Julie and I have had this conversation on several occasions

[andrewducker]

We bought Simon Schama: A History of Britain on DVD. And then downloaded it as well, so that we could watch it in bed or on the TV without having to go find the right disc. And Netflix is even better at remembering the minute that you're up to.

Comments

[matgb]

When I first got Netflix it was a free one month trial that gave me points on a gaming site I was using. magister told me it was a waste of time, he'd never want to use it much and his DVD collection (which is excessively large and now into the 4th bookcase despite being sold off regularly) was where it was at.

That Xmas he got given Breaking Bad series 1 & 2 by a relative. But we never got around to watching it.

Then, one evening, I was playing around with Netflix, I think roughly when the finalé was broadcast, and thought I'd give episode one a try see what the fuss was about, he came in very early on.

A few weeks later he asked how to turn Netflix on so he could watch the rest of the series, I pointed out we had the DVDs, he said "yes, but they're over there". The other side of the damned room. So much for his "I'll always want my DVDs" vow, took less than 6 months. I still haven't got a device that'll play it in my room that isn't my laptop or phone, for some reason the Wii doesn't work on my TV. That'll change.

[andrewducker]

Yup. I had people say the same to me about Spotify, and I sold my CD collection earlier this year.

There are still some things I'm happy to own - Blu-Ray movies I want in very high quality, etc.

But my CDs have gone, most of my DVDs have gone, and I expect that next time I move most of the rest of my books will go.

[cmcmck]

Have to admit that books are part of who I am but that's mainly an artefact of what I do for a living.

I also have to have real, proper hi fi!

[andrewducker]

Me too!

Doesn't have anything hooked up to it that plays vinyl or CDs though.

[cmcmck]

We do! :o)

[matgb]

Books'll likely stay in my life in two ways, one is I read in the bath, a lot, and if I drop a cheap paperback, well, meh, but my phone (and putative future e-ink thingy) don't go near the bathwater, and I doubt we'll have genuinely waterproof phones in my pricerange for awhile, let alone ereaders.

Also, I still have reference texts that aren't replaced by Wikipedia &c, and it's nice sometimes to look through a ref book to see similar stuff. But yeah, the book collection is getting smaller, not bigger, these days.

Re blu-rays, never even going to bother, Netflix'll stream to the best your device can manage, I've watched stuff in 1080p thru the PS3, most UK sold BluRay releases are only 1080i, and at some point whatever they're calling 4K will be affordable, Netflix is ready, suspect PRime will be as well.

[andrewducker]

Netflix 1080p is significantly lower quality than Blurays still:
http://hometheaterreview.com/why-blu-ray-is-still-better-than-streaming-today/

Give it another five years and it might catch up, of course.

(And I'm largely wanting it for things I can't get on Netflix- the extended LOTR/Hobbit movies, and Game of Thrones, things like that.)

[matgb]

These streaming providers will test your network speed before playback begins on a selected title and adjust the level of compression based on how fast your network is; the slower the network, the more compressed your video has to be to ensure uninterrupted playback.

160Mbps on our home connection, the only "luxury" we pay for, it's good enough for my tired old eyes. They're right about sound quality though, on the other hand I've never managed to get the balance right on the AV box and the speakers are in stupid places anyway.

I suspect, in a fairly short timeframe, either services like Netflix or studios themselves will be serving full featured stuff to either stream or download, whether it'll be at price points that make sense, initially, we'll have to see, but yeah I've kept my extended collectors LoTR DVDs just because, even though James has the Blu Rays (that's partially because the collectors boxes are pretty and mine are damaged enough to have little collectible value).

[andrewducker]

"These streaming providers will test your network speed before playback begins on a selected title and adjust the level of compression based on how fast your network is"

Yup, but Netflix top quality is still significantly below Blu-Ray. Which is fine if your TV is small or far away.

Eventually, I'm sure it will catch up with HD quality. And hopefully they'll start selling _everything_ online. Although it will presumably be heavily locked-down to start with, so as to give The Pirate Bay a chance.