Blockbuster Down To One

[Sal1950]

"Alaska’s final two Blockbuster video stores will rent out their last movies and close up shop at the end of the week, management announced Thursday -- leaving the U.S. with a single remaining location."
http://www.foxnews.com/entertainmen...aska-leaving-chain-with-1-location-in-us.html

With the death of the CD at many big retail outlets I am concerned about the future of the BluRay format as video streaming begins to dominate.
Not that I buy many movies but the Lone Ranger in the rental game that I know of is the Redbox self serve kiosks. If they should fail what alternate will HT enthusisasts have left for uncompressed lossless video/audio sources?

 

[The Dragon]

Netflix still rents BluRay discs. I have a 3 disc plan myself.

 

[Grave]

Personally I am happy with whatever steaming quality Netflix or Amazon instant video uses. CD's certainly are not going to die, online at least. Is Blu-ray dying? Blu-ray movies tend to be so overpriced that I do not own many.

 

[RayDunzl]

If they should fail what alternate will HT enthusisasts have left for uncompressed lossless video/audio sources?

Video discs are uncompressed/lossless?

 

[Grave]

IIRC all video is actually compressed because the uncompressed files are ridiculous.

 

[amirm]

f they should fail what alternate will HT enthusisasts have left for uncompressed lossless video/audio sources?

Kaleidescape sells servers which download UHD blu-ray images so you get the same fidelity without the disc.

 

[Sal1950]

Video discs are uncompressed/lossless?

Bluray audio is I believe, that was what I was thinking of. 24/96 or 24/192
Redbox is just starting a experimental rollout of UHD disc rentals, Hopefully to catch on though I think it will take longer to suplant BD with the speed BD overtook DVD.

 

[Blumlein 88]

You mean Blockbuster isn't gone altogether already? Wow I had no idea there were still some around. The one near me became a BBQ joint, then a pawn shop, and now a pharmacy.

 

[Wombat]

Our video rental store recently closed. I don't miss the gravel marks and glued- on pizza crud that coated the discs. I am depending on my local municipal library for DVDs until I sign up for enough bandwidth and capacity for downloads.

 

[svart-hvitt]

"Alaska’s final two Blockbuster video stores will rent out their last movies and close up shop at the end of the week, management announced Thursday -- leaving the U.S. with a single remaining location."
http://www.foxnews.com/entertainmen...aska-leaving-chain-with-1-location-in-us.html

With the death of the CD at many big retail outlets I am concerned about the future of the BluRay format as video streaming begins to dominate.
Not that I buy many movies but the Lone Ranger in the rental game that I know of is the Redbox self serve kiosks. If they should fail what alternate will HT enthusisasts have left for uncompressed lossless video/audio sources?

It seems like market forces dictate one single solution, which is streaming. In a couple of years forward nations will start rolling out 5G; I don’t know what this means for backward areas. Maybe the divide between cities and rural will grow further?

Paradoxically, the 5G revolution may mean that high quality physical formats were the peak of distribution quality. We may see more compression going forward than we had in the DVD and blu-ray era.

But I am just speculating. Maybe providers will find a way to milk the nerds and the geezer; to pay top dollar for the highes quality audio and video.

 

[Blumlein 88]

It seems like market forces dictate one single solution, which is streaming. In a couple of years forward nations will start rolling out 5G; I don’t know what this means for backward areas. Maybe the divide between cities and rural will grow further?

Paradoxically, the 5G revolution may mean that high quality physical formats were the peak of distribution quality. We may see more compression going forward than we had in the DVD and blu-ray era.

But I am just speculating. Maybe providers will find a way to milk the nerds and the geezer; to pay top dollar for the highes quality audio and video.

Newer video codecs help some. H265 can have equal quality at about half the data rate vs H264 (used by Bluray). Yet I fear you are correct. Bluray might be a highwater mark in some ways. Or broadcast TV even more so. The question is do you gain by greater color depth and dynamic contrast range and resolution in a more compressed form vs less compressed lesser formats? Testing seems to indicate at least marginally yes. I wonder how'll it will be next time around for upgrades. I don't really think actual perceived contrast is going to go up though the format might contain more. Color depth is only useful if compression artifacts don't cover it up which often they do.