Why I Still Buy Physical Media in a Digital Age

With the convenience of digital and streaming, is there a reason to keep those old DVDs around or even buy the newest movie on Blu-ray? This video explains, in my humble opinion, why I prefer physical media over digital and streaming services

“Dream Escape” by The Tides

Timecodes:
0:00 - Intro
0:51 - The Pros: You Actually Own It
7:04 - The Pros: Visual & Audio Quality
8:17 - The Pros: Bonus Features
10:27 - The Cons: The Actual Physical Space
11:14 - The Cons: Convenience
13:56 - Outro

#physicalmedia #bluray #dvd #physicalmediaforever

[thecanadianexpressionist]

Thank you all for watching and welcome new subscribers! I appreciate your kind words and feedback on the newest essay! I can see that the most common criticism on this video is my lack of information on the quality of streaming vs discs. I do agree that I didn’t go into much finer detail of the technical aspects. Though this could be a subject I can tackle for a video essay on its own. I think most of the topics I briefly covered could probably have their own separate video. I definitely could have worded the essay a tad better for this section to get my point across that discs are more superior in this realm. I appreciate the criticism nonetheless and will put that into practice for the next essay!

[BuddytheUser]

Physical movies are a lot like headphone jacks: only "obsolete" because big companies told you so.

[RB-mqem]

I have around 1, 000 dvds, Blu-ray and 4K discs. One of the things I love about them is the feeling of watching ‘offline’: no algorithm is tracking me, I’m not going to get any ‘because you watched’ notifications boxing me in, nobody will ever know I watched that film at that time. Probably silly, but I appreciate that feeling!

[aaronstark]

Something that I feel gets glossed over in this debate is preservation. If physical media disappears, you can kiss film preservation goodbye. There are so many great films and tv shows that aren’t even on any streaming platforms. What happens to them all if physical media goes away?

[JohnDoe-bzyl]

I refuse to buy a digital copy of a movie because you don't own it thanks to sony

[CronicasVideojogos]

Watching this, as a physical media collector and not having any subscription on any service, I just realised that subscription services are "almost" "like" renting stores. Entering a store full of movies, asking what they have and watching a movie we don't own. The problem is subscription services substituting physical media. We could chose if we wanted to rent a movie or buy it at a store. But now, at least in my country, we don't have a choice. Blurays and DVDs were taken off shelfs and I believe the some unsold were burnt. We can't watch a movie with portuguese subtitles or dub, unless is on cinema or subsceiption service. No DVDs or Blurays have Portugal's portuguese subtitles since 2021. We're sad. 😢 So, the problem is not digital movies existence, is physical media unexistence.

[robatsea]

Something I love about physical media - despite all of the death knells being sounded for years - is that boutique labels keep putting out amazing restorations and special editions of movies that were considered lost, beyond repair, or sight unseen for decades. Many of these will never appear on streaming services. Companies like Kino Lorber, Vinegar Syndrome, Severin, Imprint, Umbrella, Radiator, CIP, etc are just delivering the goods like heroes. With my own collection once in a blue moon I've crossed paths with something that doesn't work any longer (Criterion's DVD edition of "A Night to Remember" springs to mind) but it's rare - and I've got movies on tapes still that have never made it past that analog format yet still play perfectly.

[Darkuni]

Great stuff. I have 2000+ pieces of physical media - I'm not going anywhere. The good news is that I'm an older dude and 90% of what I want is already available on DVD, Blu or 4k UHD. Sure, going forward there are catalog titles I want, but the boutiques are taking care of it. I'd say these days? Best time ever to be a physical media lover.

[jasonleetaiwan]

Lots of physical media come with a digital code with them, so you can have both if the code is still good.

Physical media has the same benefits of a physical book. You can see it on the shelf which has value in itself because it’s easier to visualize it over an option on a streaming site.

[danielhixon]

I never stopped buying DVDs and physical books, etc. I have a friend who got rid of his DVD collection and went to all streaming a few years ago. Recently, he bought himself a new DVD player and started buying discs again.

[Nicknam]

Ever since i was a kid, i've always hated digital stuff like Netflix just because they removed Batman the brave and the bold and an Ironman show from the 90's that i was almost done watching like on the last episode. So i've always tried getting physical versions of stuff and i still do

[azazellon]

I've also gone as far as purchasing older VHS tapes to eventually rip them for my own collection, a lot of older titles are hard to find anymore online. You either have to buy it, or risk getting some internet aids trying to find it yourself.

[bradybaker]

I use physical for movies. Streaming for shows, if the show becomes a favorite ill buy it physically for rewatching and in case the internet goes out

[michaeldietz]

One thing that I don’t think you understand very well is the difference in picture and sound quality (you are right looking at it on a cell phone it’s gonna look the same) but if you have a good TV like Sony Samsung or LG, The picture quality is going to be 10 times better. Even a standard 1080p Blu-ray looks better than any streaming services fake version of 4K. Also one of the benefits I like to owning physical movies is I buy it once and I never have to pay for it again. If you watch any movie twice on something like Netflix you might as well consider you purchased it twice so instead of paying $20 for it you paid 40.

[benpascall]

Having compared the 4k stream with the physical disc on many occasionz, I've often noticed a night and day difference with the disc. Then there's also th added fidelity with the sound.

[stephens]

the only entertainment I like watching on digital now has to be youtube videos

[shirleam]

Literally just picked up a vhs/dvd player at our local media shop. It was sold as is, untested. After we bought an a/v to hdmi converter, we turned it on and tried playing our fantasia vhs tape and it worked perfectly! We are still buying physical media and we will continue to do so. Who knows, we still have some laser discs, so we might look into a laser disc player as well.

[NateLacroix]

I like physical media too. I started a record store a couple years ago. I found out that my distributor also has DVDs and BluRays... and they way more affordable at cost!... I guess what I'm saying is make yourself a friend with a record store. I guess. LOL

[purplemicrodot]

Looks better, sounds better. That's all the justification you need.

[DavidMartinez-celp]

Are you telling me the Canadian Expressionist was actually Canadian the whole time? What a twist!