I have seen the death of spinning discs: Streaming services - Page 10

Media server are really nice, I have one also that I use for my fansub anime and the shows and movie that I capture with my PC/PVR.

But like its been said many time before in many thread, I never had a pressed disk go bad on me, either CD or DVD. I do have HDD go bad every 2 years or so since they spin 24/7 and quality control is on the low side these days (especialy true for USB external HDD since those cases tend to disipate heat badly).

Also, I don't want to preach but if you have a title on DVD and you are watching it only once in a while, then why rip it to your media server and waste disk space? Unless you are against any physical effort or have a phobia of putting a disk in a player...

Unless you are renting-riping-returning which may be against the DMCA if you are in the US or against C61 if you are in Canada when that piece of legislation passes, if it does.

Disk is cheap and getting cheaper. It is now quite cost effective to have a copy of your stuff on a second drive in case the disk with the original rip goes out on you. That being said I only put a small subset of my DVD collection on the media server -- mostly the stuff that kids want to watch over and over.

Yeah. I did that for awhile. Stopped though. I realized I was spending more time loaded and setting it up on there than it was worth.

Spent about 5 minutes putting it in, and setting DVDfab to rip as an iso. then checking back 20 minutes later, checking it and adding the coverart. It doesn't seem like alot but when you have several hundred still on shelves, it can become a pain.

I ripped BDs and HD DVDs onto there too, but it takes way too long and isn't worth the ag anymore.

I just find it easier to grab the disk and put it in the disk tray and play right off the optical. My kids are in their early teens and I have them trained to be careful with optical so that is not a concern anymore... actually they often end up being the one loading it and hitting the lights so my effort is basically pushing play. Slaves... I mean kids are great

And is it really worth the effort when you can anyway? I wonder how many people were rippers that are now reripping the HD versions. Kinda makes the first seem seem pointless, doesn't it.

I remember spending all this time ripping my collection to divx years ago when space was more of a concern and won't even watch them because of the sub standard PQ of the Divx encode versus the real thing.

A digital copy is hardly a better alternative for me. I will never use it. And how many titles have included a DVD? I know Sleeping Beauty did but what other titles.

Yes a DVD doesn't take up much space. 8 or 9 gigabytes isn't much nowadays. Back in 2001 I was recording HD from OTA and stored several Terabytes of programs between 2001 and 2004. One hour was around 8.5GB using my HiPix cards and I had around 3TB of storage with twelve 250GB drives.
Now I have over 20TB of storage on my network since storage is insanely cheap now. Although I stopped watching DVDs over 3.5 years ago now and have no desire to rip my almost 700 HD DVD/BD titles. I'm watching more and more VOD instead of discs. I've already decided I will never rent a disc of any kind anymore. I'll either buy it or watch it from VOD from now on. And I'm cutting my purchases back alot and increasing my VOD watching for the convenience.

Wow! you're the most similar to me that I am aware of.

For rentals I simply use my VoD providers library as 'my' catalog that I can browse and watch. The last 5 movies I've watched have been. Most recent first:

1. Transsiberian - Apple TV HD
2. Get Smart - Apple TV HD
3. TDK - Blu Ray
4. Love Guru - Apple TV
5. Pink Panther - Apple TV

I now buy disks that will have repeat viewing value. Ofcourse my HD physical collection is way smaller than yours. I have around 125 with 25 or so being concets and documentaries. The rest are my top 100 movies. I've watched around 70% of those so far. But I think of them as my reference library. The goal is not to go over 150-200 movies at any time (if possible).

I think the convenience of VoD for rentals (100% of TV shows I watch now are VoD) will drive it's popularity. But physical ownership will still drive optical disk sales.

I think this is where we are heading. There will be a nice mix of VoD, DL, and discs. I am very much like you now. I rarely have to put a disc in a player. Because I have an HT room in my basement and a 50 inch TV upstairs, it is just easier to have 2 media clients rather than running around looking for discs. I can use my PS3s or cable boxs to access HD content on a server somewhere.

The problem that I have with VoD is the available library. Those are controlled by your/mine content provider and they only stock "popular" titles (read the one pleasing the most common lowest denominator). I'm into Asian/Foreign cinema, B-Movie, Japanimation... Not much of those from Videotron, Bell or StarChoice here. I don't have a choice but to buy

I don't buy much of the classics now that I have access to Turner Classic Movie Channel and have my PC/PVR. Those titles that i capture are filling my Media Server quite nicelly (you can see the list on my site in my signature under the Mediateque tab. The site is in french but for the list it doesn't matter). I use to convert them to XVid but now i'm using Nero Recode since mp4 plays nicelly with the PS3 and the quality is better.

I also have access to The Movie Network but again the choice leaves a bit to be desire and you have to take care not to pick a day when the movie you want to watch isn't in P&S. And I hate those bright colorful and annoying logos that popup during the movie. TCM as dim, almost invisible logo that you barely notice or better yet they fall in the black bar of 1.85:1 and up movie and can be cropped out when encoding.

Sounds like the KISS principle at work. Keep it Simple Stupid... Media servers are neat devices, but to a vast majority they quickly become too complex and/or time consuming. BD is like DVD but with another layer of complexity if users choose to use, but for the vast majority what is more simple than putting a disc in the player and pressing play.

I find there is a far greater variety of indie, new releases and catalogs on Apple TV HD than even Blu Ray. Of course it is focused on the US market.

Video iPods are actually media servers that work with iTunes. Very easy, and not time consuming. Not only can you rip your own movies to them, but (and Apple prefers this) you can also just download what ever you want.

I read about one service that lets you logon anywhere from the Internet and select a movie, and it then downloads it to your home PC/media server/whatever. That way you can pick out a movie at work and it will be ready when you get home. No stopping at the store and no loading discs.

Great idea except I wonder how many people leave their home computers on all day while they are at work or wherever. That would be a waste of electricity and would also cause the computer to fail much sooner.

And that is it... And the fact that you are paying for something you don't own and that you have to play only on "authorized" device. And also I like to loan movie to friend without having to lend them the device to play it on.

I have computers running 24/7... The problem is with moving parts like HDD or fans but I never had any problem with motherboard or CPU. Of course I have some UPS to protect them.


As for the price of Electricity, I have the great honor of living in the province of Quebec where generating electricity is one of the main activity here and also the government cash cow. :-)

We are on the verge of building 4 more dam soon. Mostly for energy export to the USA.

It maybe am urban legend, but most IT departments leave PCs and servers running 24x7 because they are less likely to fail. They are like lightbubs and only fail when powered on or powered off. I can say that the few PCs I have seen die, died when being powered on/off.

Depends on what you mean by own

People lease cars all the time and also pay to rent homes and DVDs and Blu Rays. They don't own them either. Even people who 'own' their homes don't really own their homes!

I am fine with not owning the 900 titles on Apple's HD library. I prefer being able to browse through it, select what I want and 20 seconds later I am watching a movie

The $3.99 and $4.99 a pop is a small convenience charge what won't add up to the cost of physically owning the movie on disk unless I rent it 5-6 times. If you lend out your movies a lot, then obviously this won't work. In my case, I usually say - check out Transsiberian on Apple TV, it's a good movie and that's it. Nothing to lend and nothing to return

That is urban legend. They are left on because unlike desktops they are usually doing things during the night. If you are on the internet the internet is 24x7, in other cases it may be doing large computations over night and in almost every case it needs to be backed up.

Whatever float your boat I guess

Me I prefer to own, to lend and to give or resell. I've just finished reading an article about the legality of selling your media collection that you bought on iTunes or games that you bought on Steam... You can't since you are only renting it. Another minus for the Download industry for me. With a physical media I can resell (and sometime for a profit!) them if I don't want it anymore. But with a download I can only erase it.

$3.99 or $4.99 may seem a good deal, but it is only because for the moment your DL isn't capped. If you add the $7.00 per gig over the basic 20 gig I get from my ISP (there are only 2 and they both have cap) then the Apple store $3.99 deal is more like $10.99 and at that point you may as well buy the DVD at Zellers and be done with it.

I don't know where you live but here once I finish paying for my house it is mine. The taxes that I pay after that are for the municipal services not for the house per se. Same with my car.

Do you know a single person who has paid off their house? I can't think of one, and in the US it makes no sense. If you can borrow at 5% then invest the $ when you can get a higher rate. Also, in the US the intrest is deductible. That why most corps. lease buildings and materials.

I just wanted to point out that neither our HD nor HDX content is upconverted, they are both native 1080p/24 with the primary difference being audio and video bitrate. The box will upconvert the SD content we offer. Based on your description, I suspect you may not have been watching a HDX title as most of the reactions we get to the quality of HDX go way beyond "satisfactory" even on a large front projector.

Windows 7

No I am not kidding. That is what the major change with windows 7 is supposed to be.

Yes, but there is an emotional thing about owning a movie, just like there is an emotional thing about buying a house.

So if you don't pay those taxes, the government where you live does not repossess your house? Just stop the services? In America, if you don't pay your taxes, your house will be taken and sold for back taxes. You can think you own your house until you decide you don't like the taxes or decide to not let the new mall be built in your front yard.

In Canada, sure lots of people pay off their houses. That is the whole point. We tend to by houses later on in life too since apartment are affordable here in Quebec. Mine will be paid off the same year that i'm schedule to retire so I'll only have my municipal taxes to pay yearly for my place to live. More income in my pocket.

My taxes are about $1500 per year for municipal and school and that is it. I can afford it.

As for them to repossesing the house. There is no Imminent Domain clause here and the last time the gov. expropriated people they had to fight teeth and nails in court and ended up giving the land back and paying millions as settlement. And anyway, this is Canada, lots of empty spaces to build anyway.

I thought in Canada most people rent because there is no benefit to own (like a tax deduction)? Some of my relatives in Toronto rent and have money free to own and do other things. Especially now with property values going down.

A home right now is a big losing investment...which is the problem in the US. If you only put 5% down and your house just lost 20% of its value, you just default on your mortgage. You come out 15% a head and move on.

Aaron,

Can you list your VoD providers in priority order? I'd like to see how you rank them by ease of use, availability of titles and quality (all combined for an overall rank). Best to worst if you can.

Thanks.

Good luck with your next major purchase after that.

Paradox of the year. Surprisingly, had the economy been better, the download iptv as a replacement of BD would have a slightly better chance to come to fruition.

I always thought that if everything was perfectly aligned, downloads would still be a decade away from posing a credible threat, but now, this sector is about to undergo significant turmoil as only the deep pockets will survive this --- meaning current players will not be around as soon, they won't be able to raise new money to meet payroll, let alone new R&D projects to have a future.

Other than Apple, and perhaps telcos, existing traditional broadcast STB/pvr providers and MSOs rolling back their plans, still being able to come back while they retreat to their existing revenue streams, anyone who depends on video downloads for most of their revenue is going to have a hard time passing the dd on any sort of funding.

If the economy was in good shape, credit would be flowing, the startups in the download space could get sufficient funding, continue more R&D, more partnerships. The infrastructure could continue to expand, including bandwidth into the home along with methods to deal with the bandwidth caps.

Instead we have a situation now that just as these companies need to spend money on rolling out these products, there is no money for them.

I see in 2 years, apple trying something new with appleTV, probably microsoft doing more mediaroom stuff, but anyone else, if they're a pure download/iptv, their continued existence will undergo daily stresses as long as the credit crisis continues, and I doubt they can outlast this.