Dan Levine loves watching his guests light up when they see his DVD-lined bookcases and drawers in his Brooklyn apartment. It’s as if they’ve traveled back in time to 2006, he said.
“It is a really powerful thing to show that I still take pride in owning things that make me happy,” Levine said.
The 30-year-old estimates he has over 500 DVDs. And that’s not including his modest collections of CDs, VHS tapes, vinyl records, cassettes and 8-tracks.
Since the 2010s, streaming has dominated media consumption, and with that, sales of DVDs and CDs have sunk. And yet discs are still circulating in retail, and in some cases, demand is reviving — particularly from collectors. Discogs, an online marketplace for physical music where users can also catalogue their personal collections, saw CD purchases increase 8 percent so far this year over last year.
The trend is driven by Gen Z looking for the novelty of “vintage” media on discs as well as collectors and millennials itching to ditch their pricey streaming services, experts say. They also want to exercise true ownership of their media and better support the artists they love. And it can be cheaper to buy a physical DVD for $3 to $5 than to buy or rent the digital version. Some buyers hope their collections will also grow in value.
“What’s driving the growth right now is the type of people who go and spend a lot of time buying physical music are also hoping that the music might appreciate over time,” said Lloyd Starr, chief operating officer at Discogs.
Database users adding CDs to their digital collection on Discogs increased 14 percent over last year and 26 percent compared to 2022, Starr said. And if their “want list” — a tool to track what albums users are looking to buy — is any indication, he expects sales to keep growing: 12.7 million CDs were added this year, a 47 percent increase year over year. Meanwhile, subscribers to the CD_Collectors subreddit have soared more than 820 percent since 2020.
More broadly, the decline in disc sales is stabilizing, note industry groups, physical media distributors and sellers. Sales of DVDs, Blu-rays and 4K UHD Blu-rays, for example, fell just 3 percent in the third quarter over last year, according to the trade organization Digital Entertainment Group, compared to almost 26 percent in the previous year. And CD unit sales in 2024 increased 1.5 percent year over year, according to the Recording Industry Association of America.
To be sure, CDs and DVDs remain a niche market compared to other media — vinyl sales, for example, have surpassed CD sales since 2023, according to RIAA. Disc sales could also be skewed as retailers in recent years recalibrated how much inventory they sell in stores, according to DEG. And sales are highly dependent on how many popular films or albums are released on discs each year, industry experts said.
The allure of ownership
Collecting can be more than the hope of a future fortune. Rather, it’s a manifestation of the owner’s “relationship to cultural taste,” said Ted Striphas, chair of the department of media studies at the University of Colorado at Boulder.
“Being able to physically display media artifacts tells people something about who you are and your identity,” he said. “And that just does not translate into the world of streaming.”
These forces have motivated Alliance Entertainment to stay in the business. The wholesaler and distributor of physical and streaming media saw many peers shutter and “give up,” said chairman Bruce Ogilvie.
“We never felt physical media would go away,” he added.
Alliance, which benefited from the resurgence of vinyl records, acknowledges that DVDs and CDs probably won’t ride the same wave. “We’re not looking to go back to the heyday,” said Tim Hinsley, senior vice president of retail sales.
Alliance is focused instead on serving the niche audiences still looking to buy CDs and DVDs. And they’re going where the customers are, such as Amazon, Temu and eBay.
Although the big box chains Alliance works with — like Target, Walmart and Best Buy — have either shrunk or eliminated their in-store selection, shoppers can still find CDs and DVDs on their websites. Thrift and record stores and niche online marketplaces can be even more popular among ardent collectors.
For Robin Johnsen and her family, the DVD and CD aisle at a thrift store is their favorite section. Her son, Max, 14, and daughter, Saylor, 15, don’t have smartphones or unfettered access to streaming services, so they love the thrill of adding to their collections.
“Part of it is the ownership of it — like we don’t actually own whatever is on Netflix or on Hulu,” said Johnsen, a hairdresser who lives in Roopville, a farm town in west Georgia. It’s also enabled them “to appreciate music and cinema in a different way.”
Both her children have CDs and DVDs on their Christmas lists. Max, whose room has stacks of DVDs under his bed, requested the Anime TV show “Invincible,” while Saylor wants Taylor Swift’s “Reputation” and albums from Deftones and Sublime.
“Saylor asks for CDs because she likes the inserts, she likes the posters, she likes to read the lyrics,” Johnsen, 39, said. “That’s all the stuff I like to do and we’re desperately trying to give them a taste of childhood because it’s fleeting.”
The offline ritual
Starr, of Discogs, said Gen Z is a growing customer base for CDs. They’re intrigued by a medium that’s “foreign” to them, he said. “For the younger generation, it’s vintage.”
Meanwhile, pop stars like Taylor Swift, Ariana Grande and Lady Gaga are leaning in, releasing their albums on CD and even rolling out special editions. The industry also recognizes the value of the collectors’ market, Starr noted, citing the release of elaborate box sets for legacy artists like Miles Davis, the Beatles and Thelonious Monk.
“No doubt there is this huge cultural tension between AI and analog, and we see it especially when people are talking about Spotify,” Starr said. “Music is more accessible than it’s ever been before … but that kind of stripped us of our musical identity at the same time.”
Mark Leitner, 67, has been building his CD collection since he graduated law school in 1985. He now has about 14,000 CDs stored in custom wooden bookshelves and rotating tower racks in his Milwaukee apartment. Although the attorney had a Spotify subscription, he prefers scanning his collection and spotting an album he hadn’t thought of in years.
“Everything usually has a story behind it,” he said. “One thing that really makes me elated is when I can sit down and listen … and it can take me to wherever that record has taken me before and maybe to some new places.”
It’s hard to re-create that same ritual when you’re scrolling through a streaming service, he said.
Erica Hill, 36, finds a special kind of satisfaction in “feeding the machine” with a CD or DVD. “It’s the tactile nature of putting a disc in a drive,” they said.
Hill, who works for a documentary filmmaker and as a projectionist at a theater in Boston, also likes knowing that they won’t have to hunt for their favorite show as streaming services consistently trade licenses.
“I’ve watched the entire series of ‘Cheers’ two or three times, which is 11 seasons,” Hill said. “They switch streaming platforms all the time, so having that physical copy is really nice.”
There’s also the unique experience of lending DVDs and CDs to friends, an act Hill says makes for a more meaningful connection than just telling someone to watch a show or listen to an album.
Levine frequently has friends over for movie nights, encouraging them to scan his collection of more than 500 DVDs to choose what they watch.
“It’s crazy how probably two years ago I was getting looks and [asked], ‘Why are you doing this?’” Levine said. “And now it’s switched to, ‘Oh yeah, I got a Blu-ray player.’”
When I upgraded to 4K, I did a ton of research on 4K and HDR to make sure I got something decent. You’ve got HDR brightness, SDR brightness, contrast, lighting zones, Dolby Vision, stutter, and HDR formats to consider. It’s all so complicated.
Oh, man. 4k bluray on a OLED screen. It's the truest black I've ever seen. I was actually in awe. I went from "I'll replace my tv once it stops working" to "I am actively cutting costs to save up to replace my TV." In a split second.
I just wish OLED had as good of motion clarity as plasma TVs. And even my high-end Panasonic and Samsung plasmas don't have as good of clarity as the old CRT monitor I found alongside the road.
Plasma has better blacks than LCD, but not quite as good as OLED. I swear I was keeping the plasma TV industry alive for about a decade, although the reflectiveness of the glass screens wasn't always great for people's setups.
Yea glass panel can be annoying depending on where windows are. Only negatives I have is the tv always had a bit of image retention that lasts for a few minutes. Like I'm in a menu before starting a movie then you can see the shadow of the menu briefly as the movie starts. It buzzes on white screens a little, gets quite warm when running, and draws a lot of power. I've had it since 2013 still going strong.
Yeah, especially with age that image retention can definitely get annoying. One of the benefits of plasma over OLED is the lack of vertical banding. Again, it's not a perfect technology, but I loved plasma because it really pushed image quality forward in the early 2000s.
For me the eye opener was video games. Which makes a lot of sense, video games send the raw uncompressed render to the TV and can deliver even better image quality than “good” high-bitrate compression. I never really understood the hype of HDR because most TVs lie about HDR capabilities (all it takes to get the HDR badge on the box is the ability to decode and display an HDR signal, which is the bare minimum you’d expect from a modern display device, but the panel doesn’t actually need to be capable of producing high dynamic range images) and of course most content is just streaming these days.
But then I played through The Last of Us Part I on PS5, on my OLED TV. In a dark room with the lights off you literally don’t need a flashlight in the sewers section, because your eyes adjust to the darkness and the ever-so-subtle differences between pitch black and extremely dark are like night and day. Then you reach a point where the sunlight shines through and it’s so bright that it physically hurts. And my TV is just an LG C1, an older model that has been left in the dust when it comes to brightness and other aspects that OLEDs tend to struggle with. On an LCD TV, even one with true HDR and an active backlight, that part would be a muddy indistinct mess, probably with distracting bloom due to the backlight matrix. But on an OLED it’s an entirely new and unprecedented experience.
The same goes for Forza Horizon 4. Night in that game is absolutely stunning, out in the countryside the world becomes almost pitch black with only the sky outlining the horizon. Lights from other cars and buildings/streetlights off in the distance are dazzling, and the retroreflector paint on street signs when your headlights hit them are almost blinding. I think it might also be the first game in the series to feature real-time directional headlight shadows that paint the landscape with the picket fences and street signs that your headlights point at, and either way it is definitely the best game in the series in this regard. During a night time race all you can see is the gentle glow of the sky, distant towns and streetlights, and whatever your headlights hit. No game has ever managed to capture the look and feel of night driving so well. And then pull into one of the fun side areas and there are dazzling neon lights bathing the area in color and casting dramatic shadows everywhere, just in case regular night driving wasn’t impressive enough.
But I hated it when I had an LCD TV. Because the game was made for HDR when it was a new technology (technically 3 was developed alongside the HDR capabilities of the mid-gen refreshed Xboxes but that game’s HDR implementation is a bit primitive and sloppy whereas 4 just gets everything right) it really leans heavily into HDR. But it sacrifices the non-HDR experience, if your TV can’t display subtle differences in shadow and darkness and just mashes everything from medium gray to black into the same muddy gloomy color like a typical LCD does then Forza Horizon 4’s night time is a miserable experience. Which is why I keep talking about 4 when 5 is newer and more graphically impressive in many ways, because 5 “fixed” the problem by introducing a moonlight mechanic that dramatically brightens the landscape at night, making the game much more playable on LCD while looking far less impressive on a proper HDR OLED.
Stray is another game that uses HDR well. Maybe not quite to the extent of those other two I mentioned, I don’t know how to describe it but the lighting looks more like a “video game” as opposed to the “realistic” lighting of the other two. But it is a very HDR game, with lots of contrast between bright and dark, very moody and visually interesting lighting, and some really dark segments that show off the capabilities of HDR and OLED.
TL;DR: if you’re still not totally sold on the idea of HDR even after watching real HDR on a real HDR TV via a disc, try playing one of those games. Unfortunately HDR is such a disorganized and ungoverned buzzword that like 95% of “HDR” displays and probably the majority of “HDR” content aren’t really HDR in any meaningful way, so once you know how good HDR can look you’ll struggle to find more that lives up to that ideal.
But hey, the whole point of this thread is discs, not HDR, so to bring it back around physical disc will be the only way you can experience Forza Horizon 4 if you don’t already have it, as it was delisted from online storefronts last year.
because your eyes adjust to the darkness and the ever-so-subtle differences between pitch black and extremely dark are like night and day.
FYI, some higher-budget games simulate this effect by making things brighter as you linger in a dark environment. The Last of Us Part I almost certainly does so.
I used to work in tech sales and would give the demos every single day to people and eventually I just couldn’t take it and had to upgrade from my 2015 bare basic 4k lcd
OLED + black curtains behind the TV, to me, is better than most theatrical viewings. You often forget you're looking at a TV and not a magical window into another reality.
Counterpoint: all white scenes, or certain logos, feel like getting flashbanged
So true. Recently watched the LotR movies with family. They rented them on Amazon and the quality of a movie they paid to stream from Amazon's billion dollar streaming service was actually awful compared to my local 1080p files at home. There's no comparison, it was jagged, noticeable artifacts everywhere, frame stutters, colors were just off. It was almost too painful to watch, but I can't help love frodo and Sam's bromance.
I'm going full speed ahead with building out my local media server before it's too late.
Honestly I think this is a bit of what killed 4Kbluray before it even got off the ground. People saw “4k” on netflix, decided it didnt look any better, and never cared to look much into it, I know I did for a bit. However then I finally HEARD the bitrates of streaming. 20-40mb/s.
That’s barely 1080p bluray. Even those can have peaks over 60mb/s! (probably higher, but just my own experience) That’s not even talking about 4k blurays. There are scenes that are over 250mb/s for MULTIPLE seconds (andor: the eye) and then sustaining 100mb/s.
Streaming sucks.
Shit, even a good old Blu-ray looks and sounds sooo much better than “4k” streaming. And 4k Blu-ray is amazing!
Now, streaming plays a big part in my life. But, having a curated collection of your favorite albums and movies and tv is priceless and I think if people realized the higher quality it delivers they would be on board.
Plus, no subscription fee to enjoy the art that you love
Youre just getting mugged by corporations. There is no law of physics that says you must get shit bitrate for 20 a month, people just like paying for official shit even if the experience is awfull.
Although, there are occasional exceptions, unfortunately.
For example, Severance season 1 has a worse bit rate on the Blu-rays. You can see gradients in the shadows that aren't there when you stream it on Apple TV.
It used to be really good. HBO was the gold standard for 4k content. Then, they followed the Netflix model and enshittified their bitrates sometime during COVID, along with everyone else.
I think Apple TV is the only one that still looks decent.
Apple TV streaming quality is head and shoulders above every other major streamer. The Netflix 4K plan is pretty good (but $25 a month). HBO is horrible now. Amazon has gotten a bit better over time. For major services that offer an Apple TV Channel, I always try to subscribe through there when it makes sense financially, because then I'm getting Apple TV streaming quality, which is basically on a different planet than the streaming quality of the Paramount or Starz standalone apps.
I don’t remember them ever being good. I remember the final season of their flagship Game of Thrones show being panned in part because their DVD-tier bitrate made the Long Night episode impossible to see as we just got giant grey blocks of artifacts
Sony pictures core looks amazing with its super high bitrate that's nearly disc quality. Recently watched og spider man 1-2 and the details for streaming was incredible. Very niche app though
It's a nice idea, but definitely niche. Even the high bitrate you're talking about is only available if you're using compatible Sony TVs. The PS5 version of the service doesn't support it.
Ironically I have one of those TVs, but the ethernet port is capped at 100Mbit, so it struggled to play the high bitrate movie the one time I tried the service.
I’ll be the Devil’s advocate and say that serving high bitrate 4k streams is really freaking expensive. Scale that to millions of subscribers and it becomes unfeasible.
Like the only high bitrate streaming services I know of is “Sony Pictures Core” and that requires a Bravia TV to fully support.
And then there are ridiculous offerings like Kaleidescape. A combo deal of 4k player and media server is 23K USD on Best Buy. Not even counting the media you have to buy and have it jailed to their ecosystem.
Meanwhile you can have a media server on an old ass computer with pirated remuxes for essentially the same quality. Throw piracy out and rip your own media if you have problems with that.
This is the real issue. Every time a movie or show disappears, and someone wanted to see it, their faith in the permanence of streaming is destroyed. They might stick it out for a while, but they start to notice.
You know who's catalog doesn't disappear things that people still watch? The public library. If you can't afford a media library, the library has it all.
I went to go rewatch Wicked: Part I on HBO Max a couple of weeks ago and it was already gone. The sequel was coming out. This was less than a year. You'd think it would be on the front page.
Finding things on streaming has become more of a pain in the ass than just grabbing the dvd off the shelf, and dvds have a level of love and care with their extras you don’t see with streaming platforms.
Yes.
Also, I don't know if it's like this for everybody but when I'm sitting on my couch to watch a DVD on TV my brain is committed to that task, but when I'm in front of the PC watching streamings I suddenly can't finish to watch anything without pausing it to see social media, chat, listen to music, play videogame, read newspapers, all at the same time. Maybe because I'm older and do not use cellphone that much therefore I'm able to sit in front of the TV and watch it without distractions.
I think DVDs has not only a level of love and care but also a greater level of... attention? Immersion? For me, at least.
Physical media requires considerable effort to obtain and watch compared to streaming. You left your home, picked it out and then got up and walked over to your DVD player to watch it. Way more reason to be committed. With streaming there’s endless choice from a wealth of content you don’t own; why bother concentrating on a movie when you can back out and pick something else at any time?
I have grown an appreciation for carefully curated libraries be they records, Blue Rays, or Books. Not a huge fan of a ton of books or a ton of movies or what not as a THIS IS WHAT I AM INTO kind of thing but a small 5-20 item collection can say a lot about a person. Great way to introduce yourself quietly.
Same here. I'll be honest, I absolutely will not give up the convenience of Spotify or my Kindle. But I am happy to buy vinyls and physical books for content that has been especially meaningful - and honestly, 99% chance I won't even go through the lengths of playing that record or opening that book. I wouldn't even call it a "collection". More like artifacts along my journey of what defined my tastes.
The thing that really gets me lately is all the messing around w movies they do on streaming without even a word of warning; editing things out, changing how it looks etc. or worst case scenario “updating” w ai. I have a hard enough time when directors do this, much less some tech bro a hole working for Netflix or whatever.
I watched Star Wars yesterday and more than 5 minutes before the end (not counting the credits!) it zoomed out and did this „watch the next one“ with the actual movie being the little window in the corner… wtf Disney plus. Right in the final fight btw. That’s one way to destroy the experience.
This happens all the time with series. How do they not know that the freaking episode doesn’t end until it ends. Now I’m struggling to find the remote so I can stop the play next countdown while simultaneously (re)enlarging the actual damn video all within 15 seconds..
And then if you go back to the episode, it starts from the beginning, and you have to fast forward with their shitty fast forward. Then you finally get to the scene and it happens again because you were too slow on the remote or input lag on their shitty app meant you pressed up twice instead of once and it went back to "skip to next episode" by the time you pressed the select button.
I’ve learned to keep my fire tv remote right next to me on the couch at all times. Most streamers give you like 7 seconds to hit the “watch credits” button before moving on to the next episode.
Phantom Menace. It cut off right before Maul died lol. And after that there still is the celebration, the funeral, Anakin’s designation as padawan, etc…
Weird. I just watched the end on my laptop and the “you may also like” didn’t pop up until the cast credits started rolling. What are you using to watch Disney+?
That seems like a glitch as I've never had that happen before and I've watched these a number of times. Unless there was a very recent update that messed with something, though I'm still leaning towards it not being intentional.
I was watching Willow on Disney Plus last year and I watched everything but the last episode and they pulled it from the platform before I could. The show wasn’t any good but that wasn’t the point…
I used to collect physical media and had stopped, but after that I started buying again. Modernized my entire library and am not interested in being reliant on streaming platforms on any level.
This is a small thing but I've found subtitles to be more accurate on DVDs more than streaming too. It feels as though someone actually did the subtitle work vs just feeding the video into an AI to generate them. Especially as sound quality is degrading and it makes the actors more difficult even for the computer to understand.
I went to watch Titan AE on Amazon a few days ago and the version they are streaming has the music... changed. I'm not sure what they did to it (remixed, remastered, who knows!?), but it was changed!
Thankfully, I own the disc and was able to watch the original, unmodified version.
I work for... Not a streaming company but a tech company you absolutely know the name of.
I used to get weekly emails about social media sentiment and which aspects of the product people were praising or complaining about. At least until I removed myself from that list because I work in security and nothing I do is customer facing.
Anyway, there are people whose entire job is to pay attention to what people are saying online.
With subtitled shows they sometimes even censor things.
In Part 5 of Jojo's Bizarre Adventure, Netflix changed the dialogue of the gay protagonist from "I have no interest in women" to "I have no interest in women like you" (or something similar).
Just to make it more ambiguous that he prefers men.
The captions on Netflix don’t match at all. I’ve been watching them lately and they’re all wrong. Not sure if they’re using AI to produce them or some lazy captioner.
The thing that blows my mind is that they never taken advantage of the fact that they have no storage limitations. They could publish literally every edition of the movie ever filmed, every bit of bonus material, they could even have "Mystery Science Theater 3000"-like bonus tracks. But somehow they managed to offer less extras than a DVD.
this is why i bought all the seasons of Futurama on DVD. there’s no other way to get commentary on episodes. no reason hulu couldn’t just add the audio track with commentary.
They do have storage limitations. They store everything on their servers. Why would they store extra stuff when they can get away with giving you just the movie?
I remember being so embarrassed showing my gf Goodfellas for the first time ever. Did streaming just because it was more convenient but it felt like every other scene I had to adjust the volume because it was too low then too high. It was an awful way to watch such a good movie.
That's more a problem of dynamic range than streaming audio bitrate, though. You can adjust dynamic range settings for your receiver, sound bar, or TV in most cases when this is bothersome.
Normally I do recommend leaving full dynamic range on, but engaging limited dynamic range helps when you need to listen quietly or when the original audio source has huge dynamic range swings that make it difficult to find the right balance (as happened to you).
Don’t need a subscription, no ads, and never drops from the service. No need to buy everything but my modest collection feels special to me. Looks and sounds better is an understatement, wish people would give it a chance.
My wife has been buying cheap dvds of movies off ebay and other sites because frankly, its better.
No Ads, no dealing with logins and passwords, no "the title you are looking for is unavailable" bs, no ads, dvds come with features and extras, no ads, and did I mention no fucking commercials for my paid subscription.
I'm full sending on buying 4k blu rays of the movies and shows I enjoy. No more relying on internet connection to get 4k quality and having to jump around subscription services
I'm sure at some point another standard will come along that will make 4ks "Obsolete". But it's hard to imagine. The picture quality is so good, the sound is good. Most movies either don't have a print or a transfer that is "better" than 4k anyway. It seems like the endgame format.
I buy anything I really enjoy in 4k, and barring that I'll buy the bluray. I try to avoid DVDs as much as possible. The one exception would likely be TV Sitcoms. Those are fine on DVD.
As you alluded to, 4K will only become "obsolete" with regard to movies that are made years in the future. The quality of existing films (even the masters on film) does not exceed 4K, at least not to an extent that is discernable.
And the problem with higher resolution like say 8K is that the bandwidth needed is so massive most people couldn't realistically support it (add in that with 4K the compression is already so high most 4K streams look awful) I don't think we'll move past 4K HDR for quite some time, and if you're happy with a 55-75" TV your eyes won't be able to appreciate a higher res.
DVD players have a "cheat code" for this. If you start the movie, then hit stop and then stop again, you can hit play and it will often just start the movie. Doesn't work on blu-rays in my experience, though.
It's been a bit but most of the Blu-rays I have with trailers you can use the "skip scene" button to go through them when the disc menu command is disabled
Can you help me find 4K UHD copies of
* Grandma’s Boy
* Houseguest
* Jingle All the Way
* Forget Paris
* White Chicks
* Speed Racer*
* Powerpuff Girls
* Rocko’s Modern Life
* Doug
* MadTV
*…
I could go on.
So much physical media isn’t even available on Blu Ray, much less UHD.
As such, DVD’s will continue to have a purpose in my library, and I assume the libraries of others, too.
(Disclaimer) I do own Speed Racer on Blu Ray, and it’ll never be released in (non AI upscaled) UHD based on the camera used to film the movie.
I love the commentary tracks. Watching a movie I like then hearing a producer or director talk about the way a complex scene was set up, or pointing out some plot point I missed, that’s great and can make a so-so movie a lot of fun
I completely agree, a dying art. Everyone knows how good the LOTR director's commentary is, but a gem I found lately was the commentary for Inside Out - if nothing else showing how different the creation of animation can be to live action.
It's not because I'm vintage. It's because I'm tired of the show I want to watch either being available: Only with ads in the middle even after I pay, as the creator DIDN'T intend, or just not being available.
Streaming services got greedy. Used to be I had one service and I'd be able to find something cool to watch. Now it's just "hey check out this new show we made. (98% are filler background noise at best)" Instead of "remember this classic?" Or "we got a movie that JUST came out! Check it!"
In retrospect I wish I never got rid of all of my DVD cases but, I worked at Blockbuster as a teenager so my DVD collection got somewhere around the 500+ (probably closer to 600-700, honestly). So when it came to packing & moving every few years, I decided to ditch all of the cases for a big 1500 disc binder.
It certainly doesn’t look or feel as good as seeing all of those discs in alphabetical order but it saves a ton of space. But, this is one of my more materialistic regrets in life.
I did the same thing but have no regrets. I have NO space for 1000 dvds, but they all fit in 3 alphabetized binders. I use the app MyMovieBuddy to keep track of the collection which includes artwork and trailers fore very movie. Now my dvd collection feels like looking through a streaming library except I just grab the disc and pop it in.
had that same feeling as a kid with my video games. then when reddit came around and people started posting pics of their man cave, I saw some cool looking libraries or shelves with games nicely stacked
Same. My parents had hundreds of VHS tapes and DVDs and none of us wanted them when they downsized about 10 years ago. I had no place for them then in a small apartment, but now that we have a house I regret it. But there was no way to know then what we do now.
Though I’m lucky to have a number of used video and record stores in my city. I’m in Austin and We Luv Video is definitely worth a visit. I’m hoping that similar stores will start popping up in more rural communities, but it might be a while until it catches on. So it never hurts to remind people of the power of their local library!
Edit to add: My siblings and I would always make fun of my dad for having 2-3 or more copies of the same movie. Which he’s happy to hold over us each time he gives us one. As he should.
My child is 12 YO and has asked for CD's. DVD's, vinyls, for Xmas..he has 2 portable cd players. Victrola (A record player/CD/cassette player combo) and a Blueray player.
There was a craze in about 2010/11 where shows/comedians would put their stuff up on their website, charge $5 and let you download it. Streaming absolutely obliterated that trend - most comics took the Netflix money.
this: everyone talks about bringing back Blockbuster or whatever, but the physical media install base is never gonna be big enough for that. Being able to just sell a DRM-free file from your website is the thing, but no one really wants to do that. No one is selling you a movie that you can just do whatever you want with, even though... that's what a lot of people probably want.
Another example is Big Finish, I can buy the title and download it any way I want, and if I ever lose the file or it gets corrupted, they still have my history and I can just download it again. It's great.
The bigger issue at play here is censorship. Physical media can't be tampered with in the same way as digital files and streaming services. One need only look to Hulu's censorship of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia to get the point. There are plenty of other instances. The more we digitize, the more they can manipulate original works.
Back at the start of COVID (during the Marie Kondo honeymoon months) a lot of Americans ditched their discs in the name of 'joy'. I nearly joined them but opted to downsize the collection by shedding their covers and moving the entire collection into DVD binders. Last time we lost power I plugged the big screen and old blu-ray player into the solar-powered generator and we had a movie day.
Thank You!!!! Seriously, my biggest beef with all this digital stuff!
In addition in Sunny, let's not forget when TBS got caught several years ago speeding up Seinfeld to allow more commercials to be inserted. Then TBS (again) cut seconds off Scrubs episodes so certain reactions or expressions were lost, so the jokes didn't land as well. And of course, losing the original music with a lot of the episodes.
You'd think that the algorithm would put something else higher on the list after I've passed over the same series 20 times without selecting or watching it.
So where is everyone getting their blu rays and such? Best Buy dropped them, I try not to support Amazon but they seem like the only option a lot of the time. I don't have a great selection at my local Target.
They overcharge for so many of their dvds and blu-rays, though. Only place you can get Criterion releases (when it's time for the half-off sales) outside of online stores, at least.
Amazon is the most convenient and constantly has sales. You can easily build a nice 4k library through just Amazon for like $12 a movie.
if you don’t want to support Bezos, WB and Universal have a joint site called Gruv. They recently started selling Shout titles, too. They also have sales all the time, ship early, and have a huge library.
there’s an eBay shop called please rewind owned by Sony that has a huge collection and sales, too.
Criterion, Arrow, Kino Lorber, and the aforementioned Shout have films (often classics or foreign films) that were not converted to 4k by the original studio. They always have sales, too.
smaller shops like OrbitDVD and Atomic stock releases from all the sites I just mentioned. They’re basically a more expensive Amazon, but you can get almost any movie that exists in 4k.
As far as older stuff, garage sales and Facebook marketplace can be awesome. It's not a way to find new releases, but I see some fairly current blurays at garage sales. You frequently find people who have to move and realize they need to clear out stuff (which is what happened to my collection. 3 moves in a year).
My oldest daughter (10) asked for a "music disc player and music discs" for Christmas. It cracks me up but you bet your ass she's getting a boombox this year
I canceled $80/month worth of inferior streaming services and now spend $80/month or less on discs. I can't believe I ever let them sway me away me away from physical.
For me this is the biggest issue about Netflix getting WB. Everyone is obsessing about the theatrical runs but to me this is more important. Being able to buy movies and own them. Theatrical is a time limited experience with no ownership of the movie, physical media is the most important.
And before anybody goes: " JusT piRAte iT, BRO it'S NoT HArd!"
Ya, my first thought on hearing the news of the succesful Netflix/WB bid was what a hit it could have on the physical media market. WB is a pretty prolific supporter of 4K/Blu-ray. Netflix doesn't give a wet fart about it.
Oh Netflix has absolutely released Blu-ray's in the past. Certain deals are in place for some directors to have physical release (like Guillermo del Toro) and a handful of their original series have gotten some physical releases as well. I own the Haunting of Hill House/Bly Manor combo release. But as you say it's a very rare exception to the rule. The vast majority of their content is streaming only. Mike Flanagan talked about his frustration with working with Netflix and their complete uninterest in putting out all of his work he did for them on Blu-ray.
Great news. If you dont hold it, you dont own it. Streaming is great for certain content, test driving content, etc. but anything you really like and wish to rewatch needs to be on disc. Just so many positives and things people dont think about with streaming only. Like:
Streaming providers can and do remove content all the time for no reason.
Streaming providers can edit content, can only provide certain versions of content, censor content to placate some social activist executive, they can and do raise prices all the time, and on and on.
Streaming providers can reduce quality, throttle you, whatever else.
None of the above can happen with physical media. Always the best possible picture and sound quality. Always the best versions of a film or TV series. Always yours to watch without any strings attached. And, case art is cool. :)
Always the best possible picture and sound quality. Always the best versions of a film or TV series.
Not so. I bought a Bluray of Goodfellas that had major sound issues, and a low quality letterboxed video output, and permanent bright yellow subtitles. Sometimes you get shit. It's rare, but it happens.
Culture really is cyclical. I love blu-rays, there’s nothing better than sticking on a movie, then checking out the extras. It’s like a really good meal, and you don’t get that with streaming!
basic functionality such as creating/modifying playlists can only be done on Desktop app
I've been a longtime user of Plex for years with their lifetime pass since 2019, but these small UI edits have added up and accumulated into an app that is hard to use. Feels like the app is working against the user.
Ya that was when I had to switch to an ereader as well. I moved 3 times in one year during a rough patch, and moving boxes and boxes of books got to be too much.
My wife and I have a rule for everything (blurays, vinyl) where we only buy our absolute favorites, just to keep the bulk down. Books are another story, but we try to purge whenever it gets to be too much.
Luckily we never really have the impulse to revisit many TV shows, since box sets are a pain.
I'll never subscribe to another streaming platform again. What we pay for matters in the long run.
Another tip is the local library. I'm getting brand new releases the week they drop. It's wild. 100% free. No late fees. No commercials. No algorithm. It almost feels like going back to Blockbuster.
My question is will we see an evolution to physical media? 4K’s are proving to be very sensitive to dust and scratches. I had a loose disc in a case scratched on arrival and it was unusable.
While we’d lose a nostalgic factor moving away from discs, I’d personally be open to investing in a new way to play. I started on vhs and have put money down on each format since(excluding hd dvd). Similar to the way movie theater projectors work now, what if we were given small hard drives, artfully designed, that injected the movie into a player. Keep the tactile nature of physical media, while giving more protection to the media itself.
CDs first became popular in the early 90s. That's 35 years ago. In the 90s-00s, most technologies from the 60s would very likely be considered vintage, so it tracks.
When was the last time you bought a new CD? For most people it’s probably 15+ years. Vinyl stayed cool, but not CDs. I say this as someone who has gotten back into building a CD collection.
Technically, “vintage” is 25+ years old. So yeah, CDs are vintage. And so are we. 😂
My college-aged kid drives an old-ish truck my dad left him. It’s got a shitty radio so he’s been buying CDs and I get more old folks joy than I care to admit when he calls to show me a new one. And my husband and I are kicking ourselves for not saving our giant books of CDs we spent thousands on.
Maybe a bit of a hot take, but I wish the development of disc technology went less the route of CDs and DVDs and more like something similar to a MiniDisc.
I really hated how fragile and prone to scratches bare discs were. Not to mention bulky. Having an integral casing would have been a great solution to that.
Article: DVDs and CDs are becoming cool again, thanks mostly to Gen Z
Archive link: https://archive.ph/NyePT
Dan Levine loves watching his guests light up when they see his DVD-lined bookcases and drawers in his Brooklyn apartment. It’s as if they’ve traveled back in time to 2006, he said.
“It is a really powerful thing to show that I still take pride in owning things that make me happy,” Levine said.
The 30-year-old estimates he has over 500 DVDs. And that’s not including his modest collections of CDs, VHS tapes, vinyl records, cassettes and 8-tracks.
Since the 2010s, streaming has dominated media consumption, and with that, sales of DVDs and CDs have sunk. And yet discs are still circulating in retail, and in some cases, demand is reviving — particularly from collectors. Discogs, an online marketplace for physical music where users can also catalogue their personal collections, saw CD purchases increase 8 percent so far this year over last year.
The trend is driven by Gen Z looking for the novelty of “vintage” media on discs as well as collectors and millennials itching to ditch their pricey streaming services, experts say. They also want to exercise true ownership of their media and better support the artists they love. And it can be cheaper to buy a physical DVD for $3 to $5 than to buy or rent the digital version. Some buyers hope their collections will also grow in value.
“What’s driving the growth right now is the type of people who go and spend a lot of time buying physical music are also hoping that the music might appreciate over time,” said Lloyd Starr, chief operating officer at Discogs.
Database users adding CDs to their digital collection on Discogs increased 14 percent over last year and 26 percent compared to 2022, Starr said. And if their “want list” — a tool to track what albums users are looking to buy — is any indication, he expects sales to keep growing: 12.7 million CDs were added this year, a 47 percent increase year over year. Meanwhile, subscribers to the CD_Collectors subreddit have soared more than 820 percent since 2020.
More broadly, the decline in disc sales is stabilizing, note industry groups, physical media distributors and sellers. Sales of DVDs, Blu-rays and 4K UHD Blu-rays, for example, fell just 3 percent in the third quarter over last year, according to the trade organization Digital Entertainment Group, compared to almost 26 percent in the previous year. And CD unit sales in 2024 increased 1.5 percent year over year, according to the Recording Industry Association of America.
To be sure, CDs and DVDs remain a niche market compared to other media — vinyl sales, for example, have surpassed CD sales since 2023, according to RIAA. Disc sales could also be skewed as retailers in recent years recalibrated how much inventory they sell in stores, according to DEG. And sales are highly dependent on how many popular films or albums are released on discs each year, industry experts said.
The allure of ownership
Collecting can be more than the hope of a future fortune. Rather, it’s a manifestation of the owner’s “relationship to cultural taste,” said Ted Striphas, chair of the department of media studies at the University of Colorado at Boulder.
“Being able to physically display media artifacts tells people something about who you are and your identity,” he said. “And that just does not translate into the world of streaming.”
These forces have motivated Alliance Entertainment to stay in the business. The wholesaler and distributor of physical and streaming media saw many peers shutter and “give up,” said chairman Bruce Ogilvie.
“We never felt physical media would go away,” he added.
Alliance, which benefited from the resurgence of vinyl records, acknowledges that DVDs and CDs probably won’t ride the same wave. “We’re not looking to go back to the heyday,” said Tim Hinsley, senior vice president of retail sales.
Alliance is focused instead on serving the niche audiences still looking to buy CDs and DVDs. And they’re going where the customers are, such as Amazon, Temu and eBay.
Although the big box chains Alliance works with — like Target, Walmart and Best Buy — have either shrunk or eliminated their in-store selection, shoppers can still find CDs and DVDs on their websites. Thrift and record stores and niche online marketplaces can be even more popular among ardent collectors.
For Robin Johnsen and her family, the DVD and CD aisle at a thrift store is their favorite section. Her son, Max, 14, and daughter, Saylor, 15, don’t have smartphones or unfettered access to streaming services, so they love the thrill of adding to their collections.
“Part of it is the ownership of it — like we don’t actually own whatever is on Netflix or on Hulu,” said Johnsen, a hairdresser who lives in Roopville, a farm town in west Georgia. It’s also enabled them “to appreciate music and cinema in a different way.”
Both her children have CDs and DVDs on their Christmas lists. Max, whose room has stacks of DVDs under his bed, requested the Anime TV show “Invincible,” while Saylor wants Taylor Swift’s “Reputation” and albums from Deftones and Sublime.
“Saylor asks for CDs because she likes the inserts, she likes the posters, she likes to read the lyrics,” Johnsen, 39, said. “That’s all the stuff I like to do and we’re desperately trying to give them a taste of childhood because it’s fleeting.”
The offline ritual
Starr, of Discogs, said Gen Z is a growing customer base for CDs. They’re intrigued by a medium that’s “foreign” to them, he said. “For the younger generation, it’s vintage.”
Meanwhile, pop stars like Taylor Swift, Ariana Grande and Lady Gaga are leaning in, releasing their albums on CD and even rolling out special editions. The industry also recognizes the value of the collectors’ market, Starr noted, citing the release of elaborate box sets for legacy artists like Miles Davis, the Beatles and Thelonious Monk.
“No doubt there is this huge cultural tension between AI and analog, and we see it especially when people are talking about Spotify,” Starr said. “Music is more accessible than it’s ever been before … but that kind of stripped us of our musical identity at the same time.”
Mark Leitner, 67, has been building his CD collection since he graduated law school in 1985. He now has about 14,000 CDs stored in custom wooden bookshelves and rotating tower racks in his Milwaukee apartment. Although the attorney had a Spotify subscription, he prefers scanning his collection and spotting an album he hadn’t thought of in years.
“Everything usually has a story behind it,” he said. “One thing that really makes me elated is when I can sit down and listen … and it can take me to wherever that record has taken me before and maybe to some new places.”
It’s hard to re-create that same ritual when you’re scrolling through a streaming service, he said.
Erica Hill, 36, finds a special kind of satisfaction in “feeding the machine” with a CD or DVD. “It’s the tactile nature of putting a disc in a drive,” they said.
Hill, who works for a documentary filmmaker and as a projectionist at a theater in Boston, also likes knowing that they won’t have to hunt for their favorite show as streaming services consistently trade licenses.
“I’ve watched the entire series of ‘Cheers’ two or three times, which is 11 seasons,” Hill said. “They switch streaming platforms all the time, so having that physical copy is really nice.”
There’s also the unique experience of lending DVDs and CDs to friends, an act Hill says makes for a more meaningful connection than just telling someone to watch a show or listen to an album.
Levine frequently has friends over for movie nights, encouraging them to scan his collection of more than 500 DVDs to choose what they watch.
“It’s crazy how probably two years ago I was getting looks and [asked], ‘Why are you doing this?’” Levine said. “And now it’s switched to, ‘Oh yeah, I got a Blu-ray player.’”
Even the most premium package on Netflix, HBO Max, Hulu, etc. is at the mercy of whatever bitrate they feel like rationing you.
4K discs ✊️
Show someone a dark movie on 4k blu ray and it will really open their eyes.
Yeah, true black baby. Not werid gradients with artifacts where its trying to figure out light to dark.
The black crush on 4K streams is so bad. Makes me wish they didn’t even bother with HDR for streaming.
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When I upgraded to 4K, I did a ton of research on 4K and HDR to make sure I got something decent. You’ve got HDR brightness, SDR brightness, contrast, lighting zones, Dolby Vision, stutter, and HDR formats to consider. It’s all so complicated.
Yeah that's why I just download SDR when I can and pray that Plex tone maps correctly when I can't.
Oh, man. 4k bluray on a OLED screen. It's the truest black I've ever seen. I was actually in awe. I went from "I'll replace my tv once it stops working" to "I am actively cutting costs to save up to replace my TV." In a split second.
I have a Panasonic plasma tv I'm still using. Those blacks seem pretty good. I wonder how they compare to OLED.
As someone who is a huge plasma fan, plasmas are still fantastic but the edge goes to OLED for the deep blacks.
Definitely don't replace your plasma until it dies, but if and when it does definitely check out an OLED.
I just wish OLED had as good of motion clarity as plasma TVs. And even my high-end Panasonic and Samsung plasmas don't have as good of clarity as the old CRT monitor I found alongside the road.
Plasma has better blacks than LCD, but not quite as good as OLED. I swear I was keeping the plasma TV industry alive for about a decade, although the reflectiveness of the glass screens wasn't always great for people's setups.
Yea glass panel can be annoying depending on where windows are. Only negatives I have is the tv always had a bit of image retention that lasts for a few minutes. Like I'm in a menu before starting a movie then you can see the shadow of the menu briefly as the movie starts. It buzzes on white screens a little, gets quite warm when running, and draws a lot of power. I've had it since 2013 still going strong.
Yeah, especially with age that image retention can definitely get annoying. One of the benefits of plasma over OLED is the lack of vertical banding. Again, it's not a perfect technology, but I loved plasma because it really pushed image quality forward in the early 2000s.
For me the eye opener was video games. Which makes a lot of sense, video games send the raw uncompressed render to the TV and can deliver even better image quality than “good” high-bitrate compression. I never really understood the hype of HDR because most TVs lie about HDR capabilities (all it takes to get the HDR badge on the box is the ability to decode and display an HDR signal, which is the bare minimum you’d expect from a modern display device, but the panel doesn’t actually need to be capable of producing high dynamic range images) and of course most content is just streaming these days.
But then I played through The Last of Us Part I on PS5, on my OLED TV. In a dark room with the lights off you literally don’t need a flashlight in the sewers section, because your eyes adjust to the darkness and the ever-so-subtle differences between pitch black and extremely dark are like night and day. Then you reach a point where the sunlight shines through and it’s so bright that it physically hurts. And my TV is just an LG C1, an older model that has been left in the dust when it comes to brightness and other aspects that OLEDs tend to struggle with. On an LCD TV, even one with true HDR and an active backlight, that part would be a muddy indistinct mess, probably with distracting bloom due to the backlight matrix. But on an OLED it’s an entirely new and unprecedented experience.
The same goes for Forza Horizon 4. Night in that game is absolutely stunning, out in the countryside the world becomes almost pitch black with only the sky outlining the horizon. Lights from other cars and buildings/streetlights off in the distance are dazzling, and the retroreflector paint on street signs when your headlights hit them are almost blinding. I think it might also be the first game in the series to feature real-time directional headlight shadows that paint the landscape with the picket fences and street signs that your headlights point at, and either way it is definitely the best game in the series in this regard. During a night time race all you can see is the gentle glow of the sky, distant towns and streetlights, and whatever your headlights hit. No game has ever managed to capture the look and feel of night driving so well. And then pull into one of the fun side areas and there are dazzling neon lights bathing the area in color and casting dramatic shadows everywhere, just in case regular night driving wasn’t impressive enough.
But I hated it when I had an LCD TV. Because the game was made for HDR when it was a new technology (technically 3 was developed alongside the HDR capabilities of the mid-gen refreshed Xboxes but that game’s HDR implementation is a bit primitive and sloppy whereas 4 just gets everything right) it really leans heavily into HDR. But it sacrifices the non-HDR experience, if your TV can’t display subtle differences in shadow and darkness and just mashes everything from medium gray to black into the same muddy gloomy color like a typical LCD does then Forza Horizon 4’s night time is a miserable experience. Which is why I keep talking about 4 when 5 is newer and more graphically impressive in many ways, because 5 “fixed” the problem by introducing a moonlight mechanic that dramatically brightens the landscape at night, making the game much more playable on LCD while looking far less impressive on a proper HDR OLED.
Stray is another game that uses HDR well. Maybe not quite to the extent of those other two I mentioned, I don’t know how to describe it but the lighting looks more like a “video game” as opposed to the “realistic” lighting of the other two. But it is a very HDR game, with lots of contrast between bright and dark, very moody and visually interesting lighting, and some really dark segments that show off the capabilities of HDR and OLED.
TL;DR: if you’re still not totally sold on the idea of HDR even after watching real HDR on a real HDR TV via a disc, try playing one of those games. Unfortunately HDR is such a disorganized and ungoverned buzzword that like 95% of “HDR” displays and probably the majority of “HDR” content aren’t really HDR in any meaningful way, so once you know how good HDR can look you’ll struggle to find more that lives up to that ideal.
But hey, the whole point of this thread is discs, not HDR, so to bring it back around physical disc will be the only way you can experience Forza Horizon 4 if you don’t already have it, as it was delisted from online storefronts last year.
FYI, some higher-budget games simulate this effect by making things brighter as you linger in a dark environment. The Last of Us Part I almost certainly does so.
I used to work in tech sales and would give the demos every single day to people and eventually I just couldn’t take it and had to upgrade from my 2015 bare basic 4k lcd
OLED + black curtains behind the TV, to me, is better than most theatrical viewings. You often forget you're looking at a TV and not a magical window into another reality.
Counterpoint: all white scenes, or certain logos, feel like getting flashbanged
So true. Recently watched the LotR movies with family. They rented them on Amazon and the quality of a movie they paid to stream from Amazon's billion dollar streaming service was actually awful compared to my local 1080p files at home. There's no comparison, it was jagged, noticeable artifacts everywhere, frame stutters, colors were just off. It was almost too painful to watch, but I can't help love frodo and Sam's bromance.
I'm going full speed ahead with building out my local media server before it's too late.
Honestly I think this is a bit of what killed 4Kbluray before it even got off the ground. People saw “4k” on netflix, decided it didnt look any better, and never cared to look much into it, I know I did for a bit. However then I finally HEARD the bitrates of streaming. 20-40mb/s.
That’s barely 1080p bluray. Even those can have peaks over 60mb/s! (probably higher, but just my own experience) That’s not even talking about 4k blurays. There are scenes that are over 250mb/s for MULTIPLE seconds (andor: the eye) and then sustaining 100mb/s. Streaming sucks.
Or Gollum and Sméagol’s toxic duality
"Your are lost, you can never, go home"
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Base netflix bitrates are next to unwatchable if that's something you care about. Blacks are just blocky, splotchy approximations of color rages.
Watched Zero Dark Thirty again last night. That whole raid scene is awful on streaming. Was glad to have it uncompressed.
Get an OLED TV. Then you'll see stunning deep blacks
On a disc, yes.
OLED is still at the mercy of bitrate. I have an OLED and some shows/movie still have terrible artifacting
yeah. Bitrate starved Amazon/Paramount dogshit (depending on the show) can look truly awful compared to the bluray copies of the same shows.
Shit, even a good old Blu-ray looks and sounds sooo much better than “4k” streaming. And 4k Blu-ray is amazing!
Now, streaming plays a big part in my life. But, having a curated collection of your favorite albums and movies and tv is priceless and I think if people realized the higher quality it delivers they would be on board.
Plus, no subscription fee to enjoy the art that you love
That’s because a 1080p blu-ray often has 2-4x the bitrate of a Netflix 4k stream
Not to mention the audio bitrate which is often 10x compared to streaming.
Youre just getting mugged by corporations. There is no law of physics that says you must get shit bitrate for 20 a month, people just like paying for official shit even if the experience is awfull.
I guarantee you the average streaming customer could not define bitrate and could only tell you “I bet higher number is better number”
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Yeah.
Although, there are occasional exceptions, unfortunately.
For example, Severance season 1 has a worse bit rate on the Blu-rays. You can see gradients in the shadows that aren't there when you stream it on Apple TV.
HBO has great content but god is the picture quality abominable.
It used to be really good. HBO was the gold standard for 4k content. Then, they followed the Netflix model and enshittified their bitrates sometime during COVID, along with everyone else.
I think Apple TV is the only one that still looks decent.
Apple TV streaming quality is head and shoulders above every other major streamer. The Netflix 4K plan is pretty good (but $25 a month). HBO is horrible now. Amazon has gotten a bit better over time. For major services that offer an Apple TV Channel, I always try to subscribe through there when it makes sense financially, because then I'm getting Apple TV streaming quality, which is basically on a different planet than the streaming quality of the Paramount or Starz standalone apps.
I don’t remember them ever being good. I remember the final season of their flagship Game of Thrones show being panned in part because their DVD-tier bitrate made the Long Night episode impossible to see as we just got giant grey blocks of artifacts
Sony pictures core looks amazing with its super high bitrate that's nearly disc quality. Recently watched og spider man 1-2 and the details for streaming was incredible. Very niche app though
It's a nice idea, but definitely niche. Even the high bitrate you're talking about is only available if you're using compatible Sony TVs. The PS5 version of the service doesn't support it.
Ironically I have one of those TVs, but the ethernet port is capped at 100Mbit, so it struggled to play the high bitrate movie the one time I tried the service.
I’ll be the Devil’s advocate and say that serving high bitrate 4k streams is really freaking expensive. Scale that to millions of subscribers and it becomes unfeasible.
Like the only high bitrate streaming services I know of is “Sony Pictures Core” and that requires a Bravia TV to fully support.
And then there are ridiculous offerings like Kaleidescape. A combo deal of 4k player and media server is 23K USD on Best Buy. Not even counting the media you have to buy and have it jailed to their ecosystem.
Meanwhile you can have a media server on an old ass computer with pirated remuxes for essentially the same quality. Throw piracy out and rip your own media if you have problems with that.
And the sound is worse. I streamed Eddington the other night and I was so disappointed. It sounded horrible.
You can pay extra for HDR though!
And the mercy of their revolving door of a catalog.
Oh, you like this show? Too bad it's gone in two months. Well, except for Episodes 20 through 43.
I know that's more of a Netflix problem but it still hurts. They could at least list when the rights expire for them.
This is the real issue. Every time a movie or show disappears, and someone wanted to see it, their faith in the permanence of streaming is destroyed. They might stick it out for a while, but they start to notice.
You know who's catalog doesn't disappear things that people still watch? The public library. If you can't afford a media library, the library has it all.
I went to go rewatch Wicked: Part I on HBO Max a couple of weeks ago and it was already gone. The sequel was coming out. This was less than a year. You'd think it would be on the front page.
Let me help you with that
4k discs ✊️✊️
Why 2 when 4 better
4k discs ✊✊✊✊
4k disc's ✊️✊️✊️✊️✊️✊️✊️✊️
I remember even 13 years ago showing my baby cousin Transformers on Blu-ray. She thought it was like looking through a window.
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I just like... owning things. Not leasing. Good.
Finding things on streaming has become more of a pain in the ass than just grabbing the dvd off the shelf, and dvds have a level of love and care with their extras you don’t see with streaming platforms.
Half the Christmas stuff I wanted to watch with my kids is not on anything we have to stream. Thankfully, I have the good ol dvd
Same. Prime had what we wanted but it didn't come with our membership. Had to pay extra to rent.
Happened with us for Arthur Christmas. I'm not paying 8 bucks to rent it on stream when I own a physical copy.
Yes. Also, I don't know if it's like this for everybody but when I'm sitting on my couch to watch a DVD on TV my brain is committed to that task, but when I'm in front of the PC watching streamings I suddenly can't finish to watch anything without pausing it to see social media, chat, listen to music, play videogame, read newspapers, all at the same time. Maybe because I'm older and do not use cellphone that much therefore I'm able to sit in front of the TV and watch it without distractions.
I think DVDs has not only a level of love and care but also a greater level of... attention? Immersion? For me, at least.
Physical media requires considerable effort to obtain and watch compared to streaming. You left your home, picked it out and then got up and walked over to your DVD player to watch it. Way more reason to be committed. With streaming there’s endless choice from a wealth of content you don’t own; why bother concentrating on a movie when you can back out and pick something else at any time?
This was me last year with all the Charlie Brown specials. All of them were locked to Apple+. Couldn't even rent them anywhere.
I collect physical media, but all I do is search a movie on my TV, or Roku and it will tell me all the services I can access it on.
Letterboxd does the same.
Literally. We are being forced into it because at any time something we love can be taken from us
Between streaming, cars, and housing, we’re increasingly turning into a society where no one owns anything.
That's by design.
Oh I know
"You'll own nothing, and you'll be happy."
I wish Disney would get their Disney Movie Club stuff back to print, even if they let Sony take over the production side.
It's going to be nearly 2 years since it shut down, and all those exclusives are just only on streaming.
Well yeah, how else will they get you to pay for plus
I wish people would stop giving their money to disney
Hell, you can even borrow DVDs from the library to see if you like something before you put your cash down.
And if that dvd happens to make its way in makemkv then so be it
I have grown an appreciation for carefully curated libraries be they records, Blue Rays, or Books. Not a huge fan of a ton of books or a ton of movies or what not as a THIS IS WHAT I AM INTO kind of thing but a small 5-20 item collection can say a lot about a person. Great way to introduce yourself quietly.
“If you go home with somebody, and they don't have books, don't fuck 'em!”
― John Waters
I get the sentiment, but my Kindle has been a game change changer as an apartment dweller.
Same here. I'll be honest, I absolutely will not give up the convenience of Spotify or my Kindle. But I am happy to buy vinyls and physical books for content that has been especially meaningful - and honestly, 99% chance I won't even go through the lengths of playing that record or opening that book. I wouldn't even call it a "collection". More like artifacts along my journey of what defined my tastes.
The thing that really gets me lately is all the messing around w movies they do on streaming without even a word of warning; editing things out, changing how it looks etc. or worst case scenario “updating” w ai. I have a hard enough time when directors do this, much less some tech bro a hole working for Netflix or whatever.
I watched Star Wars yesterday and more than 5 minutes before the end (not counting the credits!) it zoomed out and did this „watch the next one“ with the actual movie being the little window in the corner… wtf Disney plus. Right in the final fight btw. That’s one way to destroy the experience.
This happens all the time with series. How do they not know that the freaking episode doesn’t end until it ends. Now I’m struggling to find the remote so I can stop the play next countdown while simultaneously (re)enlarging the actual damn video all within 15 seconds..
And then if you go back to the episode, it starts from the beginning, and you have to fast forward with their shitty fast forward. Then you finally get to the scene and it happens again because you were too slow on the remote or input lag on their shitty app meant you pressed up twice instead of once and it went back to "skip to next episode" by the time you pressed the select button.
Yep. And I like the credits. After a good movie or TV episode, it’s a nice way to decompress and allow what you just experienced to sink in.
That and my two year old loves watching the rolling credits, often times more than the movie itself.
I’ve learned to keep my fire tv remote right next to me on the couch at all times. Most streamers give you like 7 seconds to hit the “watch credits” button before moving on to the next episode.
Which movie?
Phantom Menace. It cut off right before Maul died lol. And after that there still is the celebration, the funeral, Anakin’s designation as padawan, etc…
Weird. I just watched the end on my laptop and the “you may also like” didn’t pop up until the cast credits started rolling. What are you using to watch Disney+?
On my TV, German Disney + tho. I just tried it and it happens again. Sadly I can’t upload a pic here.
It’s 7 minutes before the credits roll, and together with the 6 minutes of credits, basically 13 minutes that seemingly aren’t important lol.
That seems like a glitch as I've never had that happen before and I've watched these a number of times. Unless there was a very recent update that messed with something, though I'm still leaning towards it not being intentional.
I was watching Willow on Disney Plus last year and I watched everything but the last episode and they pulled it from the platform before I could. The show wasn’t any good but that wasn’t the point…
I used to collect physical media and had stopped, but after that I started buying again. Modernized my entire library and am not interested in being reliant on streaming platforms on any level.
This is a small thing but I've found subtitles to be more accurate on DVDs more than streaming too. It feels as though someone actually did the subtitle work vs just feeding the video into an AI to generate them. Especially as sound quality is degrading and it makes the actors more difficult even for the computer to understand.
I went to watch Titan AE on Amazon a few days ago and the version they are streaming has the music... changed. I'm not sure what they did to it (remixed, remastered, who knows!?), but it was changed!
Thankfully, I own the disc and was able to watch the original, unmodified version.
That sounds like a licensing issue. Still weird, though
Sometimes I hope fuckers that work in tech read comments like this, and know how much we actually hate them.
They don't and they most certainly wouldn't care anyway. People only care about $$$.
If you want them to hear you, stop giving them $$$. Simple as.
I'm working with my family on it, I'm just one guy but I'll do what I can.
I work for... Not a streaming company but a tech company you absolutely know the name of.
I used to get weekly emails about social media sentiment and which aspects of the product people were praising or complaining about. At least until I removed myself from that list because I work in security and nothing I do is customer facing.
Anyway, there are people whose entire job is to pay attention to what people are saying online.
With subtitled shows they sometimes even censor things.
In Part 5 of Jojo's Bizarre Adventure, Netflix changed the dialogue of the gay protagonist from "I have no interest in women" to "I have no interest in women like you" (or something similar).
Just to make it more ambiguous that he prefers men.
The captions on Netflix don’t match at all. I’ve been watching them lately and they’re all wrong. Not sure if they’re using AI to produce them or some lazy captioner.
The thing that blows my mind is that they never taken advantage of the fact that they have no storage limitations. They could publish literally every edition of the movie ever filmed, every bit of bonus material, they could even have "Mystery Science Theater 3000"-like bonus tracks. But somehow they managed to offer less extras than a DVD.
this is why i bought all the seasons of Futurama on DVD. there’s no other way to get commentary on episodes. no reason hulu couldn’t just add the audio track with commentary.
They do have storage limitations. They store everything on their servers. Why would they store extra stuff when they can get away with giving you just the movie?
The picture quality really is better.
And the audio quality.
I remember being so embarrassed showing my gf Goodfellas for the first time ever. Did streaming just because it was more convenient but it felt like every other scene I had to adjust the volume because it was too low then too high. It was an awful way to watch such a good movie.
That's more a problem of dynamic range than streaming audio bitrate, though. You can adjust dynamic range settings for your receiver, sound bar, or TV in most cases when this is bothersome.
Normally I do recommend leaving full dynamic range on, but engaging limited dynamic range helps when you need to listen quietly or when the original audio source has huge dynamic range swings that make it difficult to find the right balance (as happened to you).
Don’t need a subscription, no ads, and never drops from the service. No need to buy everything but my modest collection feels special to me. Looks and sounds better is an understatement, wish people would give it a chance.
My wife has been buying cheap dvds of movies off ebay and other sites because frankly, its better.
No Ads, no dealing with logins and passwords, no "the title you are looking for is unavailable" bs, no ads, dvds come with features and extras, no ads, and did I mention no fucking commercials for my paid subscription.
Same here but blurays instead of dvds.
Seeing "the title you are looking for is unavailable" on my screen is so damn infuriating.
I'm full sending on buying 4k blu rays of the movies and shows I enjoy. No more relying on internet connection to get 4k quality and having to jump around subscription services
I'm sure at some point another standard will come along that will make 4ks "Obsolete". But it's hard to imagine. The picture quality is so good, the sound is good. Most movies either don't have a print or a transfer that is "better" than 4k anyway. It seems like the endgame format.
I buy anything I really enjoy in 4k, and barring that I'll buy the bluray. I try to avoid DVDs as much as possible. The one exception would likely be TV Sitcoms. Those are fine on DVD.
As you alluded to, 4K will only become "obsolete" with regard to movies that are made years in the future. The quality of existing films (even the masters on film) does not exceed 4K, at least not to an extent that is discernable.
And the problem with higher resolution like say 8K is that the bandwidth needed is so massive most people couldn't realistically support it (add in that with 4K the compression is already so high most 4K streams look awful) I don't think we'll move past 4K HDR for quite some time, and if you're happy with a 55-75" TV your eyes won't be able to appreciate a higher res.
To be fair there are unskippable ads on DVDs which are very annoying, unless you watch them via VLC to ignore the UOP flags.
DVD players have a "cheat code" for this. If you start the movie, then hit stop and then stop again, you can hit play and it will often just start the movie. Doesn't work on blu-rays in my experience, though.
It's been a bit but most of the Blu-rays I have with trailers you can use the "skip scene" button to go through them when the disc menu command is disabled
I have half a dozen Half Price Books near me. They have tons of DVDs on hand.
They were definitely sticking a shit ton of ads on DVDs back in the day
Ads or previews? Very different, and never during a movie, just before. FWIW most modern releases on disc don't have those in my experience.
I cant believe people can stand dvds in this day and age tbh. Especially when tons of 4ks are like 10-15 now.
Can you help me find 4K UHD copies of * Grandma’s Boy * Houseguest * Jingle All the Way * Forget Paris * White Chicks * Speed Racer* * Powerpuff Girls * Rocko’s Modern Life * Doug * MadTV *…
I could go on.
So much physical media isn’t even available on Blu Ray, much less UHD.
As such, DVD’s will continue to have a purpose in my library, and I assume the libraries of others, too.
(Disclaimer) I do own Speed Racer on Blu Ray, and it’ll never be released in (non AI upscaled) UHD based on the camera used to film the movie.
DVD’s predate 1080p content. They look so bad on modern TV’s. Blu-Ray is the minimum IMO
Problem is, due to rights/licensing issues, literally thousands of movies and tv series are only available in DVD format.
I love the commentary tracks. Watching a movie I like then hearing a producer or director talk about the way a complex scene was set up, or pointing out some plot point I missed, that’s great and can make a so-so movie a lot of fun
I completely agree, a dying art. Everyone knows how good the LOTR director's commentary is, but a gem I found lately was the commentary for Inside Out - if nothing else showing how different the creation of animation can be to live action.
It's not because I'm vintage. It's because I'm tired of the show I want to watch either being available: Only with ads in the middle even after I pay, as the creator DIDN'T intend, or just not being available.
Streaming services got greedy. Used to be I had one service and I'd be able to find something cool to watch. Now it's just "hey check out this new show we made. (98% are filler background noise at best)" Instead of "remember this classic?" Or "we got a movie that JUST came out! Check it!"
Fuck em.
In retrospect I wish I never got rid of all of my DVD cases but, I worked at Blockbuster as a teenager so my DVD collection got somewhere around the 500+ (probably closer to 600-700, honestly). So when it came to packing & moving every few years, I decided to ditch all of the cases for a big 1500 disc binder.
It certainly doesn’t look or feel as good as seeing all of those discs in alphabetical order but it saves a ton of space. But, this is one of my more materialistic regrets in life.
I did the same thing but have no regrets. I have NO space for 1000 dvds, but they all fit in 3 alphabetized binders. I use the app MyMovieBuddy to keep track of the collection which includes artwork and trailers fore very movie. Now my dvd collection feels like looking through a streaming library except I just grab the disc and pop it in.
Until you buy a new movie that starts with A and you have to push every single disc back one pocket.
Good times.
had that same feeling as a kid with my video games. then when reddit came around and people started posting pics of their man cave, I saw some cool looking libraries or shelves with games nicely stacked
Same. My parents had hundreds of VHS tapes and DVDs and none of us wanted them when they downsized about 10 years ago. I had no place for them then in a small apartment, but now that we have a house I regret it. But there was no way to know then what we do now.
Though I’m lucky to have a number of used video and record stores in my city. I’m in Austin and We Luv Video is definitely worth a visit. I’m hoping that similar stores will start popping up in more rural communities, but it might be a while until it catches on. So it never hurts to remind people of the power of their local library!
Edit to add: My siblings and I would always make fun of my dad for having 2-3 or more copies of the same movie. Which he’s happy to hold over us each time he gives us one. As he should.
My child is 12 YO and has asked for CD's. DVD's, vinyls, for Xmas..he has 2 portable cd players. Victrola (A record player/CD/cassette player combo) and a Blueray player.
There was a craze in about 2010/11 where shows/comedians would put their stuff up on their website, charge $5 and let you download it. Streaming absolutely obliterated that trend - most comics took the Netflix money.
But it could happen again.
this: everyone talks about bringing back Blockbuster or whatever, but the physical media install base is never gonna be big enough for that. Being able to just sell a DRM-free file from your website is the thing, but no one really wants to do that. No one is selling you a movie that you can just do whatever you want with, even though... that's what a lot of people probably want.
Another example is Big Finish, I can buy the title and download it any way I want, and if I ever lose the file or it gets corrupted, they still have my history and I can just download it again. It's great.
The bigger issue at play here is censorship. Physical media can't be tampered with in the same way as digital files and streaming services. One need only look to Hulu's censorship of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia to get the point. There are plenty of other instances. The more we digitize, the more they can manipulate original works.
Back at the start of COVID (during the Marie Kondo honeymoon months) a lot of Americans ditched their discs in the name of 'joy'. I nearly joined them but opted to downsize the collection by shedding their covers and moving the entire collection into DVD binders. Last time we lost power I plugged the big screen and old blu-ray player into the solar-powered generator and we had a movie day.
It's the simple things.
Thank You!!!! Seriously, my biggest beef with all this digital stuff!
In addition in Sunny, let's not forget when TBS got caught several years ago speeding up Seinfeld to allow more commercials to be inserted. Then TBS (again) cut seconds off Scrubs episodes so certain reactions or expressions were lost, so the jokes didn't land as well. And of course, losing the original music with a lot of the episodes.
When you realize that the massive content library available on a streamer really has just five movies you ever seem to be interested in....
They have massive libraries but their UI pushes only 5-10 movies and hides the rest.
You'd think that the algorithm would put something else higher on the list after I've passed over the same series 20 times without selecting or watching it.
I never stopped collecting physical media. Just got my dogma steelbook in the mail.
So where is everyone getting their blu rays and such? Best Buy dropped them, I try not to support Amazon but they seem like the only option a lot of the time. I don't have a great selection at my local Target.
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/b/music-movies/_/N-2vmi
https://www.blu-ray.com
Thank you, didn't even think of B&N.
They overcharge for so many of their dvds and blu-rays, though. Only place you can get Criterion releases (when it's time for the half-off sales) outside of online stores, at least.
Amazon is the most convenient and constantly has sales. You can easily build a nice 4k library through just Amazon for like $12 a movie.
if you don’t want to support Bezos, WB and Universal have a joint site called Gruv. They recently started selling Shout titles, too. They also have sales all the time, ship early, and have a huge library.
there’s an eBay shop called please rewind owned by Sony that has a huge collection and sales, too.
Criterion, Arrow, Kino Lorber, and the aforementioned Shout have films (often classics or foreign films) that were not converted to 4k by the original studio. They always have sales, too.
smaller shops like OrbitDVD and Atomic stock releases from all the sites I just mentioned. They’re basically a more expensive Amazon, but you can get almost any movie that exists in 4k.
Walmart, surprisingly is one source. Criterion. GRUV. All these have online sites. But I’m collecting mostly 4K disks now.
As far as older stuff, garage sales and Facebook marketplace can be awesome. It's not a way to find new releases, but I see some fairly current blurays at garage sales. You frequently find people who have to move and realize they need to clear out stuff (which is what happened to my collection. 3 moves in a year).
I like indie shops, here are some of my favorites:
x2, also getting old dvd players repaired
4K Blu-ray ftw!
My oldest daughter (10) asked for a "music disc player and music discs" for Christmas. It cracks me up but you bet your ass she's getting a boombox this year
I canceled $80/month worth of inferior streaming services and now spend $80/month or less on discs. I can't believe I ever let them sway me away me away from physical.
For me this is the biggest issue about Netflix getting WB. Everyone is obsessing about the theatrical runs but to me this is more important. Being able to buy movies and own them. Theatrical is a time limited experience with no ownership of the movie, physical media is the most important.
And before anybody goes: " JusT piRAte iT, BRO it'S NoT HArd!"
Fuck off.
Ya, my first thought on hearing the news of the succesful Netflix/WB bid was what a hit it could have on the physical media market. WB is a pretty prolific supporter of 4K/Blu-ray. Netflix doesn't give a wet fart about it.
House of cards was released on blu ray, but it's a rare exception
Oh Netflix has absolutely released Blu-ray's in the past. Certain deals are in place for some directors to have physical release (like Guillermo del Toro) and a handful of their original series have gotten some physical releases as well. I own the Haunting of Hill House/Bly Manor combo release. But as you say it's a very rare exception to the rule. The vast majority of their content is streaming only. Mike Flanagan talked about his frustration with working with Netflix and their complete uninterest in putting out all of his work he did for them on Blu-ray.
They have a irresponsibility to their shareholders to not give a shit about it
hmm, I think autocorrect did me a solid there, leaving it
I hate that Netflix ignores physical media, what I would give for 4k Blu-ray of Blue eyed samurai and The Ritual.
Many people make bootleg Blu rays for those releases complete with beautiful homemade slipcovers. I got a few on etsy
I’m so annoyed that we don’t have The Killer on physical media
Same. Let me buy a Blu-Ray of Demon Hunters, dammit.
Commentary and special features.
Great news. If you dont hold it, you dont own it. Streaming is great for certain content, test driving content, etc. but anything you really like and wish to rewatch needs to be on disc. Just so many positives and things people dont think about with streaming only. Like:
None of the above can happen with physical media. Always the best possible picture and sound quality. Always the best versions of a film or TV series. Always yours to watch without any strings attached. And, case art is cool. :)
Not so. I bought a Bluray of Goodfellas that had major sound issues, and a low quality letterboxed video output, and permanent bright yellow subtitles. Sometimes you get shit. It's rare, but it happens.
No its not, the article doesn't even have data to back up the claim
Culture really is cyclical. I love blu-rays, there’s nothing better than sticking on a movie, then checking out the extras. It’s like a really good meal, and you don’t get that with streaming!
Plex is the way
Plex has gone downhill though.
I've been a longtime user of Plex for years with their lifetime pass since 2019, but these small UI edits have added up and accumulated into an app that is hard to use. Feels like the app is working against the user.
Wish they would improve things.
FWIW I use the app on my Apple TV and have zero issues with it, it's at least as good if not better than any other streaming app I've used.
Not saying it's perfect but for me it's phenomenal.
I absolutely recommend switching to Jellyfin. It's a great alternative, super easy to deploy and has apps on most major platforms.
I have a 4K player and buy physical media but I could not watch actual DVDs for a long period of time on a modern TV.
I get the owning of physical media. But its such a pain to move with.
There also comes a time where you need to stop buying any more, no matter how great the movie or series is - there's only so much shelf space
Ya that was when I had to switch to an ereader as well. I moved 3 times in one year during a rough patch, and moving boxes and boxes of books got to be too much.
My wife and I have a rule for everything (blurays, vinyl) where we only buy our absolute favorites, just to keep the bulk down. Books are another story, but we try to purge whenever it gets to be too much.
Luckily we never really have the impulse to revisit many TV shows, since box sets are a pain.
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I'll never subscribe to another streaming platform again. What we pay for matters in the long run.
Another tip is the local library. I'm getting brand new releases the week they drop. It's wild. 100% free. No late fees. No commercials. No algorithm. It almost feels like going back to Blockbuster.
And it's so damn refreshing.
My question is will we see an evolution to physical media? 4K’s are proving to be very sensitive to dust and scratches. I had a loose disc in a case scratched on arrival and it was unusable.
While we’d lose a nostalgic factor moving away from discs, I’d personally be open to investing in a new way to play. I started on vhs and have put money down on each format since(excluding hd dvd). Similar to the way movie theater projectors work now, what if we were given small hard drives, artfully designed, that injected the movie into a player. Keep the tactile nature of physical media, while giving more protection to the media itself.
This is such bullshit bait robot journalism
Yep, the real headline should be "the internet is getting shit again, pushing people to alternatives"
CDs are considered "vintage" now? Then I am truly considered ancient. Have these kids even heard of VHR or floppy disk?
CDs first became popular in the early 90s. That's 35 years ago. In the 90s-00s, most technologies from the 60s would very likely be considered vintage, so it tracks.
What this guy said checks out.
Stop!! no!!! The Matrix is a new movie!!
The fourth one, sure
1990 was ten years ago!!!
CDs have been around since the ‘80s. That’s the equivalent of the ‘40s to those who were kids/teens at the time.
When was the last time you bought a new CD? For most people it’s probably 15+ years. Vinyl stayed cool, but not CDs. I say this as someone who has gotten back into building a CD collection.
And unlike video, you can actually buy audio that hasn't been ruthlessly compressed online.
They definitely are. VHS and floppy are more like relics of a bygone age at this point, found in cave paintings and whispered of by the ancients
Sadly, we are old now. The 90s were 30+ years ago.
Technically, “vintage” is 25+ years old. So yeah, CDs are vintage. And so are we. 😂
My college-aged kid drives an old-ish truck my dad left him. It’s got a shitty radio so he’s been buying CDs and I get more old folks joy than I care to admit when he calls to show me a new one. And my husband and I are kicking ourselves for not saving our giant books of CDs we spent thousands on.
Offline sometimes is a good thing what was old is cool again
Wait until the younger generation finds out about scratches
Maybe a bit of a hot take, but I wish the development of disc technology went less the route of CDs and DVDs and more like something similar to a MiniDisc.
I really hated how fragile and prone to scratches bare discs were. Not to mention bulky. Having an integral casing would have been a great solution to that.