[JLM]

Old fart input (in our 50's):

Most movies target the under 30 market, so little interest in movies.

We're just getting an HD Direct TV upgrade to replace our old satellite tomorrow as we're cheap and prices (including for a 39" HDTV) have come down.  Still irks us to pay $93/month for TV.  While shopping for the new TV last weekend I pointed out a big 4K TV and she asked, "What's that all about?"

We've never owned a Blu-Ray player.  I own 5 DVD's having little interest in re-watching anything (but still have lots of videotapes from years ago for the kids).  My audio man cave includes an office/computer but no TV.  Did buy a VHS/DVD combo player/recorder a few years back as a Christmas present for Dad to preserve what wasn't copy protected (family movies) for both households.  Somehow have 3 DVD players in the house (mostly leftovers from the days of Blockbuster, one plays SACD) and one CDP (a 12 year old Sony XA20ES) as a backup to my ripped library and visitors.

[NIGHTFALL1970]

I had VHS tapes. Then I had a lot of Laserdiscs.. Then I bought a LOT LOT of DVDs.. and 'threw away thousands of dollars worth of laserdiscs..
Then along came BluRay. No way.. I HAVE all the movies i ever wanted in DVD. And with an upsampling player that is all I 'have to have'. No way way am I going to rebuy anything on Bluray.
And THAT is the crux of the BluRay problem. Folks DID rebuy everything on DVD. And then Sony 'Assumed' everyone would also rebuy everything on BluRay? Not gonna happen. BluRay is NOT a big enough jump in quality to make that happen.

IMO BluRay was a mistake in the first place. Not a big enough jump in quality to make EVERYONE (like me) say HolyCow I gotta have that!
Now with DVD, the minute I saw a DVD on a HiDef TV and compared it to a laserdisc it was a no brainer, I HAD to have the DVDs.. BluRay. NO. it is hardly any better than upsampled  DVD.

Sony should have just waited.. The HD-DVD would have been fun for a few folks but it would have failed even without the BluRay competition because it too was nothing better in a meaningful way.

They SHOULD have waited for the next generation and 4x 4000 level.. Then they could have cleaned house.

IMO CD, and DVD ruined all the big companies because they made billions on those product introductions. And expected to do it over again, and again. Not gonna happen.

Elizabeth,
I also purchased hundreds of VHS tapes in the 90,s and then replaced most of them with laserdiscs (purchased the same movies multiple times!) if a letterboxed or "better" version came out.  Replaced most of my lasers with DVD.  I have also replaced DVDs with "better" versions.  Now that I have 600 plus DVDs am I supposed to replace everything AGAIN with blu-ray?
Even if I did, then they will come out with something better.  I am not into downloading as I must have a physical item.

[Mudslide]

I agree with you about the audio, streaming audio in most cases sounds horribly compressed. After watching the first three seasons of Game of Thrones on bluray, watching season 4 on HBOGo has been a true testament to the mediocrity of AQ and PQ of streaming.

However,  HDDVD and Bluray equal in everyway? Come on, HDDVD was a deserved flop.

The format held 20 GBs less then bluray. Equality?  Studios were already cutting corners with HDDVD releases a year after release. Remember Transformers? They had to put a second rate DD+ audio track, instead of lossless because they ran out of space.

Furthermore, they generally used low bit rate VC-1 compression to conserve space, which, IMHO, does not compare to the higher bit rate stuff we see on bluray today.

Do you think HDDVD could have ever fathomed providing us with a 3D or high PQ transfer with lossless audio? Never.

Hahaaaa...perhaps I made an overly generalized statement.  But for all practical purposes, I stick by my thinking.  I won't get into the reasons for fear of re-opening the BD vs. HD-DVD wounds. 

The Transformers thing? ... There were BD discs that did not offer TruHD as well.  Still, I get your point.  I think mine is still valid regarding costs, however.  Competition makes for a better deal for consumers.  Are you happy with the current state of affairs regarding BD prices?  And I'd surely like to have 15 buck BD discs (still) than TruHD on Transformers.   

[threshold t-50]

The audio and in many cases the video does not keep up w/the standards of a good Blu-Ray player. In my case if I want a movie to purchase i'll go to Bull Moose or Newbury Comics and pick up a used Blu-Ray. That's how I got the extended version of Lord of the Rings for $39.99. Streaming may take over because most consumers don't care about quality. My cousin as an example, he has a Blu-ray player w/I gave him for Christmas a few years ago and he has still not hooked up the HDMI to the Panasonic Plasma TV. His answer: the picture is good enough. Mediocre is becoming the American standard.

[Freo-1]

I do have a blu ray player, but I use it primarily for streaming (Netflix) and for Music videos.  I have found that Blu Ray concerts from artists such as Chris Botti and Andrea Bocelli with the high resolution audio formats sound excellent.  IMHO, it's better than CD or Vinyl. 

One can also stream items like the Berlin Philharmonic (with high quality audio) via the Blu Ray.

[kingdeezie]

Hahaaaa...perhaps I made an overly generalized statement.  But for all practical purposes, I stick by my thinking.  I won't get into the reasons for fear of re-opening the BD vs. HD-DVD wounds. 

The Transformers thing? ... There were BD discs that did not offer TruHD as well.  Still, I get your point.  I think mine is still valid regarding costs, however.  Competition makes for a better deal for consumers.  Are you happy with the current state of affairs regarding BD prices?  And I'd surely like to have 15 buck BD discs (still) than TruHD on Transformers.   

I am absolutely happy with the prices of Bluray now. Have you looked recently?

Amazon.com has blurays of recent movies for as low as 5 dollars. The new Robocop is 12.99. Lone Survivor is 18 dollars. The Hobbit is 12.99. Bluray has been affordable for years, and is only getting cheaper. 

Bluray has always had competition. Streaming and DVD sales made sure the price of blurays dropped pretty precipitously.

Sure you can spend 25-30 dollars on a single movie on bluray, but usually you are getting the 3D, 2D, and DVD for that price.

[jpm]

Don't forget Netflix and Red Box still rent physical media, though I read recently Red Box plans to reduce its footprint this year.

Bargains abound buying used on Amazon and you'll find the same titles usually cheaper on eBay because Amazon artificially restricts who can sell Bluray / DVD through their site to keep used prices much higher in some cases (think deals for content on Amazon streaming had any influence?)

In many places, used media stores (CD / DVD / Bluray) remain great places to buy as well, where you can rekindle a connection with leafing through stacks of physical media.

These are the antidotes to silly new prices, though as others noted some new titles drop in price quickly after release or are available very competitively when pre-ordered.

[charmerci]

The fact is that the large movie companies are going to go streaming all the way as soon as they are able.

Buy on demand - each time - and you won't be able to copy/own.

[jk@home]

Don't forget Netflix and Red Box still rent physical media, though I read recently Red Box plans to reduce its footprint this year.

Bargains abound buying used on Amazon and you'll find the same titles usually cheaper on eBay because Amazon artificially restricts who can sell Bluray / DVD through their site to keep used prices much higher in some cases (think deals for content on Amazon streaming had any influence?)

In many places, used media stores (CD / DVD / Bluray) remain great places to buy as well, where you can rekindle a connection with leafing through stacks of physical media.

These are the antidotes to silly new prices, though as others noted some new titles drop in price quickly after release or are available very competitively when pre-ordered.

Yeap, we rent blue rays and DVDs from Netflix. Watch no more than two or three movies a weekend, that's already pushing it with finding quality new movie that I feel like sitting through.

Also I buy and rip movies onto harddrives for a media server, for the RV. Nice to carry on one external hard drive instead of a whole box full of BD/DVDs for a trip. So I hope the physical media doesn't disappear any time soon. I actually prefer DVD over BD for this, the hard drive space taken by a DVD is on average about a fifth compared to BD. Picture quality slightly inferior, but hey we are suppose to be roughing it in the woods.

[DS-21]

***I don't typically rewatch anything.

Ditto, which is why all of our recent home movie consumption has been over iTunes or Netflix on the AppleTV. (And BTW for the "I wanna own" crowd, one can "buy" movies on iTunes. I've never done it, because I have no interest, but the option apparently exists.)

Want to know why streaming destroyed Blu-Ray?
With a stream, as soon as it buffers, the movie starts. Simple as that.
With a disk, one is often suckered into watching non-fast-forward-able previews and anti-piracy warnings, etc., before one can even start the movie one owns.

So take one thing that's better suited for how most people consume movies and TV in the first place (watch once, discard). Then take the thing that is less well tailored to actual consumer behavior thing, make it unduly expensive, and top it off with a layer of annoyance and inconvenience. No wonder the second one is dying.

[JoshK]

One thing not mentioned here...streaming AUDIO...in my experience is awful and not at all up to even DD disc standards.  The bandwidth just isn't there for quality streaming in anything I've seen. 

I do see that there is a 4K streaming service model in the winds.  Perhaps then the video will wow us...although there are still bandwidth limitations everywhere.  And will signals be compressed...thus compression artifacts in gear?  Netflix is talking 4K and can't even meet 1080p standards.

Dunno, guys.  I'm sticking with BD.  And oh yeah...I think we all lost when BD killed off HD-DVD, which was in every way the equal of bluray.  No competition = higher prices.  (Note BD discs went directly from <~$15 to $30.)

A link ... http://www.digitaltrends.com/home-theater/everything-need-know-streaming-ultra-hd-2014/#!OGUfd

You are right, the audio quality sucks on streaming.  Except that for most movies, I hardly care.  I care when I watch concert DVDs, in which case I will buy the blu-rays, or for a very serious show I like (rare), but to stream a random movie, I don't really care.  I can see how others differ, but usually when I watch a show I just want to veg and am not hyper critical if it is "good enough". 

[Mike Nomad]

Blu-ray is a ways from dying, as the rules for iPipe are being rewritten (to be even more onerous), suitable bandwidth is far from ubiquitous, and the format is increasingly used for audio-only discs.

(and)

Pretty funny that you mention partnering-up. That is exactly what a friend and I do: He has zero interest in the download code, so, I throw him a $5 bill and take the code. I'm getting a nice library of 1080p movies (yes, two-channel audio, which is how I roll), and all it's taking up is a little hard drive space.

..."partner up" with somebody to split the cost of a BluRay. One of you gets the disc, the other one gets the download code...

[wushuliu]

Blu-ray is a ways from dying

Sales figures say otherwise. It will become a niche consumer medium with at best a second life as backup storage for servers, etc.

[RDavidson]

Sales figures say otherwise. It will become a niche consumer medium with at best a second life as backup storage for servers, etc.

Sales figures also say CD sales are dying, and before that, sales figures said vinyl sales are dying. At least until the quality of steaming equals or betters Blu Ray, I think Blu Ray will be around. There's still quite a few people out there who won't trade quality for convenience. Not to mention, some people just like having a physical collection, even if it is a relatively small number of carefully chosen movies/albums. But for the sake of argument, people don't likely watch and re-watch movies as often as they might listen and re-listen to an album, so it's not exactly an apples to apples comparison necessarily.

[Tyson]

I hope Blu Ray does not die, as it has been a driving force in getting a ton of old movies cleaned up and remastered - ala The Criterion Collection.  I LOVE being able to watch an old Chaplin movie in pristine picture quality.  Hell, all of those old "great movies" I used to watch as my due penance for being a cinephile, all of them take on new life and vivacity when properly restored and shown on a big screen. 

That's why I don't mind abominations like Michael Bay - the technology used to push forward those types of movies can trickle down to the other, smaller, quality films that exist in the world. 

On the other hand, blu-ray dying is not the same as hirez movies dying.  Streaming is MUCH better now than it used to be, and will continue to improve, I believe - picture quality is one way for Netflix to differentiate itself from Hulu or Amazon Prime (and vice versa, versa). 

Also, with the PS4, 4k video is not just a fantasy any more.  I think the PS4 will drive video resolution ever higher and higher.  The hardware is here, now we just need content to catch up.  Video games will certainly take advantage of the higher resolution, and I'm sure that movies and videos will tag along.

Of course, once THIS gets going, all bets are off - http://www.wired.com/2014/05/oculus-rift-4/

[dwk]

Isn't 4k rising to any degree of prominence somewhat undermined by the very fact that blu-ray is struggling? I mean if folks are choosing the convenience of streaming over the higher video (and audio) quality already available on BR, I find it a bit unlikely that they'd run out and shell out $$$ for hardware upgrades in high enough numbers to drive for higher res. Some will, obviously, but I'm not sure it's going to see mainstream adoption any time soon. Particularly when the entire reason that streaming lags BR already is bandwidth. (of course, I see 4k as a solution in search of a problem as far as video is concerned, being pushed on us by the electronics industry as opposed to being driven by any real grassroots demand)

I personally am invested in blu-ray given that we just moved out to the sticks where 4 meg DSL is the best we can hope for in the foreseeable future. At the rate we watch movies though, we can probably watch for years on back-catalog content even if blu-ray died tomorrow.

[Early B.]

Isn't 4k rising to any degree of prominence somewhat undermined by the very fact that blu-ray is struggling? I mean if folks are choosing the convenience of streaming over the higher video (and audio) quality already available on BR, I find it a bit unlikely that they'd run out and shell out $$$ for hardware upgrades in high enough numbers to drive for higher res. Some will, obviously, but I'm not sure it's going to see mainstream adoption any time soon. Particularly when the entire reason that streaming lags BR already is bandwidth. (of course, I see 4k as a solution in search of a problem as far as video is concerned, being pushed on us by the electronics industry as opposed to being driven by any real grassroots demand)

I think there are two distinct markets -- those who primarily stream video content, and those who prefer an HD "hard copy" (presumably blu-ray). Eventually, streaming will win out, but it will take several more years. I stream video only because it's virtually free, but when I want better quality, I pay for it. A simplistic analogy is in music -- most people stream (or steal!) music because it's virtually free and convenient, but stores are still selling music CDs, and will continue to do so for a few more years.

[rif]

Awhile back, didn't Microsoft "predict/proclaim" that the bluray format was basically DOA?

[RDavidson]

Awhile back, didn't Microsoft "predict/proclaim" that the bluray format was basically DOA?

Probably. But note they were proponents for HD DVD too.

[Tyson]

I think the point is - hirez is not going anywhere - whether it's streaming or physical media, we are not going backwards. 

Audio, on the other hand, needs to catch up to video.