Physical media vs stream everything

[garhkal]

Just got done watching a youtube podcast, about LG stopping making DVD/Blu ray players and such and he's bemoaning the fact there's less and less companies making physical players as 'so many' folks go to stream.

Which makes me wonder, IS IT because the companies themselves, push many things to going streaming, that 'people' are stopping using physical media. OR IS IT because WE the players of videos/movies/music, Want it stream, that the companies are complying??

What say you all?

DO you (like me) prefer keeping physical media, so we can play it without needing all those streaming accounts/internet?
OR do you prefer having everything online?

[CrossfirePilot]

I prefer having the physical media.  Years ago when someone from my offshore team used to come and work onsite for a couple months or more, I would lend them some of my classic movies (Slapshot, Airplane, Blazing Saddles).  It helped them get a handle on what sort of person they are dealing with.  That being said I am also guilty of sitting and watching a movie on cable that I have in my collection. I don't think I have bought a movie in years though.  Also the only streaming platform I subscribe to is Amazon Prime.  Money and time are too tight to have more.

I think the answer is that the newer generations find streaming much more to their liking than owning the media.  If there was still a demand for it, I am sure that they would be making it.

Anyone remember when getting a 5 pack of blank VHS tapes was a great Christmas gift?

[elf25s]

ok this had been done by amazon at least 5 times in past 5 years and is the reason i always back up anything i buy that is digital. amazon removes your books off your kindle even when you paid for it recently sony done same with games and movies. and it does not matter if you paid for it. so i will back it up when i buy it. ohh they also dont give you credit or money back

[CrossfirePilot]

I know that all too well.  I will be watching a movie an AP, then have to go do something else.  Then when I finally get back to it is gone from the service. 

[MoneyLovinOgre4Hire]

Quite frankly, the rate at which companies are trying to push consumers away from being able to actually buy products and instead only allow them to buy access to products that can be revoked at any time has a distinctly cyberpunk dystopia feel to it.

[Firesprocket]

I would much rather own a physical copy of the media in question.  The idea of buying a licence that can be revoked at anytime I find off putting.  Between that and mismanagment of my personal information it is the big reason I haven't bought a new console in years (and may never again).

[Daryk]

I prefer physical media, but it's getting harder to come by...

[CrossfirePilot]

I would much rather own a physical copy of the media in question.  The idea of buying a licence that can be revoked at anytime I find off putting.  Between that and mismanagment of my personal information it is the big reason I haven't bought a new console in years (and may never again).

Yeah the mismanagement is a huge issue for me right now.   I have a couple people owe me $$ and when I said "send me a check" they were telling me to get with the times and use a cash app.  So let me get this straight.  You want me to connect my bank routing and account numbers to another 3rd party most of which lately have a terrible time protecting consumer data so that a some possible point I wake up some morning and find my accounts emptied...  yeah no.

[Daryk]

"Get with the times"???  Fork over the bullion!  Solid gold or go home... ;D

[CrossfirePilot]

"Get with the times"???  Fork over the bullion!  Solid gold or go home... ;D

Yeah for as much as me that wanted to live in the 80s future of fusion powered cars and C-Bills.  Now I would prefer just cash.  Its not quite worthless yet...   Though I do wish I would have bought bitcoin when I first read about it in 2009.  Then again in 2011 but by that time it was $308/

[MoneyLovinOgre4Hire]

Crypto currency is a pyramid scheme.

[CrossfirePilot]

Yeah but I still would not have minded getting into the pyramid 15 years ago.  I could have had one less Big Mac then for a new house now.  Though to be truthful, I probably would have sold $300 and thought I was Gordon Gekko. 

Back on the topic, I still prefer having the videos on my shelf (though I have very few).  Though sadly I have been to more than 1 garage sale and seen VHS tapes that were originally thousands of dollars being given away. 

[Garrand]

Yeah the mismanagement is a huge issue for me right now.   I have a couple people owe me $$ and when I said "send me a check" they were telling me to get with the times and use a cash app.  So let me get this straight.  You want me to connect my bank routing and account numbers to another 3rd party most of which lately have a terrible time protecting consumer data so that a some possible point I wake up some morning and find my accounts emptied...  yeah no.

Jeez, I'm 49 & have not written a check in years. I pay my bills electronically 100% now. And when someone owes me money, the first thing I ask is if they have a Zelle account.

So far no one has emptied my account, & when there has been some shenannigans, Bank of American nixed that nonsense.

As far as the question asked, it depends. Buying physical media for things I am sure to watch over & over again, yes, absolutely. Or for things that are hard to get (or stream) otherwise. Like, FREX, I have the entire Space Battleship Yamato series, almost up to date, on DVD. I'll watch that years from now.

But for 90% of the entertainment I consume, streaming is far more efficient, immediate, & practical. Some programs or movies I watch, I will probably never watch again. Or if I do, it will be once more & done. FREX, the entire Arrowverse series of shows I watched via streaming; I'll never watch them again, likely.

Same for books, even if I prefer reading physically. Most books I will never read again, so buying hard copies, does it really make sense? other than to impress visitors with some sort of intellectual superiority of a personal library? The exception, of course, are history books (I have a degree in History). Those I find I go back to time & again; I am currently making efforts to rebuild my history library (Starting with The Crusades: A Short History by Riley-Smith)

A lot of this came into focus when I was living in Ecuador. Getting DVDs of anything was impossible; NO STORE CARRIED DVDs. There was a DVD rental place in the city (Manta), but I never once set foot in there. If people had DVD players, it was incidental, because they had PLaystations or something like that. So streaming wasn't just an option, it was the ONLY way I could consume media in English while living there. Same for books (the local bookstore, ironically called Mr Books -- not Sr Libros, but in English -- carried a pitifully small English section). If I wanted to read physical SF or history in Spanish, good luck; there were plenty of biographies about Che Guevara, but not much on medieval Spanish seigneurity, as an example. So buying ebooks from Amazon was really the only option (ironically as well, the 2 books I have about the Cenepa war in Spanish are from Amazon on my Kindle).

This experience made me question why I should buy what is essentially "disposable" entertainment as a physical media; all it will do is take up space. So, if I must buy physical media, it is because either I cannot get it any other way, or it is something I consider worth preserving.

Damon.

[MoneyLovinOgre4Hire]

That's all true, but with something you have a physical copy of you can lend it to friends or sell it if you've decided that you definitely have no interest in seeing it again.  Stopping people from being able to do that is one of the biggest driving forces for why companies are pushing digital.

[CrossfirePilot]

Same for books, even if I prefer reading physically. Most books I will never read again, so buying hard copies, does it really make sense? other than to impress visitors with some sort of intellectual superiority of a personal library? The exception, of course, are history books (I have a degree in History). Those I find I go back to time & again; I am currently making efforts to rebuild my history library (Starting with The Crusades: A Short History by Riley-Smith)

Yeah I have never had someone come over to my place and say "wow that's the Feynman lectures on Physics and Eisberg and Resnicks Quantum Physics!  Let me bare my soul to you!"  Mostly now my 11 year old autistic genius kid looks at them and says "oh hey dad, you used to be smart too?"

For the most part we do just pay to stream a video for family time (akin to renting a VHS on a Friday night back in the day).  For a time there were things that I wanted to have in print or a copy for my sons to enjoy.  But looking at it now, they are different guys.  My comic book collection from the 70s and 80s they couldn't care less about.  The 9yo kinda likes Battletech, but I think that is more just to get time with dad playing a game.  He would be just as happy playing chess or Monopoly. 

[CrossfirePilot]

That's all true, but with something you have a physical copy of you can lend it to friends or sell it if you've decided that you definitely have no interest in seeing it again.  Stopping people from being able to do that is one of the biggest driving forces for why companies are pushing digital.

And not to get too close to rule 4, but there are some movies out there that they keep on editing parts out because of reasons.  I will keep my Mel Brooks and Jerry Zucker movies thank you very much!

[PsihoKekec]

I prefer physical media, the corpos can't just take it remotely from me.

[garhkal]

Anyone remember when getting a 5 pack of blank VHS tapes was a great Christmas gift?

Heck these days its rare to find folk who even know what vhs is..

ok this had been done by amazon at least 5 times in past 5 years and is the reason i always back up anything i buy that is digital. amazon removes your books off your kindle even when you paid for it recently sony done same with games and movies. and it does not matter if you paid for it. so i will back it up when i buy it. ohh they also dont give you credit or money back

I heard some on steam had issues with that too..  They "Bought" a game, but steam decided to do something with it, so they couldn't play it anymore..

Between that and mismanagment of my personal information it is the big reason I haven't bought a new console in years (and may never again).

Not known anyone who has a console, that had their 'info' hacked'.  BUT have with a # of streamers..

Yeah the mismanagement is a huge issue for me right now.   I have a couple people owe me $$ and when I said "send me a check" they were telling me to get with the times and use a cash app.  So let me get this straight.  You want me to connect my bank routing and account numbers to another 3rd party most of which lately have a terrible time protecting consumer data so that a some possible point I wake up some morning and find my accounts emptied...  yeah no.

That is why i refuse to use any of those 'paying aps'..  Heck one store (locally) i occasionally went in for getting certain english food stuff, i can no longer shop at with my credit card, as they ONLY cc with 'apple pay'... Gotta use cash there...

As far as the question asked, it depends. Buying physical media for things I am sure to watch over & over again, yes, absolutely. Or for things that are hard to get (or stream) otherwise. Like, FREX, I have the entire Space Battleship Yamato series, almost up to date, on DVD. I'll watch that years from now.

True, one of the guys i routinely game with, has a decent collection, but only of Older films, that rarely get 'repeated on certain channels'.  Everything else he watches, is via AP.

Same for books, even if I prefer reading physically. Most books I will never read again, so buying hard copies, does it really make sense? other than to impress visitors with some sort of intellectual superiority of a personal library?

I used to be a big book reader..  BUT now days, if i read something, i just check it out from the library..

This experience made me question why I should buy what is essentially "disposable" entertainment as a physical media; all it will do is take up space. So, if I must buy physical media, it is because either I cannot get it any other way, or it is something I consider worth preserving.

That physical space is an issue i know some have, as they constantly move for work... 

[Firesprocket]

Yeah the mismanagement is a huge issue for me right now.   I have a couple people owe me $$ and when I said "send me a check" they were telling me to get with the times and use a cash app.

I have a paypal account that I rarely use these days.  That's it for any cash apps.  If I buy something I use a credit card as it still transaction that carries more safeguards.   I will occasionally use checks if absolutely necessary where I have to PIF or the business passes along an exorbitant fee for using a CC.  I can pay pretty much anything else through my bank.  Never use the CC if I don't have a phyiscal copy of it present.

[CrossfirePilot]

I travel a lot so I do rely on credit cards.  Though I also tend to have a couple hundred dollars cash on me at any one time for paying smaller mom and pop places just so they aren't getting soaked with the CC fees.

[worktroll]

Okay, so I used to have 5,000+ paperback books, and 2,000+ hardbacks. Now down to about 1,500 paperbacks and 1,000+ hardbacks. Ebooks made the difference; I keep books I have an emotional connection with - the copy of Dune I bought in the 1970s, the whole printed Dumarest of Terra series, "Somebody else is on our Moon" (  ), the complete works of Jack Chalker and Glen Cook, that sort of thing - and the rest I read electronically.

At least ebooks can still be purchased, not streamed.

[CrossfirePilot]

Okay, so I used to have 5,000+ paperback books, and 2,000+ hardbacks. Now down to about 1,500 paperbacks and 1,000+ hardbacks. Ebooks made the difference; I keep books I have an emotional connection with - the copy of Dune I bought in the 1970s, the whole printed Dumarest of Terra series, "Somebody else is on our Moon" (  ), the complete works of Jack Chalker and Glen Cook, that sort of thing - and the rest I read electronically.

At least ebooks can still be purchased, not streamed.

Can I borrow your Glen Cook Faded Steel Heat...  Missed that one on my reading list.   In all seriousness, I also had about 6 shelves of books, which was real pain every time I was moving.  Ended up bringing most into the used book store about 20 years ago.  Saved a few series just in case my kids want to read them.  And of course some of my old text books, because they are worth nothing on the market for the most part and at some point I want to point out to my kids that I wasnt always old and dumb.

[Maingunnery]

I simply have too little space to keep everything as a hard/physical copy. The floor would also likely not be able to handle the weight. So my primary storage medium is as digital copy/file, with physical extras for stuff I am a real fan of, and I do not bother with streaming. 

[garhkal]

I simply have too little space to keep everything as a hard/physical copy. The floor would also likely not be able to handle the weight. So my primary storage medium is as digital copy/file, with physical extras for stuff I am a real fan of, and I do not bother with streaming.

I knew a guy who cause of his collection of hardbacks, had to reinforce the framing for his 2nd story..  JUST so he could have them all upstairs in his 'man-cave'..

[worktroll]

Can I borrow your Glen Cook Faded Steel Heat...  Missed that one on my reading list.   In all seriousness, I also had about 6 shelves of books, which was real pain every time I was moving. 

Any time - let me know when you can drop by! :)

And yes, I've been in the one house for 34 years now. The prospect of moving fills me with utter horror, but the next move is likely to be to a wooden box.

[CrossfirePilot]

I knew a guy who cause of his collection of hardbacks, had to reinforce the framing for his 2nd story..  JUST so he could have them all upstairs in his 'man-cave'..

There was a 2 story cabin up in Northern MN.  It was 2 story open concept sort of thing with shelves and a ladder that went around the entire top.  A coworker of mine was considering buying it in retirement.  He backed out, I with I would have jumped in and bought it.  I wouldn't have even needed to run phone or internet up there. 

[MoneyLovinOgre4Hire]

Okay, so I used to have 5,000+ paperback books, and 2,000+ hardbacks. Now down to about 1,500 paperbacks and 1,000+ hardbacks. Ebooks made the difference; I keep books I have an emotional connection with - the copy of Dune I bought in the 1970s, the whole printed Dumarest of Terra series, "Somebody else is on our Moon" (  ), the complete works of Jack Chalker and Glen Cook, that sort of thing - and the rest I read electronically.

At least ebooks can still be purchased, not streamed.

They can be purchased, but it doesn't stop Amazon from occasionally deciding that they're no longer going to allow a particular book anymore and disappearing it from your device without notification or a refund.

[drjones]

I'll second the mention upstream of libraries. I've found them to be a good third option between digital downloads and having to buy hardcopies you'll only read once. Admittedly, there's not the same assurance that it'll always be there that owning a hardcopy provides. I also tried out a book rental service in 2020 when the local libraries were temporarily closed; it worked well enough.

[Euphonium]

I don't really stream anything. If I'm paying for it I want to own it, so generally won't buy digital unless it's DRM-free or I know I can remove the DRM myself. For music and books I still prefer physical media because you can't take a download to a gig and signed by the band 

Anyone remember when getting a 5 pack of blank VHS tapes was a great Christmas gift?

I remember!

[snip]they were telling me to get with the times and use a cash app. 

[snip] And when someone owes me money, the first thing I ask is if they have a Zelle account.

Why do you need 3rd party apps for this? I'm used to everyone just opening up their bank's app and sending money directly to my bank account or vice versa. Is this a US infrastructure thing?

[garhkal]

Maybe..  I know some folk who refuse to use those apps, over fears of being hacked.