[Community of A/V Enthusiasts]

Are you ready to give in to streaming and downloading cinema?

I remember when I bought my first DVD and couldn't believe how amazing this new technology was. I had a full length movie with extras and a menu on this flat shiny disc that took up no space at all. I didn't have to twiddle my thumbs while I fast forwarded or rewinded like on a VCR tape. I even forgave that I couldn't record onto that glorious disc. And the picture quality, oh man, it was like I replaced my TV for some new alien technology. I was so proud of my growing DVD collection, I even made a cabinet to hold them. But lately I've been getting down on what seems to be the replacement for those magical discs. Streaming movies, downloadable and on demand. I know it is inevitable but having those shiny discs is like owning a piece of history. I try to convince myself that things always get better but in this case is it really? Last weekend I watched the Wolfman on demand and loved it, I even wanted to watch it again the next night but my 24 hours was up and I had to pay $4.99 to watch it again. I know I could have bought it on DVD but I got lazy and then regretted paying for on demand. I know most people are in love with On Demand and downloading movies onto their computers but theres something about owning a medium that holds what you love most and knowing I can watch this whenever I want on any TV in my house including the DVD player in my car. I had no problem with replacing my vinyl album library with CD's or my VCR library but I'm never going to give up on my DVD collection. I'm not giving in to this new technology and I pray that there is enough of us out there who think like me.

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Comment by Jim Milton on June 14, 2010 at 7:42am: Yes...some of the "classics" are definitely worth owning. I am waiting for "To Kill A Mockingbird", myself, as I am a big Peck fan. Here's hoping Hollywood never releases them in 3D!

Comment by Kurt Von Eberstein on June 12, 2010 at 7:25am: I just bought (at Costco) a bunch of blu-ray's of the Graduate, Batman (Keaton & Jack), Batman Returns, Silence of the Lambs (had a Laser disc of this one!) Jumper (to cheap to pass up) and Master & Commander (by the way this disc is screwed up in chapters 32-33 (Arghhh!). The classics, It's a Wondrful Life, Ben-Hur, Lawrence of Arabia, Breakfast at Tiffany's, the Thin Man series, you name it there are "damn good movies" to see again and again... I'm inspired again to review the movies of James Cameron (where is Titanic on blu-ray?). How about all of Gregory Peck's, or Cary Grant, or the thrill of Hitchcock? Take a movie in every 2 months... a make a date scenario for the classics!

Comment by Michael Nemoy on June 12, 2010 at 7:10am: Joseph,
these must be damn good movies!

Comment by Joseph Jean on June 12, 2010 at 7:09am: Kurt, I'm the same as you when it comes to movies. I love all genres and I can watch the same movie 20 times. I don't buy any movie for the sake of buying it, just the movies I truly love. I have 3 children ages 3,5 and 7 and I'm watching my library all over again with them. (age appropriate of course)

Comment by Kurt Von Eberstein on June 12, 2010 at 6:24am: Ah, yes, the collection of discs after disc after more disc's! I remember solving my problem of storage with the Escient Fireball and the 400 disc changer(s) loaded with my CD's and DVD movies for the first time. Wow! Great way to library all those discs! Then, Kaliedescape came along (couldn't afford it) and now downloading (still too expensive and way to slow for me). I really, really still enjoy my DVD - CD library on demand at my own schedule. The wife and I make the time to watch LOTR, or Star Wars or any other series, or theme's especially during the holiday breaks and vacations. I replace with BLu-ray only for the very, very special movies that deserve the HD treatment. Nothing will replace owning the disc and sampling the covers, the special editions-extra's to Netflix, Apple, Vudu and the like...

Comment by Chris Heinonen on June 11, 2010 at 6:42pm: I think if we had the bandwidth, and the storage space, to easily download 50 GB movies that were as good as the Blu-ray, then I'd be fine with downloading. With the push to cloud computing, it is highly possible that in the next few years your entire library will be available to you at any point for streaming or download. I have a RAID array I keep at home so I don't have to re-rip my media again, but if I could buy all my future media for a reasonable price ($10 for a CD, $20 for a movie) that I could either stream (when lower resolution is OK) or download (to have a bit-perfect copy) to watch whenever I wanted, I'd sign up for that. I've never bought a PPV movie, however, and probably won't start anytime soon.

Comment by Joseph Jean on June 11, 2010 at 6:11pm: I can see that my feelings are not shared by all but thats what makes this such a great hobby. We all have the right to choose what's best for us and as long as we still have choices technology will only get better. Some of us adapt well to new forms of media delivery and some like me are stubborn and don't take to transition well. I think my feelings towards storing media on my computer came to a crashing halt when my hard drive failed and I lost all the pictures of my daughter being born up to her 2nd birthday. I blame myself for not backing up my hard drive or making copies onto disc. I'm also a die hard collector of everything I love so having a DVD with the outer case feels more real to me than a movie stored on a computer or a home made copy. I'm sure I'll change my thinking but I'm not ready yet!

Comment by John E. Johnson, Jr. on June 11, 2010 at 1:57pm: I have no problem with downloading movies as long as they are at least as good as the Blu-ray version in terms of compression and bit rate. But, I want to be able to store them on a hard drive and watch them whenever I want, forever. One time charge of $24.99 or whatever, with the ability to back up the movies to a second hard drive just as we do with our other computer data.

Comment by Ross Jones on June 11, 2010 at 9:29am: I rarely purchase discs anymore. Virtually all of my at-home film viewing is Netflix Blu-ray. Until on-demand/ downloads equal the picture and audio quality of Blu-ray, I won't be using those services.

Comment by Gary Walker on June 11, 2010 at 8:34am: I haven't bought a DVD in months now as I agree with Hohn, once is enough for most movies. Most of my movie watching is via rentals from Netflix.I stream video to a Roku player and have found it nice to have around, but the picture quality and especially the sound quality are nowhere near DVD and the selection is certainly nothing like the Netflix DVD library. It does have the advantage, however, not being subject to the kind of abuse that rental discs apparently recieve. Of the last 5 movies I've rented from Netflix, 4 had to be returned as unplayable. This sort of aggravation makes streaming a lot more attractive.