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.
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.
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.
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?
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.
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.
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.