Netflix doing away with DVDs...will a lot of movies be "lost" forever?

[Marcel Birgelen]

These days if we run a private show for somebody, we get the blu-ray and convert it to DCP for the showing. I wonder if there will be any way to do that in the cloudy digital future?

All this makes me want to find a couple of blu-ray players and hoard them for later use when my current stuff kicks the bucket. Of course at my age (66) I don't have to worry about too many more generations of equipment and such, but still. The way things are moving, everything we know and love will probably be obsolete before the end of next month.

The best thing IMHO, you can do with your current physical media collection is to digitize it. Use the same tools you use to make a DCP to grab it from DVD and Blu-Ray and save it on harddrive or SSD storage. As long as you keep those files in an open format, chances you'll still be able to play those files long after the last Blu-Ray laser diode has burned out are pretty good.

Through the years, you need to do some shifting around of those files, while you migrate to new storage. The good thing is that it usually only becomes cheaper to keep those files around, as the price for digital storage usually only decreases over the years. The bits on those files themselves don't rot, while the underlying storage media will most likely do so. That's why you need to keep moving those files around. CDs have suffered from CD-rot and anything you ever burned onto a CD or DVD yourself will not survive the next 15 years, as most of those CD and DVD recordable media uses organic compound in their storage layers, so it will eventually start to degrade to a point where no reader will be able to read it back.

Like I indicated before, I'm currently using Plex to access my local content from smart devices like TVs, mobile phones. There are other solutions out there that make your files readily available. The end of physical media by Hollywood studios will probably entail that I'll own a whole lot less of the new stuff... Well, bummer, fortunately, much of that new stuff is so volatile, it doesn't really create any deep desire in me to own it anyway.

[Jason Speers]

I got bored with Netflix. They have new stuff, but many old movies and shows are missing. I used to search for classics, and they were never there. That's annoying when you want to watch something old but good.

Then, I tried something like the iptv kopen. It costs 15 euros a month or 99 euros for a whole year. It's about 7000 channels and loads of movies of excellent quality, and I can watch them from anywhere. Plus, it works on all my gadgets. It's been fantastic for me because now I can watch way more stuff than I could with Netflix, especially the old movies I like.

[Mike Blakesley]

I got disillusioned with Netflix's streaming service from Day1. I remember the day I signed up. I thought everything in the world of video would be there. Did a search for Tom Hanks, thinking I'd watch something good like Cast Away or Apollo 13. No luck.... out of all his dozens of movies, the only one they had was "The Burbs." So I started searching on other stars or directors I liked, and came up disappointed every single time.

It's the same way to this day. A few weeks ago I got to remembering the movie "10" (with Bo Derek),which I haven't seen since we played it in 1979 or so, and thought it'd be fun to watch and see if there was really a good story in there, because when we first played it all I cared about was the Bo Derek nude scenes. They didn't have that one either. But it has Dudley Moore in it, so I thought, how about "Arthur" or "Unfaithfully Yours?" Nope, and nope.

Whatever "original" stuff on Netflix I've watched has without fail been disappointing. These days I watch it mostly for comedy specials. My wife likes some of the series, but for all intents and purposes we could lose it tomorrow and I wouldn't miss it.

[Steve Guttag]

I like Netflix for the documentaries and comedy specials. I also liked them for the various TV series before the respective studios pulled them for their own streaming services...So The West Wing, Star Trek (any of them)...etc. Their own, Breaking Bad was outstanding. One problem with Netflix home-grown series is that they don't have a long-term commitment to them. If you get invested in a series, it may only get a 1-3 season run. That is typically under 30-episodes. That isn't enough for me. I prefer the 22-26 episode season (on 1-hour-ish shows, in particular).

Their home-grown movies, mostly seem like "store-brand" version of movies. There is a cheapness to them in feel/story development. Yeah, they have the oddball The Irishman that was made like a feature film (without the ability to edit it down to something reasonable), but that is the exception rather than the rule. I'm, normally, disappointed with Netflix movies...they're just lacking something (aside from a theatrical performance). Maybe, because they don't think theatrical, their movies are thinking "Made-for-TV" and, as such, they SHOULD be conscripted to Emmy consideration and not Oscar.

Personally, I think the streamers will take Sony's lead and give up on their own services and go to Netflix and Amazon as a means to actually make money. People don't want to subscribed to 10 streaming services (or even 5, for that matter). Licensing your content to a big streamer like Netflix or Amazon (who has probably the worst UI of them all) is going to be guaranteed money (they pay licensing up front) rather than doing all of the heaving lifting and battling for subscriptions.

Hulu was decent there for a while...they tended to have more "classic" shows but, like others lost a bit when people needed that content for their own pathetic platform. I think HBO (Max) can remain as an independent as they have been for decades. Their content (home grown) is normally pretty top-notch and is a premium over what most platforms offer. Plus, their stuff is often more "mature" in nature (e.g. Sopranos, The Wire, Boardwalk Empire...etc.). Honestly, I think Disney's streaming could work on its own if they'd just take their heads out of their butts and return to what they used to know. These guys are making the cable model look better than it should (and that isn't a compliment).

[Harold Hallikainen]

It would be interesting to see the licensing deals between content owners and streamers. Since storage is cheap now, I think it makes sense for content owners to offer very long term licenses to streamers with a "pay per view" payment going from the streamer to the owner. This "whack a mole" approach to finding content is a pain. We should be able to play anything ever published without spending an unsuccessful hour searching for it.

[Mark Gulbrandsen]

For me it is "Who Has The Most Movies". And that would be Prime. " For the past three years, Amazon's Prime Video has floated around 11-14,000 movies, with it having 12,071 as of October 2023". Since I also buy quite a few computer parts from Amazon since they have great deals, and there are always things on sale I have had prime for a number of years, so the movies are included, as are the 100 million songs on Amazon music. I also have Spotify, and my own J River based streamer with over 900 CD's and growing. Always stuff to listen to and watch around here.
I had Netflix for about a year, but I was never happy with their sound. I always seems over expanded, and not at all like a Blue Ray sounds or seeing a movie in a theater...

[Steve Guttag]

Amazon's UI for movies is horrible. As for what they have...we'll they have access to a lot of movies but you'll be paying for most of them on top of any prime membership (either as a rental or as a digital "purchase." It is one of the things I hate about Amazon's UI....you'll be scrolling along and they intersperse prime and buy (though you can have it filter). I'd be watching a TV series and one day...sorry that is now a pay per episode.

At least with Netflix or Hulu...if you see it on the service, it is part of the service. A lot of people are finding YouTube to be a good place for movies and Docs too though I've only thought of them for their long-form videos by independent creators.

[Mark Gulbrandsen]

Amazon's UI for movies is horrible. As for what they have...we'll they have access to a lot of movies but you'll be paying for most of them on top of any prime membership (either as a rental or as a digital "purchase." It is one of the things I hate about Amazon's UI....you'll be scrolling along and they intersperse prime and buy (though you can have it filter). I'd be watching a TV series and one day...sorry that is now a pay per episode.

At least with Netflix or Hulu...if you see it on the service, it is part of the service. A lot of people are finding YouTube to be a good place for movies and Docs too though I've only thought of them for their long-form videos by independent creators.

I do it the easy way. I just search for a film I want to see. And yes, some movies require payment, but at least you know about that before you hit the watch button. Most everything we've watched lately has been free with the exception of Oppenheimer, and it was only five bucks. Paramount also has a few good things and also has some interesting documentaries.

[Mike Blakesley]

I'd be watching a TV series and one day...sorry that is now a pay per episode.

I'm convinced that Amazon's "free" vs "paid" structure is at least partially driven by searches and viewings. Enough people watch a freebie (or look for it), and BAM it's now a pay-to-view.

[Mark Gulbrandsen]

Amazon's UI for movies is horrible.

I have yet to see what I would label a usable - viewable interface. We have a 50" tv I occasionally watch something on and the title blocks are so small I have to walk up to the TV to read them. And I have 10/20 vision since my implants!!

[Mike Blakesley]

Here's the problem with movie-channel interfaces: They refuse to just give us a LIST. They insist on displaying one-sheets, and they're always trying to emphasize certain titles by making them zoom out or be bigger than the rest, etc.

Just give us a spreadsheet and let us sort it by year, director, stat, or genre.

At least we seem to be moving toward a world in which all the studios license their crap to Netflix.