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back to article People watch movies on stuff

Digital downloads may be ever increasing in popularity, but physical discs reign supreme when it comes to movie viewing and expenditure. For now. In the last three months, 77 per cent of US consumers reported watching films on DVD or BD - a stat that is unchanged from last year, the market research firm NPD reports. By …

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  1. Anonymous Coward
    Paris Hilton

    people pay for media?

    really? amazing! I especially love that I can buy TV shows the premiered for free over the air.

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  2. Mark Wilson
    Stop

    I want it now

    I only have a 2Mb/s connection, it is quicker to go order on Amazon than to download, as for streaming even youtube stutters badly. Until netspeeds increase drastically this sort of thing will remain the preserve of a few lucky ones.

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  3. Doug Glass
    Go

    Old Farts Among Us

    I Bought me one of them Rokus for $49.95 and now I pay Netflix $10.46 per month for unlimited streaming and one DVD at a time. Best goldarn thing I ever did. The way I sees it I got them old great movies and TV shows to last me the rest of my life.

    Currently we's a-watchin' "Doc Martin" and lovin' it. Just finished "Gosford Park" and when the Doc's done we plan on a-watchin a few more of them Brirtish shows. Just superior stuff, 'specially that Masterpiece. "Downton Abbey" was awesome even if the language threw me for a bit.

    But shhhhhhhh .... keep it quiet. I don't want too many people hornin' in on my good thing I got goin'.

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  4. Bucky 2
    Pint

    Reliable Streaming Video

    There are sometimes free On Demand videos available via my cable provider.

    However, when I have tried to view them, I have gotten "unavailable" messages roughly 50% of the time.

    I'm not going to risk a credit card charge for video when Time Warner's definitions of "Available" and "On Demand" diverges so significantly from my own. It's not that I don't expect them to reverse the charge if I should call them. It's the inevitability of having to make the phone call that makes me resist.

    For me, one way to make the On Demand numbers go up is to demonstrate a greater willingness to DELIVER On Demand video.

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  5. Michael Xion
    Thumb Down

    Not sure about this

    Because I'd always admit to engaging in 'criminal' behaviour (torrenting movies) if asked by a 'research company' over the phone.

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  6. Owen Carter
    Troll

    They do what?

    People still pay when they watch movies somewhere other than at the cinema? how quaintly honest of them..

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    1. h4rm0ny
      Reply Icon

      Re: They do what?

      And it's a good job that there are honest people, or there wouldn't be expensive movies for you freeloaders to pirate.

      I discovered that my local library has recently started renting Blu-Rays which is nice and up to date of them, so I'm getting good quality "stuff" from them rather than the patchy quality I got when I tried LoveFilm.

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      1. Tom 38
        Reply Icon
        FAIL

        Re: Re: They do what?

        And it's a good job there are stupid people, who pay full whack to watch a film, buy it on blu-ray and buy all the shit merchandise, or there wouldn't be expensive movies for cheapskates like you to rent from your library.

        Way to make your argument.

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        1. h4rm0ny
          Reply Icon

          Re: They do what?

          I buy and rent films. And films that have been rented have been paid for under an agreement with the license holders. Your post makes very little sense.

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          1. Tom 38
            Reply Icon
            Boffin

            Doesn't make sense? Think about it

            A person renting a film from a library provides no revenue for the content creator apart from the initial up front purchase cost, which is small, and paid out of tax. A user subsequently renting that film only ensures that tax revenue is spent efficiently, they provide no strong incentive to content creators to invest in making more features.

            Given that this was the basis of your argument to slap down a purported freeloader, I thought I could point out the irony to you without having to lead you down the path. Oh well.

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      2. Owen Carter
        Reply Icon
        Pirate

        bad assumption

        If you think I'm pirating anything you are mistaken. I'm consuming my way through the vast amount of totally free (in both the speech and beer sense) stuff out there. You can too: http://vodo.net/ etc..

        I also listen to the (free!) movie reviews and sometimes go to a cinema and watch a movie, which I am happy to pay for and see in company, on a vast screen with a huge sound system.

        - A far superior experience to sitting at home watching some half-arsed rip of a movie on a small screen with the volume turned down since I actually like being friendly with my neighbours.

        I'm happy to be a freetard, but draw the line at being a freeloader.

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        1. h4rm0ny
          Reply Icon

          Re: Bad assumption

          Well if you begin your post with "People still pay for movies other than at the cinema, how quaintly honest" then it's pretty reasonable to assume that you're pirating movies. You know exactly how your comment sounds.

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        2. g e
          Reply Icon

          Of course, it WOULD help if...

          ... 95% of Hollywood movie trailers weren't actually a compilation of the only bits of their idiotic derivative offerings worth watching. Keeps me well away from cinemas, I can tell you, that ripped-off feeling sucks.

          Lovefilm on the PS3 is pretty good though they need better search/browsing in the app and a wider watch-online catalogue (which is noticeably improving over time)

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        3. Rovindi
          Reply Icon

          Cheers for that

          hadn´t come across vodo before. Some good stuff on there. Good to see "The Yes Men..." getting distributed all over the place.

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  7. heyrick Silver badge

    What discs offer

    Getting hold of a movie isn't that difficult for any reasonably clued person. But what discs offer above all else is the selection of extras. I, personally, am fond of the commentary track. Sure, sometimes it is self-obsessed waffle, but sometimes you can gain quite an insight into how the movie was put together and why certain scenes/things are the way they are. A decent disc (in addition to a level of quality that leaves the other options standing) will offer plenty of material to keep you occupied far beyond the running time of the movie.

    An example being one of the Terminator series (T2?) that offered a mini guide to making movies, plus the screenplay, plus loads more. Another example being "The Taste Of Tea" (surreal weirdness at its finest) where the making-of was highly detailed and had a longer running time than the film itself!

    Plus, you have the media in your hands. In the case of DVD, a little €20 player will work (and the cheap end of the market are increasingly good at dealing with 30fps NTSC content with minimal jitter), home computers, in car gadgets, ripping to XviD for your mobile phone... There are few issues with overly restrictive DRM.

    When downloads offer the extras and the flexibility, then the disc might see some competition.

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  8. Jim 59

    Broadcast

    It would be great if there was a transmission system that could blast films simultaneously to millions of endpoints with minimal bandwidth. Users could record the films to watch as many times as they want, leaving the internet free what what it does best, ie. 2 way point to point traffic.

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  9. Anonymous Coward
    Pirate

    Pay for films?

    Why would I do *any* of the things suggested in the article when:

    1) My country's infrastructure simply isn't up to live streaming

    2) BitTorrent exists?

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