How much longer will tangible media last

[jcm]

We are in an increasingly digital world and thus tangile media's time is limited.

The point of this thread is to get general discussion of your thoughts on the future of tangile media. (How long it has left, is there a future, etc.) I thought this might be interesting granted it is what most of us collect.

Thoughts?

 

[adrenaline78]

Don't know.. but when it does come to a stop, that is when I stop buying.

 

[Wreck]

I think it will always last. There will always be a market big enough for tangible media. Difference is the evolution may cut down on the qty of regular old cheap amaray cases and so forth. As the consumers who care only about the movie only switch to digital there may be more emphasis then ever for the consumers to get nicely packaged editions.

 

[hayemaker]

The music industry is WAY further down the line in terms of people switching to digital, but still you can buy CD's if you want to. It'll be absolutely ages yet IMO.

Honestly I will die a little inside if the day comes where I can only download a film and have it sitting on a hard drive.

 

[White Rat]

I think it will always last. There will always be a market big enough for tangible media. Difference is the evolution may cut down on the qty of regular old cheap amaray cases and so forth. As the consumers who care only about the movie only switch to digital there may be more emphasis then ever for the consumers to get nicely packaged editions.

I think one of the best examples of this is the persistence of the vinyl record. There are still companies producing epic packaging for remasters

 

[Wreck]

I think one of the best examples of this is the persistence of the vinyl record. There are still companies producing epic packaging for remasters

Nice example ....

I mean yeah DVD may disappear many moons from now ... but just like the quality of vinyl there is high quality in blu-ray.

 

[bobafettish66]

Simply put tangible media will ALWAYS exist.

It will always be around, the type of media will prob change Just like tape was replaced by disc. But its safe to say physical media will always exist.

 

[dirtyoak]

I don't think tangible media will die out any time soon if at all. At some point I could see the focus shift from physical media to digital but it won't make the physical media obsolete.

 

[Jericho]

I'd generally agree with what has been said. I don't see tangible media disappearing. It may become less popular and therefore not something that you pick-up as easily as today. But I don't see it vanishing altogether. Music is a great analogy. MP3s were prevalent when I started college, and that was in the mid 1990s. Not that digital music was mainstream. It would take some time for that to come. But iPods launched in 2001 and we still have CDs in places like Target and Walmart over a decade later.

 

[blu-steel]

The music industry is WAY further down the line in terms of people switching to digital, but still you can buy CD's if you want to. It'll be absolutely ages yet IMO.

Honestly I will die a little inside if the day comes where I can only download a film and have it sitting on a hard drive.

That's the last thing the studios want. They want us to pay everytime we view it.

 

[jcm]

Valid points and I agree with tangible media being harder to find in the future especially with how much brick and mortar stores are being replaced by online retailers. I like being able to handpick my steelbooks, that is part of the fun.

 

[Chief]

BD's and CD's are superior to their digital counterparts whether people can see/hear it or not.

I think the success of downloading is largely due to convenience. I understand how simple and clean (if you haven't got room for vast amounts of physical media) downloading is, I'm just not a fan.

Apart from a few singles on iTunes I don't have any downloaded music. I certainly wouldn't download a movie!

 

[jcm]

Time had an article saying Blu Ray will be dead within 5 years and be replaced by the like of Netflix, I highly doubt that.


http://techland.time.com/2014/01/02/5-tech-products-that-will-be-dead-in-5-years/

 

[digitalbabe]

Thread moved to Blu-ray forum.


::: Staff/Community Manager :::

 

[nick4amber]

Unless you live in japan and parts of europe the internet can't yet facilitate blu-ray quality downloads, let alone UHD in near future.

These supposed 4k downloads coming soon from sony will probly not even crack 30GB. Which will be an instant tell the consumer is getting massively ripped off in compression hell.

Because only 1% of consumers really care, they might get away with it. However, the 1% will always demand physical formats. We are the 1%!!