DVDs and BluRay already obsolete?

42" LCD 1080p TV, Onkyo surround receiver and 5 Yamaha speakers with a big bass box thingie.

A media centre, Mark, which either holds video files on its hard drive or acts as a conduit when streaming stuff between your PC and your TV. My PS3 does that job and I use it for that far more (because it's also one of the best BD players on the market and a dandy upscaling DVD player) than I use it as a games machine.

The PS3 also has a Lovefilm (over here) or Netflix (over there) app which allows you to watch streamed films direct from them as part of your subscription package. The Xbox also has a feature like that (and Sony has its own PPV service) and there are loads of dedicated, and cheaper, media streamers out there but I don't think they can use the big rental companies' subscription services.

You don't need to watch on your PC monitor any more. My TV even has a USB port but it's not compatible with a lot of file formats.

In answer to the opening post, and it's been already said, is that I'd use 'online' viewing a lot more if they included movie extras. Fair enough if it's just a quick blast with something you're interested in watching but if I enjoy the film to the extent that I want to watch it again I'll hunt out a physical copy.

EDIT - I shouldn't have made a cup of tea in the middle of posting. Late again.

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"Critics are like eunuchs in a harem; they know how the Tatty 100 is done, they've seen it done every day, but they're unable to do it themselves." - Brendan Behan

So, in other words, the illusion that physical copies are obsolete is due to the masses only being exposed to one trick ponies in theaters and thus never find a reason to want to spend money on them again?

Team DVD & Blu Ray all the way, but i do think in 10-20 years time, everything will be on the internet and we can only hope and pray people go out and buy things on a physical disk. Proving that The Internet isn't the be all end all of our society.

Quite possibly.

If the same question was asked in, say, a football messageboard there might be markedly less regular DVD purchasers.

To paraphrase Spinal Tap - DVDs are still going strong, I just think that their appeal is becoming more selective.

VHS died pretty quickly because DVDs offered the whole package - Better quality, more convenient size and the opportunity for extras. Blu Ray has better picture (and sound) quality than DVD and the larger capacity offers the scope for even more extra material.

Online has the convenience, like a fast food restaurant: Most of us dip into them from time to time when the need arises but, if we consider ourselves gastronauts, we'll savour the fine-dining experience when it presents itself.

Ugh, that was tortured. I've got indigestion from typing it.

I'd much prefer owning physical products of media (dvds for the most part) rather than digital/laptop/computer media. I've downloaded/bought a few movies from itunes, but even then it doesn't really feel I 'OWN' the movies.

DVDs are sadly and slowly becoming obsolete. I went to best buy for the first time in six months (had a gift card) and was shocked to see how much the dvd section has shrunk. Seems like the dvd/blu ray ratio is changing dramatically. Luckily, dvds are getting cheaper and cheaper as the weeks pass by

Now, if you were able to legally put online movies on dvds then it would be different. I don't know, even when I was a kid I'd be aw-struck by some of the vhs covers (Split Second is a great example) and it really helped get in the mood of the movies. Not so much online movies. I'm a tard, I know :P

As I have found out when my computer crashed, taking with it all the music I got from iTunes, I think a huge wakeup call is coming for people who think the future is digital downloads of ANYTHING.

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"You, me, everyone...we are all made of star stuff." - Neil Degrasse Tyson

https://shawnsmovienight.blogspot.com/

This probably isn't entirely relevant but the record companies have seen a vinyl boom the last few years. Sales are up almost 300% from 2006 and while that might not mean much, since it's only a few hundred thousand copies being sold, it is important to note that vinyl isn't dead. If vinyl won't die, I have a hard time seeing DVDs or Blu-Rays die anytime soon.

"Bet with the bank, bet with the player, 7 is a natural..."

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"This is that human freedom, which all boast that they possess, and which consists solely in the fact, that men are conscious of their own desire, but are ignorant of the causes whereby that desire has been determined." -Baruch Spinoza

That's why I'm not worried. Plus I support vinyl.

Aye, me too. Vinyl is just warmer and from a greater period in time, I feel.

i dont think so. but for the next 5 years i think it will be obsolete.

i don't think dvds would be obsolete at least in 20 years, but eventually it will go the way of the dinosaur

Dinosaurs live today, albeit in evolved avian form, but still just sayen.

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"The greatest danger for most of us is not that our aim is too high and we miss it, but that it is too low and we reach it." - Michelangelo.

YES!
I have been saying this forever. I do not buy from iTunes because when I bought a song there once before, when it first came out, the damn thing said I had, like, a limited number of computers I could transfer to song to. F**K THAT S**T. So disgusting.

Digital downloads are a waste. They always have been in my mind -- but, frankly, it's not just in my mind, it is reality. I don't need to wake up because I never fell asleep. But Monkeypunch, you've got it going on, because you speak the truth.

F*cking hipsters.

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"Loves them? They need them, like they need the air."

Better a hipster than a dopester.

BTW, I am no hipster...nor a dopester.

I'd rather die than be a hipster

Well, there is such a thing as a back-up. Like Lime said, transfer all your important digital stuff to a back-up external HD. I used to buy a LOT of DVDs, until a mate of mine introduced me to Rapidshare, RapidShare Download Manager and Warez-bb. I don't buy anything anymore now. I download whatever I need, watch it, delete what I didn't find 'special' (about 90 % of what I watch/listen to) and save the rest on my HD and external HD as a back-up. I download everything in 720p or even 1080p and then hook my computer up to my TV and surround system whenever I'm in the mood for it or when the experience is improved by it.

I can understand people who still buy DVDs and Blu-Rays, because they want an actual tangible product or are in fear of losing their digital library. I'm like that with books. But making back-ups really does solve this problem entirely.

A 1TB external costs maybe $100 these days, a small price to pay for peace of mind.

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"Don't be so gloomy. After all it's not that awful. Like the fella says, in Italy for 30 years under the Borgias they had warfare, terror, murder, and bloodshed, but they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, and the Renaissance. In Switzerland they had brotherly love - they had 500 years of democracy and peace, and what did that produce? The cuckoo clock."

What happens when those things break?

You get another one, and the way the prices are going it will be even cheaper. You could also backup on DVDRs, but don't cheap out on those, get a decent brand. Myself, I have 1-250GB, 3-1TB and 1-1.5TB hard drives and I've never had problems with any of them. I run two pretty constant, seeding hundreds of torrents (because I'm a good thief) off of them. If you don't have much to store you should have all your goods on your computer and backup everything on to an external that's not plugged in but kept somewhere safe, periodically backing up whatever new downloads you buy (heh heh) from itunes (heh heh). There's also free software out there that can check your drives to ensure everything's running smoothly. Just don't drop them.