The Home Theater Showcase Thread

Go to boxes. Way easier. Then you can just have a catalog somewhere with the movies and where they're located. It's what I will do when I get my own place.

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"This is that human freedom, which all boast that they possess, and which consists solely in the fact, that men are conscious of their own desire, but are ignorant of the causes whereby that desire has been determined." -Baruch Spinoza

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(NOTE: not actual models)

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"Loves them? They need them, like they need the air."

Then there's the problem of having so many boxes that they begin to get stacked on to of one another and even if you know where something is (I used to catalogue my collection but I grew up, fortunately ) it's a pain in the rear getting at it.

Presently I've got enough space to have my Blu Rays and a selection of films that I think will impress women my favourite DVDs on display, as such. The majority is out of view in cupboards and boxes.

Big boxes. Heavy ones.

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"Critics are like eunuchs in a harem; they know how the Tatty 100 is done, they've seen it done every day, but they're unable to do it themselves." - Brendan Behan

I see people putting up their CPU so this is what I MoFo around on. Best Buy had it on sale around Christmas so I bought it for the wife as a gift. Our other CPU had a cracked screen from falling off a counter.

You put the boxes on shelves in a closet. Geez, how hard is this to manage?

Hey that looks like my CPU

That still takes up the same amount of space, which is the issue I need to resolve. It also makes them WAY less accessible, as you would always have to move the boxes around, and then dig through layers of DVDs to get to the one you wanted. Not to mention cataloging all the DVDs...No thanks.

Although, hadn't we discussed alternate storage methods at one point? You may have a specific storage box in mind that would avoid these issues...



Putting DVDs in boxes in a closet is clearly a major pain in the ass for extremely obvious reasons if you want to like, you know, WATCH your movies from time to time.

Here's what's easy : Pull up a menu of titles in the browser on my TV screen, choose a title, and watch it in 1080i streams. THAT is easy. Took about 13 seconds total.

Also folks - Just a quick reminder that this is the HOME THEATER SHOWCASE THREAD. You may consider your laptop with a 13 inch screen and two tinny ass speakers home theater, but I doubt many others would agree.

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I'm telling you, dude. Streaming is years and years away from replacing DVDs or Blu-Rays.

I'd once thought of something like this...



...but quickly discounted it because you're doing without your cases (not a major worry but I can see some people finding it such) and it's flippin' expensive (50-odd quid) when the thing only holds 100 discs. Now, if I could get some sort of Heath-Robinson device that holds, say, 1000 and fits lengthwise into a hole in the wall we may be in business.

The drastic action I took a couple of years ago was to get rid of loads of DVDs I rarely watched and to be a lot more circumspect when buying new ones. Probably pared my collection down by 2 or 3 hundred and I've only regretted it a couple of times. DVDs are so cheap now, even re-buying stuff isn't a major annoyance.

Thing is, the collection is only gonna grow because I have no more dead wood (but I do have a Deadwood box set ) to get rid of...

EDIT - Oh yeah, I'm seeing about getting my TV repaired/replaced next week. It's getting worse.

I really have no luck at all with the things: 4 in 2 years.

Depends on what "replacing" means, doesn't it? It's already replacing some of it. It'll definitely be years and years until it replaces it almost completely (if that ever happens; I have my doubts), but I think most people will consider physical media "replaced" long before it has some huge majority of the market.

If you mean replace in purely technical terms; that is, duplicate the quality and (almost) the reliability and speed of in-house physical media, then yeah, it'll take forever. But I think people will give up a lot of that picture quality for accessibility and cost. I know I sure will.

I said "here's what's easy..."

And it IS easy... you could argue that it isn't, but then you would be wrong...

As for quality... huzzuh? Streams are already WAY higher quality when compared to my entire disc collection. I have hundreds of standard def DVDs and none of them come anywhere close to the quality of my current (1081i) streams from Netflix. Not sure how it works for everyone else, but when I set up the streaming through my x-box, Netflix ran a test and automatically set my quality at 1080i. Maybe other folks have had their service dial down the quality? *shrugs*

Also, I have multiple friends that will never buy another disc again, as they have (not-so-legal) solutions set up and running at their house that makes all discs obsolete. Just around the corner from my place, a friend of mine has HTPC set up with a 60 inch or so LCD screen. They have Torr3nts running 24/7 which they can access and manage remotely from any of their phones. They have many, many terabytes of storage on the premises, with many, many titles available through a GUI right on screen. Don't see a title in the collection? They just dial it up on torrent and you are watching the film in HD quite soon on their set-up...

I'm not condoning all of this, but I certainly watch films over there...a lot. So, as you can see, this is already a household that has completely shed the disc-based paradigm, moving to 100% streaming content.

My streaming is definitely limited in comparison, but it gets better literally every day. And for me to stay with discs, I would have to start buying Blu-ray, which is a TERRIBLE idea, seeing how much i like films and stuff. I would spend literally thousands of dollars replacing my collection, and that's just to replace my current, relatively small collection of films.

Taccy's argument about the extras is really the only valid point that has been raised against it. If I run primarily streams on my system, then to me, discs are obsolete. What the rest of the word is doing just doesn't matter - it's completely irrelevant.

My Netflix streaming isn't quite as good, though I think it varies; for one, I'm streaming over WiFi, which I assume is part of the issue. Anyway, it's been my understanding (I'm sure I've read something to this effect) that even the top-end of Netflix's streaming options are only in the same rough range as HD, so I think you might be seeing the best possible version.

Anyway, I agree that the extras are a reason they'll maintain some presence (though the discs will cost more, since there'll be less demand for them), and I'd add that some people just won't like relying on some nebulous cloud, or their Internet connection staying up. Some people want the security of knowing they can watch it no matter what, and having a personal copy. This is probably largely a psychological thing, but I think it accurately describes some people, particularly if they really love a film.

Mostly, though, I think it'll be about niche. There are tons of slightly less-mainstream things I have that aren't available via streaming and probably won't be for years.

All that said, if things keep going the way they're going, I'm definitely foisting part of my collection off on someone else. I've already cut back on the number of discs I buy dramatically over the last year or two.

As have I. Yep, the connection thing is clearly also an issue, although in my friend's case, that only affects the download, as they aren't REALLY streaming. Still, in the end, the point is still valid, in that their system completely replaces discs.

I was concerned about net traffic being an issue with stream buffering, but so far, even on high traffic nights like Sunday evenings, the streams have been fine.

Here, I'll play advocate to myself for a sec. What if I wanted to watch HD Bladerunner this evening? I might be screwed. I would have to pop over to Pete's place to see it, because it isn't available over streams (yet), and it's my favorite film. Otherwise, it's low contrast up-sampled DVD in my X-box or I head over to Pete's to see it there...

Hey, THEY have a full solution - I do not....

That's my point. Until someone offers a service like the pirates are offering there's little reason to stream anything.

And again, while the quality might be pretty good with Netflix streaming it doesn't beat a physical copy (whether digital or disc). This is especially true of the audio tracks.

I don't follow. I stream. It is worth my while to stream. Lots of other people stream.

No, it's MUCH higher quality than my standard DVDs. Why do you keep saying this stuff? How is 1080i lower quality than 480? I have physical copies of the series Lost, but the Netflix streams look much, much better, with much richer blacks and a much tighter image. Standard upsampling tends to add a weird soft filter look to films and the blacks aren't anywhere near as rich.

Also, if someone offers a service like the pirates, that is actually a reason to NOT stream. My friends DON'T STREAM - they download copies of the films. So why would a service that gives you digital copies to keep at your house make streaming more valid? I'm confuzzled...

Here is a quote from EnGadget over a YEAR ago:

"In some ways, streaming stole HD’s thunder. While the high definition digital video disc format Blu-ray was counting on viewers’ interest in quality, it turned out that more users have been interested in the convenience of watching content when and where they want. That has meant a sacrifice in resolution among other things, but 1080p Netflix is a first step towards closing the gap between quality and convenience."

5.1 is already up and running on some devices for Netflix (Since October 2010), with the rest to follow shortly, and they aren't even considered the highest quality Stream service. I think VuDu holds that title right now.

Hey man, I stream tons of stuff too but there is a stark difference between the stream's audio quality and that on a disc. That's my main point. There are no services that provide HD-audio in their streaming because it would cripple their servers. It just isn't feasible, nor are the uncompressed soundtracks.

EDIT: And if you had one of these systems you'd argue the same way. The sound quality of Blu-Rays and HD-DVDs is unmatched to any other streaming audio source. Crisper, louder, cleaner.

This is precisely why they had to create the HDMI cable we use today. They needed a cable that could have a bigger bandwidth.

And, if I may say so myself, it's a rather big one. So's the point.

At the risk of repeating myself (stop laughing!) streaming is perfect for the casual watcher or one of us who wants a quick rental fix. For the film aficionado you still need physical media of some kind. It may very well change in the near(ish) future but when I can buy the vast majority of Blu Rays for under a tenner I'm not too concerned.

They're the price of DVDs 5 or 6 years ago and you'll get a perfectly decent player for well under £100.

John makes a good point about HD audio and I'll add another - Do streams stream in 24Hz? From the moment I saw a BD on a HDTV I realised that this was a pretty big deal.

For me anyway.

I was unsure what I was getting for audio yesterday so I popped something on last night - definitely streaming 5.1 sound from netflix, and I end up with the 3-bar service from Netflix (seems to be the gauge people measure by). The video is 1080i - my TV posts it in the corner when the source first comes up. I've enhanced my quality by 3-fold from what I was watching mere weeks ago, but it's somehow unacceptable quality?

So, I watched a film in 1080i with 5.1 audio on Netflix - I also consider myself to be a pretty big film aficionado. I've never said that stream quality matches Bluray... Yet you're trumpeting Bluray format as the best of the best. Yes, it's the best of the best, but it will NEVER, EVER, be the standard like DVD was...ever. Shall I quote all the tech sites some more, where they clearly say that convenience is clearly and obviously winning out over top quality, disc based media? Did you know that Netflix is contemplating a move to get rid of all their disc services? Why would they even consider that if Bluray is the future?

A note on audio: If we are talking high quality audio, everyone better be running top quality, clean high-current powered gear with discreet amplifiers to even be in the argument. Otherwise, I'll consider them someone that probably doesn't know what they are talking about. If you are running Bluray audio into a $200 Sony from Best Buy, you are actually destroying whatever gains you think you are getting from Bluray, and I will post the science to prove it if necessary.

The quality arguments just aren't going to fly with me, guys, I'm a musician and a performer that understands sound reinforcement backwards and forwards. It's just not enough of a difference to justify spending over 10,000 dollars to get a player and get my library changed over to BluRay. I used to spend literally hundreds of dollars per month on DVDs - not a good way to go about things these days, IMO.

The extras argument and Yoda's argument about always having the film available are MUCH stronger arguments to me...

Here's mine: