After the advent of various Streaming technologies, the consumer choice has shifted to the new technologies and the devices. Consequently, the Disc no more remains as the primary medium of entertainment. There is a lot of nostalgia value in owning the music titles. So the consumers seek to buy and own a personal library of the Movies or Music titles.
The question is are the ‘discs’ dead? Empirical evidence shows otherwise. There are enthusiasts who love to still watch the favourite movie on personal DVD or Blu Ray Disc. The video and audio quality is some of these formats is superior to the commonly available streaming services. It’s all about the personal experience offered by the content. Discerning viewers look for the Ultra HD Blu Ray or DVD.
Some viewers feel that the 4K movies from the streaming service are not the same quality as the Ultra HD Blue Ray. There are still some benefits that come with the physical media. The physical media (Discs) have still a place in a modern home, that includes the special rack and other accessories that go with the home entertainment.
Technologies that make the streaming service
The video and audio content are compressed to suit the overall streaming platform requirements.
There is some loss of quality in this process. The streaming service always try to strike a balance between optimum quality of picture and sound while remaining within the available bandwidth and smoothness of the service. Customers who have low bandwidth connections, have an experience of occasional buffering delay. This is perceived as a nuisance. There is a drop in the resolution while streaming movies.
Compression process adjusts or even deletes some of the individual frames of a video. This is done to reduce the overall size of the file. The higher is the memory size of the file, the slower will be the streaming. This is independent of the internet speed of the home wifi or even the ethernet connection. An uncompressed movie file will be too big to fit on the computer. So even the discs are also recorded with compression to some degree.
Buying a movie or Streaming
In case of streaming movies, the compression is dynamically adjusted to keep up with the internet speed changes. But the quality of a movie on ultra HD Blu-ray disc never changes, it will play at the highest quality every time.
Higher bit rate gives better quality of video and audio signal. A 4K Blu Ray Disc with an image resolution of 3840 x 2160 will display same as a 4K stream. But the data sent to the TV every second (bit rate) makes a lot of difference. The streaming service providers are known to fluctuate in terms of the bit rate. It is observed to drop to 8 Megabits per second to 40 Mbps. But in case of UHD Bluray disc, it can be in the range of 80 Mbps to 100 Mbps. That means more data is sent to the TV, every second. This results in smoother, better-quality images and sound. This benefit is only in the latest releases of epic movies, where the 4K or 8K recording is done on the discs. Some old movies are re-mastered to the 4K format to upgrade the quality of video and sound.
The UHD Blu ray movies cost more than the streaming service cost. But mostly they also include a digital copy to enable download from various services and watching the movie on the mobile device using the digital code. The discs will be your personal collection, available at home. Sometimes the streaming services discontinue a movie from their streaming list. In such a case, having a personal disc is better choice. It’s easy to share with friends or even sell them when you don’t want it anymore.
The UHD Blu ray disc players may cost between USD200 to USD300, depending on the disc capabilities and the title. There are even higher priced models offering Ethernet or WiFi, Surround sound support of 7.1 and backward compatibility with the old discs of all types. Some of the Game Consoles also offer the playing of UHD Blu ray discs.
Improved quality of experience of UHD cinema and sound especially with a large screen TV and a home theatre system, can justify initial investment in a disc player. Contemporary blockbusters watching on such a system can give a great cinema experience in the comfort of home.