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DVDs are dying right as streaming has made them appealing again (arstechnica.com)

submitted 3 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

232 comments fedilink hide all child comments

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).

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[–] [email protected] 14 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Rip your own DVDs and you can have both, with redundancy

[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Or store them on a portable hdd and have redundancy without hoarding shiny plastic discs.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 3 months ago (1 children)

I store the discs because while ripping is of questional legallity by having the discs I have the morals right.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago (2 children)

I find this to be an odd choice. No one is coming to your home to check. You KNOW you paid for the media. I'd throw the disks I know I would never use out, or sell them.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 3 months ago (2 children)

If you throw away perfectly fine physical copies, you are just contributing to the ever-increasing plastic waste poisoning our ecosystems, and if you sell them then your digital copies are now illegal. Just put them in a disc binder and stick 'em in a closet for fuck sake!

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago (1 children)

I don't get the point of having them then. No one will check, they're just filling space...

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 months ago (1 children)

If you're going to sell the disks, just pirate instead, it's the same in a legal sense (you have something you don't have a legal claim to).

If you're worried about space, get a disk binder or something. Disks aren't that big, cases are, so ditch the case and keep the disk. I keep the disks too, but I have a ton of storage space.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago

I mean, that's just what I do. With some of my games, I have bought them on Steam (because I did want the devs to get paid) and have a pirated version for the sake of ownership, which imo is fair. If I was insistent on paying, I would rather buy a digital copy and download a DRMless one, if there is no DRMless purchase outright.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

you are just contributing to the ever-increasing plastic waste poisoning our ecosystems

so are you. they're all going to end up in a landfill one way or another.

Just put them in a disc binder and stick 'em in a closet for fuck sake!

you mean throw the plastic case away?

[–] [email protected] 6 points 3 months ago

Nobody today is not coming to my house. However the world has not always changed in ways I like. If the media companies want to make an example of somebody they might randomly pick me. If I have physical media they will not be able to convince the general public I'm a dishonest thief and so even though I might be legally in the wrong for ripping DVDs they will stay away: they are going to look for someone who they can make look like a dishonest thief in the court of public opinion. They are not looking to take me to court and win whatever damaged they are owned from my activity (it will cost them about 100 times as much $$$ in lawyers fees - they would probably win but it isn't worth it), what they would be looking for is to make an example in the news about how much someone loses and if I have physical media they instead look like jerks for enforcing a law on something that the generally public wouldn't even call a crime.