For a long time I have bought the digital versions of movies off of iTunes and have more recently been expanding my physical collection. I’m curious, how big is the difference between the 4K digital version of a movie compared to the actual 4K disc? If I own the 4K digital version of a movie is there any reason to also pick up the disc version?
With digital you’re going to see a lot more moiré patterns or “banding” than with disc.
The problem with 4K digital is the bitrate varies from title to title and from service to service. The audio is better on the disk if you have an audio system that can take advantage of it.
Movies Anywhere tends to be the best service to stream 4K followed by Apple they tend to be above 20 Mbps on their 4K movie streams.
I tend to buy the disk and redeem the digital code, I use the digital version when I’m not in one of my main viewing setups.
Let’s not call it digital, because both are digital. Let me refer one to disk and the other to Demond. 😁 Chances are you won’t notice it on the picture. But audio you might have more dynamics. But I doubt you will watch both on demand and a disc version side by side to notice the difference.
I went completely away from physical media for movies because of the minimalist standpoint. And rocking the on demand media over Dolby Atmos surround sound and Dolby Vision on an OLED directly over the TV (since Apple TV is causing problems since the latest update. Different story) and as long as the movie is good I am immersed in the movie. 😊
More importantly, ask yourself when making popcorn 🍿 with butter and salt or sugar? 😁👍
With the digital version you should always be able to play it. In a few years you may not have something that’ll play physical media.
It’s probably best to say that physical is better for now….
The future is digital.