DVDs were great for quality over VHS but imma full reckon a large part of the popularity was considerably lower prices (plus a  bit storage space saved). Suddenly with offers like Virgin's 5 for £30 or whatever it was people had 100s of DVDs compared to 10 or 20 VHS tapes.

Streaming/digital doubles down on those features in ways Blu Ray cant.

edit: thinking about it 20 VHS tapes sounds like rich kid territory. Not including pirate/recorded of the telly.

DVDs were amazing for their time. Hit a real sweet spot for most.

Now your lucky to get 1p for most of them on musicmagpie and after postage costs selling on ebay is difficult.

HMV Oxford Street was my second home around that time!

Yep - DVDs are valueless. My local CEX has shelves of them for sale at £1 each.

BluRay and 4K physical are for those of us with a liking for curating a collection. Physical also has the advantage of being tamper and revision proof. But that's not really a massive issue but could be for some, and who knows what nonsense will be retrospectively applied to content.

What I don't like about digital is that it is transient.

I still have a pile of them. Thought about selling them en masse to a buyer but it's pennies. On principle I couldn't stomach that. I did sell some that way (inc. special edition of 70s The Wicker Man which was fucking idiotic) but I don't know what to do with them.

Im all done with discs now.
Dont even have anything set up that will play them.
My physical media stops at N64, other than books if books count as physical media.

Edit: And some WIIU stuff in the loft thatll be sold once matured.

LivDiv wrote:

...other than books if books count as physical media.

They do, specially in the context of this discussion as I know people who only do digital 'books' now and snort at physical copies.  I still ony buy physical.  Packing a few for my holiday (jetting off on 13th), incluidng Dan Simmons's Hyperion - heard good things about it.

Nothing - digital to physical music, digital to physical movies, games etc - come close to the difference between a physical book and a digital one. The experience of creaking open a spine, finding your page, writing notes in the margin, I'll never go digital only on books. Watching the toddler thumb his way through books, pointing at things on pages, it's not even close. My wife uses her kindle, and she's a librarian, but she admits it's from convenience rather than preference. It's not even a discussion with books.

I have some of my favourites as physical books but I inevitably reach for the Kindle for most reading now, obviously out of convenience.

LivDiv wrote:

Ive made a little reading nook in the corner of my dining room. 
Armchair, bookcase, lamp, standalone DAB radio. The idea being I can leave my phone in another room and be disconnected from screens and the internet.
Its great.

We turned one of our bedrooms into a library when we moved into this house. However it now means we have books coming out the fucking walls and is one of the reasons we need to move.

regmcfly wrote:

we have books coming out the fucking walls

Does this just mean that you have bookshelves?

I bought about 10-20 dvds a few weeks back.
After our Internet went down at silly o clock in the morning and we didn't know what to do with ourselves I thought it a good idea as a back up.
They will just sit there like but if it happens again at least I have stuff to watch I haven't previously seen already.

Also have a few iv kept thru years like ghost in the shell movies and series, akira and ninja scroll.

Took delivery of an armchair yesterday that Wifey has indulged me with. Has an integrated thingy to rest my glass/book on. Very nice.

Just need to get a nice reading light.


Like elf, I collect Criterion BluRays but I'm very selective in that. I also have some BluRays of my real favourites (Kubrick, Lean etc) that I upgraded from DVD. But I don't buy anywhere near what I used to.

Also have a small collection of Folio editions of my favourite books. 

I also have a sizable CD collection but again it tends to be favourites as streaming makes more sense. But I like to curate a collection and make it an indicator of my tastes. I even have a very selective vinyl collection now.

My default is to consume digitally (Kindle,Netflix/Prime/Disney+) and curate physically - but be extremely selective.

digi wrote:

I bought about 10-20 dvds a few weeks back. After our Internet went down at silly o clock in the morning and we didn't know what to do with ourselves I thought it a good idea as a back up. They will just sit there like but if it happens again at least I have stuff to watch I haven't previously seen already. Also have a few iv kept thru years like ghost in the shell movies and series, akira and ninja scroll.

I did something similar when I moved house a few years back and was waiting for internet to be turned on. Then realised the stupid Xbox required a stupid app to be downloaded to play them.

I ended up with thousands of DVDs at one point.  I more or less bought anything I could find.  Ended up giving the lot to charity shops.

I still have some Blu Rays but it's mostly stuff that might come and go from streaming.  Anything Disney or Fox is now permanently on Disney+ (as best as I can tell). MGM will be on Amazon Prime.  But there's no guarantee with a lot of other stuff.  Recently bought The Wickerman having never seen it on any streaming service, for example.

I also make sure I have seasonal movies.  Horror for Halloween and Christmas movies, since it seems the streaming services get charged more for them as they tend to disappear right when you're in the mood to watch them.