Disney has announced it will stop releasing DVDs and Blu-ray discs in Australia.
Disney has announced it will stop releasing DVDs and Blu-ray discs in Australia.::undefined
This is problematic. Australia and New Zealand are in Region 4, I suspect this is killing all of region 4 (Australia, New Zealand, the Pacific Islands, Central America, Mexico, South America, and the Caribbean). This means they cannot watch at the highest quality, none of the streaming services are as good as a local blu-ray or local Plex/Jellyfin/Emby. Also problematic for preservation, especially given services removing content so it is no longer available at all.
If I could buy unencumbered digital files for my local server, I wouldn't have that much problem with discontinuing physical releases. Instead best case I can get it a digital "copy" that is tied to a specific service (movies anywhere, google play, apple, etc.). Which content has also been removed from, even though you bought it. I've been buying DRM free music for around a decade and things have been fine. I would have to think really hard of the last time I bought a CD, as I've been buying flac encoded audio exclusively for a few years now (bandcamp.com, us.7digital.com, prostudiomasters.com, hdtracks.com). I'd really like to do the same for movies and series, including extras.
Are you saying there will be an influx of pirates in the Caribbean?
A new dvd/blueray drive for a PC needs to have it's region set the first time it encounters a region locked disk. I believe most can be reset a maximum of 5 times before it locks.
Build yourself a "Media Player PC" and set the region to US.
Or sail the high seas like they seem to want you force you to.
Not everyone is going to understand they need another drive. It just stinks.
It likely will encourage more people to sail the high seas.
I'm reminded of Hollywood studios that destroyed films to make room for new ones in the first half of the previous century. Nothing could be less-forward-looking.
Or just not being careful with storage. Like I don't know, keeping only one copy in one location with early films were made highly flammable materials.
Could you get equipment to play media from other regions? When I was importing stuff from Japan to the US, I had to get a regionless player.
I wonder what the impact on piracy will be? It's probably harder to rip streaming services than it is to rip blu-rays...
There only needs to be a couple people knowing how to get a rip for it to end up everywhere.
If physical releases start disappearing everywhere, I can see piracy getting a significant boost. It will be the only way to "own" a movie and be sure you can still watch it whenever you want. Disney has been removing content from its service already, even some recent stuff.
I know Gabe Newell's old quote is being parroted a lot but it's relevant : "Piracy is not a pricing issue, it's a service issue". Steam may be a digital market, but it doesn't require a continued paid subscription to access stuff you've paid for, and it doesn't delist games whenever it feels like it.
FWIW, Gabe’s argument isn’t against subscriptions. The point in that quote is that legal access to content curbs piracy. Piracy will of course always exist, but there’s also customers that are willing to pay if is convenient and accessible.
it doesn't delist games whenever it feels like it.
You're still trusting a company to have your game library available in the future. Gaben will die at some point, someone will take over for him, we don't know what will happen with Valve in 10, 20 or 30 years...
But it can remove music from games you already purchased.
Music licensing for games is bullshit, and physical (or a trip to the high seas) is the only way around it.
Its trivially more difficult to do webrips. It will likely have the opposite effect of what you're thinking of, some people that would buy blurays will just pirate now.
So long as you are using a cable to send images and video to a TV, someone will find a way to intercept and record it.
The bigger issue is that Blurays are the highest quality video there is, especially when it comes to audio. For those who do care this is deviating.
Can't have rescuers down under.
And then their price will skyrocket on eBay
On one hand, I'm glad that less plastic is going to end up in landfill.
On the other, you'll own nothing and be happy.
I have downloaded every movie that I've paid for on every platform where I have paid for movies. If they suddenly decide that I can't watch those movies any more I can say, "Fuck you, yes I can."
Fuck yeah.
This is the way!
To the high seas!
As a counterpoint to your landfill comment, if a movie is played 5 times off of the same blu ray disc or streamed 5 times from the Disney+ servers which is more environmentally harmful?
It doesn’t take much energy to press a disc and once the disc is pressed, it could theoretically be viewed for at least several decades to hundred of years if stored correctly.
The threshold for one blu ray disc to be more environmentally friendly than a streaming movie is 4 views. Source: Ars Technica
Own nothing produced by Disney, and be ecstatic..