In an era where many films and albums are stored in the cloud, "streaming anxiety" is making people buy more DVDs, records – and even cassette tapes.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/10491518

Oppenheimer and the resurgence of Blu-ray and DVDs: How to stop your films and music from disappearing::In an era where many films and albums are stored in the cloud, “streaming anxiety” is making people buy more DVDs, records – and even cassette tapes.

  • Corroded@leminal.spaceEnglish
    101·
    10 months ago

    It was a problem that the film collector Lucas Henkel kept encountering. “I realised that many of the movies I enjoy are not really available on streaming services, or they disappear frequently, so the only way to see them reliably is through physical media,” he tells BBC Culture. So Henkel decided to set up his own boutique home entertainment distribution label, Celluloid Dreams. “As a collector myself, it has a lot to do with the desire to own something tangible,” says Henkel, explaining his own commitment to physical media. “More importantly, it guarantees access. I can pull out a 20-year old DVD and play it any day I want. No restrictions, no extra fees, no subscriptions… just insert the disc and press play. Seriously, what’s not to like about that? And no streaming service can match the quality of a presentation coming from a physical medium.”

    I don’t know if they realize that even discs can fail with time due to things like disc rot.

    Algorithms have been designed to serve us options, but can end up flattening our cultural experience, feeding us more of the same that we’ve already consumed. There are signs young people are turning away from paid music subscription services. A cost of living crisis is a likely explanation…

    I feel like paying $20 for a DVD doesn’t really help if you consume a lot of media.

    Even films that are available could disappear at any moment, as streaming services reevaluate their content libraries or remove titles due to licensing agreements. And when you pay to purchase a digital version of a film or TV show, as opposed to renting it or watching it via a streaming subscription, you still don’t “own” it – you’ve just purchased a licence to watch it. And, of course, when everything is on the cloud, we are at the mercy of a stable internet connection.

    I feel like the whole article is really tiptoeing around piracy.

    • xyzzy@lemm.ee
      7·
      10 months ago

      Disc rot is not a threat to home video media. CDs, particularly CD-Rs, are subject to so-called disc rot, and I’ve experienced this personally; DVDs, highly unlikely and I’ve never seen a verified case of it; Blu-ray discs, not at all.

      Unless we rewind to the early 2000s, no one pays $20 for a DVD, of all things. Maybe a Blu-ray disc.

      Are you sure you’re not projecting your opinion on piracy onto the article? I didn’t get that read at all. Pirates are dramatically overrepresented in Reddit and Lemmy. I’m not talking about your comment, but frankly it’s kind of tedious seeing people brag in nearly every single home media or streaming related thread about how they’re very smart for pirating their media instead of paying for it. Particularly in the home video sub (primarily centered around Blu-ray discussion), they’re always making low-effort comments that add nothing to the discussion.

      • Corroded@leminal.spaceEnglish
        2·
        10 months ago

        Unless we rewind to the early 2000s, no one pays $20 for a DVD, of all things. Maybe a Blu-ray disc.

        I was going off of Amazon listings for DVDs of new movies. I’m still seeing them for $20.

        Disc rot is not a threat to home video media. CDs, particularly CD-Rs, are subject to so-called disc rot, and I’ve experienced this personally; DVDs, highly unlikely and I’ve never seen a verified case of it; Blu-ray discs, not at all.

        It seems to depend significantly on how you store them. There’s all kind of cases of Blu-Rays bronzing and developing defects with time.

        Are you sure you’re not projecting your opinion on piracy onto the article? I didn’t get that read at all. Pirates are dramatically overrepresented in Reddit and Lemmy. I’m not talking about your comment, but frankly it’s kind of tedious seeing people brag in nearly every single home media or streaming related thread about how they’re very smart for pirating their media instead of paying for it. Particularly in the home video sub (primarily centered around Blu-ray discussion), they’re always making low-effort comments that add nothing to the discussion.

        I might be but I feel like it’s relevant. The article talks about the limitations of streaming like content being unavailable, removed, and how you don’t technically own the content you buy online. Piracy is a common answer to that and the article seems to depict physical media as the answer despite it having it’s own set of disadvantages.

        Does Blu-Ray offer some kind of advantage over a digital file in the way vinyl does?

        • xyzzy@lemm.ee
          41·
          10 months ago

          I was going off of Amazon listings for DVDs of new movies. I’m still seeing them for $20.

          A brief look shows most DVDs are $5.99 to $14.99. New releases like Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny are $14.99. You can buy the entire Saw 1-8 collection for $12.82. I don’t buy DVDs, but I guess the person in the linked story does, and if you’re on a budget buying DVDs is probably cheaper than renting digitally.

          There’s all kind of cases of Blu-Rays bronzing and developing defects with time.

          Here’s the final paragraph of the very first post in the link you sent:

          I might be dumb as hell as I realize a lot of this might not actually be the bronze color but just the purple-ishness of blu rays reflecting off the lighting to make the disc color seem slightly bronze in tone (the light in my room is very warm)

          “Disc rot” is only an issue with CDs. The manufacturing process changed for DVDs and then again for Blu-ray. Unless it’s stored in a garage in Florida, a Blu-ray disc will likely outlive us all.

          Does Blu-Ray offer some kind of advantage over a digital file in the way vinyl does?

          If you’re asking if anything can compare to stealing movies for free, no, there aren’t many things that can compare to free.

          Buying Blu-rays is legal. The actors and writers receive residuals for their work, which allows them to eat. It votes for content with your wallet, encouraging studios to produce more like that (whatever your thoughts on the movie, Oppenheimer sold very well on physical 4K UHD and Blu-ray, and it wasn’t a superhero movie).

          Many people also rip the digital files to their Plex server or whatever after buying them to have the convenience of local streaming.

          Look, if you want to pirate movies, that’s your personal decision; you don’t need to justify it to me or anyone else.

          • Corroded@leminal.spaceEnglish
            1·
            10 months ago

            “Disc rot” is only an issue with CDs. The manufacturing process changed for DVDs and then again for Blu-ray. Unless it’s stored in a garage in Florida, a Blu-ray disc will likely outlive us all.

            You’re probably right. All I know is I did see some posts about Blu-Ray discs having issues over time across Reddit and in that forum. I imagine it’s likely a similar situation to storing things on portable drives where faults occasionally happen and their frequency depends a lot on how you store them.

            If you’re asking if anything can compare to stealing movies for free, no, there aren’t many things that can compare to free.

            Buying Blu-rays is legal. The actors and writers receive residuals for their work, which allows them to eat. It votes for content with your wallet, encouraging studios to produce more like that (whatever your thoughts on the movie, Oppenheimer sold very well on physical 4K UHD and Blu-ray, and it wasn’t a superhero movie).

            Many people also rip the digital files to their Plex server or whatever after buying them to have the convenience of local streaming.

            Look, if you want to pirate movies, that’s your personal decision; you don’t need to justify it to me or anyone else.

            I’m not trying to justify piracy to you. I am also not trying to be an internet elitist who tries to flex his jailbroken Firestick that’s full of 240p streams of movies. I’m indifferent about your stance on it and it doesn’t effect me. We were talking about Blu-Ray and I genuinely don’t know if it would have an advantage. Like if there is typically a noticeable reduction in quality when people rip their Blu-Rays. I’ve bought movies in the past that came with download codes and I don’t know if the two would be on par when it comes to quality. Maybe they would tone things down to work smoother without a Blu-Ray player or to reduce the file size.

            That’s what I am getting at.

    • RBG@discuss.tchncs.de
      1·
      10 months ago

      Well of course its tiptoeing around piracy, it is still not accepted as fully legal so why should a mainstream newspaper like this advocate for it?

      • Corroded@leminal.spaceEnglish
        11·
        10 months ago

        I don’t think referencing it is advocating for it. I feel like it would round out the article

      • Corroded@leminal.spaceEnglish
        2·
        10 months ago

        I’ve seen some contradicting information on the same forum. I’m not really that big into Blu-Ray to really say though.

        The $20 DVDs were on Amazon and I think even Walmart sells them for $15 when they aren’t in the bargain bin