Surveys… we all love them, right? The opportunity to click all those little boxes that apply? To have your voice heard? To use scroll bars?
We won’t kid you, we want to collect your (non-identifiable, non-personal) data for purposes of deciding what ads to feature on the site. We figure you’re smart enough not to begrudge us the chance to optimize our meager revenue (we try to keep advertizing minimal, unobtrusive, and relevant to weird movie fans’ needs and interests).
But this survey can also serve as an excellent opportunity to discuss the current state of movie delivery technology. For example, some of us in our 40s will only begrudgingly watch a movie on our computer screens if there is no other possible way to see it, and would never consider watching a film on a cell phone. Younger folk may not see that as a problem. There is also the issue of the morality of torrenting. At 366 we do not condone any form of copyright violation, but we recognize that there are different levels of ethics at play here. Downloading a movie that’s playing in theaters now is much different than downloading a movie that is not available in any form otherwise. We hope that, after you’ve finished the survey, we can discuss these sorts of issues in the comments—politely, of course.
Now get to it, please!
I watch films in every way, based on convenience and opportunity. Cinema is clearly first choice, then any format on my tv, but I often download & watch films on my iPad, especially for train journeys. Here in the UK, we can do this legally & freely with some films broadcast on BBC tv through their iPlayer service, though this might not last for much longer thanks to David Cameron’s current attacks on the BBC!
Thanks for your comments pete. A larger iPad is probably about as small a screen as I would ever want to watch, and I’d probably reserve viewing for something like a sitcom where visuals weren’t very important.
I’m encouraged by the early responses that maybe reports of the “death of physical media” have been somewhat exaggerated, at least among people who frequent our site and answer surveys. So far DVD is the 2nd most popular way to watch movies, after in the cinema, and about 2/3 of respondents said that they might purchase a Blu-ray or DVD. It’s early still and the sample size is small, but its also interesting that although about the same number of people watched DVDs and Blu-rays, slightly more people said that they might buy a Blu-ray over a DVD. I’ve been wondering when Blu would pass DVD in popularity as a format and I think we’re getting closer to that tipping point. Please keep responding, the info is both useful and interesting.
I suspect that Blu Ray is effectively be the final format for owning anything like a physical copy of a movie. I can see myself, years from now, with my television, player, and diesl generator, reveling in my hoard of discs when streaming and digital go by the way-side in the post-Apocalyptic deathscape.
I love the convenience of streaming, but I don’t like the impermanence. Stuff I was excited about drops off of Netflix all the time. Ownership>rental, for sure.
Physical media to the bitter end!! Also of interest for streaming and sampling in addition to the options listed are Vinegar Syndrome’s exploitation.tv and Kodi app on just about any platform.
The results are encouraging so far; according to our survey people are still planning to buy DVDs and Blu-rays. Thanks for the notice about exploitation.tv; it starts on Aug 20, and it will be interesting to see what they have in the catalog (I assume their entire DVD catalog plus public domain stuff, but I think they’ll need more than that to support a channel).