Digital vs. Physical: Which do you prefer?

[RandySF]

I understand the desire to save shelf space, but I still find audio/video quality to be superior using physical media. What do you think?

[randr]

1. When I want to "listen" and am willing to spend the time

I play a whole album on vinyl on analog equipment. Digital reproduction tricks the brain into thinking it can hear the music between the notes.

[CrispyQ]

2. I find lip sync to often be an issue with digital.

Even a little bit I notice & it drives me crazy.

Then there are services with bandwidth issues. Sling was terrible. Then they raised their price $5 a month & claimed they had improved service but it was the same poor crap as before.

But mostly, streaming hasn't turned out like they presented it. Can you get everything? No, but close enough. The problem is, how many services do you have to have to get everything? I've also signed up for a service to watch a particular show, only to have them drop the show one season into it, so I have to find which service offers it now. It's very frustrating, & we find ourselves going back to our discs more & more.

And one last thing. I wish all the streaming services would standardize their interface, especially with things like CC settings.

[Hoyt]

3. Used to be into vinyl, tube amps, etc. Nowadays, I'm plenty happy with streaming and headphones.

[hunter]

4. My wife and I have several hundred DVDs.

That's not much shelf space compared to the thousands of books we own.

I suppose if the internet ever gets taken down permanently we'll have plenty to watch...

Most of these DVDs I picked up in thrift stores for a dollar or two before covid-19. Others are movies my wife and i enjoyed very much in the theaters so we bought our own copies.

DVD quality isn't great compared to modern formats, only 480 lines, but our television does a pretty good job upscaling them to 1080 lines.

In any case, we only pay the minimum subscription price for Netflix, which is some supposed "standard" quality somewhere between DVDs and BluRay.

One nice thing about DVDs is that they are easily transcoded to other formats. I can put a few movies on my laptop if I'm going someplace without an internet connection.

I use Handbrake for that.

https://handbrake.fr/

These days my wife and I mostly stream movies and television shows and read ebooks. It's a matter of convenience and shelf space. Obviously we are not fussy about quality.

[Silver Gaia]

5. I like both, but I think

quality depends on a lot of factors, equipment especially.

For instance, if you have invested in a 4K TV and a 4K bluray player, but are still using the same old streaming stick, your physical experience will definitely be visually better. Likewise, if your TV, bluray, and audio equipment (if you have it) are capable of Dolby Atmos (including speakers!), but your streamer can't deliver it, you won't hear it. Your HDMI cables have to also be capable of carrying 4K and Atmos. Your settings have to be just right, and your internet has to be able to carry the signals without degrading the quality. There are a lot of factors to juggle!

Over the past couple of years, I have slowly upgraded all my equipment. I love movies. I love the theater for movie viewing. I sometimes teach film classes, too. My family all love movies (and television) as well. So, I figured if I/we can't go to the theater due to covid, I want us to have the best experience at home that space and budget will allow.

So that's what I did as space and money allowed. I finally ditched cable several months ago as well. I didn't see the sense of paying through the nose for it when it couldn't deliver 4K or Dolby Atmos, and it could not.

Without going into too many details, in my living room, the TV is 4K OLED and capable of Dolby Atmos, the sound system is 5.1 surround with Atmos speakers added, the bluray player is 4K and Atmos capable, my HDMI cables are capable of carrying anything up to 8K, Dolby Atmos, and whatever latest codecs, etc. are out there. I have two streamers, the latest 4K Fire Stick and a top-of-the-line Roku. I use the Roku primarily because it really delivers. The Fire Stick is my backup device. I also upgraded my internet service recently as well, so now I don't get interference from other devices in my home. My main streaming service is Hulu Live, but I subscribe to others as well.

That said, I am happy with either streaming digitally, or playing a 4K bluray disc. I don't notice much, if any, difference. But, like I said, there are a lot of things that have to be considered physically to create that experience. At times, I thought my brain would explode while I was putting all this together for us! But I made it through the maze, and I am pleased with the end result.

Oh, and yes, I have to agree that nothing beats vinyl for audio! For that, I go to my *other* sound system that still uses the Pioneer PL-12D turntable I bought in 1972 (apparently, it is indestructable)! I have vinyl records that go back to the 70s as well.

Anyhow, that's my more than 2 cents' worth!