DVD and Blu Ray being discontinued?

[mileshuff]

Recently Samsung has discontinued production of all blu ray players as a result of streaming taking their place.

DVD sales have also been dropping.

RV parks have never been known to handle movie streaming on WiFi. We've always watched movies on DVD or Blu Ray in our RV. Streaming is not an option. So will watching movies in our RV be phased out over the coming years?

[Gdetrailer]

Martyn wrote:
When we go camping I download whatever we want to watch from Prime or Netflix onto my iPhone. For Prime you can keep a program at least 72 hours after you have started watching it, but you can keep them up to 30 days if you haven't watched them yet.

I bought an adapter for the iPhone that has an HDMI cable socket.
iPhone adaptor.
There are cheaper ones on Amazon but a lot of reviews say they don't work. This one is from Apple and works fine for me.

You start watching the downloaded/saved program on the phone and it can be watched on the TV once the HDMI is selected. I found that if you try to start watching with the cable already connected it gives an error message, but if you start it on the phone and then plug in the cable it works great! The only limitation is how much space you have available on your phone.

What you are talking about is different than what I questioned about..

"Prime" may allow you to "download and view later" on the same device it was downloaded too but mileshuff has mentioned "storing" on their Laptop or NAS (Network Attached Storage) and then accessing the laptop or the NAS remotely to watch the downloaded files from Netflix ect.

mileshuff wrote:

I cut the cord years ago. No cable. Couldn't justify the high cost cable companies charge. Just Wifi. Anything I can access or store on my laptop or NAS I can stream to TV. I do have a roof antenna for local broadcasts but don't watch them very often. I'm about 50 miles from broadcast antennas and pick up about 50 channels although most are in Spanish. I do subscribe to Netflix, Sling and Amazon Prime plus a ton of freebie channels thru Roku. Not sure what I'll do if prices go way up for those.

mileshuff is implying that they are somehow downloading streaming material (copy protected streams by the way) to a PC, then moving the streamed file (copy protected?) to their NAS. Then accessing the PC or NAS via a different remote device (unauthorized) which should not be able to view those copy protected downloaded streams.. This implies somehow, mileshuff has found a way around the stream copy protection.

I am no fool to this game and neither is the streaming services which is why they copy protect the streams to prevent one from copying and distributing video streams to other unauthorized devices..

Perhaps I am wrong, I don't know, but I see a lot of mentions about saving streams and watching later using other devices that the streams were not downloaded on..

[Martyn]

When we go camping I download whatever we want to watch from Prime or Netflix onto my iPhone. For Prime you can keep a program at least 72 hours after you have started watching it, but you can keep them up to 30 days if you haven't watched them yet.

I bought an adapter for the iPhone that has an HDMI cable socket.
iPhone adaptor.
There are cheaper ones on Amazon but a lot of reviews say they don't work. This one is from Apple and works fine for me.

You start watching the downloaded/saved program on the phone and it can be watched on the TV once the HDMI is selected. I found that if you try to start watching with the cable already connected it gives an error message, but if you start it on the phone and then plug in the cable it works great! The only limitation is how much space you have available on your phone.

[NamMedevac_70]

The Walmart stores in northern Nevada have at least two bins of DVD and Blue Rays. I was just in one and one bin was completely full with other half full in addition to those on the shelves at higher prices. Cheers

[Gdetrailer]

pnichols wrote:

mileshuff wrote:

I cut the cord years ago. No cable. Couldn't justify the high cost cable companies charge. Just Wifi. Anything I can access or store on my laptop or NAS I can stream to TV. I do have a roof antenna for local broadcasts but don't watch them very often. I'm about 50 miles from broadcast antennas and pick up about 50 channels although most are in Spanish. I do subscribe to Netflix, Sling and Amazon Prime plus a ton of freebie channels thru Roku. Not sure what I'll do if prices go way up for those.

How do you digitally record movies at home off Netflix, Amazon Prime, and free Roku channels so that you can take a stick full of them with you on RV trips to play back and watch on a monitor/TV when camping?

Good question, I am curious about that also..

My understanding is those streams are "copy protected" and only a few services allow you to "download and play later" but with the caveat that there is a time limit and it must be played back on the device you downloaded it to.. Otherwise you will have to use some "brute force" methods to crack the copy protection or take a hit in sound and video quality and use a "screen recorder" on a PC.. Both brute force and screen record would violate your streaming service TOS..

[pnichols]

mileshuff wrote:

I cut the cord years ago. No cable. Couldn't justify the high cost cable companies charge. Just Wifi. Anything I can access or store on my laptop or NAS I can stream to TV. I do have a roof antenna for local broadcasts but don't watch them very often. I'm about 50 miles from broadcast antennas and pick up about 50 channels although most are in Spanish. I do subscribe to Netflix, Sling and Amazon Prime plus a ton of freebie channels thru Roku. Not sure what I'll do if prices go way up for those.

How do you digitally record movies at home off Netflix, Amazon Prime, and free Roku channels so that you can take a stick full of them with you on RV trips to play back and watch on a monitor/TV when camping?

[mileshuff]

B$printervan wrote:
Guess the other part of the equation would be how we differ on TV reception. Where we live there's no OTA reception. Seems most with cable service are content with either using the cable service set-top box, or directly connecting the coax on their TV (DLNA).

Here's my TV with channels, RaspberryPi mounted behind TV.
https://imgur.com/5uyMCj4

This just shows some movies stored somewhere on the network. Most are recordings from HBO, Showtime and TCM (I like old movies).
https://imgur.com/jAIIojv

Here's an old video I made after removing copy protections from my recordings (Has since been patched)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_VCcBcH8CrE

I cut the cord years ago. No cable. Couldn't justify the high cost cable companies charge. Just Wifi. Anything I can access or store on my laptop or NAS I can stream to TV. I do have a roof antenna for local broadcasts but don't watch them very often. I'm about 50 miles from broadcast antennas and pick up about 50 channels although most are in Spanish. I do subscribe to Netflix, Sling and Amazon Prime plus a ton of freebie channels thru Roku. Not sure what I'll do if prices go way up for those.

[Gdetrailer]

jerem0621 wrote:
I’m still buying VHS tapes and cassettes. Lots of old content you can’t get any other way. Plus it doesn’t disappear from the digital library magically.

As for camping I just download some shows and movies to my iPad and connect it to the TV.

Thanks,

Jeremiah.

I worked in TV/radio electronics repair shops in the late 80's into the early 90's when VHS/Beta was in it's glory..

Those days are gone and the ship has sailed, old analog video tape has been abandoned by manufacturers. You might be able to find a fe combo VHS/DVD units but those too are no longer being made.

Your VHS tapes are on life support and finding good working used VHS machines are not as easy as it used to be.. Repairing VHS machines requiring more than belts and idlers is not feasible. Might be able to find a few NOS parts if you are lucky.

I would stop buying used VHS tapes and concentrate on used DVDs.

For your current VHS collection, I would suggest you might wish to convert your library to a digital format, there are NTSC analog composite video capture devices you can buy that plug into your PCs USB port.

I would do that for any VHS video tape you have that is not available on DVD.

The clock is ticking on that old technology, myself, I have thrown out several hundred VHS tapes that I have gone through and either digitized or have replaced with DVDs. On top of that have digitized hundreds of hrs of Video 8/Hi8 8mm video tape preserving my families home movies taken on camcorder over the yrs..

I have even digitized old "Super 8" film my Dad took from the late 60's into the early '80s.. The film was deteriorating and finding good working film projectors with good bulbs for reasonable prices is a daunting task.. I ended up having to manufacture my own parts to repair a projector and then the bulb became an issue so I retrofitted a high power 50W LED in order to finish the digitization..

Even DVDs are on the death bed, the quality of DVD players on the market have gone into the ground but it is possible to "rip" DVDs into a digital file..

My old cassettes, well I have tossed out several thousand hrs worth as I replaced with CDs or digitized what is not available.. Have a few hundred hrs worth to go.

Have done the same with Reel to Reel and 8 track tapes.. Those are gone.. Sold my last Reel to Reel unit I had well over 10 yrs ago and have not looked back.

[jerem0621]

I’m still buying VHS tapes and cassettes. Lots of old content you can’t get any other way. Plus it doesn’t disappear from the digital library magically.

As for camping I just download some shows and movies to my iPad and connect it to the TV.

Thanks,

Jeremiah.

[B_printervan]

philh wrote:
some day, I'll spend some time learning how to really use those little boxes

Good beginners introduction.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BpJCAafw2qE

[philh]

some day, I'll spend some time learning how to really use those little boxes

[B_printervan]

mileshuff wrote:

B$printervan wrote:

I'm sure they do. DLNA has been around a long while. I've never viewed my setup as complicated. From Verizon ONT WAN port > Netgate SG-1100 pfsence Firewall/Router > Switch /s> Ubiquity WAP's and RPi's.

That's a lot more complicated than Laptop > TV, or NAS > TV. Am able to stream anything. Am I missing something?

Guess the other part of the equation would be how we differ on TV reception. Where we live there's no OTA reception. Seems most with cable service are content with either using the cable service set-top box, or directly connecting the coax on their TV (DLNA).

Here's my TV with channels, RaspberryPi mounted behind TV.
https://imgur.com/5uyMCj4

This just shows some movies stored somewhere on the network. Most are recordings from HBO, Showtime and TCM (I like old movies).
https://imgur.com/jAIIojv

Here's an old video I made after removing copy protections from my recordings (Has since been patched)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_VCcBcH8CrE

Some other nifty things I can do with Pi's are stream RTSP feed from our security NVR cameras. Also have these Linux powered Pi's with 9" touchscreens mounted in some walls around the house, TOSLINK/Fiber ran back to their respective AVR. Think of it as a 9" smart tv...

[mileshuff]

B$printervan wrote:

I'm sure they do. DLNA has been around a long while. I've never viewed my setup as complicated. From Verizon ONT WAN port > Netgate SG-1100 pfsence Firewall/Router > Switch /s> Ubiquity WAP's and RPi's.

That's a lot more complicated than Laptop > TV, or NAS > TV. Am able to stream anything. Am I missing something?

[B_printervan]

mileshuff wrote:

B$printervan wrote:
Few are. Kodi clients simply point to SMB shared folders on Debian box storing recorded tv shows/movies/music. It's so archaic it's powered down having been replaced by streaming services. Backups are what I use in van.

Windows 7 and 10 have built in capabilities to stream files to most smart TV's with no special hardware. DLNA has been in Windows since XP as one method. So I never got into anything more complicated. My NAS has apps to share to most anything. Couple Apple apps on it but don't know much about those as I don't have an Apple.

I'm sure they do. DLNA has been around a long while. I've never viewed my setup as complicated. From Verizon ONT WAN port > Netgate SG-1100 pfsence Firewall/Router > Switch /s> Ubiquity WAP's and RPi's.

Verizon ONT box coax connection split among 3 HDHomeRun Prime boxes (9 tuners) and connected on network.

@ TV's, Raspberrypi, POE powered, running Liberelec/Kodi (custom EPG channel guide for Frontier) Plus 6000+ other app based channels.

No special remotes other than what's included with TV's. (Unless listing to music, Yamaha remotes)

[pnichols]

FWIW, I have around 30 full length movies stored on my smartphone and I have a USB-C to HDMI adapter so as to be able to connect the smartphone to a monitor or TV screen via an HDMI cable ... for use on our home big screen or in the RV.

(I don't waste a good movie by trying to watch it on a dinky smartphone screen.)

[mileshuff]

B$printervan wrote:
Few are. Kodi clients simply point to SMB shared folders on Debian box storing recorded tv shows/movies/music. It's so archaic it's powered down having been replaced by streaming services. Backups are what I use in van.

Windows 7 and 10 have built in capabilities to stream files to most smart TV's with no special hardware. DLNA has been in Windows since XP as one method. So I never got into anything more complicated. My NAS has apps to share to most anything. Couple Apple apps on it but don't know much about those as I don't have an Apple.