Physical Media Is Forever

With so many people predicting the death of physical media due to declining sales, companies no longer manufacturing players, and decreased shelf space in brick and mortar stores, Heath explains why he believes Physical Media is here to stay.

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[jimcooper]

I've had people shake their heads and say "disc-rot" and "yellow failure" to me when they hear the size of my CD collection. I've experienced it once out of thousands.
Their suggestion? "Well, just upload your collection to the cloud and you never have to worry about it". Yeah, instead of one disc failing, I could lose my ENTIRE COLLECTION instantly. That's a great alternative.

[MarkaNgamer]

My friends constantly are trying to convince me that discs and drives deteriorate with time. Meanwhile, I still play and use my 20+ year old collection without problem.

[gdmcbride]

Saying yes to joy and no to fear is not a message for just physical media -- it is a universal truth.

[PeterGonet]

A Tech guy told me in the 90's that it's always good to have a hard copy.

[zacharyseibert]

If you genuinely love something, physical is the only way.

[DONWASABIJUAN]

I had a lot of fear around physical media dying for a few years that has completely dissipated. I will always miss the in-store experience though.

[Aussiemarco]

You’re right about how blessed us physical media geeks are at this moment. Here in the UK, people are dumping their huge Blu Ray and CD collections in charity shops, obviously to go 100% streaming. I have recently picked up Blu Rays in a charity shop that were desperate to get rid of them at 3 for £1!! So 33p each!

I’ve always dreamed of having a huge collection of opera box sets on CD, which cost between $80 and $120 each back in Sydney the 1990’s. No way I could afford them. I constantly find them in British charity shops for as little as £1, in perfect condition. My opera collection is massive now! (And these are Decca and DG, not cheap rubbish labels.)

Yep, geek Heaven is right now! But buy them up cheaply now before people realise streaming services are pulling their titles and the flood of stuff dries up as they start keeping them 😊

[CasualAlarmist]

Absolutely. As a LaserDisc old man I can say it's never been better. The quality and selection is better than ever. Mainstream trends to the quantity while niche trends to quality.

[CousinCreepy]

Nothing beats bringing home a dvd haul and discovering all the commentary tracks, docs, trailers and other extras included. That's the real selling point for me - all that extra value. When they go to streaming all of this extra entertainment is dumped.

[mtmc]

Yes! It's all about joy! Always has been. I'm very pleased with my collection. I love it! I've spent over 30 years building it.

[poorcomputerman]

There are lots of places to get physical media online, but many companies are not doing a good job shipping the media. I keep getting damaged titles that were shipped in envelopes and not boxes. I even recently got a title that has the shipping label slapped on the blu-ray title without a box or even an envelope.

[neillumbard]

We are now living in a golden age of physical media. Even though some consumers might not realize it (if they only subscribe to streaming services), the market is evolving and there are more films available now and with better quality editions than ever before. The boutique market is stronger than ever and won't be going away anytime soon. This is great for the future of physical media. It isn't going anywhere.

[nordy]

I think physical is set up for a huge come back. Streaming services like Disney plus are losing billions every year, that's not sustainable. Streaming is going to eventually have to cut costs and raise prices drastically. When that happens owning physical media will look far more attractive to your average consumer

[d-man]

Thank you so very much You're We should enjoy what we have on physical

[channelserf]

Perfect Heath! Old guy here, I got my first VHS tape in 1978, Dirty Harry, Had a collection of 1000 movies. Added Laser Disc collecting several hundred of those. I went to work for a studio in post sound and me and 2 other guys mastered the first studio release of DVD over 25 years ago. I have few thousand discs now and I still own many of my VHS tapes as some of the titles have yet to make it to disk. I also have kept my Star Wars Laser box set and my Pioneer DVL-90 combo LD/DVD player. All of this to say, Yes you can still buy VHS players and tapes. The disk format is going to be around well past my lifetime. As for laser rot it will continue to be rare. I had some audio CD's from 1983 get it as the adhesive to bond the layers together leaked and allowed air to get to the substrate. It is far more rare in DVD as the adhesives have been much improved but you will see the odd lot of errors in materials and manufacturing. So be careful not to bend your disks when you remove them from the spindle. It puts stress on the bond and the layers can open up. The biggest issue I see in collecting physical media is storage! We are going to need a bigger boat! Cheers!

[Dr.Ticklebum]

My 11 year old wanted a record player for her birthday, to which I obliged. This is 167 year old technology. Physical media isn't going anywhere, nor are the people who desire it.

[TheKKVB]

After what happend with HBO Max and now most of their TV shows are lost media, Physical Media is more important than ever.

[SpartasEdge]

You're exactly right; you can't sell a product that many simply don't want, and many will always only want physical media, because many people simply are aware that physical media is the superior way in owning something; and the ONLY way physical media would die, is of all the consumers (stupidly) allowed it to.

These corporations may want to push downliading, but demand drives business, not what THEY want; a business needs to provide a product people desire, and these companies have learned this lesson time and again thr hard way.

Ultimately, you can lead a horse to water, but you can't make it drink.

[damianmagee]

I agree with you, I buy my physical media here in Australia, UK, US, and other countries to find those titles that interested in, people I know does the same.

[LeeTheVet]

Kino Lorber, Shout Factory, Arrow Video, and even Paramount are still putting out the Blu-rays and 4Ks every single month. I have been a collector of physical media since 1990 with the VHS days. My first DVD was in 1995, I still have it. My majority of discs are 4K and Blu-rays. I have Sony players, and I don't think they are going out anytime soon.
Great update video, Heath!