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Is the CD-R dead?
- Thread starter MacBH928
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I think for a number of makers its an optional accessory, i.e., by default its not included
They're still the same format when done at home or in some fancy factory printing off thousands/millions. I don't think many can print off the nice painted or is it printed cover on the actual disc? Some are very smooth and thick, some pitted or textured.
Game console downloads are insane. The prices can be double, triple the prices of the physical. Most digital downloads are £54.99 then deluxe editions £70 to £80.
Clearly upstream CDs are written/mastered even when they're delivered as read-only (in the case of music or game distribution), but the discussion was about CD-R specifically. I used to use CD-R for archives, or making the occasional audio disc for the car (i.e., CD audio/redbook), but their size constraint pretty much killed them as an option for the former and digital devices replaced the latter for me.
Examples of games where the digital download is 3X the price of the physical media distro? (outside of an outlier where there's some kind of clearance).
No this is real, digital is more expensive. Its not 3x more expensive (could be!). The movie Training Day is currently $15 on iTunes and less than $10 on Amazon.
I see this all the time because I prefer the digital media but end up buying the physical media because physical is frequently much less expensive. Which makes no sense of course.
Here's a quick example. Literally the first title I checked:
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@ActionableMango
Sure, as someone who buys games, I've personally run into the occasional disparity - both ways in fact - though it's more common to discount the physical media. What I haven't seen is many cases of 2X, let alone 3X the prices which was the specific question I asked.
Your examples are what I typically see, that PS4 game being ~1.25x and the PC version is ~1.7x (I see more variation in PC games). I was actually surprised and genuinely curious when someone said 2x even 3x the price. I'm involved in creating some "entertainment experiences" for VR so the business side has some specific interest. I was just looking at Uncharted 4 and there's $7 difference (~14).
Sure, as someone who buys games, I've personally run into the occasional disparity - both ways in fact - though it's more common to discount the physical media. What I haven't seen is many cases of 2X, let alone 3X the prices which was the specific question I asked.
Your examples are what I typically see, that PS4 game being ~1.25x and the PC version is ~1.7x (I see more variation in PC games). I was actually surprised and genuinely curious when someone said 2x even 3x the price. I'm involved in creating some "entertainment experiences" for VR so the business side has some specific interest. I was just looking at Uncharted 4 and there's $7 difference (~14).
Well I guess I considered 1.7x to be close enough to 2x. That is very common. Here is a current 4x example:
I think that digital copies are more often subject to some kind of licensing or agreement on pricing that the physical copies are not subject to. But that's pure speculation on my part.
Another issue with digital delivery is speed and bandwidth. This may be 2016, but many ISPs still place a bandwidth cap on service. Mine does not, thankfully, but it's one of few ISPs that don't. You may think it's not an issue, but if you'd got a modern router or use a third party firmware, you're able to view the total bandwidth used and you'd be shocked. It's not uncommon for our house to use anywhere from 65-120 GB of bandwidth a day on services like Netflix, Prime Video or premium audio streaming.
This. We're on satellite and get 150 GB a MONTH! And that's on our new largest plan - before it was 25 GB a month. This is why we never got into the gamer life.
It's going to be an ongoing issue as speeds climb up and downloads get fatter.
No kidding. Can you imagine what life would be like with ubiquitous internet speed and free power? Jetsonville
Most games these days range from minimum 22GB to 55GB. Even some updates can be 1 - 6GB let alone the DLC.
Yeah, I hadn't honestly seen anything with that drastic of a difference (which is why I asked, though never got a specific example from the other poster ...), and I figured if there was a case, folks currently buying games would have an easy and quick example since I'm semi-out-of-the-loop, thanks!
You're definitely right in some capacity, we've been talking to some companies involved in developing AAA titles and there's some licensing components to the pricing (and the delivery method), but it's very driven by the standard retail model: physical games occupy space, go through distribution channels, and retail retains some control over pricing and the original content providers are kind of bound to the "MSRP"
It's an _old_ problem that first came up with companies very early in Internet Retailing (i.e., if a company sells direct, but also through retail channels, they have to be careful about not causing a rift by under-pricing retails, I recall in the late 90s this was a big issue with several clothing companies like Levis).
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Yeah, that's one reason I went with a "Business Class" at the house, I mean, it _is_ used for business (in addition to quite a bit of non-business), but it doesn't have any caps (in addition to several other perks including better service level). However, it's notably more expensive than consumer grade.
All that being said, we're still better with higher price internet and a mix of online video services plus a few a la carte purchases through GP/iTunes/etc.
Comcast. In my area it's Comcast or AT&T, and the latter doesn't even offer their more advanced products here (so it's craptacular DSL).
I'd *love* FIOS, but it's still not available in this area (some people I know, who are in the know say mid-to-late '17 at the soonest ...)
Biz Class is definitely a step up from the consumer product: much faster service response, no caps, no ports blocked, static IP (multiple if purchased up to 4, maybe 6[?]) and upstream the Biz network is faster so our speed is more consistent, and about 18-20% faster than our purchased speed.
Yeah, it's terrific, cheaper/faster, synchronous upstream speeds (important for me when I'm committing 2GB of assets to a remote repository). Plus, all the folks I know who use FIOS are super happy with the service and uptime.
I buy CDs because it's the best way to get lossless music. I'm an audiophile and prefer higher quality than you can get from most downloads, and when it comes to classical music, CDs have the widest selection. Plus I simply like owning physical copies of my music; I have a lot of LPs and a lot of CDs.
Actually LP and vynal's are more accurate reproductions of the original simply because CD's are sampled at a lower rate therefore LP's actually sounds 'better' in the end.
http://electronics.howstuffworks.com/question487.htm
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