Struggles of Buying Physical Media In 2024
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- čas přidán 7. 09. 2024
- With streaming becoming the main source of home entertainment, Sam talks about the struggles of buying physical media in 2024
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I’m gen x, and I didn’t know this was a thing until now. But I have two binders of dvds. I’ve never liked the idea of going digital for everything. I feel that way for books as well.
Agreed. I have a library of physical media - CDs, DVDs, books on everything that interests me, including sets of encyclopaedias and classic novels. No broadband, no problem.
I told all my friends why they should still be buying physical media back like 6 years ago and everybody laughed at me
This is probably going to be of very unpopular opinion, but I don't care, but the generation that we have become now with digital is REALLY sad and depressing. I don't know about you, but there is just something so special and priceless about having a physical item in your hand, rather than buying it from a digital store front. I couldn't care less about convenience or any of that stuff that people are going to throw at you when they are advocating digital. Not to mention the biggest fact, that you never have and never will own anything digital. And before people come at me and say 'oh but yes we do, we paid for it out of our own money', no offence intended but I guess you didn't read the ToS or EULA BEFORE you purchased which CLEARLY tells you , that you are entitled to a 'temporary license' to view said product for the LIFE of that product, or in other words until the distributor or publisher decides to remove said item from the digital store front AND their servers. And before anyone says 'oh well that's nothing new because programs and software on PC are the exact same', not necessarily. There is a vast difference between a 'temporary' license where you are ONLY essentially renting or leasing that product for an undisclosed amount of time, and a 'perpetual' license where you DO own that software and it can't be taken away from you.
I was physical collector but i am forced now to buy digital only games. There are almost no games available at stores and there is like 3 stores in my country that still sells games on discs but often stock is limited. There basically no way to buy physical media anymore.
Physical is the best. However, I will note a lot of things that I love like song remixes and even weird books would never have been found without digital media.
The barrier to physical media is distribution is limited. However, if you have a movie you love, buy physical because a company can just edit the movie on you without you knowing. Amazon could take your license to the kindle books you own.
Facts we don’t own anything digitally even if we purchase it. I learned that the old way. So I’m back to owning physical copies. I always kept my physical copies of my media anyway.
@@Leonard_Washington76 Totally agree with you there. We NEVER HAVE and NEVER WILL own anything digitally. And if people don't believe me, read that document everyone skips through BEFORE they click on the purchase button.
I didn’t know that best buy have stopped doing physical media. There goes my reason to go there.
I miss the days of Tower Records and Borders!
Waldens B Daltons and FYI too
eBay, thrift stores, garage sales. Amazon almost always has a "used" listing on their Blu-Rays, probably the best way to get 4k movies. If you don't want to pay anything at all, don't forget the library still exits. A card is free so you're essentially "renting" movies for free.
I like to buy blu-rays and rip them to my plex server. I keep the discs safe in a closet and have the convenience of streaming. I usually pay on average $3 a movie. Earlier this week I found the boxed 8 film collecting of Harry Potter on blu-ray for $1.60 a disc, practically in new condition. Honestly I think its a great time to collect movies. There is still a surplus of on the market and the demand is low. I don't see that being the case for long.
Dollar general also has a really good collection. You won’t find 4k but I don’t worry about 4k. Best I do is blue ray.
Physical media I think will make a comeback like how vinyl have.
Slowly but hopefully
The reason I prefer buying stuff at physical stores is because it's just better. I don't have to wait on the mail and worry about my stuff getting potentially lost/stolen/delivered to the wrong address, nor do I have to worry about getting scammed via someone sending something different than what I paid for. More importantly, I get the thing right away. I give them the money, and I have my stuff. Simple as that. Though I guess that goes with not waiting on mail. Still.
I’m definitely in the minority and maybe speaking from privilege, but calling originally priced DVD/Blu-Ray overpriced is exactly one of the reasons we’re not getting them anymore. They used to be a significant income stream for the studios. They can make as much as the theatre release. If you’re only gonna fish them out of discount bins at $5 for 3 discs, which are only there to get rid of inventory, then studios won’t see a reason to even produce physical media. All the bonus features and director commentary that I personally buy them for take money and time to make. I believe in voting with your dollars because sadly that’s the only language the studios speak. I’m very picky about buying physical media, though. I only collect movies I’ll watch over and over again or have some artistic merits or were a cultural touchstone at the time or something. Yes, time is hard and things are expensive, but if you care about films as an art form, paying $15 or $10 at HMV to own a movie/show forever is not that bad.
I kept buying dvds when blu ray was the new thing because blu ray was too expensive foer me. I didnt switch over to collecting bluray until 2023 when we're a lot less.
Sam, you need to visit the thrift stores in your city, i have over 6000 films on physical media and most of them i have bought from thrift stores. If you are buying used off eBay you are paying way too much, especially for the mainstream stuff.
I forgot to mention, some of the movies in my collection I bought from pawn shops. The thrift stores in my city mostly has only DVDs and VHS though
NOTHING is better than the true brick & mortar experience!! #TeamPhysical
In the UK we have charity shops full of physical media for pennies.
Since I've gone back into buying physical media (I did collect DVDs in middle school/highschool), the first thing that surprised me was the price of bluray that has dropped immensely, especially in the thrift shops. All the blurays are selling for less than 1 dollar each. Even the DVDs are less than that, I remember buying DVDs for full price, which is close to where BluRay and 4K cost nowadays.
That feeling when you find a movie you always had in mind you wanted to buy is what makes it as you said, magical. The moment I found Lost in Translation & Memento on BluRay out in the wild was so cool to me, because I've always wanted to own them. There was a man waiting patiently behind me, because he showed up after I got to the shelves, and when I grabbed both of them he kind of was lowkey pissed and stared at me in hope that I probably was going to leave them back on the shelf, I didn't know why. I just knew they were great movies and I wanted to rewatch them.
I live in the sticks, and the only store with new discs has a limited selection of relatively new DVDs only. Mail order is better than nothing, but no match for the browsing experience
Great video! I'm also canadian, but I'm a big 3d fan and a lot of movies aren't even being released on the format anywhere in the world when the versions exist from theatrical distribution. It's so unfortunate!
Yea, being a movie collector in Canada is getting rough
Indeed, the USA have it so easy
The biggest problem I have is so many movies are simply out of print. The more popular movies are available cheap on ebay but the less popular movies start at $50. So I'm just buying all the movies I know I like to rewatch and I'm focusing more of the obscure titles first, where the more popular movies will be available cheap for a while.
I’ve amassed several hundred 4ks the past few years but after my pre orders of James Cameron day, Primal Fear, and Seven, I’m taking a step back. I’m annoyed at the in store experience, and my once rare/valuable OOP Best Buy exclusives getting re released by Walmart. My equipment helps my streaming services look and sound pretty great and it’ll just keep getting better.
I didn't use video stores as a kid. Used them a bit in college, but it always felt a bit seedy and grimy to me, so not really something I miss. I think using the library and amazon quite early means that I almost always associate buying or watching something on DVD with that digital searching.
2nd & Charles in Michigan, Bookmans in Arizona, Game Cycle in Ontario, I do miss physical media retail shops.
I have a few fave stores downtown that I will always hit when I'm on Toronto (BMV is a must). I LOVE being surprised at what I can find. I usually can get some great deals, lately I have been going for classics by Ray Harryhausen and westerns.
You are lucky to feel it in 2024, in India it happened in 2016 - felt the same back then.
So glad I was too busy traveling to stop and give away my DVDs and Blue-Rays. I still have most of my collections. I am so glad I was too busy :)
One of the main reasons why I am not having 1000's of discs with me right now is the money factor. I am from India , Everything here is imported so the cost is goddamn high. If a new movie is 30$ in the US here it is 50$. There are zero collections too, these amazon local sellers buy random stuffs. If I need to buy a specific movie even with 50$ it wont be there.
Hamilton books has good selection of 5 dollar Blu-rays. Trying to find it at stores isn't easy anymore. Big lots has 5 dollar blurays you can buy in the store. No bluray bin in Florida anymore to.
Video rental stores need to make a huge comeback . Blockbuster needs to start re opening stores again. People are getting fed up of this technology.
It still feels good to take a disc out and sliding it into my blu-ray player.
The best feeling ever, better than using your phone or remote
That fresh box smell still gets me every time!
@@samnhueI have Tokyo Vice season one on DVD, and as I haven't seen any of season two yet I'm really hoping for an eventual DVD/Blu Ray release (season two is currently streaming on Max but we don't have Max here in the U.K). Hoping season two is eventually picked up by the BBC like season one was months after it's U.S run had concluded then hoping for an eventual physical release. Although I've not seen any of season two I have a feeling if season two is successful it'll be renewed for a third and (probably final) season. I have Warrior season one on DVD but seasons two and three never got a U.K physical release so I'm trying to collect as many good series as I can while physical media is still around. I have a lot of classic HBO box sets and I know to never get rid of them because eventually they won't be sold anymore and I'll never be able to get them back.
Since I got fired from Christmas I began spending over $500 on physical medias buying used and new ones online and in store. Here is what I have discovered. Some discs are prone to disc rot. I would stay away from old used ones if possible. I had problems with discs from ebayers listing as like new or near mint. It's a hit or miss. I can't even guarantee the old ones manufactured 20 years ago all in brand new condition but so far I had no problems. It's a very expensive gamble online cuz of the shipping cost. Just be careful of buying used discs.
Goodwill is bad for that
I've bought numerous of dvds and blue rays over the years used in my country, and I've never encountered this phenomenon of disc rot. How does it look like on a disc? Is it caused by the air etc. or by the disc being played too many times?
@@Kotifilosofi Most of the bad ones I encountered were the dual layered discs that includes both theatrical and special edition. The bottom layer is semi transparent so the Lazer when it reads has to change to a different frequency in order to read both. This may be more prone to reading errors. My 2003 Alien Quadrilogy DVD set movies 1 and 2 are encountering rendering and picture problems. Example like both versions freezes at the same scenes. My 2005 Gladiator extended edition also doesn't play smoothly. I encounter a small frame freeze every 10 minutes. If I am wrong, I apologize if I wasted your time.
@@thelastdefenderofcamelot5623 thank you for explaining your experiences! I indeed have never faced anything like that, but on the other hand, I'm not sure if I have any dual sides dics. I wonder if it has to do with humidity, my country hardly has any during any season.
I agree. I was just having this conversation with a friend who used to work at a video rental store back when they still had VHS and the physical media made some films so much more valuable because of how rare or how difficult it was to get your hands on a copy. Japanese cinema for instance was particularly rare. I’m from Colombia, so to watch a Japanese movie you needed to find an American or European dubbed version. And I remember the excimer of hunting down these holy grails. That excitement is gone now with streaming platforms.
I dont know what this has to do with streaming services.
Availability and affordability was always an issue with movies. I remember buying bootleg movies when I was a kid.
With streaming services. Many movies was able to get a second leg and get popular. The convenience and access and affordability is incredible. I can finally freely watch as many movies as I want.
Also in Canada...miss the Walmart bin and the deals it had. HMV is coming back inside Toys R Us stores...been collecting for 20 yrs...wont ever stop.
In the US there are thrift stores where older movies tend to be $1. Or $2., you have to hunt through a bunch of movies but when you find a good one it feels like winning. It’s a cheap pastime if you’ve got nothing to do. We even have little stores at some public library’s run by volunteers that help to raise funds where all discs are $1. It’s a win win. Garage sales where people are trying to declutter and raise funds for something. I like that it’s a cheap hobby that helps charities or other people while rebuilding my physical media collection after going all digital just didn’t work out for multiple reasons. I even figured out how to store hundreds of movies in sleeves with their covers etc in purpose made boxes so they take up little space and create less visual clutter (one of the reasons I thought going digital was so great) I still have boxed sets and full series’s but it’s still nothing like the big ol’ shelving units of discs we had back in the day & I keep a few of the clamshell cases in case someday I want to sell a disc or something.
I feel u mann. The offline stores for Blu-rays in Indonesia have long disappeared. Since around 2010, we haven't been able to buy any Blu-rays or DVDs locally. We now need to import them from Amazon.. :(
I have been Collecting DVDs for 15-18 years now and I will continue to do so until they are no longer available anywhere. I have partially rebuilt my Collection from the old VHS days when I had 6,000 movies, but no TV Shows. I now about 3,000 Movies and I have 200-250 TV Seasons. So I am still buying from everywhere, Amazon, eBay, Oldies, Movies Unlimited, Shout, etc. I figure they will still make DVDs for another 10 years, I'm 66, probably maximum live only 20 years more, so I figure I'm good.
Keep supporting physical media!
I don't feel that longing or nostalgia for discs - media is media as far as I'm concerned; but I do feel that way about the equipment that plays discs. I so miss going to an electronics specialty store and playing around with all the latest models of a technology before selecting a product to buy. Best buy doesn't carry enough variety of stock in store to qualify for that experience. Bring back Fry's electronics.
I just bought my first blue ray in years and safe to say I’m back. I prefer holding the physical film, feels special and I’m sick of streaming fatigue
Thats an interesting point, for me I find that usually when Im buying a blu-ray/dvd i’m looking for a movie I already knew I wanted.
As soon as the bluray for Primal came out I scooped it up. Most of my physical media I get at yard sales. There's decades of media I haven't got around to watching yet.
If you're in Vancouver, Video Cat is a great place to find some physical media.
One strategy is to eliminate physical media so you have to subscribe to whichever streaming services survive. With the dumpster fire that is Paramount for example, the various Star Trek series could be sold to any number of different streamers. The Original Series to one streamer, Next Generation to another and so on. Buying a series or movie digitally? Those are nothing more than extended rentals. When the rights go to another company, bye bye. In some cases studios/streamers remove content and there is no reason. No thanks, I’ll keep buying my Trek, etc. on physical media and the studios can’t take it away. I also like the hard copies, too, I own SOMETHING, not air.
Thanks for making and sharing this video. I’m with you.
I do a lot of importing from Europe. Unfortunately, one of the discs in a recent order I got bronzed. All that waiting for a dead Blu-ray.
You'll still get the feel the Blu Ray in your hand when it rocks up in the post
Of course! Never said there was anything wrong with that
I understand your P.O.V. on finding movies/tv shows in-store. However, it's a pain to go to every single store in my area to try to find what I'm looking for. A perfect example of this scenario is THE KING OF QUEENS Complete Series. I figured that since I found all of these other tv shows in a complete series in the past in-person, it was just a matter of time before I found THE KING OF QUEENS. Eventually, I couldn't wait any longer, so I ended up buying it online.
But we used to have stores that gave us so many options, but now I agree it is a pain because most stores won’t carry that specific movie we want, that’s why we are mostly resorting to Amazon or Ebay, but whatever I can find in the store, I will be grateful for
Thrift or second hand shops are giving them away, yard sales as well ...
I’m old, and I remember 8tracks, records, cassettes, CDs, DVDs, etc. I won’t go back to that. If I buy a movie through a digital purchase, I download it and put it on my NAS.
If people want to buy Blu-ray disks, that’s fine, but I won’t go back to that. Some here are referring to digital people as sad, and frankly, that is just stupid.
Buying digital is fine, but there is one big negative with buying digital -- you can't buy used -- if you go the digital only route. I have saved a ton of $$$ by buying used.
I thrift store hunt 99% of mine. I did hit a best buy because they had the evildead box set for 47.00 so that was too good to pass up. I don't care if I have dvd, blu-ray, or 4k as long as I have a copy of the ones I really love. I mean ya if I can upgrade on the cheap I will but dvd is better then nothing.
I found Sex and the city complete collectors box with all the seasons neatly in one box at a local drift store for 10€. I bought it even if I've never been an obsessive fan of the series when it was a hit lol.
This digital age is sooooo trash man.
Digital & streaming & physical all ways to watch a movie / tv show don't hate just appreciate
Here's another consideration: hard disk drives (HDD's). The storage industry is moving from real hard drives to "solid state" (meaning SSD's). While much faster, things stored on an SSD will start degrading after only 4-5 years, as the charges holding the 1s and 0s goes flat with enough time. A busted HDD can be opened, and the platters read, if the drive breaks, but trying to do the same on an SSD is nearly impossible.
Walmart didnt have the movie sales like they had on Black Friday..
I miss those times:(
The thing is you have those memories to attach the physical action to but today's kids and this whole lazy, overweight, over medicated, drug and fear filled, politically correct, entitled, and impatient, non social, generation has no memories outside of their phones or virtual connections so they rather stream or order food from Doordarsh then get dressed and go out to dinner and a movie or even a store to shop for the essentials, they want to save humanity from climate and all other BS but lack what makes us human which is a legitimate connection so what are they really trying to save??
I honestly prefer vhs over dvd or blu ray. The ones I have found fit my whole 36” crt tv instead of the ugly widescreen. I do still pick up dvds for my Plex server though. Oh goodwill has an app where it’s setup as an auction. I got 20 Disney vhs for $15.
Yes. It was fun having that experience. Although I will say it's saving me a lot of money. Haha!
You can still have that experience, but doesn’t often happen as much as before
Yeah man, totally - I feel your pain!
I feel the same way
Why not DVD’s?
DVDS have lower graphics and audio textures but if your have a decent monitor you don't notice it.
I am grateful and cherish my time with DVD, but bluray is Full HD 1080p and I don’t see a reason to go back to 480p DVDs. Collecting VHS is still cool despite being an even lower resolution, probably mostly for nostalgia and the way the spine looks on your shelf
I've been going to thrift stores to get them
Pawn shops/hock shops in Canada is a great place to go for blu rays.
& fye & walmarr & target & half book price & the exchange
@@donnellcoleman7784 don’t have any of those in Canada except Walmart
Life change & aleast u got walmart & target & big lots
What are your newest additions?
-Paddington
-Zombieland: Double Tap
-The Karate Kid (2010)
-21 Jump Street
-Lincoln
-X-Men: Apocalypse
-Saving Mr. Banks
-Gone Baby Gone
-The Intern
-The Disaster Artist
-The Descendants
:)
I only have 1 of those, 21 jump street
You can’t take your physical property to the grave
So is downloading a movie not an option anymore? Buy a drive, shove as many movies on it and move on. Even more portable that a dvd.
I don’t watch movies on the go. Just doesn’t feel right
one can go fishing for things one needs
I agreed with you. I go to charity shops
You have a 2nd&Charles near you?
Not in Canada, but just saw the pics and it looks amazing
Goodwill & pawn shop
Walked into a shop and literally text the game or the movie or whatever it is. I want off the shelf takes it over to the cashier pay the price as stated on the price tag say thank you very much maybe make a little bit small talk be polite leave With my game or movie, or both in hand, or in bag With my game or movie, or both in hand, or in bag in hand.
Going to Amazon or eBay order it
I go to the 5 dollar bin when I go to my wal-mart
Back then I always found some gems in there, but nowadays nothing 🥲
My Walmart has gotten rid of all DVDS.
Am I this old now?
download the movie, games then burn it on discs.
But if you burned the games or movies onto a disc, wouldn't that still belong to their servers, even though it's on a physical media now?
Not on GOG and movies can be downloaded on to whatever storage media you desire@@jordanking7711
That illegal
I live about 40 mins from Toronto by train so I go down there every 2-3 months and hit up BMV and bay st video. I certainly still feel excited but the sales are over. Best Buy and Walmart died a long time ago
29 games all of them physical, and it’s a mixture of modern Xbox series. X Nintendo switch and secondhand old PS2 games. All of them bought from a shop that I picked up off the shelf and said to someone at the cashiers at the counter. I would like to purchase this made Smalltalk. Paid and walk out the shop with my new purchased game that I picked up off the shelf of my own two hands.
I’m so far I have picked up 9 physical games this year alone being picked up off the shelf in store and paying for them in person with cold, hard physical cash
I actually refuse to pay for things with cards I pay with cash