IMPORTANT: Thoughts please regarding legit 5.1 downloads

[HDave]

No..... If the public got acclimated to downloading songs via buying physical jumpdrives it may work. Still think most consumers want something to hold for their money. Possibly put 2 albums per artist per drive and cost around 15-20 bucks. They could sell the drives in mini LP designed packaging, I live out in the boonies and for internet we have 1 option att and not the faster uverse either.
Downloading is still pretty dicey with my signal strength especially 4k programming, even though I've upgraded what I could from their line in. Had to do this to make sure my security cameras operate effectively.

 

[Kal Rubinson]

I download almost daily. Mostly, but not exclusively, high-resolution/multichannel files. The majority come with a .pdf of the booklet which, for me, is easier to read on the screen than from the original tiny booklet.
........................................and, fwiw, I am on Medicare, too.

 

[kap'n krunch]

oh , HECK YEAH!!!..
Disclaimers and joining in my fellow members:
1- ONLY if I could burn it on a disc , because..
2-, I'd PREFER Physical media than .. OOPS, your HD went to hell in a handbasket and you can't recover anything...

and , yeah, if they started doing it, I can see prices go higher than normal stereo files, but not at twice the price...

 

[halbroome]

As I said on another thread, I have gigabytes upon gigabytes of downloaded stuff, but eventually realized the physical means of maintenance / backup was "not there yet" or, more like, not affordable in both the sense of time and storage. Sure, there's not the fun of random play, but I'd rather pick it off the shelf with certainty rather than fast-forwarding / skipping, etc.

Maybe when I can easily back it ALL up to one crystal matrix that lasts a thousand years, I'll be ready to go that route. Somehow, I don't think the industry wants that.

 

[Old Quad Guy]

I Voted: YES, assuming that it was a title I desired and it was not over priced

I see this as another option in order to get surround out of the Vaults! I view this as + + plus, plus, not an either or proposition. We need to preserve the Quadraphonic master tapes. Would be an option for folks seaching for OOP DVD-AUDIO instead of paying crazy prices on eBay.

 

[ar surround]

Yes, as long as I wanted the title and it was reasonably priced. A month ago, I would have said that I only wanted physical media. But then I got the Oppo and ripped all of my CD's and most of my DVD-A's to a hard drive. Now I've gone 180 degrees and want the downloads...especially since ripping SACD's these days appears to be "black art."

 

[Tornado Red]

No, at least not yet, I am not physically set up for d/l to my rig. I'm still old school and prefer the shiny disc medium. Movies aren't quite there yet anyway, 4K with DV/Atmos etc streaming is not up to 4k disc standards yet so I'll likely soldier on with music/movies on disc...until my hand is forced, and that day is likely coming. Just not yet.

 

[LuvMyQuad]

I'm surprised the vote is so one sided at this point. 73 to 9 pro download is pretty much a landslide.

I wonder if a popular title was made available via download, and that was the only way it was offered, how many of the physical media supporters would buy it anyway because there is no other choice. It's DL or nothing...

 

[Kal Rubinson]

OOPS, your HD went to hell in a handbasket and you can't recover anything...

That's because you failed, foolishly, to keep a backup. Yesterday, I accidentally deleted all the files in one of my NAS's directories consisting of 54 albums. Restoration took less than 2 minutes.

 

[marpow]

That's because you failed, foolishly, to keep a backup. Yesterday, I accidentally deleted all the files in one of my NAS's directories consisting of 54 albums. Restoration took less than 2 minutes.

Thanks for the reminder, just ordered a Seagate 5TB external hard drive to back up my Synology NAS. Months of hard work down the drain, NO THANK YOU.

 

[François]

And you can always re-download your purchases from the online shop ! At least it should be the case on any sites that sells downloads.

 

[jimfisheye]

And for new recordings, how about simply releasing the full quality stereo and surround masters on day 1 of release? The greed driven thing of omitting the surround mix to save for a deluxe edition or the extreme of only releasing something in lesser quality on day 1 (again, presumably to leave open opportunity for an improved/deluxe edition down the road) really pisses people off.

As for optical discs vs files with checksums...
Digital audio leaves you blind to the condition of the data until it's too late unless you have a way to verify your data (like a checksum with a digital download).
Great encoding scheme. Do the expensive AD at front and then just shuttle ones and zeros around.
If a perfect 'one' is 1 volt and a perfect 'zero' is 0 volts: Anything between 0 and .5 is read as zero. Anything between .5 and 1 is read as one. Still perfect data read. Go one step further with that and you have gibberish now and suddenly your data is gone. You never had any telltale that it was "fading away" the whole time. This is why some of us consider the standalone players with the optical discs insidious but the computer happiness and light.

 

[jimfisheye]

And you can always re-download your purchases from the online shop ! At least it should be the case on any sites that sells downloads.

Oh my, DO NOT rely on anything like that for a backup! Websites can simply be gone the next day. Keep your own backups! Hard drives are just insanely cheap now. (WD 6TB for under $150. That makes a pair of them - primary and backup - under $300. You aren't going to fill 6TB very quickly unless you exclusively keep HD video + HD surround from bluray discs for every last media item you own.)

Also if you read the fine print, it's often bait and switch. Amazon for example doesn't give you a copy of the audio you just bought. They give you a mp3 reduction.

 

[OldAsMono]

I of course do still buy physical media but that is because that is the only source with most 5.1 titles. BEFORE I even listen to the physical disc, I burn it to hard drive. Once you get used to instant access to EVERYTHING the act of finding and inserting a disc seems almost a major effort. YES, if it is a title I want and PLEASE include all music content that is included in the physical package, I would buy the download OVER buying the physical package.

 

[mandrix]

I would buy downloads if mch and something I want.
Still prefer physical discs, but I can always author an MLP DVDA or a DTS-HD AVCHD if I need to.

I'm retired and money is at a premium. I already have backups on our 3 pc's for BD. On my main pc and a backup drive I swap in and out I have ISO backups. IOW, I'm having trouble buying enough drives now....if I ripped everything down
to flac I'd need even more drives. There are NO empty SATA slots on my main rig. As 2 &3 TB drives fill up I've been buying 4TB drives as I can, but it always means giving up something else for the sake of archiving.
I have had REALLY bad luck with HDD's dying in the past, Seagate & WD.
Besides, if I started ripping everything now, it would be a "job" - and I don't need another one. lol.

 

[bluelightning]

I wouldn't mind buying a download, but it has to be available for much cheaper than the physical media. I am most certainly not going to pay even a penny more for the download if I can get the physical media. With physical media, at least I can sell it off if I don't like it. Why pay more to get less ?

 

[Philip Spinner]

I will purchase a download if the title is not available on disc in multi channel. If the title is available on hi res disc in multi channel I will prefer disc over download. I will not repurchase a download of a title in multi channel if I already have it on disc.

 

[Ninecats]

Of course I would. The multichannel market is so slim when holding on to physical products only. And for me, living in Sweden, it's not very inviting to pay those shipping prices to labels like AF (R.I.P). I suppose the same goes for americans regarding Dutton Vocalion.

Also, with the insane boxes lately where literally the only way to get a 5.1 mix (legally) is to pay for a bunch of content that I am not interested in - count me out. How about A Farewell To Kings in 5.1 FLAC 96/24 on a download store? If you take the time to author it and put it on a physical disc then it shouldn't really be that much of an administrative task to put it on a download site at the same time

I do love my discs and booklets, but even I (being a vinyl and CD romantic) have realized that the future is for pure ones and zeroes, not ones and zeroes placed on a disc medium. With this however, some of the romantic side of music listening will vanish, the visual aspect, "holding" the music in your hands, smell the medium (yeah, a bit weird). I'm afraid the "art" side of music will degrade a bit. Or is it just our generetations who will look at it that way?

 

[Kal Rubinson]

And you can always re-download your purchases from the online shop ! At least it should be the case on any sites that sells downloads.

In theory. That requires knowing where you bought what and whether they are still in business. Then you need to take the time for downloading, unzipping, recreating directories, reestablishing metadata and library structure. Recovering from a back-up takes less time and effort than any one of those steps.

 

[Kal Rubinson]

You aren't going to fill 6TB very quickly unless you exclusively keep HD video + HD surround from bluray discs for every last media item you own.)

Speak for yourself. I and many of my friends are dealing with several dozens of terabytes of audio-only files.