment, but I wouldn't say I'm a movie buff. While the genre channels get clogged with repeats after a while, the new movies each week do provide at least a couple of good films and the chance to watch stuff you wouldn't normally try.

So, for £16 a month, I'd say we enjoy at least 8 new to us films a month and have available a back catalogue which we also view. All HD and watch when we want.

I don't buy movies anymore, but do goto the cinema occasionally. I don't bother with sky box office.

For me, a subscription service that offers more content than I can consume, eg, I can always find something to watch when I want, is the way forward for me. Whether its streaming, downloads or current channel subscription models.
 
Because I've gone pretty much download only - as stated - and I cannot be the only one. So it isn't that far off.

I don't mean people going download only, I mean media being available download only.
 
...browsing in the Supermarket where the boxart is, rightly or wrongly, a big influence...

I guess I do the high-tech equivalent of this, which is subscribing to the apple trailer rss feed :)
 
4K upscaling will be a reality in January. Sony 18 grand projector. Video here.

http://www.avforums.com/forums/vide...-sony-vw1000-4k-projector-avforums-event.html


I expect to see 4K on discs sometime next year or early in 2013.:cool:


Sharp has an 8K panel in the works. With absolutely nowt' to show on it.:D


I'd like to see films released on an SD card type device. Just because the broadband infrastructure in this country will be crap for a long time yet, so downloads are out, for me and a great many others . :rolleyes:
 
My current preferred method is renting discs. Currently on Lovefilm's 3 discs at once for £14.95/month. Can usually average 6 discs a week, which works out a lot cheaper than the local Blockbusters.

I can't see me abandoning that unless forced to, or the streaming gets a lot better, and cheaper than renting or has more choice than on DVD/blu-ray.

Besides, you pay more for broadband capable of providing the speeds and download limits for streaming so you've that cost to add on to the streaming service cost. I can see that route costing more for what is currently poorer quality content. :rolleyes:

Though if lots of people abandon discs for streaming/downloading that will give us more choice of cheap used DVDs and blu-rays. :D

Just got to hope all the good stuff is released on dvd or blu-ray before streaming gets too popular. :rolleyes:
 
For me, I would love a download-and-keep model, as long as it in exactly the same quality as a physical DVD or Bluray, with True HD sound formats etc. ISO format would be the only way for me.

I buy a disc and rip it to my home server and stream from there so if I could avoid the ripping part altogether I would do so. I would happily pay the same amount as a physical disc for this.

However they would need some middle-man software otherwise you could just distribute the ISO image, so maybe to playback anything you download you have to have something installed where you have an account which knows what you have paid for and then decrypts the content, so you couldn't just borrow an ISO someone else has downloaded.

There's no way I would pay for something to not get to keep it afterwards, i.e. pure streaming, unless it was heavily discounted, say 10% of the full purchase price.

And anyway for pure streaming to work you'd need a 100% reliable internet connection as people would soon lose faith if they were interrupted half way through a film :facepalm:

I do agree that physical discs are a bit of a pain, especially if you have a large library, and especially if you rip them centrally and stream locally.
 
Love Blu-Ray or a stepup from this to be around in the future as standard evacuee I love having the physical copy there on the shelf (as per my games as well) but if push came to shove then I wouldn't mind having films streamed to my iPhone/ipad is 4G when it arrives or to my games consoles and/or TV for that matter via quicker broadband.

I think immersive glasses along with built in speakers will be a big thing in the future and also for games so everyone can watch them individually at different times etc etc.
 
I don't mean people going download only, I mean media being available download only.

I realise that, but I couldn't be going download only if the content was becoming available to do it. What I'm saying is technology is moving forward enough now to facilitate the option of going download only, or at least download primarily, with more and more content becoming available, broadband speeds rising, more affordable media players etc etc. So it is on the rise. As I also said, I agree that it's a way off for optical/physical media to die out, and I'd be suprised if it ever did to be honest - people like my mum will never get to grips with downloads.
 
There's no way I would pay for something to not get to keep it afterwards, i.e. pure streaming, unless it was heavily discounted, say 10% of the full purchase price.

That's the current rental cost for a Blu-ray - well, maybe 10-30% depending on how many you view.

And anyway for pure streaming to work you'd need a 100% reliable internet connection as people would soon lose faith if they were interrupted half way through a film :facepalm:

Well, you need 100% reliable post to get the physical disk :)

Broadband is getting better and more reliable all the time - no drop-outs and very high speeds. I am quite a heavy broadband user and have never experienced a drop-out or slow-down since switching to fibre optic. I can just go and click on a 1080p apple trailer, and it just starts - sweet :) Now make it happen for full movies please. You can already stream 1080p via netflix in North America.
 
Very high speeds for some people.

My broadband is now 2mb, pretty much an increase of 4 times what it was when I first got it. Now if I was out in the sticks in the middle of nowhere, I could understand it, I'm not I'm in Milton Keynes a supposedly modern, purpose built town, I can't even get Virgin cable in the part I'm in.

It's going to be a very long time before I'm in a position to download full HD movies.

I downloaded the beta client for The Old Republic (Star Wars MMORPG, for those that may not know :)) it was around 20-25gb, I had to download it over a couple of days. The only advantages I can see for download is if it's instant or near enough instant. I think, "hey, I've got an urge to watch..." I go online and I can be watching it within a short while. If I've got to wait a couple of days, or even a more than a couple of hours, I may as well take a trip to Blockbuster, 10 minute round trip.

I do use Sky Anytime Plus on occasion, with SD movies, I can start the download and it's downloaded enough for me to start watching in around 10 minutes or so for a normal length film, which is quite acceptable. HD is a different matter, that can take anything up to an hour or more depending on movie length and that's just 1080i with DD 5.1.

So still a long way to go yet for films. I do download music though, because for me portability is more important than top quality, because music for me is just something I have on in the background while I'm doing something else. Movies, I want the best picture and sound quality I can get, because I'll sit and give it my undivided attention.

Maybe when I'm getting 100mb broadband and I can download a 1080p, full HD sound movie and have it ready to start watching pretty much instantly, I'll embrace the whole download thing, but I don't think I'll be seeing that anytime soon :)
 

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