I bought my first ever CD on the weekend.

[OldShark]

Just wait until you get an LP with liner notes!

My adult children, mostly used to streaming, had fun some weeks ago when they discovered (and I re-discovered!) I had used LP covers to preserve concert tickets and newspapers concert reports of the according groups — AAA (another analog advantage)...

 

[KevInDaBassment]

I did say that. However, considering streaming quality has increased dramatically over the years, there is no reason to think it won’t get even better. All the factors you listed keep getting better. Throughput will continue to increase

You did

It's a matter of cost, not capability. No company with half a brain is going to pass up a chance to reduce expenses . This is why cloud-based server infrastructure uses pricing models based on processing power (how quickly is the task completed/worked) and availability (how quickly/urgently is the data accessible or pushed out to the client device). Reducing workload is basically reducing costs in most instances.

To hearken back to the Amazon example, they could have thousands of trucks that deliver packages to customers ASAP, one package at a time. Why don't they?...it's not cost-efficient by any stretch of the imagination. It's also why different packages may take longer to ship, as no distribution center holds every single thing Amazon may possibly sell....as much as I wished they did

Yep. Something I was watching made a comment about shooting and editing in 4k so their viewers can watch on their phones. Just like people listen to music on crappy earbuds and don’t care.

Quite true. This was supposedly why Dr. Dre started his line of Beats headphones, as he thought most headphones people used didn't get the full breadth of his songs, and that he wanted to change that by launching his own line of headphones he felt were appropriate.

Some YT'ers will shoot in 4k (or even 8k) so that zoom-ins or cropped footage for 1080p videos won't have as much quality loss, but the scenario you cited is often the case. People would have no idea since they're viewing it on a 9" screen.

 

[prom311]

Quite true. This was supposedly why Dr. Dre started his line of Beats headphones, as he thought most headphones people used didn't get the full breadth of his songs, and that he wanted to change that by launching his own line of headphones he felt were appropriate.

That's a cute story. I think it was more like:

Headphone guy: "Hey Dre you wanna make a boatload of money?"
Dre: "Yeah, I like money"

I seem to remember the monster cable guys being the brains behind it and then getting screwed outta millions. But i guess that's what happens when you charge people $200 for HDMI cables.

 

[JazznFunk]

@JazznFunk,
Just like there is different mastering for vinyl, CD, cassette, etc., movies are “mastered” differently for different media, as well. Even for each different kind of projector used in movie theaters. So, which version is the “real data”?

At this point your 'argument' is bordering more on philosophical than practical or pragmatic. I'm reminded of Jean Baudrillard and his discussions of semiotics and hyperreality. Once something is reproduced over and over again, it becomes a copy without a true 'original'. What is the true 'original' in the digital realm if it can be reproduced infinitely without degradation? Indeed - what is the 'real data'? I guess if one throws out that rabbit hole for a moment, the only 'real data' for a movie or a recording is the final master produced by the mastering engineer and delivered to the artist. Back in the day, it might have been a single reel or set of reels with the final tape mixdowns. Or it could have been the 'master pressing' of a record. But if a master recording can be infinitely exported in the exact same form - then all of them are 'originals' without actually being a singular 'original.'

So really, there is no 'real data'. There is simply the highest quality form of the work in question as it originally left the final mastering studio before being disseminated. The Blu-Ray 4k master is the highest quality physical format available to the end user at present. The raw, uncompressed form of the movie that sits on a hard drive somewhere in a studio is probably the HIGHEST quality format of the film/recording.... but even that is not what's getting put on Blu-Ray or delivered to movie studios.

 

[KevInDaBassment]

That's a cute story. I think it was more like:

Headphone guy: "Hey Dre you wanna make a boatload of money?"
Dre: "Yeah, I like money"

I seem to remember the monster cable guys being the brains behind it and then getting screwed outta millions. But i guess that's what happens when you charge people $200 for HDMI cables.

Yup, that's probably right