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Do you still buy physical media? (DVD/BR)

  • YES

    Votes: 314 55.0%
  • NO

    Votes: 186 32.6%
  • STREAMING ONLY (Netflix/Prime etc)

    Votes: 71 12.4%

  • Total voters
    571
As a stand alone product the Apple TV is a pile of poo because a digital purchase with Apple is not a purchase for life it's a purchase that can change with the wind.
AppleTV is perfectly useable also for content bought elsewhere. It is not tied down to iTunes store content only.
 
I'm in the middle of switching from a physical collection to streaming. I only upgraded my favourite films to Blu-Ray, but have been recently buying iTunes HD versions for $4.99 and under. This way I get better picture quality than my DVDs, get rid of the clutter and have the backup of most titles being ported out to Movies Anywhere and other storefronts. I even get a future upgrade to 4k if and when the titles are updated on iTunes. Now I will only buy physical titles that I really like and would really benefit from the better sound that (UHD) Blu Ray provides.

In terms of music, I am also considering moving to streaming as the family plans are very good value. and I've pretty much stopped buying physical media anyway. I also like the music suggestion features as it's a great way to discover new music (and then not have to take a punt on buying some albums almonst blind).
 
I still on occasion buy CDs because I can rip them lossless and if they're limited pressings it's not going to be trivial to replace the digital copies (stuff like expanded film scores, etc.)

I get buying physical for movies and such but there's very few I actually watch enough times to make it worth it (have a grand total of three Blu-Rays.)

(As a side note, I really wish Apple revived iTunes Plus for ALAC instead of AAC. I'd definitely pay $0.30 to upgrade my library to the best possible quality.)
 
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I still on occasion buy CDs because I can rip them lossless and if they're limited pressings it's not going to be trivial to replace the digital copies (stuff like expanded film scores, etc.)

I get buying physical for movies and such but there's very few I actually watch enough times to make it worth it (have a grand total of three Blu-Rays.)

(As a side note, I really wish Apple revived iTunes Plus for ALAC instead of AAC. I'd definitely pay $0.30 to upgrade my library to the best possible quality.)
It's never going to happen! Apple has felt from day one that 256kbps AAC is decent - they could have gone up to 320kbps AAC but never did - I rip the occasional CD at 320AAC as I can't hear any different between that and ripping at ALAC.
For Apple, it's all about Apple Music streaming now. I buy music tracks from iTunes although i'll admit, I maybe buy 1 full album once every 5 years and that's it. Gotta say, i'm the only one out of my friends that buys download tunes - they all have Apple Music or Spotify but nothing new there, they've been doing that for the last 5 or 6 or 7 years.

What I do LOVE is having an Apple I.D. and knowing that I can be staying/living anywhere in the world, I can sign into it on any Apple device and ALL of my films and music is there. That is living in the moment. That is NOW. And I love it! Plus having tried other brands etc, I truly believe that the Apple experience is just beautiful - it's polished - everything from using the UI on Apple TV to browsing iTunes to editing a 4K 60 fps video in FCPX to using Apple Pages to even designing a birthday card in Apple Photos is just so much nicer and a better user experience than anything else out there.
 
What I do LOVE is having an Apple I.D. and knowing that I can be staying/living anywhere in the world, I can sign into it on any Apple device and ALL of my films and music is there. That is living in the moment. That is NOW. And I love it! Plus having tried other brands etc, I truly believe that the Apple experience is just beautiful - it's polished - everything from using the UI on Apple TV to browsing iTunes to editing a 4K 60 fps video in FCPX to using Apple Pages to even designing a birthday card in Apple Photos is just so much nicer and a better user experience than anything else out there.

This is one of my biggest pros. While the quality of digital may to be up to the standards of physical (although it isn't THAT far behind) having access to my library is so convenient. When I'm in NYC, I can access my library on my apple tv there, & when I go back to LA, do the same thing.

I know physical media has its perks, but for me, digital works. (Plus as a minimalist, anything that saves spaces is cool, haha :)
 
This is one of my biggest pros. While the quality of digital may to be up to the standards of physical (although it isn't THAT far behind) having access to my library is so convenient. When I'm in NYC, I can access my library on my apple tv there, & when I go back to LA, do the same thing.

I know physical media has its perks, but for me, digital works. (Plus as a minimalist, anything that saves spaces is cool, haha :)

Same with me. Physical discs just don't feel right to me, they remind me of the 1990s wayyyyyyy before we moved on xMillion with the Internet :) The majority of those cheaply made disc players are just plain horrible - that's not moving forward, that's taking a huge step back to the last century.

Being able to access everything from the iCloud is NOW and it's amazing!
 
It's never going to happen! Apple has felt from day one that 256kbps AAC is decent - they could have gone up to 320kbps AAC but never did - I rip the occasional CD at 320AAC as I can't hear any different between that and ripping at ALAC.
For Apple, it's all about Apple Music streaming now. I buy music tracks from iTunes although i'll admit, I maybe buy 1 full album once every 5 years and that's it. Gotta say, i'm the only one out of my friends that buys download tunes - they all have Apple Music or Spotify but nothing new there, they've been doing that for the last 5 or 6 or 7 years.

What I do LOVE is having an Apple I.D. and knowing that I can be staying/living anywhere in the world, I can sign into it on any Apple device and ALL of my films and music is there. That is living in the moment. That is NOW. And I love it! Plus having tried other brands etc, I truly believe that the Apple experience is just beautiful - it's polished - everything from using the UI on Apple TV to browsing iTunes to editing a 4K 60 fps video in FCPX to using Apple Pages to even designing a birthday card in Apple Photos is just so much nicer and a better user experience than anything else out there.

Yeah, I'm definitely old school in that regard. Apparently the rest of the world moved on to streaming, but for me it just doesn't make sense when I pay for way less than what a year's subscription would be and there's Youtube for the odd tunes I want to check out before I buy.
 
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sure, but only „must have“ movies/music/books - and I usually also rip them to have them available everywhere. (except for the books, of which i just „find“ a copy of online). it still offers superior quality to streaming/download, i own it and I can make copies that play back without annoying DRM.
 
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Very curious to see who still buys dvds and blu-rays and why? Or why did you stop?

It really depends, some movies I buy on 4K Bluray and redeem the digital copy, other times I buy the digital version either on release or later at a discounted price from iTunes. For instance, I regret not getting the Avengers on physical disc.
 
NO. My moms siblings families take turns giving each other gifts. We have her brother Brents family this year. We are giving them some treats and 2 movies. We are getting them DVDs. They have a DVD player, but it got me wondering. There will come a time when you give someone a DVD and they will have nothing to put it in. I'm sure it is happening already but it was an interesting thought.
 
I buy a mix of digital and physical. Sometimes there is no 4k download version of a film i want in 4K (Avengers).
In the last months i mostly bought Films on iTunes that where on sale, got some 4k Films for 5,99€/7,99€ where the UHD BluRay was 25,99/29,99€ on Amazon.

The majority of those cheaply made disc players are just plain horrible - that's not moving forward, that's taking a huge step back to the last century.
Got me a SONOS beam for the „Man Cave“ no way to get the Sony X700 UHD Player to downmix the 7.1/5.1 DTS or Atmos Tracks to DolbyDigital 5.1. So i‘m stuck with stereo with newer discs. That really is annoying. For the ATV 4k the SONOS is brilliant.
 
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I still buy Blu Rays, specifically UHD BDs whenever possible. Comparable quality via streaming isn't here yet.
Precisely this. Blu-Ray HD is significantly higher bandwidth/bitrate to streamed HD. Same goes for UHD.
 
After my experience this Xmas I’m done with physical media .

I only bought some blu rays as the shows weren’t available on iTunes , sadly the PS4 scratched the disc somehow ...
 
Precisely this. Blu-Ray HD is significantly higher bandwidth/bitrate to streamed HD. Same goes for UHD.

Less of all of this crazy bandwidth/bitrate talk. How does look to YOUR eyes!!!!!!!!!
Remember when we were told that Betamax was the best picture ever? DVD the ultimate in picture? I bet you agreed and you were using the same pair of eyes!

Judge the quality yourself. As Brexit in the UK proved, there's a lot of people that believe anything. Always judge for yourself. I have the LG OLED B7 and my gosh, 4K Dolby Vision iTunes films look simply outstanding on it. Plus they are all on my Apple I.D. that I can use anywhere in the world. Now, that is incredible!
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NO. My moms siblings families take turns giving each other gifts. We have her brother Brents family this year. We are giving them some treats and 2 movies. We are getting them DVDs. They have a DVD player, but it got me wondering. There will come a time when you give someone a DVD and they will have nothing to put it in. I'm sure it is happening already but it was an interesting thought.

Being honest, my friends and I agreed on this in 2010 when the iPad was launched. It was then that we agreed that iTunes was now! And that was nearly nine years ago :) Here in the UK & Europe, DVDs are really BAD NEWS as they are speeded up by 4% in their audio to create a dodgy 25fps rate. It's crazy that in 2018 people are buying these inaccurate things.
 
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Less of all of this crazy bandwidth/bitrate talk. How does look to YOUR eyes!!!!!!!!!
Remember when we were told that Betamax was the best picture ever? DVD the ultimate in picture? I bet you agreed and you were using the same pair of eyes!

Judge the quality yourself. As Brexit in the UK proved, there's a lot of people that believe anything. Always judge for yourself. I have the LG OLED B7 and my gosh, 4K Dolby Vision iTunes films look simply outstanding on it. Plus they are all on my Apple I.D. that I can use anywhere in the world. Now, that is incredible!
[doublepost=1545829620][/doublepost]

Being honest, my friends and I agreed on this in 2010 when the iPad was launched. It was then that we agreed that iTunes was now! And that was nearly nine years ago :)
Well, okay, that's a weird reply... but yes, I do trust my eyes. I have the same TV as you - the LG OLED B7. I agree, 4k Dolby Vision iTunes looks amazing. No doubt about it.

But 4k Dolby Vision on UHD Blu-ray looks better. I can see a distinct difference with my eyes. That's not to say the iTunes version isn't great - it is (or Netflix, or Amazon). But the UHD is better. For most titles I don't care, but for those films I really like, I'll go for the UHD Blu-ray.
 
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Betamax (or DAT or MiniDisc or Super-Audio CD or Blu-Ray) is a good example of how average consumer will select price over quality.
Eh? Are you saying Blu-Ray is not higher quality than streamed HD?
 
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