I’ve switched to buying everything on DVD or Blu-ray. It’s the only way to be sure I can watch, for example, Community Season 2 Episode 14 (one of the funniest episodes ever). If you don’t own the physical medium, you’re just renting a stream. No thanks.
tmm84 23 hours ago [-]
Been buying up DVDs and Blu-rays that are cheap of movies I like or have heard a lot about. Experienced the whole no one is streaming it this time so just buying the discs and never looking back has been my thing.
JKCalhoun 1 days ago [-]
And then ripping them.
When I hit PLAY I want the movie to start — not FBI warnings, not "previews" (ads), etc.
Gud 1 days ago [-]
I would argue internet piracy is a more sure bet than your DVD collection.
eadmund 7 hours ago [-]
I am playing the long game: I want folks to keep on releasing great movies and TV on disc, so I buy great movies and TV on disc.
loloquwowndueo 1 days ago [-]
DVDs rot after a while. Can’t be sure you’ll be able to watch them indefinitely. Def recommend ripping it and backing up the copy periodically for archival purposes.
cooperadymas 1 days ago [-]
While this is undoubtedly true, the lifetime is almost certainly a multiple of whatever it is on a streaming service. I have working DVDs older than Netflix's streaming service.
loloquwowndueo 1 days ago [-]
Oh I agree streaming is not an alternative if you want to stay in control of your library. Just DVD are probably not great for foolproof long-term archival.
throwaway89201 1 days ago [-]
Burned DVDs rot after a while (and quite inconsistently between brands), but pressed CDs and DVDs – such as retail movie DVDs – barely rot at all.
datavirtue 1 days ago [-]
Same here. I backup all DVDs to iso. Don't really care for BluRay because ripping/playing them is a nightmare. I then create MP4s and ingest them into my Plex server. I keep my DVDs stored away in the basement, making me 100% legal. Having your own media server is VERY nice. The ripping process is not straight-forware. Almost impossible to automate.
I would ravage this guy's store.
dnel 1 days ago [-]
During lockdown I ripped my entire DVD collection using makemkv. It's as close to one click as you'll get and works brilliantly. All my DVDs are stored away now and I play them from Plex in full quality.
daveoc64 1 days ago [-]
Whenever this sort of topic comes up, I always have to give a shout out to 20th Century Flicks in Bristol:
They have a huge library of DVD and VHS for rental!
stewx 1 days ago [-]
There is going to be an interesting breaking point when DVDs and Blu-rays stop being sold mass-market. I think a lot of people will realize the downside of going all-in on streaming.
cooperadymas 1 days ago [-]
Many things already don't make it to DVD, unfortunately.
tuna74 1 days ago [-]
That has already happened in a lot of parts of the world.
tjpnz 1 days ago [-]
Can't be far off given manufacturing of blu-ray players is winding down.
nashashmi 1 days ago [-]
PSA: Your local library has a good collection of DVDs. Go in there and see how they are still relevant. Sometimes the DVDs are free to borrow.
bombcar 1 days ago [-]
We had one that finally shut down a few years ago.
The key seems to be if they own the shop they’re operating out of; then they can last quite a while if the owner wants them to.
a2tech 1 days ago [-]
This is an important thing for any brick and mortar business--if you don't own your building, you're always at more risk for rent changing and putting you in bad straits.
infecto 1 days ago [-]
I hope he does well. On the flip side I cannot help but feel this is one of the greatest times to be a media consumer. I definitely look back and have nostalgia for going to Blockbuster on a Friday to pick out some tapes to watch but it may just be mostly the nostalgia of it all. We have easy access to almost any movie/show you want to watch, this includes lots of media that is outside of the country you live in. It is far from perfect and while there is a minority that prefers to own the disc, I suspect the vast majority of consumers prefer renting or buying digital.
It's sad we can't buy people media anymore. Most don't have a way to play CDs or DVDs!
t-3 1 days ago [-]
Most? I find that very hard to believe. Only the latest generation of consoles and a few late models of the last generation have no disc drives. Plenty of people will still have PS* and Xbox-n with disc drives, not to mention a lot of people will have 30-year-old Walkman CD players and 20-year-old set-top DVD players in their garages that still work. I have several working computers that have working DVD drives. My car still has a CD player. If all else fails, new USB-connected drives are still purchasable for very cheap prices.
infecto 1 days ago [-]
I don't have anything that can play a DVD or a Blu-ray. It is a lot more common than you think. A lot of people don't game or they don't game on console.
onecommentman 23 hours ago [-]
New DVD players are available (HDMI) for $30 online. Pick up a couple for the price of a mediocre meal + delivery. Literally plug and play.
infecto 11 hours ago [-]
I don't want one and neither do the majority of consumers. Hence why most people don't have media players anymore.
elzbardico 1 days ago [-]
I donate most equipment that I don't use regularly. Most people I know do even worse: They throw stuff away in the garbage.
My old PS4 and XBox-X got donated, and then I bought a discless series-S because I am a casual gamer, and game pass is cheap and good enough for me, as most AAA exclusive games on PS are now woke boring trash.
If my life depended on playing an old DVD I would probably die.
danielbln 1 days ago [-]
There are some real hard truths about not being able to own physical media, but purely in terms of UX, on-demand streaming blows anything else out of the water. I can stream any children's audiobook under the son to my daughter's Bluetooth speaker in a whim, instead of shuffling through a bunch of optical media that break easily, and for my own purposes I don't have to have a physical player, space to store the media, etc.
Maybe the best of both worlds would be to rip everything to a Plex server and have the originals in the basement.
onecommentman 23 hours ago [-]
Using the phrase “real hard truth” and “optical media that break easily” in the same post made my eyes cross. Are you referring to glass plate negatives from early 19th C. photography? And storing 400 DVDs in a binder takes about 1 cu ft of storage, and DVD players are $30 and the size of a hardback book.
Your best of both worlds proposal sounds right, though.
1 days ago [-]
Rendered at 00:02:12 GMT+0000 (UTC) with Wasmer Edge.
When I hit PLAY I want the movie to start — not FBI warnings, not "previews" (ads), etc.
I would ravage this guy's store.
https://20thcenturyflicks.co.uk/
They have a huge library of DVD and VHS for rental!
The key seems to be if they own the shop they’re operating out of; then they can last quite a while if the owner wants them to.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scarecrow_Video
My old PS4 and XBox-X got donated, and then I bought a discless series-S because I am a casual gamer, and game pass is cheap and good enough for me, as most AAA exclusive games on PS are now woke boring trash.
If my life depended on playing an old DVD I would probably die.
Maybe the best of both worlds would be to rip everything to a Plex server and have the originals in the basement.
Your best of both worlds proposal sounds right, though.