byte-size cinema: Recent Episodes
Byte-Size Cinema
Well, I’m giving up on physical media and going digital. It’s the end of an era, indeed.
A VHS of Back to the Future introduced me to the magic of Hollywood and I’ve been an avid film fan and collector since.
Growing up, ownership was important for watching the movies I loved, because the only options otherwise had been to watch butchered television edits or hope a copy was locally available to rent. So, I amassed a sizable VHS collection. As technology improved and better formats emerged, I filled my shelves with DVDs, Blu-rays, and 4K discs. Many believed my collection to be superfluous, but once streaming became the primary way people absorbed television and film, they began to complain of content being spread across multiple platforms, ever-increasing fees, services being temporarily unavailable, and the list goes on. I, of course, had no such problem. All I needed to do was pull a disc off the shelf, pop it into my player, and that was that.
So why would I choose to give up the freedom and security that physical media provides?
To be clear, this choice was made with extreme reluctance, but the state of physical media is so poor these days that collecting is no longer worth the hassle.
Quality control in disc production is non-existent, at least in my region of the world. Years ago, there were multiple plants manufacturing discs, but now we’re down to one from Mexico. In the last couple of years, I’ve purchased more defective discs than ever before, so my confidence in that plant has waned.
Furthermore, studios have gotten sloppy with their packaging. They’ll stack discs on top of each other or slide them into cardboard sleeves, all of which leads to – you guessed it – scratched discs.
And trying to exchange a disc has become an anxiety inducing task for an introvert that doesn’t like confrontation.
A month ago, for example, I bought a Blu-ray from Target. The disc had a bunch of problematic scratches, so I brought it back to the service desk and asked for an even exchange.
And how did that go?
Receipt in hand, I told them what I was trying to do. The girl behind the counter said they can’t do exchanges for physical media in general, so she’d have to process it as a return. That made no sense to me, but okay. A few seconds later, she said she couldn’t return the disc because it had been opened. Baffled, I told her that didn’t sound right because I wasn’t looking to -return- the disc, but to -exchange- it, and that it’s well within their return policy to do so. I pointed out the text on their policy board that said as much. Despite the evidence in print on the wall behind her, she went to grab a manager so he could reiterate their policy. Once he realized I was merely looking to swap my defective product for a working one, he apologized, did the exchange, and I was on my way.
As an isolated incident it isn’t the end of the world… but this happens all the time. So, between the lack of quality control and people at retail being oblivious to their own policies, I’ve come to loathe the process of buying (and exchanging) discs.
That’s not to say that digital copies are ideal.
For one thing, streaming will never match the quality of a 4K disc, which can achieve a maximum video bitrate of 128 Mbps. On average, digital streaming services top out between 25 and 30. The difference is mostly negligible in practice, but visual artifacts – such as macroblocking and banding* – will occasionally rear their ugly heads.
I’m also wary about having my collection split across multiple storefronts. There’s no guessing where your physical copies are, but digital purchases can be split across Vudu, iTunes, Movies Anywhere and more. Each have their own caveats to consider, too:
- Movies Anywhere doesn’t sell movies, but instead acts as a digital locker for purchases you’ve made across a variety of participating studios and platforms. Unfortunately, Lionsgate, A24 and Paramount don’t have a presence here. This platform also lacks television shows.
- iTunes is a popular choice because people feel a sense of security and respect when buying directly from Apple. Apple’s not going to fold and disappear anytime soon, so your purchases should be safe for a long, long time to come. Furthermore, say you bought a 1080p HD copy of a film, but now a 4K version is available. Apple will upgrade your purchase to 4K, free of charge. Unlike Movies Anywhere, iTunes has a -lot- of television shows… just not in 4K. If you want your Game of Thrones in UHD, you’ll need to look elsewhere.
- Vudu has been a viable one-stop shop for a long time, because virtually every studio sells products there. You’ll also be able to find applicable programming in 4K, too. The downside is that they don’t offer free upgrades like Apple, so if you bought a movie in 1080p and would prefer to own it in 4K, you’ll have to double dip.
So, while the landscape of ‘ownership’ is the messiest it’s been, there are a lot of perks to digital that I’m happy to embrace.
- I won’t have to worry about disc rot (yes, that’s a thing, and I’ve had to replace a handful of titles over the years due to it).
- Swapping discs is a thing of the past.
- Streaming devices are much cheaper to replace than 4K UHD players.
- Digital copies are often much cheaper than their physical counterparts.
- Movies will be released earlier on digital.
- I can buy films and shows that never made it to Blu-ray or 4K UHD.
- I’ll never have to reorganize my 1,000+ discs to incorporate new releases.
- There’s no need to create or buy additional shelf space.
- There more I own in the digital sphere, the less incentive there is to subscribe to the likes of Netflix.
The dreaded question that friends have asked and that I’ve asked myself is, “What happens if these digital storefronts die?” To that, I say, nothing lasts forever. Sure, my discs should theoretically last forever, but what happens when companies stop making the machines that play them? You never know what the future will hold.
The only thing I can say with absolute certainty is that digital is the future. Discs will be around for years and years to come, but it’ll likely be a niche market, only to be served by boutique labels that are willing to pay for timed distribution deals.
Like it or lump it, that’s where things are headed… and as a matter of fact, we’re already there.
*macroblocking – With a less than ideal bitrate, you can get distortion in the video that looks like large pixel blocks.
**banding – Parts of a scene with a seamless color transition – such as the various hues of blue in the sky – can appear to have visual ‘bands’ when the bitrate is low or the encode isn’t doing its job properly.
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