DVD's / Blu-Rays / Physical Media

[RumHam]

I remember the first DVD I bought was Oceans 11. We didn't have a DVD player but I was confident my fancy new laptop would play it. it would not. some codec bullshit. 

[Heartofice]

Have to say my house looks a hell of a lot better now it's not cluttered full of DVDs. As much as it saddens me that streaming has replaced physical media, I don't miss how it makes everyone's home look like an extension of a student dorm. 

[Rhom]

I have not watched Creed 3 because I have not seen 1 or 2.  They seem only to be available on streaming if I'm willing to pay to rent them from somewhere.

I was in the Dollar General the other day (don't judge me) and in their $5 movies was a DVD with both Creed movies on it.  So I made an impulse purchase.  I'll get around to watching them soon(ish).

[Jace, Extat]

I haven't seen the 3rd one either but the first two are really great. 

[Durckad]

I still somewhat regularly buy physical media... except for PC video games. Lots of PC games don't even have physical releases anymore so it's not even really an option.

That said, I still have a much too large collection of books, DVD's, Blu-Rays, CD's, and Vinyl. Why still collect archaic, physical media in this golden age of digital media? Well...

1) I still have access to everything if something disappears from streaming. Or if my internet goes down.

2) Physical releases are generally higher quality. Better image and sound quality on blu-rays and sometimes better sound quality on CD's. Streaming generally compresses the quality so it's nice to have an option for "something better" even if it's not noticeable.

3) I actually own it.

Are these good reasons? IDGAF, let me have my stupid bullshit.

[3CityApache]

I still own maybe 20 or 30 DVD's of my favourite movies, but that's nothing comparing to about 2 000 CD's I don't have the heart to dispose of, even though it's even more ridiculous, as I do have virtually all music in one provider, don't have to look things up in five or six different streaming services, as with movies. But I do admit I don't remember when was the last time I took any of those CD's out of its case.

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

7 minutes ago, 3CityApache said:

I still own maybe 20 or 30 DVD's of my favourite movies, but that's nothing comparing to about 2 000 CD's I don't have the heart to dispose of, even though it's even more ridiculous, as I do have virtually all music in one provider, don't have to look things up in five or six different streaming services, as with movies. But I do admit I don't remember when was the last time I took any of those CD's out of its case.

Do you still have one of those CD books? I remember in HS in the mid 2000s those were still popular, but by the time I was in college not a single person had one.

That said I still have my original Gameboy that's like 30 years old so I am a hypocrite to some extent. 

[3CityApache]

10 minutes ago, Tywin et al. said:

Do you still have one of those CD books?

Don't think I ever had any. But I do remember the first CD I ever bought, out of these 2 000+. It was Ramones's Too Tough to Die.

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

38 minutes ago, 3CityApache said:

Don't think I ever had any. But I do remember the first CD I ever bought, out of these 2 000+. It was Ramones's Too Tough to Die.

Maybe it's an age gap. A social status thing was to pull out a giant binder with a few hundred CDs in your car.  They looked like this:
https://www.amazon.com/BlueCubi-Capacity-Portable-Sleeves-Carrying/dp/B0795V2816/ref=asc_df_B0795V2816/?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=241935719665&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=7198981047653767963&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9019679&hvtargid=pla-466574778941&psc=1

[3CityApache]

8 minutes ago, Tywin et al. said:

Maybe it's an age gap. A social status thing was to pull out a giant binder with a few hundred CDs in your car. 

Now you’re talking. I didn’t have one of those, admittedly, but one of my cars in late 90’s or early 2000’s was equipped with CD changer for 10 discs. Was very proud of it. 

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

11 minutes ago, 3CityApache said:

Now you’re talking. I didn’t have one of those, admittedly, but one of my cars in late 90’s or early 2000’s was equipped with CD changer for 10 discs. Was very proud of it. 

10 CDs? Can't say I ever saw that. Some friends had ones with six. The cheaper version I went with never worked right lol. 

[3CityApache]

11 minutes ago, Tywin et al. said:

10 CDs? Can't say I ever saw that. Some friends had ones with six. The cheaper version I went with never worked right lol. 

Pretty sure it was ten. It was a Pioneer I think. And it worked just fine.  

Edited May 5, 2023 by 3CityApache

[Werthead]

I'm glad that video games went digital. I have 477 games in my Steam collection (plus at least a couple of dozen apiece in UPlay, GoG and Epic, and a few in Origin) and having that number of DVD-ROM cases hanging around would be annoying. As it stands I still have ~50 DVD-ROM cases and ~20 CD-ROM jewel cases, mostly for nostalgia value (my original copies of Half-Life and Baldur's Gate II, for example). I even still have half a dozen Amiga game cases I kept for all-time classics (Monkey Island II and Frontier: Elite II among them).

There was also a weird period, from around 2010-2017, when you could buy PC games from Amazon physically that were cheaper than even the best sale price you could find on Steam, and often new releases were £5-7 cheaper. The most recent physical games I have are Fallout 4, XCOM 2 and Watch_Dogs which were all from that time period. So I think 2016 was my most recent new game purchase on physical media. Now most of them don't even have a physical media release, even the collector's editions usually just have a Steam key in them.

There's even a few games that aren't available digitally but the physical media installs still work (even if you have to get some judicious help from PCGamingWiki to make them work properly), which occasionally I tap into. GoG does occasionally add those though, which is invariably the easier way to go.

[A True Kaniggit]

On 5/5/2023 at 4:03 PM, Werthead said:

I'm glad that video games went digital. I have 477 games in my Steam collection (plus at least a couple of dozen apiece in UPlay, GoG and Epic, and a few in Origin) and having that number of DVD-ROM cases hanging around would be annoying. As it stands I still have ~50 DVD-ROM cases and ~20 CD-ROM jewel cases, mostly for nostalgia value (my original copies of Half-Life and Baldur's Gate II, for example). I even still have half a dozen Amiga game cases I kept for all-time classics (Monkey Island II and Frontier: Elite II among them).

 

Digital is convenient. Forced connection to the internet is a problem. 

I can "own" a dozen games. But if my internet connection isn't working, I can't play them. (Looking at you my Play Station Plus free games).

[A True Kaniggit]

Since video games were mentioned, I will always cherish my PS 1 copy of Final Fantasy Tactics.

(Though I have to bring out the PS3 to play it)