What are my options for owning media ?

[BeastMaster30300]

I have not been able to login to netflix since last week because I am not on the home wifi and since I am currently living abroad for studies I cannot have access to it and THIS PISSES ME OFF SOO MUCH. To be clear, I dont pay for the account, by brother does and we have our seperate profiles. 

After this, I seriously dont wanna get a netflix or any other OTT subscription, becasue what's stopping them from making changes in their policy AFTER TAKING MY MONEY. 

So instead I am considering ways on how can I own any media and the only option I can think of is to buy DVD or blu-ray and here are some problems with that 

• What if only 1 disc in a collection crashes, I dont have any way to buy just that one disc,  i'd have to buy the entire collection again.
• Will disc drives even be a thing say 10 year from now ? 
• What if the specific tv shows/anime/movie  i wanna watch do not even release physical copies ? 
• Needs a decent amount of physical space. 

I'm petty sure I am missing a few other issues with discs. 

So, what do you guys think is the best way to own media because I dont think disc are the right way to go here? 

[8tg]

Buy discs and rip the discs to a digital library.

I do this with CDs. I rarely play the media directly from the disc. The same thing can apply to dvds or blu rays.

[Needfuldoer]

16 minutes ago, BeastMaster30300 said:

After this, I seriously dont wanna get a netflix or any other OTT subscription, becasue what's stopping them from making changes in their policy AFTER TAKING MY MONEY. 

Nothing. You're paying for access to a content library, not for a license to watch any specific piece of content.

 

16 minutes ago, BeastMaster30300 said:

What if only 1 disc in a collection crashes, I dont have any way to buy just that one disc,  i'd have to buy the entire collection again.

eBay is full of listings for individual discs out of box sets.

 

16 minutes ago, BeastMaster30300 said:

Will disc drives even be a thing say 10 year from now ? 

I heard that question 10 years ago, and yet here we are.

 

16 minutes ago, BeastMaster30300 said:

What if the specific tv shows/anime/movie  i wanna watch do not even release physical copies ? 

Then you'll have to find them somewhere else, like a subscription streaming service.

 

16 minutes ago, BeastMaster30300 said:

Needs a decent amount of physical space. 

I dramatically cut the size of my physical media collection by re-packaging the DVDs. Bulk DVD cases are cheap, and you can get 4 discs in the size of a regular 14mm thick DVD case. (I repacked the The SImpsons seasons into these, and they had enough room for the booklet as well.) Star Trek: Voyager and Star Trek Deep Space Nine also take up half the physical shelf space now that they're in 8-disc 28mm thick cases instead of the fold-out ones they came with. (Plus I bought all of these used, so some of the cases came damaged. The discs themselves were fine.)

 

[thrasher_565]

disks have disk rot so some might work some wont...

and your end up like 8tg ripping them to a back up. then keep buying new back ups of that backup...

 

ya there alot of stores arnt caring dvd anymore but there used still.

 

only why there still phisical is because they charge more for it so its still profitable.

 

maybe games systems are mostly digital. nintendo wanted to go all digital a few years a go but got push back so now you pay more for it. and well people keep buying it. but..just because you have a phiscal dose not mean you can still play it... witch is the big argument.

 

pc for the most part all all digtal other then the old re print here and there. and its only because stem lets you keep your games... but could change any time...

 

gog there only so many games on there...

 

so last options is well to pirit it....if there no above options that is. even then the p2p and archive is under fire... touch grass i guess

Edited May 26 by thrasher_565

[Mark Kaine]

2 hours ago, BeastMaster30300 said:

Will disc drives even be a thing say 10 year from now ? 

i just bought an usb floppy disk drive to play some old DOS games on my pc, so yeah... i definitely think it will..

 

 

2 hours ago, BeastMaster30300 said:

I dont have any way to buy just that one disc,  i'd have to buy the entire collection again.

well backups are a thing (legality depends on your country) also many companies will give you exchange discs in this case, not sure if that's still a thing tho)

 

 

2 hours ago, BeastMaster30300 said:

What if the specific tv shows/anime/movie  i wanna watch do not even release physical copies

well, ultimately, this is a user problem, ie the content you watch, so if you go that route your options would probably be slightly limited, but this is still a net gain in my view - you'd also be able to watch things that aren't on streaming services for example... but yes, if your life is based on FOMO this isn't gonna work for you im afraid,  you just *have to see* that new netflix "series"  o m g

 

 

personally i never used a subscription based streaming service and i never will and i dont really feel like im missing out - at all? 

[Mark Kaine]

37 minutes ago, thrasher_565 said:

disks have disk rot

internet myth. i have 1000s of discs, none of them have "disk rot" including "cdrws"...

 

yes, it can happen  - but the risk is vastly over exaggerated by certain youtube channels. ie, youtube  =/= reality strikes again.

 

(i think the only thing where that's actually an issue is like laserdiscs ¯\_(ツ)_/¯) 

[thrasher_565]

2 minutes ago, Mark Kaine said:

internet myth. i have 1000s of discs, none of them have "disk rot" including "cdrws"...

 

yes, it can happen  - but the risk is vastly over exaggerated by certain youtube channels. ie, youtube  =/= reality strikes again.

 

(i think the only thing where that's actually an issue is like laserdiscs ¯\_(ツ)_/¯) 

i no someone that got a box of discs and alot were rot. for get what company that had alot of them

 

but there rot and scratches and you can fix it but takes a good machean to do it and well move stores are not a thing anymore so... might be a place were yo ucan send the cd to get fixed?

[Mark Kaine]

30 minutes ago, thrasher_565 said:

i no someone that got a box of discs and alot were rot. for get what company that had alot of them

 

but there rot and scratches and you can fix it but takes a good machean to do it and well move stores are not a thing anymore so... might be a place were yo ucan send the cd to get fixed?

but "rot" is still an internet myth... just because it *can* happen doesn't mean it's the norm... and "company that made bad ones" is probably also revisionist history,  it might has happened idk, never heard of it, but in the grandschene of things that isnt a thing either...

 

usually its indeed bad storage conditions  (like underwater etc lol) or people just not caring enough, throw away the jewel cases etc... even in the 90s i had friends whos discs didn't survive a week lol... abused them to hell and back, but thats also not "disc rot" that's just plain and simple mindless, careless people... for them a subscription service might be ideal ngl.

 

 

small part of my "collection" all still in working condition,  most of them after 20+ years... my oldest cds are from like 1986, still working perfectly fine! "disc rot" is only a thing under very very rare and unfortunate circumstances.  like yeah, you can destroy everything if you just try hard enough no shit.

 

 

[Mark Kaine]

44 minutes ago, thrasher_565 said:

but there rot and scratches and you can fix it but takes a good machean to do it and well move stores are not a thing anymore so... might be a place were yo ucan send the cd to get fixed?

there are a plethora of tips on that matter, but the basics are

 

- always keep the discs in the jewel case, even if the case is damaged, still better than nothing (personally i prefer the "sliding cases", see picture,  but they don't make'em anymore )

 

- get a MASH drive (just trust me on that, they're still being sold)

 

ps: scratches???

 

 

 

(look at this thoroughly lol)

 

STILL WORKING PERFECTLY FINE NO ERRORS 

[Kilrah]

1 hour ago, Mark Kaine said:

just because it *can* happen doesn't mean it's the norm...

Unless you had HD-DVDs. Those are known to rot pretty consistently.

 

But yeah, never had a rotten pressed CD/DVD/Blu-ray.

CD-Rs, many of them, depended a lot on the brand, interestingly some of the premium ones being most affected...

[Mark Kaine]

1 hour ago, Kilrah said:

Unless you had HD-DVDs. Those are known to rot pretty consistently.

 

But yeah, never had a rotten pressed CD/DVD/Blu-ray.

CD-Rs, many of them, depended a lot on the brand, interestingly some of the premium ones being most affected...

yeah as said i have no doubt some brands/types were of lower quality,  i just know most laserdiscs type of discs have many faults nowadays (but its always been obscure outside of Japan afaik)... didn't know about hd-dvds, which were also pretty niche i guess.

 

and yeah,  the cdr/w thing baffles me cause i keep seeing it coming up, i know i had very few cases of faulty ones, but the ones that worked when new still seem to work (see pics, lots of TDK, Sony, etc) not sure what to make of that (99% i have were burned on my pc/laptop, maybe that has something to do with it as well?)

 

 

ps: i have like 50 of them stored in my car, which is probably less than ideal ... they all still work after ~20 years, that's incidentally also how old my car is lol (Clio 16V) 

 

edit: here's some more pics, looking around, i have cds everywhere! lmao

 

Spoiler

 

from my "car stash"  GT4 soundtrack ripped straight from my PlayStation via optical cable

 

cds!

 

from car stash, V-RALLY 2 actually contains a pretty dope soundtrack that plays in any cdplayer! 

 

 

200mb "mini-discs", yeah i bought those too!

 

 

 

 

 

 

[LAwLz]

6 hours ago, BeastMaster30300 said:

To be clear, I dont pay for the account, by brother does and we have our seperate profiles. 

After this, I seriously dont wanna get a netflix or any other OTT subscription

"I didn't pay for a thing and now that I lost access I won't pay for it out of principle!". 

 

Just be honest dude and admit that you didn't want to pay to begin with. 

You're trying to make it sound like they lost a customer and that they offended you, but you were never a customer to begin with. It only seems that way to you because no longer have access to a service. But it's not like they wanted you accessing the service without paying to begin with. 

 

This just comes across as a Karen who threatens to not visit a store anymore. 

 

 

 

Anyway, to answer your questions. 

6 hours ago, BeastMaster30300 said:

becasue what's stopping them from making changes in their policy AFTER TAKING MY MONEY. 

What do you mean? 

You pay one month at a time. If you for some reason feel like the service gets worse then you can cancel it. It's not like you pay and then you lose something by canceling, other than access to the service of course. 

 

Your fear doesn't make any sense. It's like saying "I don't want to pay for a ticket to the zoo because what if they get rid of this animal I really like 2 years down the line?". 

 

6 hours ago, BeastMaster30300 said:

• What if only 1 disc in a collection crashes, I dont have any way to buy just that one disc,  i'd have to buy the entire collection again. 

This seems like a really low risk. But you do in fact have a way to buy that disk again. You can buy it from for example eBay or other places. Also, you say "entire collection" like it's a big investment. We are most likely talking about one movie. It's not like if your Iron Man 2 DVD breaks you have to buy all Marvel movies again. I guess you have a point of we are talking about a box set, but the solution to that, if this is a legitimate worry of yours, is to not buy box sets. 

It seems silly to out this much thought into a rather unlikely scenario when the consequences are so minor. 

Is something breaks you have to buy it again. That goes for everything. 

 

 

6 hours ago, BeastMaster30300 said:

Will disc drives even be a thing say 10 year from now ?

 

6 hours ago, BeastMaster30300 said:

What if the specific tv shows/anime/movie  i wanna watch do not even release physical copies ? 

I don't see why that would change anytime soon. 

Not everything will be released on discs so you will miss out on some things, but since you seem to have decided to not get Netflix you will miss out on all those exclusives. 

It's like saying "I won't get a console because not all games are available on the one I want". "Boycotting" means that you miss out on things. 

How much you will miss out on remains to be seen. But that seems like something you can worry about then. You won't lose all the discs you already have just because movies in the future might not get released. I still have a bunch of DVD movies for example. 

 

6 hours ago, BeastMaster30300 said:

Needs a decent amount of physical space. 

How many movies are you thinking of getting? They don't really take up that much space. You'd have to spend thousands upon thousands of dollars before this really becomes an issue.

A single cheap Ikea BILLY bookshelf can easily fit 972 movies inside it if you keep the original packaging. 

That bookshelf takes up 30x80 cm of floor space. 

This is a non-issue. 

 

But let's say you are planning on buying thousands upon thousands of movies, for tens of thousands of dollars.

Repackage them in sleeves instead of DVD cases would cut down on space a lot. 

This case store 165 movies and takes up next to no space. 

 

 

6 hours ago, BeastMaster30300 said:

So, what do you guys think is the best way to own media because I dont think disc are the right way to go here? 

Just admit that you want someone to tell you "piracy". 

Your excuses are silly and doesn't hold water.

You want to boycott a company you never was a customer for to begin with, but you don't want to miss out on the service they provide either. 

 

Want to watch movies without streaming them? Buy them on discs.

I guess you could buy movies on for example YouTube and iTunes as well but I am sure you can find excuses for why that isn't ideal either. For example  it all movies are available that way, and they might chance their ToS in the future as well.

[Doobeedoo]

Never paid for subscription based streaming service, never will. But as others mentioned, borrow or buy and rip to keep, or if you can download from a service if it has an option.

[thrasher_565]

6 hours ago, Mark Kaine said:

there are a plethora of tips on that matter, but the basics are

 

- always keep the discs in the jewel case, even if the case is damaged, still better than nothing (personally i prefer the "sliding cases", see picture,  but they don't make'em anymore )

 

- get a MASH drive (just trust me on that, they're still being sold)

 

ps: scratches???

 

 

 

(look at this thoroughly lol)

 

STILL WORKING PERFECTLY FINE NO ERRORS 

like i said i dont remember what brand it was that has alot of rot its like warnor bothers or disny or something a well loved brand.

 

i dont think burned stuff is a problem or game dicks i think re writable might have problems? but i dont no.

 

last dvd i got was the star wars one and i didn't get the cheapes nor the blue ray and watching it on my 50ich tv it had like 6ich bars on top and bottom so it was like what the point of my 50 inch... it did have a digtal code so its tied to my google account and i can do FULL screen...

 

back in the day family pc only had a really small hdd and can only install like 2 games at a time so uninstalling and installing was common and thats hard on disks. later on we got a 4gb hdd but still had to share it with my sister who atm was doing mp3s.

 

the no cd crakes were nice for that reason.

[Needfuldoer]

2 hours ago, thrasher_565 said:

i dont think burned stuff is a problem or game dicks i think re writable might have problems? but i dont no.

Old CD-Rs decay because their data layer is dye based. CD-RWs use a metal alloy, so they last longer.

 

LaserDiscs rot because they're basically two discs sandwiched back-to-back.

 

I've seen very old music and data CDs rot, where the label side gets tacky and the entire surface develops pinholes, but I've never seen a DVD rot. (Their data layer is embedded in plastic, which helps. CDs just have a coating of varnish protecting their data layer.)

 

2 hours ago, thrasher_565 said:

like i said i dont remember what brand it was that has alot of rot its like warnor bothers or disny or something a well loved brand.

You're thinking of Warner Brothers HD-DVDs.

[LogicalDrm]

Personally I prefer discs unless I can "legally" rip the content. By legally here I mean that our copyright laws allow making personal copy of any owned media. That would mean that I have to show proof of ownership, but receipts in PDF don't really take that much space. Also prefer audio- and ebooks from stores which aren't Audible/Amazon. Anyway,

 

If you go with discs, you rip once now, build NAS or rent cloud storage to hold your media and maybe rip again if you accidentally delete something. Its the digital storage that will be highest cost because of space needed for good/original quality rips. Maybe only time you otherwise would need to re-think is when USB2 isn't supported anymore and there are no BD-drives on the newer standard. Considering that analog video connection exists 50 years after its inception, it will be awhile.

 

And as pointed out, there are ways to mimimize storage needed. I did this last summer. Every disc I have (which isn't extensive, just under 100 pcs), in one moving box.

[Kisai]

On 5/25/2024 at 9:52 PM, BeastMaster30300 said:

 

• What if only 1 disc in a collection crashes, I dont have any way to buy just that one disc,  i'd have to buy the entire collection again.

Correct

On 5/25/2024 at 9:52 PM, BeastMaster30300 said:

• Will disc drives even be a thing say 10 year from now ? 

ODD's are not going away any time soon, they're no longer standard PC parts, but UHD BD players are a thing.

And physical media is the only way to get 4K HDR and multichannel surround sound.

 

Netflix gives you a 720p, stereo experience, at most. When you stream Netflix at 4K, it smears and blurs a LOT. Realisticly, anyone who wants a "theatre" experience, or a close enough to it, will buy the movie on UHD BD and not bother with netflix.

 

Netflix is good enough for 2-star and 3-star movies you don't really care to see in the theatre in the first place.

1-star stuff, doesn't even come out on BD.

 

On 5/25/2024 at 9:52 PM, BeastMaster30300 said:

• What if the specific tv shows/anime/movie  i wanna watch do not even release physical copies ? 

High seas and make do with the low quality 480p equivalent's, because most of these high seas rips are ripped from the streaming service, not the BD/UHD discs. Plus most of the "fan"'s are in competition to beat each other to stealing it, so people don't even try to do a quality encode, they just drop it in handbrake's default settings and then use an AI subtitler if they couldn't rip the captions (or it has none.)

 

On 5/25/2024 at 9:52 PM, BeastMaster30300 said:

• Needs a decent amount of physical space. 

Nah. A 40 liter tote can store 100 BD's/DVD's rather easily. It just weighs a lot. Basically...

 

Buy films, anime, TV shows on disc when you want to have the "original" experience. Watch stuff you don't really have a vested interest in, on Netflix/Disney+, and anything you can't find and can't buy, ask yourself if it's worth trying to get. Many people watch content on unauthorized sites through VPN's precisely because geoblocking is stupid, and exists only to extract as much money out of "wealthy" countries as possible.