Has blu-ray 'betamaxed'?

[Foxbat]

The British Library's Sound Archive (Exhibition Road, South Kensington) was asking for old Betamax players a few years ago. It has lots of the tapes but no one manufactures the players any longer (and after a while they break down.)

If they ever want Laser Discs, who ya gonna call? Me, of course. I’ve got a couple of old players wrapped in plastic up in the attic. No idea where the remotes are. Maybe chucked ‘em out.

 

[Rodders]

I've always wanted to get the Star Wars Original Trilogy on laserdisc.

 

[Bramandin]

* There was a shop near me that sold ex-rental Blu-Rays 3 for £12 - you buy some interesting films that way.

$1 discs at the library and SA plus unreliable internet means that I don't feel guilty about buying more movies.

Actually, I should qualify my statement on no appreciable difference by saying that my eyesight is not the best nowadays and not exactly high definition

Thanks for answering my question. The only reason we even have a newer TV here is because mom needed a larger one so she could read the menus. She's using the old one as a desktop monitor.

 

[paeng]

The problem with streaming is that what's available today no longer becomes available later.

 

[Daysman]

I passed most of my DVDs on to charity shops.

Mostly I stream.

If I do want a copy of a movie I'll get a 4K disc — packages usually also include the standard Blu-ray and digital copy.

Last DVD I bought was 'the city & the city'... some TV just isn't available on recent formats.

I think maybe 4K may betamax before Blu-ray or DVD?

 

[Dave]

The problem with streaming is that what's available today no longer becomes available later.

This is an important point. Many US TV shows are still not available to stream anywhere in the UK, while other older shows just suddenly disappear from the service on which they were available. Other shows change channels or services between seasons too.

I've discussed this with my kids in regard to Spotify because they claim you can get "any" music there. That isn't true. You can certainly get more than I could ever hold in a personal library, but most of it I would never listen to. With the number of different TV and film streaming services, there is even more reason to actually "own" the things that you do like.

Whether DVD or Blu Ray is different question. I'm not personally prepared to go out and buy another format, so I'll stick with DVD. If, like @Le Panda du Mal , there was some genre I liked that I couldn't get elsewhere then that would obviously make a big difference. If you have a home cinema projection set up, or like @Brian G Turner have a HDTV, then the quality may be important to you.

In the end, it comes down to whether enough people continue to use the format, and that does require people to use it who haven't used it before in the past to become new customers. I can't see the latter happening enough.

 

[Foxbat]

I think a telling indication of which way the wind is blowing is that my local recycling shop no longer accepts and no longer sells DVD and Blu Ray.

However, a simple reality is that you can only stream when the stream is flowing. If Netflix or any other platforms suffered a cyber attack (or even if your internet goes down), you’d better break out the Monopoly.

 

[J-Sun]

I think a telling indication of which way the wind is blowing is that my local recycling shop no longer accepts and no longer sells DVD and Blu Ray.

That's weird. Around here, all the used shops handle DVDs and Blu-rays and one of them even still handles VHS tapes.

This is an important point. Many US TV shows are still not available to stream anywhere in the UK, while other older shows just suddenly disappear from the service on which they were available. Other shows change channels or services between seasons too.

I've discussed this with my kids in regard to Spotify because they claim you can get "any" music there. That isn't true. You can certainly get more than I could ever hold in a personal library, but most of it I would never listen to. With the number of different TV and film streaming services, there is even more reason to actually "own" the things that you do like.

However, a simple reality is that you can only stream when the stream is flowing. If Netflix or any other platforms suffered a cyber attack (or even if your internet goes down), you’d better break out the Monopoly.

Exactly--all this and more. Whether DVD or blu-ray (or even VHS), it's better than streaming.

 

[Phyrebrat]

It depends on your TV and so on. I have a PS4 which runs BR anyway so I never had to buy a separate player. Having said that, I don't own many Blu-Rays as a lot of my fav films (indie horro and giallo) are only available as DVDs.

I have a sixty-something inch HDTV and the quality is remarkable. However, I do think a lot of modern films suffer from super-clarity. For example when I was watching TROS when it came to Disney, I was disturbed by the non-filminess of the look. It looked much more like a you were in the room with the actors; no grain, no visual reverb (for want of a better phrase).

What I've done is send my PS4 signal via my Playstation VR headset, then to the TV, so the PS VR unit (which cannot handle super hdtv) dithers down to 1080 so when it reaches the TV, it 'looks' like a movie and not an HDTV hand held cam.

 

[JunkMonkey]

I used to collect music videos in the 90s (copies of the actual pop videos, they were usually a few quid each and you couldn’t buy them in the shops.)
After that, I didn’t bother with any formats, apart from watching on YouTube. (I wonder if anybody regrets investing in Laserdiscs)

Then a couple of years ago I started collecting charity shop DVDs for 50p-£1 each, and that’ll do for me.
No Blu-ray or owt, and no streaming services thanks.

Three or four for a pound these days in the charity shops I frequent - and some really obscure stuff turns up from time to time. It's rare that I don't come back from my weekly shop with at least a dozen of the buggers.

 

[Foxbat]

However, I do think a lot of modern films suffer from super-clarity.

I agree. I find The Hobbit trilogy irritating to watch because it's recorded in High Frame Rate (48 as opposed to 25 frames per second). It's like the filmic equivalent of HDR (High Dynamic Range) in photography and suffers from the same problems if over-used.

That's weird. Around here, all the used shops handle DVDs and Blu-rays and one of them even still handles VHS tapes.

I asked why they'd ceased trading in these discs and they said they were getting huge numbers donated but they simply were not selling any more. I can only conclude that either, the population of my home town only watch The Chase or Pointless or have moved deeply into streaming (perhaps I stand alone - a rebel without a subscription)

 

[albertserene]

DVD only has the resolution of 480P while Blue Ray can go up to 4K. Huge difference.

 

[CupofJoe]

DVD only has the resolution of 480P while Blue Ray can go up to 4K. Huge difference.

Very true. But a lot depends on how the content has been mastered. I have a couple of Blu-Ray that look like they've been filmed through a haze filter and DVDs that are as crisp and clear as anything.
The DVD copy of Band of Brothers looks far clearer [and easier to watch for me] than my Blu-Ray copy of The Pacific.

 

[Fried Egg]

I don't think blu-ray has been abandoned as a format, at least no more than DVD's have. They used to be a lot more expensive than DVD's but these days there's not much difference in price and if I were considering buying a film on disc, I would be very unlikely to choose a DVD over blu-ray as the quality is visibly much better.

That said, I rarely buy films/tv series these days on disc. I, like many others, have moved over to streaming. The thing is with films is that there aren't that many that I really want to ever watch more than once. Owning them was just pointless for me.

I've done the same with music. I now have an Amazon Prime music subscription and have dumped all my CDs.

 

[albertserene]

Very true. But a lot depends on how the content has been mastered. I have a couple of Blu-Ray that look like they've been filmed through a haze filter and DVDs that are as crisp and clear as anything.
The DVD copy of Band of Brothers looks far clearer [and easier to watch for me] than my Blu-Ray copy of The Pacific.

I think you are talking about extreme cases. There is always bad implementations in any format. But for recent movies, Blue Ray is far superior. 480P is a terrible resolution even for an older TV.

 

[Vladd67]

We had a cupboard full of dvds which were drowned by the fire brigade when putting out the house fire. They are currently in storage with a company thanks to our insurance company, it remains to be seen just how damaged they are. I suspect the card covers of box sets are trashed but maybe the discs are still ok. To be honest though I cant say I have really missed any of them. In fact thinking about it i cant really remember the last time i watched a dvd or blu ray from that cupboard.

 

[tinkerdan]

I have this...

lazer disk player. The kind that takes 12inch laser discs.
Don't have any disks--but at the time I picked it up there was one local video shop that had a large selection.
I missed when they went out of business--so I don't know if they sold the disks out or not--would have been interesting to have grabbed a few.
I haven't used it in a while but it worked quite well the last time I had an occasion to use it.

I used to have a large library of VHS tapes that I recently gave away.
Now I have a modest number of dvds
I have a handful of blu-ray that have been given to me as gifts.

However like some others have mentioned...with all streaming and on demand stuff these days my players are collecting dust.
This has made my better half a bit happier since there was such a struggle trying to fight through all the equipment menus to get the VHS or DVD or Blu-Ray player on the screen

 

[Fried Egg]

When I was young (in the 80's) , my father invested heavily in laser discs. He thought it was going to replace VHS and bought in quite a large library of discs with a view to possibly running his own disc rental business. Of course, they didn't take off and we ended up just being stuck with them but it was quite nice having such a large library of films available to watch whenever we liked.

I can see why they didn't take off. Despite being better quality in the playback, they were large and cumbersome. The size of vinyl LPs and had to be flipped over half way through. The fact that you couldn't record on them either was a factor against them. It was only with the advent of DVDs, that were smaller, didn't need to be flipped over half way through, and came with all those "extras" on them (that were such an exciting novelty at first) did they finally begin to displace the mighty VHS.

 

[paeng]

Watch out for disc rot, though.