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Redbox’s disc rentals are over
(www.theverge.com)
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this post was submitted on 11 Jul 2024
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Personally a little sad over this. Have a bluray player and sometimes I want to be able to choose and pick a newer movie in 4k... Much cheaper than Amazon and Vudu to rent.
Blu-ray also has much higher quality than streaming services.
In fact, the only way to stream a movie in Blu-ray quality is by using something like Real Debrid, with a fast connection since the bitrate can reach ~100Mbps at times. There's no legally licensed way to do it. Seems like a missed opportunity IMO.
I'm genuinely curios. As somone who basically just watches 1080p can you really tell a difference? I feel like my tv and eyes are just limited.
Even when I'm at Costco looking at the 10k ultra super duper HD footage... It just looks good. I wouid be hard pressed to really tell a difference from home when there's usually filters on movies so they never look super ultra sharp anyway.
It depends how close you sit to your TV and how large the TV is. I can tell a difference if I'm close enough or if the screen is large enough. As well, try turning on a streamed 1080p show and using a 4k bluray (if you have all of thrsr things). When you stand close (like, closer than you'd watch), you can really see the difference. As you back away, it becomes less noticeable, but even at comfortable viewing distances people can see the difference
You can see an example on your phone. Try watching a video in 1080p and then 480p. You should notice a difference, even if you hold your phone a foot from your face it's the same idea when watching on a tv.
HDR vs no HDR makes a big difference in colours to me. And if you compare compressed low Bitrate footage vs higher Bitrate there will often be artifacts or color banding, particularly in darker scenes or wherever you have gradients.
It ofc also depends on what device you are watching it on. But I would say that yes if you have a movie (made up example) that is compressed to 5gb total size vs 25gb vs 70gb for the uncompressed Blu-ray quality, then the first jump will be a very noticeable difference assuming you have capable hardware. Whereas the second one will be much much less noticeable and also come with other drawbacks that need to weighted off, e.g. storage requirements.
Blu-rays are compressed too, they're just less compressed. Uncompressed 4K at 24fps is around 4.7Gbps (around 600MB/s) so 70GB would only be around two minutes of video.
What they meant is that the Blu Ray rips aren't recompressed again. You can download a 1:1 copy and the quality will be identical to what's on the disc.
Oh! Yeah, that makes sense.
For a game you can tell. For a movie, it's honestly pretty hard. The biggest difference with most 4K media is the HDR which I do appreciate a lot more than extra pixels.
Open up this webpage on your TV (or whatever display you use to consume media) and watch the moving line. If you can notice aliasing at your normal seating distance (I.e. the "jaggies"), then you would benefit from a higher resolution display. Otherwise I wouldn't worry about it.
Yes! Finally! Someone other than me likes Real-Debrid!
So much better than a torrent client, since there's no waiting for seeds. Direct downloads of any torrent at up to 1Gbps.
Pair it with a media center app like Stremio or Plex and you won't even miss Blu Ray and overpriced steaming apps. R-D is well worth the $3/mo.
True, but you just named two major parties pushing for Redbox’s death.
Understood. I honestly don't know many alternatives to Redbox besides those for renting movies... Even then, as others have mentioned, there's a difference between streaming and playing a blu ray. All movies I rent are <$2.50 from Redbox, nicer quality vs. >$5 Amazon.
🏴☠️
Ah hoy! Just did a quick search. Seems the quality has significantly increased there too!
Only other place I can think of off-hand is the local library for rentals. Half Price Books and thrift shops will have some for sale, but I'm not sure how much lower they may be from Amazon's rental fee.
Your local library would appreciate it if you go ahead and check out some movies now and then. It helps them prove that they are worth funding.
Thank you! I remember my local library had dvds. I don't remember any BluRays. Will check it out!!