Blu-ray Discs v Streaming Services

[theflyingwasp]

I've bought films on VHS,DVD and now blu ray and no doubt I will re-buy the same movies on 4k disc whenever they arrive.

with a calibrated screen or not a lot of blu rays look absolutely stunning in 1080p which brings me to these streaming services I have amazon prime because I buy a shed load of blu rays and now with my prime service I have amazon instant video aswell.

amazon have also just announced amazon fire to combat Apple TV etc a lot of these company's are claiming 1080p but maybe it's just me but my blu rays look a hell of a lot better than the high def supposed 1080p versions of films on these streaming services .I only bought a couple of film rentals from Apple TV in HD to check out the picture quality and I was not impressed.

i will always buy the physical disc until the likes of Apple TV etc give me the same quality I'm used to but is this ever going to happen? I'm sure sky and virgin are 1080i and as for this 4k Netflix streaming thing I just don't buy it for a minute.

i understand not everyone wants or has the money to have a large blu ray collection and with amazon fire claiming over 200,000 movies it great for your casual movie fan ,but for me I wouldn't be buying the best home cinema kit to watch all my movies on amazon instant video and Apple TV with the current quality they are offering.

 

[jonathanRD]

I have the 'full' Lovefilm (now Amazon) account that provides both streaming and discs by post. For the postal account I always choose the bluray version (if available). We tend a watch one 'posted' disc a week and use the streaming service for tv series, and if I'm bored.

We do have a collection of bluray and dvd films, but these days we would have to really like a film to actually buy it, and then it would have to be on bluray.

I've not really noticed the difference in download quality but then I only stream films occasionally.

But I agree that I would only mainly/solely use a streaming service if 1) there was a large selection, and 2) the download quality was at a guaranteed level.

 

[bigboss]

Services like Netflix (probably Lovefilm as well) adapt their stream according to the speed of your internet connection. Their priority is uninterrupted movie stream, so the quality is compromised if you have a slower internet connection.

 

[cheeseboy]

also there is compression on the streaming services. A full fat blu ray film maybe say 40 odd gig. The version you watch on the streaming services maybe a tenth of that. sometimes you may notice the difference, sometimes you may not, it's just dependent of what and where you are watching it.

 

[daveh75]

Worse than the compression (which is pretty good for the most part these days) is the excessive and unnecessary processing the streaming services are guilty of.

 

[Leeps]

I don't use streaming services for movies, just blurays (and DVD's if something is not released on bluray at all - still enfuriatingly common).

You guys mention the comparison in picture quality. What about sound? Are 5.1 mixes or DTS Master Audio available at all on these services? If so, are these carried by HDMI to your receivers or do you have to have a separate optical cable for that?

 

[Mtenga]

Another problem is that some ISP throttle Netflix bandwidth. I have a 120mbps connection and yet can never sustain 1080p throughout a Netflix broadcast.

 

[Mtenga]

You won't get HD audio via streaming services. The best you can hope for is Dolby digital plus. Much of Netflix is 5.1 DD+ but not all of it.

Anyway an optical cable does not have the bandwidth to carry HD audio.

 

[daveh75]

Another problem is that some ISP throttle Netflix bandwidth. I have a 120mbps connection and yet can never sustain 1080p throughout a Netflix broadcast.

I thought VM had removed STM on the downstream. More likely to be localised contention issues if you can't maintain a stream that tops out at 7mbps.

Which is a common issue on an HFC network.

 

[theflyingwasp]

At this rate I think it will be quite a while if ever we get the same picture and audio quality from streaming services.

if they are struggling to give us 1080p streaming what chance does 4k have

 

[abacus]

At this rate I think it will be quite a while if ever we get the same picture and audio quality from streaming services.

if they are struggling to give us 1080p streaming what chance does 4k have

Quite good actually due to the fact that the ISPs and line providers will have to up their game as demand grows for 4K, and ISPs will be aiming to provide the best quality to outdo their completion so as to get more custom.

Bill

 

[Big Chris]

I'm fairly rural and get about 4mbps. This means I can't watch anything HD on my Youview/ BT Vision package..... No Virgin or fibre network here either.

Since Blockbuster went under, PPV is the only method of watching new stuff, but for the films I've rented which I love, I'll splash out for the Blu-Ray.

 

[duaplex]

If streaming can give HD Audio then ok. Personally I prefer to have a massive physical collection, nothing is more pleasing to me than to see a library of my favourite movies stacked up

 

[theflyingwasp]

If streaming can give HD Audio then ok. Personally I prefer to have a massive physical collection, nothing is more pleasing to me than to see a library of my favourite movies stacked up

+1!!!

 

[andyjm]

I have 17Mb/s internet from BT which generally works fine for Netflix HD (been watching House of Cards). I have a large screen and 1080p SIM2 projector. Quality of streamed movies definitely not to the same standard as native blu-ray, which given the bit rate difference is not surprising.

More of a surprise is that quality is variable depending on time of day. Depends I guess on how stressed the BT network or Netflix's servers are. Midday, quality is very good, evening viewing not so. WIll try to figure out how to display bitrate to see if what I believe I am seeing is reflected in bit rate of data.

Tried Blinkbox (the Tesco offering) for Game of Thrones 3. It was very flaky. Not sure it was the windows app, or the Blinkbox server system, but streaming was hopeless. Fell over all the time. The only way to watch anything was to download the file, and then play it locally. I make a point of paying for media, but this was so much hassle I was tempted to find a torrent site or similar. I didn't, but I was definitely pulling my hair out on this one.

I have amazon prime, in which amazon have 'kindly' included their streaming service and bumped up the price of prime - telling me what a great deal it was. Haven't bothered to try it yet, might give it a go over the weekend.

 

[duaplex]

I have amazon prime, in which amazon have 'kindly' included their streaming service and bumped up the price of prime - telling me what a great deal it was. Haven't bothered to try it yet, might give it a go over the weekend.

I have it too, been trying it out and feel let down by it. Its great to have prime movies you can watch for free and TV Shows, but most of the stuff you want comes in at an exra cost, like Sky Box Office.

 

[Nick_Shepherd]

Is it possible no that Blockbuster has gone, love film may negotiate earlier release dates for bluray? They seem to be a good 3 months behind Sky's broadcasts....

 

[bigboss]

I don't think it depends on Blockbuster at all. Sky has managed to secure exclusive deals with studios for early releases. Lovefilm etc. will have to negotiate separately.

 

[Nick_Shepherd]

I mean for bluray rental.....currently I have no way of renting new release bluray at time of release....leaving the option of buying, or waiting months to rent.... Is bluray that niche that no service will replace blockbuster?

 

[duaplex]

I mean for bluray rental.....currently I have no way of renting new release bluray at time of release....leaving the option of buying, or waiting months to rent.... Is bluray that niche that no service will replace blockbuster?

http://www.cinemaparadiso.co.uk/ Not used but heard good things

Bluray - you can say that as people are still happy with DVD players and buying DVD at cheaper prices. This is why DVD has not been phased out like VHS was.

 

[theflyingwasp]

I mean for bluray rental.....currently I have no way of renting new release bluray at time of release....leaving the option of buying, or waiting months to rent.... Is bluray that niche that no service will replace blockbuster?

http://www.cinemaparadiso.co.uk/ Not used but heard good things

Bluray - you can say that as people are still happy with DVD players and buying DVD at cheaper prices. This is why DVD has not been phased out like VHS was.

yeah I think DVD still has a long way too go .obviously on these kind of forums we are all trying to get the best picture quality possible and by sometimes have to spend a heck of a lot of cash to get it but DVD is still very good even on big screens.

When watching movies the picture quality on my tablet and Virgin movies hd is perfectly acceptable but at the back of my mind I know Blu ray is better it's just a shame 1080p material can't be viewed on sky or virgin or streamed to tablets using amazon instant etc we still have to rent or buy the actual disc to get the best picture quality and with some of the comments on this thread it could be that way for some time.