Will you miss DVD / BD when they are gone?

[MrDawn]

DVD and Blu Ray has been out for a long time now. I'm beginning to wonder when stores will discontinue its use. There's been a lot of speculation on when corporations will quit using them and just strictly stream from now on. Will any of you miss buying movies on disc once they're gone?

 

[Fire Queen]

physical media is the last bastion against corporations controlling how ownership of media works. if i "buy" a digital copy of something and the service i bought it through goes belly-up, do i still own it? i don't know, that's covered in the fine print of whatever EULA i have to accede to whenever i get an account.

when i buy a dvd i own the dvd. there is no fine print. i get to put it on my shelf and when i am in the mood to watch it i don't have to google "[name of movie] streaming"

 

[The Eye in the Sky!]

I don't miss it already. I am on the unpopular side where I like not having to take up physical space for items. FQ is correct about ownership, but I guess I don't care about owning entertainment items.

It's a slippery slope as to what people are willing to give up ownership on, but I am firmly okay without physical media for now...

 

[Crystal]

Yes! I buy DVDs and blu rays whenever I can because I add them to my Plex server. I own the physical media and I control what's on my streaming platforms, best of both worlds

 

[TD]

I don't use DVD or Blu Ray as it is, so I won't miss them.

I do worry what it means for gaming though.

 

[shortkut]

I don't use DVD or Blu Ray as it is, so I won't miss them.

I do worry what it means for gaming though.

This, and I haven’t bought a game since golden sun dark Dawn in 2010.

 

[VashTheStampede]

I am a staunch "have to have it on physical media" person. Fire Queen has it 100% right. Digital ownership is a lie.

 

[Spiner202]

I don't miss it already. I am on the unpopular side where I like not having to take up physical space for items. FQ is correct about ownership, but I guess I don't care about owning entertainment items.

It's a slippery slope as to what people are willing to give up ownership on, but I am firmly okay without physical media for now...

I agree with you 100%. I will say that I'm hypocritical in that I am ok with going fully digital for tv/movies, and I'm probably 90% digital for gaming, but I love collecting CDs and will probably do so until I run out of room or they stop making them.

 

[Webster]

physical media is the last bastion against corporations controlling how ownership of media works. if i "buy" a digital copy of something and the service i bought it through goes belly-up, do i still own it? i don't know, that's covered in the fine print of whatever EULA i have to accede to whenever i get an account.

when i buy a dvd i own the dvd. there is no fine print. i get to put it on my shelf and when i am in the mood to watch it i don't have to google "[name of movie] streaming"

That's the thing; they want you to stream it so that they control the distribution.
Same with e-books.

 

[Fool's Requiem]

I'm physical media all the way. Saw what Netflix was doing. I see what happens on Crunchyroll and HIDIVE. Licenses expire and companies choose not to renew. There's also issues with games going digital. The only true way to play Crazy Taxi (without an arcade cabinet) is on the Dreamcast or Gamecube. Other versions are going to be missing songs or the locations like Tower Records and KFC are just gone and replaced with generic "record store" and "chicken restaurant" locations. Some older racing games can't be resold because of expired licenses. The original Goldeneye can't legally be re-released because EON doesn't want it to be and the remake swapped out Brosnan with Craig because games must only have Bond in the current actor's likeness according to them.

Sure, physical media can still go bad, but you can also back it up just in case.

 

[Smacktard]

I am a staunch "have to have it on physical media" person. Fire Queen has it 100% right. Digital ownership is a lie.

Samesies. I mostly refuse to buy games digitally, unless it's a game I REALLY want to play and there are no other options. I know physical ownership has its own caveats (disc rot -- *thunder cracks and lightning flashes*), but I still prefer it over an online shop and/or software manager that goes out of service after just 5 or 6 years.

The one exception to this is Steam and PC gaming. Steam seems so well-established that I just don't ever see it going bankrupt or disappearing. At least, not in my lifetime. But even still, I mostly don't game on PC. I prefer playing Dead Space 2 on my PS3 over downloading it on Steam.

 

[Mark]

The one that hit me the hardest was CD’s. I spent SO much money on them from the time I got my first job until the record stores closed and other retailers stopped carrying them. There was something about getting an album on release day, reading through the liner notes, and then pressing play that you just don’t get by starting an album playlist on Spotify.

 

[VashTheStampede]

My buddy gave me a Polyphia CD last year and I was all excited to get home and...toss it on my desk because I don't have a CD player???

 

[Fire Queen]

my fiancee and i got into vinyls over the last couple years. we have a record player and a pretty nice collection and admittedly it's very nice to be, like, cleaning the house or something, and just throw a record on. it helps that a lot of video game soundtracks and other fun things are getting put on vinyl these days. that said its not for the faint of financial heart

 

[The Eye in the Sky!]

Yeah I bought a record player in 2020 and have grabbed probably 50 records so far. It's expensive but I love the large artwork, the sound, the feel of vinyl... it's cool.

I'm sure CDs will make a renaissance some day but vinyl is just too damn cool to be held down and I'm glad its become a standard offering by bands again.

 

[MrDawn]

I do worry what it means for gaming though.

Microsoft is trying to do away with disc games. Digital is much cheaper than disc. When you visit the Microsoft Store on Xbox, they're doing new deals each month.

Mattrick wasn't wrong. He had seen the future; it's just that his timing was off — and apparently, Spencer knew it. That much is evident from leaked plans for a mid-generation refresh of the Xbox console range, which includes a redesigned, "all-digital" Xbox Series X with no disc drive. Its sister console, the Series S, is already a digital-only device. (Sony also makes a digital-only PlayStation 5.) So if Microsoft's plan to replace the existing Xbox Series models in late 2024 comes to fruition, it will be the first console manufacturer to leave physical media behind altogether. The next big question, then, is at what point Microsoft will stop manufacturing and distributing game discs entirely.

A digital-only Xbox console generation is a hugely significant milestone, but over the last 10 years, we've all become so much more accustomed to assembling virtual libraries of games that this move isn't likely to raise the same outcry it did in 2013. There's an obvious convenience to the way digital distribution makes every game you've bought quickly accessible across multiple devices. It's more sustainable than making and shipping discs, too (although it's important to remember that the environmental cost of large downloads and cloud streaming is not insignificant). At any rate, the market — meaning us, people who buy and play games — seems to have decided. What Microsoft's plan tells you above all else is that Xbox owners' appetite for buying physical games has shrunk to the extent that it's financially feasible for the company to ignore it completely.

Xbox kills physical media with its new Series X — for real this time

An all-digital console range — as proposed in leaked Microsoft papers — is an unprecedented step, and there’s no going back from it

www.polygon.com

 

[TD]

Microsoft is trying to do away with disc games. Digital is much cheaper than disc. When you visit the Microsoft Store on Xbox, they're doing new deals each month.

It's not just Microsoft though, it's the entire gaming industry. PS5 launched with a no disc drive version too.

You even have developers doing digital releases only or disc releases well after the digital release.

I just worry about the implications of a clear anti-consumer move.

 

[Smacktard]

It's not just Microsoft though, it's the entire gaming industry. PS5 launched with a no disc drive version too.

You even have developers doing digital releases only or disc releases well after the digital release.

I just worry about the implications of a clear anti-consumer move.

You can't have your cake and eat it, too. If you don't want game companies to go all digital, you can't keep buying digital games. But people buy them because they usually offer a pretty substantial discount compared to physical copies.

Personally, I only buy physical. It costs more, but I've had enough bad experiences with digital storefronts going offline, knowing that I'll probably never be able to get back the money I spent on games if (when) redownloading is shut down too.

 

[TD]

You can't have your cake and eat it, too. If you don't want game companies to go all digital, you can't keep buying digital games. But people buy them because they usually offer a pretty substantial discount compared to physical copies.

Personally, I only buy physical. It costs more, but I've had enough bad experiences with digital storefronts going offline, knowing that I'll probably never be able to get back the money I spent on games if (when) redownloading is shut down too.

Exactly - you hit the nail on the head with the experience with digital storefronts. I have the same bad experiences (looking at you PS3).

Digital is certainly more convenient but I hate how it supports what gaming has become. Gone are the days of renting games, lending a game to a friend or temporarily swapping, you can't sell or trade in games with digital, you're forced to spend large amounts of money for a game you may not even like.

I rarely buy games, like, rarely. But the 3 games I have bought for PS5 were all disc versions.

 

[Avenger]

ATTENTION THE GREAT AVENGER HAS SOMETHING TO SAY

Yes, because these fucking companies are making it very clear that we no longer own anything even if we buy it. That is what pisses Avenger off. If he buys something, he should be allowed to store it on his own fucking hard drive.

THE GREAT AVENGER HAS SPOKEN

 

[Excalibur]

I'm still all in on the physical media game. For movies I intend to rewatch it's 4K or blu-ray disc — with the added bonus that the video and audio quality on these beats out streaming. PS5 and Switch I'll buy the disc/cart when it's available, and the albums I really love I'll grab on vinyl.

Aside from the aforementioned annoyance that you're actually renting your digital copies as opposed to owning them — I've been burned by digital services going under, DRM from defunct servers no longer decryptable, changes being pushed to digital copies of things, streaming catalogs constantly changing, and of course being beholden to the internet to access digital items. The last time our internet went out, I happily put a movie into my physical player and had a good time without worrying about when Netflix would be available again.