cyberschizoid - 'I HATE watching films online so usually NEVER do this. Blu-ray? No thanks...a waste of money'
TerilynnS - 'I own most DVDs of stuff I like. I haven't rented or streamed anything (yet.) We have blu-ray and love it. My next purchase? I dunno - Probably Toy Story 3'
Univarn - 'sometimes I'll watch [films] on my laptop, other times on my parent's 42inch TV. Either way, reclining chair = requirement'
jebutlin - 'I have close to 400 DVDs, maybe more now... I tend not to watch films online, I can't keep my concentration solely on a film if I'm on my laptop'
truedesertpunk - 'mostly use netflix, and i watch on my computer with headphones. no fancy surround sound stuff. I like using netflix streaming. My next film related would probably not be dvds but rather something like BOXEE'
Hypnogoria - 'Not made the move to Blu Ray just yet but as the DVD is getting a little elderly, that move will be happening soon! Next purchase? Quite probably Blake's & Series 3, though no doubt some little gem will leap out of a bargain bin before then!'
jamieneish - 'I do have a very large collection of DVD's at home, around 300 I'd imagine... I plan on purchasing Another Year, Easy A and The Social Network as soon as possible'
TheMike31 - 'I'm a devoted collector. Updated to Blu-ray over the last year, and have around 3300 DVDs & 200 Blus'
isavedlatin89 - 'I have a relatively large collection, but have a rather small set up. As far as my next purchase goes, that's a very good question. One of the upcoming March Criterion releases more than likely.'
JCP55 - 'I HATE watching films online, but I do have Netflix, which I'm slavishly addicted to'
The Verdict: The Blu-ray debate rumbles on: there's as many people vehemently opposed to it as there are happy with their investment. The most interesting result of this BIG question was in terms of online film watching. A few people said that this was their main way of receiving films but many more said that they hated watching films on their small-screen laptops. Perhaps the increase in Internet TVs and devices which can stream films to TVs will change opinion in the coming months. Also interesting was the amount of people who said they still added to large collections despite renting extensively, thus suggesting that the thriving rental market doesn't harm the studios, with avid collectors purchasing regardless.
Film Intel use Formspring as a way of gauging your reactions to current happenings in the film world and posing questions about you and your taste in films. If you want to take part and share your opinions with us then just make sure we're friends on the site - the choicest quotes from the best responses will be posted in articles we run right here. You can also take part via our Twitter page where all questions will also be posted.
Hmmm this is a toughie.
ReplyDeleteWe are moving into a bold new world with everything being avaiable online. I have posted about this on my blog a little while ago.
Every new bit of kit (TV/Amp/BD Player) is pretty much internet enabled, meaning it can be used on your network to stream media. Amps can use internet radio, TV's for IPTV.
In the UK it has been a slow build as our broadband isn't quite up to scratch, but the rest of the world seems to have embraced it more.
We at FRC are only holding back from watching movies online as we cant get them quick enough without buffering every 5 minutes. We do have our Mac as our media server and we back up all of our disks onto a NAS drive for ease of access. I sure that streaming HD will be our next stage.
Do I think that it is the end of Blu Ray? Nope, we are magpies and we like to hoard and collect all things shiny.
Nice post.
Custard
Good points there. I think streaming will pick up as the setup gets easier and is pushed out to more devices. For example: I have a Sony Blu-ray player. Lovefilm stream to Sony Blu-ray players. But not mine. Because they haven't rolled it out to that individual model yet.
ReplyDeleteAs with anything, the easier you make the system for consumers, the more consumers will be willing to give it a try.
My own feeling on Blu-ray is that if you watch a lot of films (four a week say) then the marginal increase in price is worth it. If you watch only one film a week or so on your expensive player then you're probably best of sticking with DVD.
I can understand that.
ReplyDeleteAlthough when set up correctly a BD player will give you amazing sound and picture by far superior than DVD could ever supply (eve on high end spinners), I would never tell my Ma to go and buy one as she only watches Movies when she comes to us (and then asks questions all the way through).
In one way its great that we are moving forward with technology so fast that we can skip a generation and not really miss out on too much quality, but on the other I feel sorry for poor Joe Bloggs who has adopted every bit of new AV kit because he simply has to have the next big thing.
(Joe Bloggs is me by the way)
C