Are blu-ray players still worth buying?

[JSmith]

I feel bad for people that didn't know this in the beginning and own all their HiDef content through iTunes.

Me too mate, I don't see why the movie/BD industry doesn't do more technical marketing on this calling out the poor PQ of streaming services... that said we're talking about people here who think low bitrate MP# sounds fine, maybe they're all deaf and blind to quality.



JSmith

 

[David Harper]

IMO a good analogy would be streaming video is like MP3 audio and blu ray disc is like CD audio. And the vast majority either don't know or don't care that most MP3 audio quality is crap. Convenience trumps everything. I still listen to CD's at home but I don't know anyone else who does. My daughters think it's hilarious that I have CD's. All their music is on their phones. True story; I was in a best buy store a few years ago and I wanted to audition a pair of Martin Logan electrostatic speakers. The young guy who worked there used his phone as the music source!! I tried to explain to him that the MP3 files on his phone weren't good enough for these speakers but it didn't make sense to him.

 

[JSmith]

IMO a good analogy would be streaming video is like MP3 audio and blu ray disc is like CD audio.

True... oh an 4K UHD is like SACD.



JSmith

 

[Aerith Gainsborough]

I still think so, yes. Quality is king in my eyes and UHD disks give me the best quality commercially available.
Also: they work when the Internet craps out.

UHD playback on PC is ... complicated, especially if you want proper HDR so I prefer to fire up my X700 and just let it do it's thing.

 

[HammerSandwich]

It's not possible to rip without circumventing;

If you load a DVD into the PC and open MakeMKV, it refuses to read the locked disc. OTOH, open a media-player program and begin the movie. It unlocks the disc & starts playback as usual. Close the player, immediately go back to MakeMKV, and the files might remain unlocked. Back up your DVD. I'm sure it's not supposed to happen this way, but I have seen it.

So, can the legitimate, and totally normal, unlocking process morph into circumvention when you stop playback & switch to ripping? If so, I'd say the legal system's even more #!%^ed than I'd thought.

 

[Mkaram]

If you load a DVD into the PC and open MakeMKV, it refuses to read the locked disc. OTOH, open a media-player program and begin the movie. It unlocks the disc & starts playback as usual. Close the player, immediately go back to MakeMKV, and the files might remain unlocked. Back up your DVD. I'm sure it's not supposed to happen this way, but I have seen it.

So, can the legitimate, and totally normal, unlocking process morph into circumvention when you stop playback & switch to ripping? If so, I'd say the legal system's even more #!%^ed than I'd thought.

Not legal. Why? Because the encrypting party intended for you to bypass/decode the encryption for the purpose of viewing in a licensed media player.
They didn't intend for you to bypass it to create a copy.

The DMCA is challenging law.

 

[JSmith]

If so, I'd say the legal system's even more #!%^ed than I'd thought.

It's the big Hollywood movie houses that push for this... the pollies just do what they're told.

At least they got rid of most region coding on 4K BD's.



JSmith

 

[HammerSandwich]

Because the encrypting party intended for you to bypass/decode the encryption for the purpose of viewing in a licensed media player.

I'd argue that the unlocking process complied 100% with the publisher's intent, and that the backup program did not - in fact, could not - unlock the encryption.

I'd also grant that this argument might not win in court.

 

[Aerith Gainsborough]

Not legal. Why? Because the encrypting party intended for you to bypass/decode the encryption for the purpose of viewing in a licensed media player.
They didn't intend for you to bypass it to create a copy.

The DMCA is challenging law.

Who cares?
You bought it -> you rip it as you see fit.
As long as you do not grant others access to the copy, no harm done. They won't care.

They only care because most people that do make a copy either make them from media that they do not own or pass the copy on to buddies (or worse: the Internet).

 

[Mkaram]

Who cares?
You bought it -> you rip it as you see fit.
As long as you do not grant others access to the copy, no harm done. They won't care.

They only care because most people that do make a copy either make them from media that they do not own or pass the copy on to buddies (or worse: the Internet).

Sure. I agree.

I'm in favor of ripping digital media I own immediately, if for no other reason than I don't want to keep it on frail plastic rings... I'm only talking about legality.

 

[Rayman30]

I know the post is old but I figured id chime in. I have a growing collection of 4K UHD Blue Rays, I really like the quality! (HDR10, Wide Color Gamut) and without the low bit rate of streaming (Tons of dynamics and detail lost in the low bitrate) so yeah to me its worth it, because the movies really aren't that pricey. That being said, It may be better value to get an Xbox to play them (I use a One X)

 

[Descartes]

Yes, to me well mastered UHD 4K Blu-ray with ATMOS or DTS:X beat streaming anytime! Until we can get high speed 2,000 Mbps internet streaming will only be second best
Now OPPO needs to comeback or Panasonic needs to upgrade their players to include SACD!

 

[Sal1950]

blu/4k are rubbish near field remixes upmixes atmos are rubbish.

You posted that video and it's first comment?. Now that's the very definition of rubbish