It’s sensible for businesses to shift from physical media sales. Per CNBC’s calculations, DVD sales fell over 86 percent between 2008 and 2019. Research from the Motion Picture Association in 2021 found that physical media represented 8 percent of the home/mobile entertainment market in the US, falling behind digital (80 percent) and theatrical (12 percent).
But as physical media gets less lucrative and the shuttering of businesses makes optical discs harder to find, the streaming services that largely replaced them are getting aggravating and unreliable. And with the streaming industry becoming more competitive and profit-hungry than ever, you never know if the movie/show that most attracted you to a streaming service will still be available when you finally get a chance to sit down and watch. Even paid-for online libraries that were marketed as available “forever” have been ripped away from customers.
When someone buys or rents a DVD, they know exactly what content they’re paying for and for how long they’ll have it (assuming they take care of the physical media). They can also watch the content if the Internet goes out and be certain that they’re getting uncompressed 4K resolution. DVD viewers are also less likely to be bombarded with ads whenever they pause and can get around an ad-riddled smart TV home screen (nothing’s perfect; some DVDs have unskippable commercials).
Are the numbers about DVD sales strictly about DVD sales or do they include all optical formats (Blu-ray/UltraHD Blu-ray)? Because unless I’m getting an old TV show that was only ever SD, my preference is to get a Blu-ray, not a DVD. I suppose if I still saw the super cheap ($3-5) DVDs in the grocery store for something I like but not enough to buy normally (this is how I bought Brewster’s Millions) then I might buy a DVD, but otherwise I at least want HD quality.
Isn’t Blu Ray dead?
No.
You’re correct. They are only killing the consumer recordable media. I thought it was all Blu Ray
I think it’s only Sony’s first-party discs, too. So someone else could theoretically manufacture them. I don’t know if anyone else does, though.
There are plenty others who do.
No, bluray is 1080p (or 2160p if UHD Bluray) while DVDs are 576p-720p (what looks really shitty on a 4K TV). I only buy BDs and UHD BDs these days
while DVDs are 576p-720p
576p is the absolute maximum. Most DVDs are actually 480p.
I am pretty sure 1080p video will fit on DVD just fine if formatted as regular data disc. But I am not sure if H.264 or anything newer is supported, and video may not have the highest quality, but still better than 720p I guess.
That’s true, but the DVD-Video standard only supports MPEG-2 at 720x576 (PAL), or 720x480 (NTSC).
Sure, you can put a 1080p AVC-encoded video on a DVD formatted as a data disc, but it won’t play on a DVD player.
Huh. I had a vague memory that my DVD player allowed regular movie files to be played, but maybe my memory is just bad.
That would be very device-specific, if they wanted to add additional support for data discs. It would be outside the scope of the actual DVD-video playback functionality.
dvds aren’t dying; the media companies who own the rights to dvds and blurays are killing them
what’s the difference?
nothing; just gotta point out that media companies are doing everything they can to stop us from owning our own media.
malicious intent
Gotta cut off any avenue of escape for streamers sick of not owning what they pay for.
Unskippable commercials on DVD? What did I miss?
Oh yeah 100%. Old DVDs had ads that were unskippable, which played before you got to the DVD’s home menu. Usually just ads for other movies that were coming up around the same time the DVD landed. You could usually get around them by hitting Stop twice and then Play to get to the main DVD menu, but not always.
Wow, I don’t even remember that. I’ve been playing DVDs on a computer basically forever, which rarely obeyed such restrictions…
UNLESS you buy the dvd or Blu-ray from the UK. I found that out when I bought the UK version of a movie and when I put the disc in… The movie just fucking started. No earnings, no ads, no features, no menu. Just… Movie.
I remember this as a kid, where (usually a Disney DVD) would have 2x 3 minute trailers, before you even got to the main menu, for other movies and if you tried to hit Next Chapter it would just spit back “Unable to do this at this time”.
Sometimes you might bypass it by hitting Root Menu if your DVD player remote had it, but yes very frustrating.
If you had unskippable commercials on dvds, you probably missed pirated dvd stores like this one:
Several tech YouTubers have talked about moving entirely to Jellyfin or similar, self-hosting their own movies and TV series from legally owned, ripped copies from their own DVD or Bluray collection.
It takes some work and time to rip, encode, and organize the files. But if you want to go this route, there has probably never been a better time. You can routinely purchase used DVDs and Bluray from thrift stores for a few bucks per disc… sometimes less. If I had a server and hard disk space I’d probably be going this route for media consumption.
Eventually the DVDs will go away entirely and then it will be impossible to create your own legal archival copies.
Be careful I started down that road with a 500gb external hdd and now I’ve got a 40tb raid array and a homelab consuming my walk in closet.
and now I’ve got a 40tb raid array
Um, I would like one of those.
“Self hosting their own movies and TV series from legally owned, ripped copies from their own DVD and BluRay collection”
Ngl, whenever they say that they be doing that in said videos I smirk a lil. Yeah sure, that’s what you say when you’re in front of the camera&recording a video pointing out what others could be doing as well. All while they likely got stuff obtained from the seven seas on there as well, just like folk that are going to replicate that setup are going to have as well. Let’s not kid ourselves, a whole lot of content is only legally accessible via streaming services with no other options (shortly before it gets removed from the streaming services, leaving no legal way to access it), and that amount is becoming more each and every single day 😅
Honestly, I’d rip my collection, but at the time it takes to download that quality rip I’d be quicker just typing them all into Radarr and coming back later…
Ok someone explain Jellyfin. I tried to figure it out and it just wasn’t clicking.
If you know plex it’s the same thing just open source.
But they are just video player front ends for your media libray
I mean I have VLC. I have no issues with most media. I was under the impression it was a source for the media. Thanks.
Plex and Jellyfin organize your media using metadata and it’s pretty much your own Netflix, Hulu type thing.
However, if you get a Plex pass you can stream your media outside of your network to friends and family. Or just yourself when you’re out of the house. But your PC would need to stay on, unless you have a NAS bay with the hard drives in it.
I didn’t see any channels. Is it like Kodi? Maybe I’m just using it wrong.
It’s your personal netflix with your stuff on it.
yall paying for movies?
I will buy 4k blue rays of movies I like but if that isn’t available, eat ass and get fucked I’ll steal your shit and you get nothing.
I recently got the Twister 4K steelbook. It’s my favorite movie.
You had me at eat ass
nope
Yup, but only physical media, not streaming services or anything with online DRM. If I can’t play their media offline legally, I’ll find other ways of getting that data to work offline.
Some people pay in order to be able to anonymously download movies. (Totally not me though, as that’s illegal.)
I have no issues paying for movies, as long as they’re actually mine. I have major issues with paying for a limited license to stream a movie, until the streaming service decides to end their contract and the streaming rights get clawed back without a refund. If purchasing isn’t owning, then piracy isn’t theft.
I have a 4k BluRay player I picked up for cheap. But I only have like 2 movies for it.
Does it do 3D?
You know what it might. But I need the glasses for my TV.
I thought those players only worked on special 3D TVs? I’ve never tried the feature because my TVs are always the cheap ones.
Yeah it does require a tv with that feature. Mine supports it but I’ve never thought to try it because it needs glasses. (and probably won’t because they are expensive last I checked)
It’s sensible for businesses to shift from physical media sales.
Sensible to who?
*whom
😝
The MBAs whose sole purpose on earth it is to inflate margins over and over and over again
Physical is practically dead.
One by one I’ve seen pretty much any shop that specialises in physical media go bust. Virgin Megastores, HMV, Blockbuster, Game. The media section in my local supermarkets have gone from several aisles of games and movies, down to a single rack of recent releases. Even in gaming, I’ve had my disc PS5 for two years now, and the only thing I’ve put in it was Top Gun on 4K disc. The other games (BG3, Talos Principle 2) I purchased weren’t even available on disc.
Consumers don’t want it in large numbers, so they stop making it.
Really? Because used media stores are booming all over the place. Stores that sell new and used records alongside CDs, Movies, and video games seem to be in every mid size town I pass through.
The smaller towns like mine feel the effects first. It’ll trickle up.
Game went that way, eventually being taken over by the used section, and now all we have left locally is CEX, which is used only. Most of the prices are about the same as buying new from Amazon. Anything really cheap is often the same stuff in subscription services.
Game still exists, but it’s tucked away at the back of Sports Direct shops in out of town shopping centres, and their main products appear to be plushies and funko pops.
It is dying, and I’m not convinced it can be saved at this point. Who has a CD player any more? DVD players have gone from a £30 box that everyone had to something stuffed in the attic and the apps are built into the TV. A 4K BR player is still £150+ even for a cheap one. You don’t even get Dolby Vision at that price point. I don’t expect the next generation of consoles to have disc drives at all.
Physical media is on life support, and it won’t be long before they pull the plug completely.
When I think small town, I’m thinking a couple hundred people. I’ve never seen those kinds of stores there. Medium is a few thousand. They usually have one.
The nice thing is that there are millions of discs and players still out there. For anyone who prefers physical media and avoids streaming (this guy!) there is no shortage. Prices could stand to come down. But even if they do quit making them, there are lifetimes worth of vintage media, and newer isn’t always better.
I’m talking a town of 35,000-40,000 people. There is not a single dedicated new physical media shop here. The most we have is the rack in the supermarkets. It all went online to Amazon, etc, and now it doesn’t look like it has long there either.
And while that old media will last a decent while, it doesn’t last forever. The discs degrade, and fairly soon compared to CDs. Like 25 years or so.
And if nobody is making discs any more, the drives won’t be far behind. It’s full of moving parts, so stock up on them. It happened to floppy discs, it’ll happen to optical discs too.
I didn’t say new store, I said vintage. If you don’t have one, I’d be surprised. There’s gonna be one somewheres nearby.
As for aging media, you’re right about that. Best make sure we reform copyright law soon. They don’t deserve to gatekeep the entire world’s cultural history.
I’ve had my disc PS5 for two years now, and the only thing I’ve put in it was Top Gun on 4K disc
You are really missing out then, because if you know where to look (like psprices.com) you will often find sales on only physical copies at Amazon, Best Buy or GameStop.
I’m talking like significant sales. Like AAA games less than a year old (that still costs $60 on PSN) for $15.99 kind of sales.
I cannot tell you how many PS4 and PS5 games I’ve gotten, and which, for 40%+ off. Too many to count. I’ve saved hundreds if not over a thousand dollars doing this.
For all the reality of “streaming rights are a shitshow”, what percentage of the population do you think is willing to buy physical movies?
Because I don’t think it’s all that high.
Someone go make Steam for videos and I’ll pay for media again. My stipulations are:
- Once I buy it, it’s mine forever (otherwise piracy is better)
- The file is high quality, DRM free, and in a selection of standard formats (otherwise piracy is better)
- I can redownload it from the service at any time (otherwise piracy is better)
- I can get everything I want to watch (otherwise piracy is better)
Steam isn’t DRM free, though. Most games use Steamworks DRM.
I know, I modified it to make more sense for video.
Yeah I don’t think DRM-free is really a requirement for most people.
So then we have iTunes. The only one it does not cover is the permanent ownership. Companies have yanked stuff from iTunes libraries before.
That’s why you download it. Luckily iTunes m4a files are high quality and unlocked so I can instantly play them in anything, even my Synology apps.
Video isn’t the same though. That’s all still encrypted.
See also https://us.7digital.com/; there are a number of places you can buy and download CD-quality music files. I believe iTunes actually lets you download music you buy as normal audio files as well.
ITunes sells videos as well, which I believe they were referring to.
Steamworks DRM is not a requirement though.
I honestly don’t mind copy protections, I just don’t like online DRM. If the service is good enough, I’ll look past that particular portion.
I won’t. “Copy protection” is much more about restricting and potentially even removing your access to something you’ve paid for than it is about preventing copying. I am not willing to buy something that can be revoked when alternatives are available.
Offline copy protection, like the copy protection in DVDs and Bluray, can’t be revoked, they’re literally designed to be static. It’s really not an issue since, given time, it’ll be cracked (and both are, I literally just finished ripping my collection). I’m fine with that form of copy protection, I’m not fine with online-only DRM because that’s totally revokable.
Disagree. In order to keep those keys secure they can’t publish them, so they’ll have to license some sort of decryption chip. That just pushes the price up as some manufacturer ends up taking a cut from every player sale.
Also means you can’t do what you want with it. You probably can’t play it on an open source device. Etc etc.
Sure, I’d need specific hardware to access the media, but after I rip it, I can access it anywhere. The benefit to me of something like a Bluray isn’t the disk itself, but being able to legally buy media and rip it to a digital format at home. That’s a legally gray area since breaking copy protection measures is technically a copyright violation, but there’s also legal protection for backing up media for personal use, so it’s a bit of a gray area.
Given that there are no other legal or mostly legal alternatives, I’m satisfied with that as an option. Media companies rarely, if ever, go after people who rip media for personal use (probably because it’s not worth their time and it’s a legal gray area), so I’m okay with that status quo. If there were a legal option to get DRM-free media for offline use, I’d totally go for that. I tried that with streaming services, but the apps I used (Netflix and Disney+) failed when I actually needed them (my downloaded files “expired” on a trip when I didn’t have internet access), so that’s not going to work for me.
If this legally gray area goes away and I can’t easily rip media into a DRM-free format for personal use, I’ll go back to the alternatives I used when I couldn’t afford physical media and Netfilx wasn’t yet a thing.
DRM = copy protection
Not necessarily. DVDs and Blurays have copy protections, but they don’t require access to any servers. Online DRM sucks because if your internet goes out, their servers are having troubles, or they just shut down the servers for whatever reason, you cannot use your media.
So I’m mostly fine with offline copy protections (someone will crack it eventually), I’m not okay with DRM that requires online access.
Steam satisfies only your third point, though. Otherwise, no. You don’t actually own your Steam library, Steam itself is DRM, and it doesn’t have everything.
I know. I changed the terms. Pray I don’t change them further.
Pay so I don’t change them further.
FTFY
More like
Pay so I can change them further.
Companies see that as a mistake. They want you on a subscription for life that they can arbitrarily change at any time.
Profits not increasing enough for this quarter? Better cut content, increase prices, increase the number of ads.
Profits increased amazingly this quarter? Better cut content, increase prices, increase the number of ads.
Profits down? Better cut content, increase prices, increase the number of ads, and start adding extra paywalls to some content
They want you to own nothing. Oh you unsubscribed? Sorry even the content you paid extra to unlock was only available while your subscription continued, you will need to start your subscription again and then pay to unlock the content again.
A show isn’t popular enough? Better write it off, pull it from all distribution so you can claim it as a tax write off
I wouldn’t even mind the subscription if all the content was there reliably, and I only needed one.
I subscribe to a music service, because all the music is there and it’s easier than swiping it.
If I had to subscribe to four different ones to get access to all the artists I listen to, then I’d still be pirating that.
Yarrrrrrrr
Yarrrrrr indeed
FYI Steam had videos a few years ago, new purchases are discontinued but one can still playback their existing library.
I buy physical dvds. Sometimes I’m all that high when I buy them.
sensible for businesses
Says so right in your quote
For the businesses.
Yes, the costs to actually make and distribute a physical disc are relatively low on a unit basis, but the cost of distributing a digital copy online make physical media look astronomical.
Even outside of cost, the level of control they can exert is vastly higher than any physical media.
Being able to prevent someone from reselling the movie or game they bought is very appealing to rights holders.
And customers. Almost everyone prefers to consume media in a simple way and that is streaming. Almost no one will go back to physical media. If streaming becomes absolutely unbearable, people would turn to digital downloads.
No ads when you pause, but holy hell, we’ve been getting DVDs from the library, and sometimes it’s a good ten minutes of crap before the movie actually starts.
Hilariously VLC will happily skip the “unskippable” ads on DVDs
Press stop, then stop again, then play on your remote. That’s a fairly universal way to skip straight to the movie.
Just rip it and skip it!
If you don’t want to wait for it to rip, you can play it in VLC. It will let you skip anything you want to.
VLC! Itll let you do anything for only free 99
Anything??? 😈
Any. Thing
You can do anything at https://zombo.com/
On a specific DVD I skipped straight to beginning of movie and had playback errors, I had to skip to menu and start movie from there.
Most of the DVDs I’ve played can skip the previews with chapter selection, but daaang the blu-rays locked that up. Can’t skip anything at all!
I guess I’ve just been spoiled on Criterion Collection as that’s the only Blu-ray media I buy these days, because there’s nothing before the menu besides maybe a splash screen with the Criterion logo.
If you keep an eye on prices on Amazon, these versions are not as pricey as they used to be.
And lots of that crap is anti piracy propaganda. Stuff, that actual pirates never see.
Ironic
i try to put in the disc, hit play, and just walk away so i miss all the garbage and the paragraphs warning me about prison time. kinda kills the mood
You wouldn’t download a car
I just need a bigger 3d printer.
I would absolutely download a car 😆
Free and instantaneous creation of a useful asset? Sign me up
That’s a big part of why I have a 3D printer.
I still have that habit even when don’t need to lol
Do you know where I can go right to the movie and not see all that stuff about the FBI?
On all the movies I download.
One business dying is not the death of a media type, FFS.
Well, it’s not just one business. It’s an 86% reduction in volume that represents the death of the media format.
a Concidence I"m sure…
The trap closes.
Pirate a window
Aye, looks like that’s where we be heading, maytee.
At first I was cool with buying digital copies of movies from streaming services, when they first offered them. Until my neighbor apparently got his account suspended and had absolutely no access to all the digital copies of movies he had bought. I then realized… it’s true, we’re entering an age of, “you will own NOTHING and be happy”.
So I rather support pirates.
Yo ho!
The enshittification of streaming is enshittifitentional.
Major B&M retailers of physical media are either dead, dieing, or have phased out physical media.
What a perfect time to issue a deathknell to the whole concept physical ownership.
Streaming originals that disappear will come back in limited release. It’ll basically be the Disney Vault of streaming. A company like Netflix would subtly drop references and nods to “removed” popular shows in their new shows to make you nostalgic for the old show. Then bring it back for a couple months.
You’ll especially see them all fighting for the best Christmas specials, but they’ll pull this shit with Stranger Things by the end of the decade. They expect people to plan-hop and will use limited releases and seasonal specials as their carrot.
Per CNBC’s calculations…
🙋🏽♂️I found the problem!!!
