The Future of Home Video

[Walter Kurtz]

GOOD NEWS FOR NUMBERS PEOPLE! According to DEG... although physical media sales declined 25.32% in 2023 compared to 2022... the decline for the first 9 months of 2024 is only a further 23.36% compared to 2023. The rate of descent is slowing a bit!

[jazzo]

This may not be the right home for this, but it didn’t feel right steering the DVDBeaver topic back to the Letts / Coon subject. Not enough nudity.

So, here’s Tracy Letts talking about his collection and the virtues of physical media:

https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/t ... 0680035686

[criterionsnob]

LG discontinues all UHD Blu-ray and Blu-ray players

[MichaelB]

Sony to shut down its last Blu-ray pressing plant in February.

Basically, they're abandoning the format that they introduced in the first place (as well as older ones like MiniDisc and MiniDV), although discs will still continue to be pressed elsewhere.

[Finch]

Ugh. Us physical media owners just can't catch a break. Might have to buy a 4K player and backup sooner than later.

[ianthemovie]

Are they shutting down production of their players, too, or just discs? I can't really discern from the article. Phasing out discs doesn't bode well but I would be sorry (and more worried) to lose their players.

[hearthesilence]

It'll probably progress like other physical media where other manufacturers will take up the slack, but possibly quality and definitely quality control is likely to be much worse.

[Finch]

Well, I went ahead and bought a modified Sony X800M2 (for the import BDs) from 220 Electronics for $380 with free 3-7 workday shipping, and our new TV is a 4K one though a cheap model and I always planned to get a better one anyhow but our old HD TV died and needed replacing immediately. Also bought a new HDMI cable from Amazon.

[tenia]

Does anyone understand exactly which products are concerned exactly ? I know that several French video labels are/were solely pressing at Sony, does it mean they'll have to produce their pressings elsewhere ? Or are we talking of other manufacturing than pressing commercial video releases ?
Last time I saw this popping up, it was about Sony stopping their manufacturing of recordable discs (as in the BD-Rs you can buy to burn at home), not pressed discs (as in what a video label will press at a Sony plant).

[nicolas]

Does anyone understand exactly which products are concerned exactly ? I know that several French video labels are/were solely pressing at Sony, does it mean they'll have to produce their pressings elsewhere ? Or are we talking of other manufacturing than pressing commercial video releases ?
Last time I saw this popping up, it was about Sony stopping their manufacturing of recordable discs (as in the BD-Rs you can buy to burn at home), not pressed discs (as in what a video label will press at a Sony plant).

Yes, it’s again concerning BD-Rs. They’re not shutting down anything that has to do with our pressed physical discs.

David Mackenzie / Fidelity in Motion also confirmed this, so thankfully no need to worry.

[Drucker]

So what you're saying is this was all fake news?

[andyli]

My source also indicated that the remaining Sony pressing factory had no sign of shutting down. If so they would have been notified months ahead.

[tenia]

So what you're saying is this was all fake news?

It's lazy journalism. I couldn't understand what was going on here, simply because :
- it's actually the same announcement made a few months ago that's back in the news cycle for whatever reason
- it's only "home-recordable" products that were, and still are, concerned

Everything else is just journalists not doing their jobs properly, either because they don't know what they're reporting, or because they're willfully trying to pump up the traffic.

[andyli]

Yeah. I was very suspicious of that article when I found the only mention of "pressing factory" was in the title. Very poor journalism at the very least.

[Kracker]

Not only is it just the home recordable BD-Rs being discontinued but its just Sony not making them. As far as I know, companies like Verbatim, which is the popular trusted brand anyway, will still be making them. I dont think I ever bought one Sony BD-R disc.

[tenia]

I always only bought Verbatim's.

[Walter Kurtz]

2024 DEG Annual Report Summary
-- in millions --

Buying Physical $960 -23%

Buying Digital $2370 -10%

Renting Digital $1641 -3%

Subscription $52196 +25%

[MichaelB]

None of those figures surprises me in the slightest.

[Walter Kurtz]

Agreed. Visual media has been ---- and continues to be ---- increasing consumable.... even digital ownsership is down!

[Zepfanman]

2024 DEG Annual Report Summary

Thanks! Quarterly details here: https://www.degonline.org/portfolio_pag ... nt-report/

[Peacock]

Obviously keep in mind that those figures come from their members right? Of which the only boutique label is Shout I think.

We hear year after year from certain boutique labels how well physical media is doing so I’m not sure this report changes anything.

[Walter Kurtz]

I think you are misinterpreting the information contained within the report. It is an industry survey that includes "members, tracking sources and retail/platform
input." It is not just members. Or just Shout. They mention top-selling catalogue titles such as "How the Grinch Stole Christmas (2000), The Grinch (2018) and Home Alone (1990), Beetlejuice (1988), Dune (2021), Inside Out (2015), and Twister (1996).

It is an industry report of which the tiny boutiques are are just tiny specks of lint on the industry coat jacket. The pieces of lint can be doing okay while the coat is unraveling.

[Peacock]

All of the titles you listed are studio releases from members of the DEG.

I’m not saying I’m right, happy to be shown I’m wrong. But I wonder if James from Arrow or Radiance or the Indicator team are contacting the DEG each year willingly to share with them their website sales etc? Is it an accurate survey of the entire market if it doesn’t include Criterion.com sales?

And I assume this is just for the US right? I don’t see any non US members listed.

[Walter Kurtz]

All of the titles you listed are studio releases from members of the DEG.

That was a listing of some of top sellers and you're surprised that the top sellers mentioned are all studio releases and not boutique label releases?

All I did was provide a service that summarized industry numbers that were released by the same people that have been doing this for twenty years or so. And someone else kindly provided the link to the report that would answer almost all your questions. As the report said... it is USA only.

It seems you're taking industry news personally for some reason and conflating the rather niche boutique market with the entire physical media market. Whatever. Call it fake news if that makes you happier.

BTW... I'm very happy with the ten hi-def physical releases still in my possession and someone will have to come at me with an M1AD Abrams tank if they want to take them away from me. I'm happy that physical product still exists.

[Peacock]

I think you’re taking what I’m saying personally for some reason, perhaps I’m not wording myself well…

All I’m trying to say is, let’s not fear what the report says as as far as I can see it doesn’t include boutique labels outside of Shout. We all assume studio physical media sales are going to continue to decrease and that is what it is, but hopefully boutique physical media sales are still going strong or increasing as they were for some labels.

Ultimately the majority of films being discussed on this forum are released by those boutique labels so hopefully the sales trajectory of studio releases in that report doesn’t reflect the sales of boutique releases and therefore any negative repercussions, due the report, to the films we love being released are minimal…