[Link: cepro.com]

These guys kill me... All this effort over a technology that will be dead soon. By the time the appeals are exhausted no one will be buying a DVD or Blu-ray for that matter.

We understand you believe that everyone is like you, and sees no need to have physical media.

You're just wrong. Many people don't have the bandwidth, and want physical media for backup purposes. Physical media is going to be around for a long time. Such changes take a long time to occur, especially when they require as much infrastructure to stream as a 50GB Blu-ray disc.

We understand that you believe that everyone is like you, and miss the fact that new technology reduces file size and improves quality.

You're just wrong. Many peoples bandwidth has been increased and will continue to be increased. 5 years ago i opted to pay an extra $9 for 3mbps download. vs the 1mbps entry level plan. Today i have that same account and my download speed is 20mbps. My clients have 60mbps service.

Physical media as a backup is a 50-50 bet. Google CD rot.

I feel that the future of content "ownership" is a foggy one. I think on demand, streaming content based either on a pay-per-view model (i.e., Vudu) or a monthly subscription based one (Netflix anyone?), will continue to grow and eventually the consumers will decide the fate of physical media. It will be determined by the overall sales figures of physical media.

I do think it will be a LONG LONG LONG time before you do not see Blu-ray discs at Wal-Mart and Best Buy. Surely as long as the DVD has been for sale. But at the rapid rate of technological advancements, who knows what will happen 5, 10, 25 years from now. As we have seen, the biggest deterrent to technology is political and corporate "insanity". And it will only get worse. :)

More important for me is PQ. I haven't found any online streaming service (at least here in Canada) that can compare to a Blu-Ray disc (or rip)

VHS cassettes are still on shelves allover the place. The only reason DVD still exists is because the content makers are trying their hand at the better best business model. DVD is good enough for most people and costs less than Blu-ray.

VHS dominated for 30 years, 70's until late 90's. DVD less than 10. Blu-ray since 2005 or 2006 and we have high def downloads and streaming available right now.

FFWD to 2012 where 100% of home movies are recorded with mobile phones or digital cameras with hard/flash drives. Physical media is barely important for home movies. Not at all if you upgrade grandmas entertainment system or email her youtube videos. High quality video can be purchased or rented from itunes etc and streamed from netflix, hulu etc. Cable/Satellite has video on demand and DVR capabilities.

Everyone points to how long VHS was around or DVD as an indicator of how long Blu-ray will be here. If you look closely we went from a 30 year "only game in town" period to less than 10 with DVD and even less with Blu-ray. Sure Blu-ray will be around but it wont be the preferred method IMO.

There is no place for physical media in the next decade. Quality for download/streaming alternatives is good and getting better. Convenience is king. Ask CD player manufacturers about the iPod if you doubt this. Movies and music on my phone and on my tablet and on my PC and on my DVR and... Those days are over. This next decade we will see media consolidation in a big way. Every person/family will have an account that contains all of their audio and video. It will be accessible from anywhere in the world with any of their devices and we will have the ability to sync songs playlists everything to any device.

Once the "scenario" is polished the consumers will gobble it up. The moment someone can use their phone to google a movie and click BUY and watch part on the train and have it available in their family room when they walk in the door... who would want to go buy a disc?

This is obviously a legitimate concern but the fact that DVD is still selling means that most people are willing to accept lower quality. And dont forget... you can purchase HD movies, download them and not deal with streaming related compression.

Over the next decade i think the streaming vs picture quality issue will be resolved.

While internet speeds and compression technologies are increasing at an exponential rate (like all other technologies these days), we still have clients with gobs of money who are 5-6 miles away from the nearest broadband connection and their current options are flaky DSL service, satellite broadband, or pay $10k+ to get a service provider to bring a line to your house - IF they will even do it. And we're just outside of a major metropolitan area; I can't imagine what it's like in the midwest.

When will we be able to compress a BluRay-quality movie small enough to store on your phone, and then expand to view on your 8k screen?

Never, as long as lobbyists for CCA, Comcast, ATT, etc have their way with Congress...

I still prefer to actually insert a disc whether it be Blu Ray or DVD when it comes to movie nights. I have never embraced the server concept simply because I have too many movies to fit on any device out there. I'm sure if there is one that could store them all, it would run into the average price of a new car (20-30K).

I used to stay at my old boss' house quite a bit on trips to Florida, he had multiple Kscapes throughout the place. The problem i had was I couldn't commit to a single movie. I knew anything I wanted to watch was a couple button presses away, so I would watch my favorite clips from one movie, then jump to another. When you physically put a disc in a player, switching to a different movie is a hassle, which is why I prefer physical media.

But who really cares about 8k screens? I remember when "deep color" was a big deal but how many bluray movies even have 10bit deep color?? As far as I know, zero!

I agree with Stamp, most customers don't care. I have guys with 60" Elite panels and they haven't watched a bluray in ages, but they've watched a ton of crappy Netflix and AppleTV movies and are happy with them.

+1
To remotely located clients and limitations of bandwidth
Just got a quote from the telco here to get dsl to a 10k sq footer for $36,000
Client decided to go with an alternative (sat Internet).
I'm very glad they buy movies and do not understand about streaming cause it's going to be a nightmare.
The majority of areas here are at 3mb dsl. Cable is at 8mb
They are moving to 10mb dsl and 15mb cable but it's still limited areas

This should clear up whether you're going to own physical media in the next decade.  Sure, this is for music right now, but movies are next.  If it's not profitable for the companies to make them, they won't.  You'll stream it or you won't get it, period (think about how much money it saves them).  Have you noticed the ethernet ports on the back of TV's?  Remember when they were only on BluRay's?  Since you won't be owning a BluRay player in 10 years, they now put them into the TV's.  Pretty simple really.

[Link: lsureveille.com]

If you posted a link to a major news outlet or even a story that had an on the record statement by a major studio or studio executive then major you could prove your point. Just because some college newspaper posts a story doesn't make it true. The best thing is that in 11 months we'll be able to know whether it is real or not. And did you read the article about Michael Jackson having an alien baby? It's true I read it in a real magazine and then it was substantiated by a google search.

Physical media isn't going away anytime soon. As I've shown with hard numbers a bunch of times before, high speed internet doesn't cover anywhere near enough people. I really hope some people would maybe do a little traveling and realize that there are Americans that don't live inside a major city. And for a lot of those Americans until landline phone companies can deliver 10mbps download speeds via POTS they won't have a chance to get high speed internet.