Slashdot Mirror
Physical Media: Down, But Maybe Not Out
jfruh writes: "For many tech-savvy folks, it may come as surprise that physical media like DVD and Blu-Ray still generate more movie revenue than streaming services. But PriceWaterhouse Coopers is predicting that the the lines will cross in 2017 as physical media sales and rentals decline; already, fully half of those revenues come from supermarket Redbox kiosks. Still, there are signs that physical media won't vanish entirely, including the obsessive needs of collectors and the music industry's increasing suspicions of digital sales."
Tech-savvy folks rip physical media and ffmpeg it into whatever format their device prefers. Fools spend money on DRM'ed downloads.
My God, it's Full of Source!
OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
There is definitely an aspect of obsessive collectors liking physical media, yes: they're more tangible, sometimes look nice (especially in fancy limited editions), etc.. But even people who are not really that big into collecting have a pretty big reason to still prefer physical media: you have some chance of actually keeping it. Your purchase of a book or CD will probably not be remotely "revoked" by the manufacturer, which is more than can be said for the currently popular methods of digital delivery.
10 PRINT CHR$(205.5+RND(1)); : GOTO 10
The problem with digital "sales" is that they aren't really a sale. They are effectively an extended rental. That rental can be revoked at any time and your entire collection can be made to go away.
That said, what is going to kill physical media is the availability of cheap subscription options. If something can be had on Netflix for $8 it makes little sense to pay $20 or $60 for the DVDs.
The comparison between physical media and expensive pay per view services is another matter though. Streaming doesn't have an obvious price advantage.
Plus there's the question of whether or not what you want is on ANY streaming service.
A Pirate and a Puritan look the same on a balance sheet.
I don't have a problem with digital distribution, so long as companies cannot remove access to paid for content, hold it hostage and/or prevent me from making my own backups. gog.com is the only service which has done this correctly, in that I can download what I buy and write it to whatever media I want, ensuring that I can keep copies for as long as I please.
It's unfortunate that there are no video services that allow people to do the same. I suppose you could vidcap your purchases and burn those, but you shouldn't have to do that.