CoffeeShackRoaster1
New member
Someone over on Home Theater Forum asked the question I've been dodging for about five years: do you buy the pre-2015 Blu-ray of a major film now, or leave a hole on the shelf in case a 4K disc shows up? His list was Armageddon, Pearl Harbor, Rain Man, The English Patient, The Adventures of Robin Hood, The Fugitive.
My rule, arrived at expensively: buy it if the disc is cheap and the film is one you'll actually put on this year. A used catalogue Blu-ray often costs less than one cinema ticket. Waiting three years to save eight bucks means three years of not watching it, and if a 4K does land you sell the Blu-ray or hand it to a friend. The double dip is just the cost of watching things.
Where I do hold off is any title where the existing disc is known to come from a tired old master. Sitting through a soft, badly graded early transfer can poison a film for you, and then you file it mentally as one you've already seen. That's worse than the empty slot.
The other half of the call is what the rights holder is doing, not what the film deserves. A studio still running an active catalogue programme, an anniversary coming up, a 4K scan already made for streaming - those are real signals. A library that's been quiet for years is not. Robin Hood is a very different bet from Pearl Harbor.
And nobody prices in the out-of-print risk. I waited on two titles and watched the Blu-ray triple on the used market in the meantime.
Which has cost you more, buying twice or waiting and then paying scalper money?
My rule, arrived at expensively: buy it if the disc is cheap and the film is one you'll actually put on this year. A used catalogue Blu-ray often costs less than one cinema ticket. Waiting three years to save eight bucks means three years of not watching it, and if a 4K does land you sell the Blu-ray or hand it to a friend. The double dip is just the cost of watching things.
Where I do hold off is any title where the existing disc is known to come from a tired old master. Sitting through a soft, badly graded early transfer can poison a film for you, and then you file it mentally as one you've already seen. That's worse than the empty slot.
The other half of the call is what the rights holder is doing, not what the film deserves. A studio still running an active catalogue programme, an anniversary coming up, a 4K scan already made for streaming - those are real signals. A library that's been quiet for years is not. Robin Hood is a very different bet from Pearl Harbor.
And nobody prices in the out-of-print risk. I waited on two titles and watched the Blu-ray triple on the used market in the meantime.
Which has cost you more, buying twice or waiting and then paying scalper money?
