Disney Cancels Physical Media In Australia 0

[Cat]

The announcement was made today. Guardians Of The Galaxy 3 will be the last Disney film released here on physical media. Funnily though the announcement only specified DVD and Bluray, not 4K, although it sounds like it's included too, unfortunately. 

As a physical collector, this totally ruins my collection. They 'welcomed' us to buy from other regions, but  them. Seriously. Arseholes. 

So that's the way of the future today. Watch out guys, your country will be next. 

[Bosco685]

I've been upgrading my movie and TV collection to ensure my minimum common media is Blu-Ray. I've been amazed at the prices too, as many big movies selling for under $5. Even this weekend's haul going to thrift stores and flea markets I maybe spent $18-$20 for 16 movies. And those that should have a working Digital Copy actually have them still active (other than Kong: Skull Island as WB killed them all to force digital repurchases  ).

So with studios play games like this with physical medium and even cancelling out Digital Copy versions it all comes down to force-changing the market.

[shadroch]

I was 17 and had just gotten my driver's license.  I had two big beautiful cases of eight-track tapes I'd acquired over the last two or three years, including legit tapes of every Allman Brothers album, when the powers that be dictated they would no longer support eight-track, only records and cassette tapes.  It was truly devastating as I had the largest tape collection of all my friends. 

I switched to albums and was forced to make a few tapes as my records didn't work in my car.  I love music, so over the next few years, I had almost 400 albums when I walked into my favorite music shop and saw a compact disc.  I quickly calculated that replacing my albums with CDs would cost well over four grand and kicked the can down the road a couple of years. 

[Skylath]

Just to shed some light on the matter on what Cat is referring to: via the Digital Bits and Dark Horizons

This at first started with Australian retailer Sanity announcing the end of selling Disney titles before Disney officially confirmed that they're pulling out.

Also I've been hearing rumors of Disney Movie Club shutting down in Canada and that they might be pulling out of there as well. Can anybody substantiate these claims? Thanks.

 

But yeah seriously.  Disney.

Edited July 30, 2023 by Skylath

[Cat]

On 7/31/2023 at 2:53 AM, Skylath said:

Just to shed some light on the matter on what Cat is referring to: via the Digital Bits and Dark Horizons

This at first started with Australian retailer Sanity announcing the end of selling Disney titles before Disney officially confirmed that they're pulling out.

Also I've been hearing rumors of Disney Movie Club shutting down in Canada and that they might be pulling out of there as well. Can anybody substantiate these claims? Thanks.

 

But yeah seriously.  Disney.

Thank you, Skylath. 

PS your Digital Bits link mentions that Hercules Returns is getting a Bluray release, guys do yourselves a favour and see this movie, it is absolutely hilarious. The intro and outro plots about them setting up the film and all that are very average, but once they get into the actual film, it's a riot. 

[Xenosmilus]

Disney motto, "anything fans want and makes us money lets cancel!".

[CAHokie]

On 7/30/2023 at 3:30 PM, Xenosmilus said:

Disney motto, "anything fans want and makes us money lets cancel!".

My favorite line I heard recently is that it’s like Disney is doing a viking funeral on itself!

[Sauce Dog]

Well, this is looking like a bleak future

[Bosco685]

On 7/30/2023 at 4:25 PM, CAHokie said:

My favorite line I heard recently is that it’s like Disney is doing a viking funeral on itself!

The Critical Drinker on Snow White 

 

[Xenosmilus]

I don't get the diskless steel books.  99% of the reason I personally stopped buying PM (I recently got back into it) was to get rid of clutter. I'm willing accept the clutter again because of the superior audio quality I notice with 4K blue ray AND that I know they can't delete/edit my PM.

[MattTheDuck]

On 7/30/2023 at 9:38 AM, shadroch said:

I was 17 and had just gotten my driver's license.  I had two big beautiful cases of eight-track tapes I'd acquired over the last two or three years, including legit tapes of every Allman Brothers album, when the powers that be dictated they would no longer support eight-track, only records and cassette tapes.  It was truly devastating as I had the largest tape collection of all my friends. 

I switched to albums and was forced to make a few tapes as my records didn't work in my car.  I love music, so over the next few years, I had almost 400 albums when I walked into my favorite music shop and saw a compact disc.  I quickly calculated that replacing my albums with CDs would cost well over four grand and kicked the can down the road a couple of years. 

Just saw a stack of 8-tracks at an Estate Sale yesterday.  Even on the radio, I still hear the spots where songs stopped and took up again on the next track on a couple of Elton John 8-tracks I had back in the day.

[shadroch]

On 7/30/2023 at 2:14 PM, MattTheDuck said:

Just saw a stack of 8-tracks at an Estate Sale yesterday.  Even on the radio, I still hear the spots where songs stopped and took up again on the next track on a couple of Elton John 8-tracks I had back in the day.

When I switched from 8-tracks to albums,I discovered an incredible guitar solo on the Allmans 'Jessica".  I must have played the tape hundreds of times and never realized there was a gap in the song as it switched from track 3 to 4. 

[theCapraAegagrus]

On 7/30/2023 at 4:58 PM, Xenosmilus said:

I don't get the diskless steel books.  99% of the reason I personally stopped buying PM (I recently got back into it) was to get rid of clutter. I'm willing accept the clutter again because of the superior audio quality I notice with 4K blue ray AND that I know they can't delete/edit my PM.

There is no service that can stream in full-4K, either. The bandwidth just isn't there for that level of data-streaming. 4K HDR physical is currently the way to watch/hear highest quality at home.

[Cat]

On 7/31/2023 at 10:06 PM, theCapraAegagrus said:

There is no service that can stream in full-4K, either. The bandwidth just isn't there for that level of data-streaming. 4K HDR physical is currently the way to watch/hear highest quality at home.

Especially not in Australia, which has near-Third World levels of Internet speed (it's true, I'm not exaggerating, check it yourself, Kazakhstan and Latvia have faster internet than us, for goodness sake). Plus there are plenty of rural areas still relying on satellite, and some don't even that, eg mining camps. Their only option is physical media, so they're screwing a tonne of people who really have no other choice, not just collectors who have a preference. 

I'd love to think there'll be a backlash and this will be reconsidered, but realistically I know this won't happen, and we're stuck with this decision, and it's awful. Heck, we don't even really have good services for curating digital purchases if your not using Apple or Xbox, and more recently, Amazon I guess. All are very limiting though, to my understanding (I admit I haven't looked too deep into them besides Xbox, and Apple well over a decade and a half ago).

We just don't have the services in Australia. Go to buy lost movies on the PLAY store and it will just stay 'Available Via Streaming On Netlfix' or whatever service, it's VERY rare they have a movie or show tor sale. Awful compared to what it was just a few years ago. 

[kimik]

So, what you are saying is that I should be shipping all of the DIS DVDs I have at home to my brother in Australia to sell for obscene profits? 

[Dr. Balls]

It'll be a cold day in Hell when I give up my Star Trek Next Gen VHS tapes.

 

[Bosco685]

On 8/3/2023 at 3:12 PM, Dr. Balls said:

It'll be a cold day in Hell when I give up my Star Trek Next Gen VHS tapes.

 

WOW!

I remember belonging to that club where you would get these monthly.

[rexinnih]

Well Disney will do what Disney wants. Personally I have been cutting down on my physical media also, collection had come close to 1,000 BD/4K discs and slowly starting to make decisions on keeping 4k/BD discs that I'll rewatch and will give the best presentation audio and visualwise.