Quoting Blair:

Quote:
If I am going to "buy" a film, I want the physical copy, not a digital one. If I am only going to "rent" it, then streaming is fine. (And if it's free, then you shouldn't be picky.)

Exactly. I'm not going to buy a downloaded film for $20 or something. Renting films online would be my limit. Why buy it when you can just simply rent it again with a click? And studios are still going to need to make money somewhere.

Quoting VibroCount:

Quote:
When I buy a copy of a film, I want to own it, not a revocable licence.

DRM is always a problem.
I surely wouldn't download DRM-infested material. Mainly because of the problem you described.

I'm with Cliff on this one, I want physical in the form of BRD/DVD. I want to peruse my shelves until something catches my eye. I also like the highest quality that is available and electronic isn't quite there yet. Unless you buy or rent it and rip it uncompressed. To do it right you need a very large array and offsite backup. Not to mention the enormous amount of time it takes to rip them. If you had the resources to pull it off, the benefit would be wonderful once it was done. At that point you only have to add the new stuff when it came out. My 2 pennies.

I'm not a huge fan of streaming because of quality and the fact that you kinda have to know what you want to watch.

Quoting Kulju:

Quote:
Quoting Staid S Barr:

Quote:
DVD and BD are worldwide formats. Streaming is essentially a US phenomenon.

???????????  

Just try and buy digital media from the iStore or Amazon...

Quoting Dr. Killpatient:

Quote:
Quoting 8ballMax:

Quote:
Every format has a shelflife. Blu-ray will someday be replaced just as any other format has been in the past. I sincerely doubt that online streaming will replace physical media though. That, in my opinion, is a pipe-dream.

I believe that streaming will eventually obsolete any physical format. eBook sales have finally eclipsed print sales on Amazon. Boils down to cost recovery for the producers.

I don't think another physical media will replace Blu-Ray. With each new format, there was a noticeable improvement in audio and visual quality. You may recall seeing displays at stores that show the DVD quality on the left side and the Blu-Ray quality on the right in order to drive home the improvements given by the Blu-Ray format. A new format with higher quality than Blu-Ray really won't be evident to the masses comparing side-by-side and therefor not likely to be adopted by the masses.

I don’t think it’ll happen Doc. Digital Streaming over the internet isn’t an option for “the masses”. Until they get fiber optic, that everyone can afford, into every home in the US, replacing physical media with High Definition streaming over the internet will always be a pipe-dream. The bandwidth alone needed to stream HD over the internet into every home in the US would be staggering. And I mean real HD Dr., not this crap that they’re pumping out now and have the stones to call HD. I mean real 1080p and HD 5.1 audio as a minimum. I currently subscribe to Netflix streaming but am very disappointed in the video quality of even their SD programs. The video noticeably stutters due to low frame rates and at times the movies or TV episode pauses to buffer. I guess I can’t complain too much at $7.95 a month. The programs offered by Netflix for streaming is also very limited. It seems that all the good stuff is only available on disc. I don’t see how you can compare digital book sales to Films. Granted, eBooks are more convenient for the consumer because they take up less space in the home and you don’t have to cart your books around in a backpack. Print doesn’t suffer from digitizing and it’s cheaper for the producers. Films on the other hand do suffer from digitizing and if your viewing pleasure is limited to streaming then you will always be a slave to the distributor of your media. At least with physical media I don’t have to worry that my internet connection will go down or that, in the case of my internet provider AT&T, my bandwidth will be restricted to so many GB per month, which limits how much streaming video I can watch before AT&T charges me extra for exceeding my limit . There’s also the cost factor. Not everyone can afford an internet connection with bandwidth high enough to support high definition streaming. My folks are retired and live on a fixed income. They can only afford the most basic internet connection which they use to keep in touch with family members through email and on Facebook.

So, IMO, physical media is here to stay, in one form or another. You never know. With the advances in nano and organic chemistry, the future may bring us HD films on a chip the size of a postage stamp .

Quoting Kulju:

Quote:
If those services are targeted for US, that doesn't mean that there aren't many others. For example I use four different VOD services for renting a movie. Maybe you could say that in Netherlands you don't have good VOD services?

Non-existent really. The market just isn't big enough. And even if it were, you get fragmentation if parties decide to keep content to themselves. And maybe not everybody likes the idea, but the US is a huge source of media content.

As for market size, I don't know about Finland, but can you buy digital books in Finnish, for example?

Quoting Staid S Barr:

Quote:
As for market size, I don't know about Finland, but can you buy digital books in Finnish, for example?

Of course

Quoting mreeder50:

Quote:
I'm not a huge fan of streaming because of quality and the fact that you kinda have to know what you want to watch.

Several things here.

1) I've been generally impressed with the quality of Netflix.  I have a great internet connection from Comcast and play Netflix on my PS3.  I've even experimented with playing Netflix on my iPhone and sending it to my TV over HDMI and it looks just as good (in my VERY limited testing) as the PS3.

2) My standards are lower for Netflix.  If I'm interested in "quality", I'll pick it up on disc.  I don't use Netflix for my favorite movies or TV shows.  Those get bought.  Netflix is for things I care less about or things I'd like to try before I buy.

3) Everyone I know complains that Netflix streaming doesn't have what they want.  What I always tell people is if you're going there to find a particular movie or TV show, expect to be disappointed.  The only satisfying way I've found to stream is to go in with no preconceived notions and just find something.  They may have a very minor amount of content compared to their disc offerings.  But it's still a HUGE amount of stuff.  And I can generally find something I'm interested in.  Maybe not that big blockbuster from last summer.  But I've found tons of things I was interested in at some point and it just fell off my radar.  And usually for good reason! It's been especially handy for TV stuff.  Especially foreign stuff that's hard to get here or too spendy or stuff I'm not ready to invest in until I know I'll enjoy it first.