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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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[-] AbidanYre@lemmy.world 187 points 1 month ago

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.

[-] slacktoid@lemmy.ml 100 points 1 month ago
[-] cmnybo@discuss.tchncs.de 68 points 1 month ago

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.

[-] slacktoid@lemmy.ml 34 points 1 month ago

VLC! Itll let you do anything for only free 99

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[-] Peffse@lemmy.world 40 points 1 month ago

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!

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[-] refurbishedrefurbisher 28 points 1 month ago

Press stop, then stop again, then play on your remote. That's a fairly universal way to skip straight to the movie.

[-] _number8_@lemmy.world 28 points 1 month ago

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

[-] RecluseRamble@lemmy.dbzer0.com 21 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

And lots of that crap is anti piracy propaganda. Stuff, that actual pirates never see.

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[-] db2@lemmy.world 93 points 1 month ago

It's sensible for businesses to shift from physical media sales.

Sensible to who?

[-] conciselyverbose@sh.itjust.works 60 points 1 month ago

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.

[-] dan@lemm.ee 54 points 1 month ago

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)
[-] catloaf@lemm.ee 43 points 1 month ago

Steam isn't DRM free, though. Most games use Steamworks DRM.

[-] explore_broaden@midwest.social 14 points 1 month ago

Yeah I don’t think DRM-free is really a requirement for most people.

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[-] SGG@lemmy.world 29 points 1 month ago

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

[-] Stovetop@lemmy.world 13 points 1 month ago

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.

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[-] Lost_My_Mind@lemmy.world 15 points 1 month ago

I buy physical dvds. Sometimes I'm all that high when I buy them.

[-] circuitfarmer 17 points 1 month ago

The MBAs whose sole purpose on earth it is to inflate margins over and over and over again

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[-] cupcakezealot@lemmy.blahaj.zone 61 points 1 month ago

dvds aren't dying; the media companies who own the rights to dvds and blurays are killing them

[-] Doof@lemmy.world 13 points 1 month ago
[-] cupcakezealot@lemmy.blahaj.zone 21 points 1 month ago

nothing; just gotta point out that media companies are doing everything they can to stop us from owning our own media.

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[-] freeman@sh.itjust.works 50 points 1 month ago

No DRM digital files downloads is the simple answer. There is no reason to go back to physical media to avoid subscriptions.

Keep in mind that DVDs did have DRM and the corps did try and get at the people who broke it. A new and improved physical media would have DRM and it's possible the corporations will prevent it being defeated this time.

Which means that yoy would only be able to play it on approved hardware. You can have your shiny disc but they will decide if you can play it. Perhaps they can detect how many people are present via a camera or require you do drink that verification can.

[-] mrvictory1@lemmy.world 21 points 1 month ago

Which means that you would only be able to play it on approved hardware.

cough cough 4K bluray cough cough

[-] morbidcactus@lemmy.ca 13 points 1 month ago

Thankfully, MakeMKV is able to get through that with certain drives for every disk I've tried.

[-] mrvictory1@lemmy.world 16 points 1 month ago

Ripping those disks is legitimately easier than playing them w/o breaking DRM on PCs

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[-] MonkderDritte@feddit.de 45 points 1 month ago
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[-] victorz@lemmy.world 38 points 1 month ago

When someone buys or rents a DVD, they [...] can also watch the content if the Internet goes out and be certain that they're getting uncompressed 4K resolution.

I'm sorry, is this a special version of DVD that can store 4K video? Uncompressed?

[-] todd_bonzalez@lemm.ee 28 points 1 month ago

4K BluRay discs are compressed with HEVC. There's no way to get consumer 4K video uncompressed.

Uncompressed 4K@30fps requires A 6000mbps data rate. BluRay caps out at 144mbps.

A 90 minute movie would be 4TB. BluRay caps out at 128GB.

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[-] TheImpressiveX@lemmy.ml 20 points 1 month ago

They're talking about 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray, which was introduced in 2016. The video is still compressed, but it's still much higher quality than DVD and Blu-ray, and can hold 60-100 GB of data.

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[-] Olap@lemmy.world 31 points 1 month ago
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[-] StaySquared@lemmy.world 25 points 1 month ago

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.

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[-] umbrella@lemmy.ml 24 points 1 month ago
[-] Zetta@mander.xyz 19 points 1 month ago

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.

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[-] PM_Your_Nudes_Please@lemmy.world 16 points 1 month ago

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.

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[-] Brewchin@lemmy.world 20 points 1 month ago

One business dying is not the death of a media type, FFS.

[-] GamingChairModel@lemmy.world 30 points 1 month ago

Well, it's not just one business. It's an 86% reduction in volume that represents the death of the media format.

[-] Lost_My_Mind@lemmy.world 19 points 1 month ago

I mean......I just bought Batman the animated series on DVD. Whole series too. I never got to watch it as a kid, but I hear it holds up even for adults.

I also bought Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles DVD which has the first 3 movies from the 90s. The stupid Micheal Bay reboot from the 2010s, and also a movie called "Batman vs TMNT". Which sounded bizzare enough for me to buy.

Now I just need time to watch these things.

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[-] jqubed@lemmy.world 18 points 1 month ago

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.

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[-] mctoasterson@reddthat.com 17 points 1 month ago

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.

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[-] Passerby6497@lemmy.world 16 points 1 month ago

My favorite part about DVDs is how sometimes they look just fine but the video doesn't actually play. I got a DVD from the library recently that the video stopped 10 minutes in the first episode and you couldn't even play or rip past that point either.

Physical media still really sucks in a lot of ways.

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[-] spyd3r@sh.itjust.works 13 points 1 month ago

DVD is for casuals, Laserdisc is where it's at.

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[-] chemicalwonka@discuss.tchncs.de 13 points 1 month ago

Unskippable commercials on DVD? What did I miss?

[-] PM_Your_Nudes_Please@lemmy.world 19 points 1 month ago

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.

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[-] JustARegularNerd@lemmy.world 13 points 1 month ago

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.

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this post was submitted on 11 Jul 2024
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