What are your opinions on Digital movies Vs Discs and which do you collect/buy? For me i have a mixture but prefer to go for Blu-rays as digital files tend to be more expensive and don't come with the extras or have a limited selection. The only time i buy digital films is when they are cheaper than the Blu-ray or i want them on my device to watch on trains, planes etc. I feel digital should be a cheaper option than disc personally but it always seems to be the opposite.
I think the future is going to be all digital streaming from company's like netflix and amazon, where you buy a movie and it is permanently in your queue and you can watch it on any platform. I hardly buy any physical media anymore for this very reason. It will take a few years for this catch on and be the next big thing, but it will happen eventually.
Disc. I own some iTunes seasons (Prime being one of them) and then I bought the blurays when they came out. The difference is still to great for me to adopt digital, especially in the audio department, and visual compression. But I do support it. Now, blurays come with HD digital copies from iTunes (a few months back they were SD) so I really lose nothing in buying the superior media. I still get an hd version diet ally, that I can own. But in terms of quality, disc is still superior.
I never buy file only stuff. I buy Blu-Rays, etc. Btw. Blu-Rays are digital too. Only vinyls and tapes were analog
I don't mind either way. As long as it's available to watch, I don't care whether it's hard copy or digital.
Be it a DVD, CD, vinyl record or book I always prefer having a physical 'thing' to hold, to turn over in my hands, to look at the booklet, even smell the ink, paper and binding materials. It's all part of the experience for me. I wish I wasn't that way because all of those DVDs, CDs, vinyl records and books take up a lot of space. Also I swear boxes of books and vinyl are worse to move than furniture.
Disc. There's something about having the physical copy for me, especially of a movie I particularly like. More fun to "collect". You can also buy used movies for cheap. Won't be able to do that if we go all digital! I get the benefit of digital movies being that you can watch them on the go on your mobile devices, but for that I always use streaming services (Netflix/Amazon Prime). Don't really want to clog up my mobile devices with big movie files.
Disc. I'm not sure if I'm jaded from past experiences or if its the 'old way' that I grew up with. I think that when I buy something, there should be a 'thing' to hold. Something physical to give my purchase value. I did try to conform to this new type of media when I had an Xbox. I bought a few movies and a handful of TV shows on Xbox Live. I had them downloaded to the hard drive so they were 'permanent', right? Well when my Live subscription was up, my movies were no longer valid. I couldn't watch my own movies! That really turned me away from downloaded movies (and a similar experience with a DRM-laced video game). I also prefer discs in the event I don't have internet. Either by some stroke of financial bad luck or a natural disaster. At least I could power my TV and PS3 with a generator and keep my family content. Of course providing companies could also go offline...
This is exactly how I feel only worded better then I actual could. There's nothing wrong with digital. Especially considering the physical space it saves, but there really isn't anything like the smell of a new book. Especially if it's a hardcover. Mmmmm that smell. What I don't have a problem.
Right now the problem with digital files are crappy ideas like "Ultraviolet" and crippling DRM that inconveniences paying customers (to prevent "piracy"). I've always loved my physical media, but I acknowledge that digital is the way of the future.
I've always preferred having a physical copy of a movie, ever since I started collecting VHS tapes. Then I upgraded to Widescreen only VHS tapes when my friend pointed out the horrors of Pan and Scan. Then I upgraded to DVD. Then I upgraded to Blu-ray. I love the art, the inserts, everything about having a physical copy (I thought chapter inserts were amazing back when I'd first upgraded, but no one even does that anymore). But as streaming and downloading gets better, I don't mind the digital download. For movies I consider some of my favorites, I'd get the disc, but for something I can buy and keep online (especially with enlarged storage capacity), I wouldn't mind downloading. As for music CDs though, I haven't bought one for years... My brother-in-law doesn't have any discs anymore. He just downloads the blu-ray version and keeps it on a server, which is connected to big-screen tv and accessible to any computer or device with a wifi connection, which in my opinion, is bad-ass. But it's just a simple list and I miss the effort some companies put into the packaging. Like the Simpsons DVD sets, they have great packaging with great booklets and you can tell a lot of care went into it. Now, it'll take a long time before we're digital download exclusive, but if we are, I still want "boxart" and booklets and the like included with it.
while I agree the future is all digital, I feel its farther off than some would think as there will still be strong demand for disc based films in areas where internet downloading/streaming isn't yet viable either due to bandwidth limits or poor speed or both, there there are the large number of older folk whop are slow to adopt new technology. Personally I prefer discs given that my internet speed is slowish and my bandwidth limit is too low to be d/l movies legally or otherwise.
Right now at this very moment, it's discs. But later, who knows. Exactly one year ago, if you asked me if I prefer pysical books or digital books, I would have said physical books. Sometime in June, I got a Kindle. And 6 months later, I got over 50 books in there, and can't see myself getting a physical book anymore. (well, maybe the next Song of Ice and Fire book).
I pick disc due to special features and video quality. Once you can offer both of those to me I will switch (Knowing the industry this means never).
Disc for me. While I don't deny the appeal of digital, I much prefer the physical copy. I love the look of my dvd/blu-ray collection. You lose the library aspect with digital.
