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The end of Star Wars physical media

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So this shocking (not at all shocking) news has been doing the rounds today:
https://www.darkhorizons.com/disney-pulls-physical-media-from-australia/

Which reminded me of another user here discussing the ‘Disney Vault’ recently. Eventually it seems like their whole catalogue will be on a subscription - if Disney even hosts it at all of course. They could easily drop something like Andor into the same hole as Willow due to low demand. People have let it happen because of the ease and convenience. Does anyone think the OOT is ever going to be seen officially at this rate?

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Anyone still remember how to burn discs?!
 

Seriously, it sucks to finally see what many of us have sort of been expecting to happen, actually happen. And soon other systems will likely fall in line regions will face the same fate too.

“Rent - instead of own” appears to have been a big thing in tech for a while, and recently found its way to media. Ugh.
 

The OOT ever being officially released on a physical format again?

I guess the 50th anniversary will be the last “big date” such a release would seem feasible? Easily marketable, a lot of expectation, and with fan anticipation probably doing the groundwork for free publicity for such a release?

Even then, I don’t think they will release it, but obviously I very much hope to be wrong on that!

“In the future it will become even easier for old negatives to become lost and be “replaced” by new altered negatives. This would be a great loss to our society. Our cultural history must not be allowed to be rewritten.” - George Lucas

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The less they release, the more they will be losing due piracy. Eventually they will see it.

And in the time of greatest despair, there shall come a savior, and he shall be known as the Son of the Suns.

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Even if Disney as a whole completely stops manufacturing and marketing disc based media, it does not mean we won’t see disney titles on disc. They can always license out the work to other companies, and in fact I think for all parties involved, that is probably the best way to go.

Disney discs pressing and mastering of titles have been hit or miss, especially with their 4kUHD catalogue. It reeks of laziness and they have zero quality assurance going on. It would seem a win-win for all if they shut down their physical media division and let a 2nd or 3rd party do the work.

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erichf69 said:

Even if Disney as a whole completely stops manufacturing and marketing disc based media, it does not mean we won’t see disney titles on disc. They can always license out the work to other companies, and in fact I think for all parties involved, that is probably the best way to go.

Yeah and we’ve already seen the start of it with Criterion’s release of WALL•E.

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LexX said:

The less they release, the more they will be losing due piracy. Eventually they will see it.

I agree.

The nearby Asian dvd and blu ray counterfeit market will probably see this as an opportunity?

The old ways of torrents, newsgroups, and illegal streams sites, and then burn to discs will also appeal more?
 

A 50th anniversary deluxe box set for the Original Trilogy, with the 5 main different cuts inside, would surely sell well? And would also be popular with many Star Wars and film fans in general looking to add to their collections.

The Imperial need for control is so desperate because it is so unnatural. Tyranny requires constant effort. It breaks, it leaks. Authority is brittle. Oppression is the mask of fear.

Formerly Emre1601 - computer hard drives are brittle too!

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timdiggerm said:

What is the status with defeating the DRM on D+ anyway? Is that pretty well sorted by now? Hard to pirate without a source.

There is DRM on Disney+?

If there is DRM, it doesn’t stop the content appearing on torrent sites and stream sites just hours after release.

“Don’t tell anyone… but when ‘Star Wars’ first came out, I didn’t know where it was going either. The trick is to pretend you’ve planned the whole thing out in advance. Throw in some father issues and references to other stories - let’s call them homages - and you’ve got a series.” - George Lucas

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timdiggerm said:

Hard to pirate without a source.

There is a lot of sources for Disney owned films, 4K, BD, DVD, VHS and film. If they never made any physical releases ever again, all of these sources become more attractive to collectors and their prices would rise. Lets say, 50 or 100 years from now they haven’t released anything… can you imagine how much would e.g. classic Disney cartoons cost on the secondary market? Probably hundreds if not thousands of dollars per movie, all which they would lose. Even today there have been DVDs that command hundreds of dollars on the secondary market because they have not seen a re-release since.

And in the time of greatest despair, there shall come a savior, and he shall be known as the Son of the Suns.

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Sideburns of BoShek said:

timdiggerm said:

What is the status with defeating the DRM on D+ anyway? Is that pretty well sorted by now? Hard to pirate without a source.

There is DRM on Disney+?

If there is DRM, it doesn’t stop the content appearing on torrent sites and stream sites just hours after release.

I was gonna say if they have any streaming protection it hasn’t stopped all the fan edits.

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Mocata said:

Sideburns of BoShek said:

timdiggerm said:

What is the status with defeating the DRM on D+ anyway? Is that pretty well sorted by now? Hard to pirate without a source.

There is DRM on Disney+?

If there is DRM, it doesn’t stop the content appearing on torrent sites and stream sites just hours after release.

I was gonna say if they have any streaming protection it hasn’t stopped all the fan edits.

Good point, I forgot about all the fan edits!

I wonder what region will be next to follow after Australia. Europe?

“Don’t tell anyone… but when ‘Star Wars’ first came out, I didn’t know where it was going either. The trick is to pretend you’ve planned the whole thing out in advance. Throw in some father issues and references to other stories - let’s call them homages - and you’ve got a series.” - George Lucas

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LexX said:

timdiggerm said:

Hard to pirate without a source.

There is a lot of sources for Disney owned films, 4K, BD, DVD, VHS and film. If they never made any physical releases ever again, all of these sources become more attractive to collectors and their prices would rise. Lets say, 50 or 100 years from now they haven’t released anything… can you imagine how much would e.g. classic Disney cartoons cost on the secondary market? Probably hundreds if not thousands of dollars per movie, all which they would lose. Even today there have been DVDs that command hundreds of dollars on the secondary market because they have not seen a re-release since.

All true, but irrelevant to non-collectors (ie most people)

ROTJ Storyboard Reconstruction Project

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timdiggerm said:

LexX said:

timdiggerm said:

Hard to pirate without a source.

There is a lot of sources for Disney owned films, 4K, BD, DVD, VHS and film. If they never made any physical releases ever again, all of these sources become more attractive to collectors and their prices would rise. Lets say, 50 or 100 years from now they haven’t released anything… can you imagine how much would e.g. classic Disney cartoons cost on the secondary market? Probably hundreds if not thousands of dollars per movie, all which they would lose. Even today there have been DVDs that command hundreds of dollars on the secondary market because they have not seen a re-release since.

All true, but irrelevant to non-collectors (ie most people)

But not to Disney when they could get some of that money by relesing their properties. Also one could argue that there are others than collectors who would like to own Disney classics in the future as well, that is normal families.

And in the time of greatest despair, there shall come a savior, and he shall be known as the Son of the Suns.

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LexX said:

timdiggerm said:

LexX said:

timdiggerm said:

Hard to pirate without a source.

There is a lot of sources for Disney owned films, 4K, BD, DVD, VHS and film. If they never made any physical releases ever again, all of these sources become more attractive to collectors and their prices would rise. Lets say, 50 or 100 years from now they haven’t released anything… can you imagine how much would e.g. classic Disney cartoons cost on the secondary market? Probably hundreds if not thousands of dollars per movie, all which they would lose. Even today there have been DVDs that command hundreds of dollars on the secondary market because they have not seen a re-release since.

All true, but irrelevant to non-collectors (ie most people)

But not to Disney when they could get some of that money by relesing their properties. Also one could argue that there are others than collectors who would like to own Disney classics in the future as well, that is normal families.

I feel like the fact that they’re stopping maybe indicates you’re overestimating the size of the collector market

ROTJ Storyboard Reconstruction Project

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timdiggerm said:

LexX said:

timdiggerm said:

LexX said:

timdiggerm said:

Hard to pirate without a source.

There is a lot of sources for Disney owned films, 4K, BD, DVD, VHS and film. If they never made any physical releases ever again, all of these sources become more attractive to collectors and their prices would rise. Lets say, 50 or 100 years from now they haven’t released anything… can you imagine how much would e.g. classic Disney cartoons cost on the secondary market? Probably hundreds if not thousands of dollars per movie, all which they would lose. Even today there have been DVDs that command hundreds of dollars on the secondary market because they have not seen a re-release since.

All true, but irrelevant to non-collectors (ie most people)

But not to Disney when they could get some of that money by relesing their properties. Also one could argue that there are others than collectors who would like to own Disney classics in the future as well, that is normal families.

I feel like the fact that they’re stopping maybe indicates you’re overestimating the size of the collector market

I’m not talking about this moment but the future when this kind of decision (if there is one) has an actual effect.

And in the time of greatest despair, there shall come a savior, and he shall be known as the Son of the Suns.

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The future will probably give them more profit since they can lose places that make discs, the companies who ship them, and the middle-men involved.

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This is a punch into the gut. I recently tried to watch The Phantom Menace (don’t blame me) on Disney+, but the low bitrate and bad sound quality had to force me to turn it off. So I decided to plug in my HDD with an own rip of the film from my Blu-ray, with a prestine bitrate and DTS sound. The podrace scene was like night and day compared to the stream.

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Roobyoo said:

This is a punch into the gut. I recently tried to watch The Phantom Menace (don’t blame me) on Disney+, but the low bitrate and bad sound quality had to force me to turn it off. So I decided to plug in my HDD with an own rip of the film from my Blu-ray, with a prestine bitrate and DTS sound. The podrace scene was like night and day compared to the stream.

Bad bitrate and sound quality? Disney Plus version is 4K. Streams are based on your Internet connection. I prefer digital 4K versions of Star Wars over Star Wars on disc for the altered versions of the six films. I own Star Wars on digital HD. Eventually, I will purchase 4K versions of all 11 Star Wars movies. If you have ITunes, you can download 4K versions locally to your PC and cast the video to a smart TV screen or Roku device.

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Streams are based on a separate ISP quality that can randomly change, which I think is not a great deal. All that other hardware isn’t something I can comment on.

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jpb19 said:

Roobyoo said:

This is a punch into the gut. I recently tried to watch The Phantom Menace (don’t blame me) on Disney+, but the low bitrate and bad sound quality had to force me to turn it off. So I decided to plug in my HDD with an own rip of the film from my Blu-ray, with a prestine bitrate and DTS sound. The podrace scene was like night and day compared to the stream.

Bad bitrate and sound quality? Disney Plus version is 4K. Streams are based on your Internet connection. I prefer digital 4K versions of Star Wars over Star Wars on disc for the altered versions of the six films. I own Star Wars on digital HD. Eventually, I will purchase 4K versions of all 11 Star Wars movies. If you have ITunes, you can download 4K versions locally to your PC and cast the video to a smart TV screen or Roku device.

Resolution isn’t the same as bitrate. The lower the bitrate, the more compression artifacts you’ll get. With a 4k Blu-ray you’ll probably will get around 1000 mbps, although Disney+ in 4k dumps around 17 Mbps.

My internet connection is very good, and I’m streaming via direct cable connection.

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Roobyoo said:

jpb19 said:

Roobyoo said:

This is a punch into the gut. I recently tried to watch The Phantom Menace (don’t blame me) on Disney+, but the low bitrate and bad sound quality had to force me to turn it off. So I decided to plug in my HDD with an own rip of the film from my Blu-ray, with a prestine bitrate and DTS sound. The podrace scene was like night and day compared to the stream.

Bad bitrate and sound quality? Disney Plus version is 4K. Streams are based on your Internet connection. I prefer digital 4K versions of Star Wars over Star Wars on disc for the altered versions of the six films. I own Star Wars on digital HD. Eventually, I will purchase 4K versions of all 11 Star Wars movies. If you have ITunes, you can download 4K versions locally to your PC and cast the video to a smart TV screen or Roku device.

Resolution isn’t the same as bitrate. The lower the bitrate, the more compression artifacts you’ll get. With a 4k Blu-ray you’ll probably will get around 1000 mbps, although Disney+ in 4k dumps around 17 Mbps.

My internet connection is very good, and I’m streaming via direct cable connection.

I’m guessing that’s a typo, but just to be clear, a 4k disc will peak at 100mbps, not 1000.

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Fang Zei said:

Roobyoo said:

jpb19 said:

Roobyoo said:

This is a punch into the gut. I recently tried to watch The Phantom Menace (don’t blame me) on Disney+, but the low bitrate and bad sound quality had to force me to turn it off. So I decided to plug in my HDD with an own rip of the film from my Blu-ray, with a prestine bitrate and DTS sound. The podrace scene was like night and day compared to the stream.

Bad bitrate and sound quality? Disney Plus version is 4K. Streams are based on your Internet connection. I prefer digital 4K versions of Star Wars over Star Wars on disc for the altered versions of the six films. I own Star Wars on digital HD. Eventually, I will purchase 4K versions of all 11 Star Wars movies. If you have ITunes, you can download 4K versions locally to your PC and cast the video to a smart TV screen or Roku device.

Resolution isn’t the same as bitrate. The lower the bitrate, the more compression artifacts you’ll get. With a 4k Blu-ray you’ll probably will get around 1000 mbps, although Disney+ in 4k dumps around 17 Mbps.

My internet connection is very good, and I’m streaming via direct cable connection.

I’m guessing that’s a typo, but just to be clear, a 4k disc will peak at 100mbps, not 1000.

Whoops!
Yes, a typo. Sometimes I’m glad not to work at a money bank 😄

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Mando is getting a 4k steelbook release so I wonder if they suddenly need cash. And if Australians will have to import.

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American Graffiti is coming to 4K in November. I’m waiting for them to announce the date for Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny. I’m still waiting for the blu-ray release of Young Indiana Jones. I’ll buy Mando just for completionist sake, because i hope it means other things will be made available. I want Tales of the Jedi, Visions, and Clone Wars season 7. Obi-Wan Kenobi, and eventually after its run Ahsoka. Andor would be a nice one to release as well.

I want Willow 4K, and the tv series as well in Blu-Ray.

Mando should have been released before this point, they should wait a year and release a show like Paramount does for Star Trek.

To me the biggest oversight of all is the lack of an announcement about a restoration of the theatrical Star Wars trilogy, the pirates make money for years and no official DVD, 4K, or Blu. Really stupid. They could even made it plus exclusive and then release it on physical months later.